BEST OCEAN FISHING WEEKEND EVER!!

[AngleThis]

…but before we could get to the heavenly fishing, we had to go through a little hell. We're cruising down I5 about half way between Salem & Portland, destination Newport, traveling at about 65 MPH. Hey.. what's that vibration? Holy sh**!… flat tire on the trailer…or is it? When I crossed over the perforations to the emergency lane, the right side trailer wheel comes OFF, the trailer hits the pavement at about 45 MPH, and I hit the brakes HARD. The boat started getting sideways, so I recovered, and finally brought us to a safe stop. My wheel rolled across the freeway and almost got to play pinball with all the cars zooming by. Three of the wheel studs are pulled clean out, and two are sheared off. Les Schwab just rethreaded the spindle and replaced the studs a few months ago, and obviously cut the threads too wide. The axel is secured to the leaf springs by two U-bolts, a backing plate, and four heavy nuts. By the time I got it to a stop, the U-bolts, and nuts were completely ground off. The 1/4 " baccking plate is ground to about 1/8". I'd say 50 more yards and the trailer would have folded and dumped the boat onto the freeway, and probably the truck with us in it and the dogs in the bed as well. While waiting for the tow truck, I got in the boat and noticed the hour meter was at 666.9 hours. The twilight zone theme song went off in my head.

We call the autoclub, and two hours later, with my help, two not so sharp guys get the boat and crippled trailer onto a big flatbed…now what? Based on where we were and what was available, we were looking at a long expensive tow any way we cut it…roughly $250, plus possible overnight accommodations unless we went back to Portland. For $100 more, we could tow all the way to Newport and not miss the likely last day of hali season, so that is what we did….Launched right off the back of the flatbed, then took the trailer over to the local Les Shwaab. Finally got bedded down in the boat at 3am.

9am and I'm up and on the phone with Les Schwaab threatening. They assure me everything will be taken care of so I turn my attention back to fishing. Nancy is dead to the world and so gets a shore pass, Titan and I head out solo. We toss three pots in the bay and cross the bar to find a CALM ocean…so calm I could have water skied out there. Any and I mean ANY boat could have operated safely in this water, and the further out I got, the more it laid down. GPS says 14.6 miles to the Rock Pile and we head west with the bow up at high plane speed.

First drop and I am hali nailed within 10 minutes but loose the fish. Five minutes later, fish on! When he gets to the boat I do the hold pole in one hand and gaff with the other, fly fishing style. It's a sweet one…42lbs…that was too easy! So I switch to ling gear and over the next two and a half hours, get bit 7 more times, and boat and release 4 more halis, all slightly to much smaller. Then, unfortunately, one nice canary, and headed home around 3:30pm.

On the way back, I happened to come across my Adrianna's sister ship, the Pilar. John has three halis and two kings, and gets nailed twice more in the short time I was along side. I rigged for salmon, trolled for about 20 minutes, but sleep deprivation got the better of me and so I called it quits before really making much of an effort for salmon. Pilar tells me, just as another fisherman had earlier, he even picked up a hali accidentally while trolling for salmon, if you can believe that…that is how voracious the bite was. Picked up 5 nice crab in the bay and docked.

Sunday morning I am joined by a friend Mike, one of the fish catchin'est guys I know at 6a at the ramp. We head back to the pile for bottom fish and Chinook, after throwing two heavy pots into the ocean at about 45 feet. The ocean is much rougher, but not undoable, and it gets better all day long until Saturday's conditions are almost matched. Mike takes a 15lb ling, I get another canary, Mike brings up and then releases a big hali, and then we go for salmon. I am beat and so entrust Adrianna to Mike, fold down the starboard seats, and lay down for a badly needed nap. Just as I am nodding off, fish on!! It is my pole and it spinning line like crazy. Boated the fish a few mintutes later… a fat shiny buck. one flicked booger short of 30 lbs. This is my biggest salmon to date, so after putting the line back out I grab the cell phone to call Nancy. Fish on my pole again!! Nailed this one too and it was a hen, 27 lbs. NOW, I'm a happy camper. We trolled around another two hours, Mike got bit only once more but missed, and we headed in. The pots were loaded but with mostly females. Did pull six good sized males out before crossing the bar. With the full moon the water is ripping through the bar, which was a bit scary. I took one wave over the bow for the first time this year. The boat ran flawlessly all weekend with a new carb and valve adjustment, burned only 35 gals of fuel. GOOD ocean…GOOD boat…GOOOOOOD FISHING!!!

[ 06-24-2002, 08:35 PM: Message edited by: ********* ]

[Dan Christopher]

good job sounds like fun. :smile:
that realy made my weekend in the driveway working on the cars and boats really really suck. [img]graemlins/berry.gif[/img]

[crabbait]

Angle - Hey, at 656mph no wonder you felt a little vibration. What have you got on that tow vehicle, an afterburner?

Glad to hear you didn't crumple anything and you and the dogs are alright. Sounds like Les made it right? No charge I hope.

Congrats on a good overall weekend.

[choppers]

pure dedication. no one can ever say you didn't put the extra effort out on that trip.

nice finish.

[AngleThis]

Ya the 656 MPH was a typo. I was a little sleep deprived when I wrote it last night, was packaging hali half the night...so much so, I just woke up at 1:30 PM today with a pressing business call. Now I have about 45 lbs of salmon filet to get on brine.

[AngleThis]

Yes, Les made everything right including the trailer repars. But I have to go back since they did not have the right parts. Now, let's see if I can get them to cover the $365 towing charge as well.

