Friday On the Pilar

[puffins crew]

What a day!! Calm beautiful ocean. No wind, and people who love fishing on board.

Our day started about 6:00am. We did not want to run the bar in the dark. Just as we were leaving the South Beach marina, I said to John, " I just love the stuff". We hi fived around and proceded to make the left turn under the Yaquina bay bridge and head out to sea. The bar was very calm, as was the ocean.

After about 45 minutes of running out at 22 knots, Pilar said "we are fishing!" We rig up, and drop to the bottom. All lines hanging straight down. No drift. Johnboy fires up the kicker, and my pole goes off. Then John's pole buckles, then Gary, not to be left out, yells,"FISH ON!" Triple on our first drop!!

I am cranking on my reel, no head shake, no fight, just dead weight. John has a big fish on his 9 ft mooching rod, Gary is doing OK with his fish, and I commence to reel up my Octopus.

John gets his fish to the boat, and it is a monster Halibut, he sees the boat, and heads back down for his pack of smokes. John says to get the harpoon ready. He gets the bad boy back up to the boat, and I stick'm good with the harpoon. Did I mention that the harpoon line was cleated off the strearn of the boat? [img]graemlins/eek13.gif[/img] Anyway, the fish did not like that at all, and started to head back down for his cel phone. The line reachs the end of it's 25ft, almost taking John's foot with him, and the fish does not slow down a bit. I retrieved the harpoon line, and the fish broke off the 175lb wire leader that had held the point. After the fish got his cel, John got him back to the boat. Gary and I both grabbed a gaff, and we managed to get'm in the boat. 53 inchs, and 80lbs. New boat record for the biggest fish on the Pilar.

Gary's fish was 31 3/4inchs, so back he went. We fished for a while, and Gary boats a nice 42 incher. Limit of species #1 for the boat. One of us was tagged out for Halibut.

Next species, Salmon. Gary and I switch to our salmon rigs, John just keeps fishing with his moocher. We set up two downriggers, and Gary puts on a 12oz bananna sinker to mooch out the back of the boat. John's rod goes off first, "FISH ON!!" After cranking up John's downrigger line, I pop my line loose from the other downrigger and start cranking up the ball. My reel starts screaming!! "FISH ON!!" Another Chinook that came unbuttoned 10 feet from the boat. John's fish was 32lbs.

Gary and John commence to catch some nice 'nookies, while I cant seem to keep the peskie coho off my downrigger. I finally got into the nooks, and we had our boat limit. Six beautiful fish. The hi limit alarm on the fish box had gone off after the third nookie.

Bugflicker had made the run the the rockpile in his "little" boat, and was looking for some help getting into a keeper fish, Coho and undersize Halibut were all he could manage. Pilar escorted him to a honey hole for Halibut, and he made a drift, and "FISHON!!" His deckhand was named Cloe, a cute little beagle dog. His steelhead rod was stressed to the limit, and no way to land his fish. John pulled the Pilar over, and I got into Kieth's boat with a gaff to help land his fish. He finally got it to the boat, and it was real close to being a keeper, so I was very careful of where I but the point of the gaff. 31 inchs. Back to the bottom he went.

John came by again, and handed off his prized moocher, and instructed Kieth to go back to the top of the drift and put in again. I reached into the bait bucket, and the second bait I grabbed was a big beautiful black label herring. I clipped it s nose into the RSK, sunk the top hook in, and Kieth dropped it to the bottom. John saw the bait I had put on, and he knew, as I did, he was going to get bit real quick.

John was watching closely, and instructed Kieth to let the line out til the sinker hit bottom, then to crank up a turn or two, he did just that, and "FISHON!!" The battle was on!! Bugflicker has hooked a nice Halibut. After an epic battle, he gets it up the the boat, and I sink the gaff and pull it into the boat. Upon doing so, I hit my head on the boat top, (did I mention this is a "little" boat??) stumble a little, the fish hits my knees, and gets off the gaff, starts sliding back into the water. John sees this happening, and yells "Oh no!" I regain my balance and swing the gaff back into the fish. The hooks come free, and I duck my head while I boat the fish for the second time.

Kieth s first Halibut, about 40lbs.

The last we saw of bugflicker, he was pulling his boat out of the water, saying he hopes to get to Wal-Mart befor they closed to get some bigger tackle so he could do it again on Saturday.

The memories that we made will last a life time. And Pilar has converted another soul to the salt.

I just love this stuff.

Peace, Tom

[ 09-06-2003, 02:56 PM: Message edited by: puffins crew ]

[skein]

Great story! [img]graemlins/applause.gif[/img]

I could see it unfold just as you told it. You guys truly have SALT in your veins.

We, too, are victims of Pilar's dedication to getting his "brothers" onto fish. We are not lost souls however. No, no. We are mere mortals being led to the next heaven.

Let's go get 'em!

Skein

[The Bad Fish]

tom, thank you for all the help. i would not have been able to do it without you. you are a great coach.. i should'nt have let the dog sleep
all day. ( she wanted to play all night)

john, you are a fish god, i can't thank you enough for all the help yesterday. today was rough but we made it in ok, the bar was a little rough but we took your advice and went slow.

ramstrong, i wish we would have caught some keepers today. thanks for going to fishermans and picking me up a heavier rod.. i owe you a bouy 10 trip.. you just let me know when.

spoiled daddy, thanks for the heads up on the building wind waves.

ugly green and wild hawg & son. thanks for letting us run out with you this morning.

kb.

[ 08-23-2003, 08:45 PM: Message edited by: BUG_FLICKER ]

[blubeast]

Thanks for the story... it helps those of us who are landlocked keep our fish'n fix in check.

[Sturgeon Tom]

Now that is what I call a day. Told very well. [img]graemlins/applause.gif[/img]
st

[ANDYCOHO]

Way to go guys, sounds like everyone found some great fish!!

[Mello-Yello]

"Went back down to get his cell phone..."

I love it! Great story! It was like I was in the third boat watching!

[Birdnest]

I feel like I need to spray the blood off my boots after that story.

[WildHawg]

Too cool Brutha John and Keith! It was a pleasure fishing around ya both yesterday.
Keith--I didn't realize you guys were having trouble getting into fish 'til almost the time you left. Heck, you'd hooked 2 halibut before we hardly even got fishin'!
Our bites came in flurries--in fact we had a 3 hour stretch where we caught just 1 ling, but the bite turned back on for nooks and ling later and we got lucky.
You did the right thing runnin' in when you did--it got downright snotty by around 4.
Next time out I'll show ya how to rig up and get a perfect roll with just a banana sinker, 6-8' leader, a 6/0-7/0 sliding hook setup, and whole herring.
John, wish we'd had more of the fresh stuff for ya. We did however, catch all our last 3 chinook AFTER we were forced to switch to frozen herring! Go figure.
Just keep doing what you do my friend.
WHEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
HOOTY HOOO--HOOTY HOOO!!!!!!!!

[ 08-24-2003, 08:10 AM: Message edited by: WildHawg ]

[night stocker]

it was nice to talk to you for a few minutes saturday at the rockpile Pilar.first time i had talked on my radio since i bought it last year.i heard lots of other chatter out there also.wildhawg,bugflicker and others.i started out the day trying to catch a halibut with no luck.i think about 11am i put a purple label cut bait on the downrigger at 120ft and trolled about 5 minutes and couldn't believe i was getting bit.reeled in a 25pounder.ok now i am fishing.reset and trolled for10 minutes and another bite and a 22 pounder.i hailed pilar and told him my report but he didn't respond.said i was limited and was headed in.it took about an hour and a half to get to port and was glad as i was way further than i have ever been. Randy and the too small boat :grin:

[Pilar]

Nicely told, Tom, thanks.

BTW that fish was in the water and going away when you hacked it with a nice over head gaff swing. That was rather nicely done too. We simply could not bear losing the new guys first flat one.

Bug Flicker, I know this all just a little bit much for you right now. Guppy year is a bear. From what I can tell you have what it takes. You pay attention to details and have a little fear and alot of respect for the ocean. I respect your courage and curiosity. Keep learning and that patch of ocean we shared this weekend will feel more and more like home. I'm not a fish god ... I just as Tom said .. I just love this stuff. I learn something every time I go and use what I have learned to be successful. The best part is sharing it all with friends.

Thank you Popeye, Puffin, Puffin's crew, Gary, Fishmstr and his bud from Toledo(Steve and Doug, newest members of team 'Pilar'), Gregotis, Keith, Wild Hawg, Ugly Green, Spoiled Daddy, TWB, Mark MC, Badger and many others too numerous to mention. I felt like I was surrounded by friends all day.

Not too long ago it felt like I was alone while fishing out there.

No one needs to be alone out there anymore. You guys just keep doin what you are doin. Help each other and share what you know.

If we all knew collectively what we all know individually. Can you imagine that?

[ 08-24-2003, 04:57 PM: Message edited by: Pilar ]

[Badger]

Tom, great recap. So clear it makes me think I was sitting in the boat next to you watching as it happened. Oh yeah, that's right, I was.

What a fun day though on the pile, flat water, 2 nice flatties and 3 beautiful nooks (35, 25, 25) and lots of ho's on light gear (released, of course).

I got a kick in the pants yesterday too. Someone called Pilar on the radio, thanking him, thinking he had written your post. Yet he was back on the pond, at it again, and hadn't even seen it yet. We laughed.

Bryan

[img]graemlins/applause.gif[/img]

[Pilar]

Future Ifisher Brian and a hunchback rockpile King at 47 #!!! I met this guy at the cleaning station and he photoed the fish for us. When he wanted to know where to send it I sent him to ifish for my Email address. Nice fish bro!

Look at the back on it .. it is quasimodo of the sea.

Puffin's crew and Pilar kicking it with the bounty of the sea.



John and the really big fish.



Thanks for the memories, my friends. Thanks for the pictures Brian .. hope to see you again soon.

[ 08-25-2003, 02:21 PM: Message edited by: Pilar ]

[Ramstrong]

John,

I'm just curious if you have any tee shirts that aren't covered in blood/fish entrails. That's a nice haul guys.

[Pilar]

Ryan, I've never stood on ceremony and the shower/change of clothes usually happens later in the day. You get some weird looks at the dinner table in your restaurant of choice after a bloody day. Notice the rip in the shirt. That is from a near miss on the trailing hook on big boys leader. He then commenced to trash about dragging me with him. The hook then tore out. It just missed some vital areas. I feel lucky that the damage was limited to a ripped shirt.

Time to go to Goodwill and restock the fishing clothing supply.

:grin:

[OceanBlue]

Uh, I somehow missed that part of the daily report! Gee John, I'm glad all that got ripped was the shirt. :shocked:

Nicely told Tom!

[puffins crew]

Thanks to John and his boat, the Pilar. [img]graemlins/applause.gif[/img]

I enjoyed typing it out, almost as much as I did doing it!


Peace, Tom