When I crossed the freeway (that was uh...interesting) to recover my wheel and tire from the median, I spotted on the ground an in perfect condtion weighted red steelhead fly. I picked it up and now consider it my good luck charm and stuck it in the headliner in the truck.

[AngleThis]

I went nearly 20 miles out to sea twice this weekend, once by myself, and nobody is going to tell me I'm insane again? What... have all the 'fresh water wooses' given up on saving me?

[Dan Christopher]

i am not going to diss you..your my hero i wish i had half the nads you do :grin:

[ 06-25-2002, 10:23 PM: Message edited by: MADWIZERD ]

[bigshark]

Madwizard
When the crabs have eaten his........... Well, Angel This you wanted someone to say something so I did. :tongue: I give up! Now go have a good time and take care of yourself out there. Your too entertaining to loose. You work in the government?
Just Kidding :grin:

[ 06-26-2002, 12:01 AM: Message edited by: bigshark ]

[Uncle Bob]

"I went nearly 20 miles out to sea twice this weekend, once by myself, and nobody is going to tell me I'm insane again?

What, have all the 'fresh water wooses' given up on saving me? "

Fresh Water Wooses - YEAH RIGHT!!!
Nothing Personal , AT
We already said what was on our minds.

UB

[ 06-25-2002, 11:58 PM: Message edited by: Uncle Bob ]

[AngleThis]

Bigshark, I've been nose to nose with a REAL big shark (nose to nose means IN the water). If he didn't eat me, completely alone and totally overmatched, the crabs here aren't likely to.

Glad you guys find me "too entertaining to loose". Come fishing with me the next time the ocean lays down and I'll show you what entertainment, AND fishing, is all about.

[ 06-26-2002, 11:14 AM: Message edited by: ********* ]

[AngleThis]

Nadwizard, It doesn't take bowling balls to take a small vessel to sea. It just takes the informational resources to choose the right days, and a boat with thoroughly (even annally) maintained and redundant systems. Murphy's Law still looms, but 'the worst thing that can happen' can happen just as easily and a lot faster in a place like below Bonneville when the water is ripping, than it can in the ocean. You just need a different informational and knowledge base. Then again there are bars and sneakers and for these, one needs a little courage and a little faith to go with.

D'oh!

[ 06-26-2002, 08:22 AM: Message edited by: Keta ]

[Jennie@ifish]

No comments were edited out.
Research before you complain!
??

Go look through other ********* threads... I think you are confused. There are many ********* threads that are about the same. No posts have been edited lately.
:smile:

I think that Angle this edited his title of this thread, and somehow in that change, a post was dropped, if it was dropped at all.

Jen

[ 06-26-2002, 06:22 AM: Message edited by: Jennie@ifish ]

[Dan Christopher]

if i cant see land i am not going.ya i can die here just as easy but at least my wife will have a body to burn. :grin: i dont want to be fish bait, they have way to much agenst me already.i am not feeding them in the ocean to.

[AngleThis]

Somebody complained about an edited post? For the record, I have not seen any posts on my threads deleted or edited anytime recently, so don't sweat it Jen.

[bigshark]

Angle This
Thanks for the invitation but I will pass. I don't do that much fishing outside anymore. Never was a good sailor anyway. I was a south jetty
junkie on weekends during the summer months . Now that I'm retired I get to go when the urge hits. We leave in the morning for three days. We are pretty much bay and river anglers now though we hit Cook Inlet each year for a little change of pace.
We should swap GW stories sometime. Mine are from Bodega Bay, Santa Cruz and Baker Beach. You have convinced me that no matter who tries or how they try to tell you the Columbia Bar " is different" than what it appears, you aren't going to listen. Or at least act like you aren't. It is your tail feathers that are on the line so do what ever you wish. Heck for all I know you could give Moby Dick lessons on being salty. But, when those guys come out and tell you that the bar is CLOSED, they have a good reason. You might be able to run it but its their tails on the line then. All I'm saying is don't let someone get hurt who has to try and help because it's their job.
Now say what you want to and I'll read it. I believe your good and have smarts and the best of equipment etc. If you continue to make those trips listen to that radio. What the bar was on the way out and what it will be if it decides otherwise.is quit different. That's how you get put on the bottom and the crabs get an extra treat. Then who would we have to chat with that can get a stir out of us? :grin:

No matter

[AngleThis]

Hey Bigshark, Yes we should trade some stories. Most of my best ones are of diving the Channel Islands...did the three day thing way out there many times in my 'indestructable days.'

I think I am being misunderstood. I'm not claiming to be able to do things I can't do on the Columbia River Bar. Frankly, bars scare the sh** out of me unless the tide is very favorable. I spent several hours at sea this weekend out of Newport, which is the friendliest bar around, and coming back on Sunday was a breeze... until I hit the bar near low tide. All of a sudden 6ft chops were poping and dropping all around me and I did not like it one bit. I can just imagine how toast my boat would be on the Columbia Bar at that same time, and even heard the coast guard closing it an an hour before. Make no mistake..when the sign says CLOSED, I don't try to enter the store. I may challenge myself and my boat on the open ocean, but when it comes to bar crossings I do plan ahead. The ocean can be fairly well read and pridected..there is always a pattern and scheme to the movement of the water and a capable skipper can use that. Not so with bars.

[bigshark]

Angle This
While we are talking about river bars, have you ever fished out of Brookings? The Japanese current comes into the OR coastline and touches it down there. The salmon fishing we see in late July and all of August here at the Columbia is going on down there in June.
Talk about flat water, I have seen waterskiers
out in the ocean. I mean a long way out. The CG boys have to train with their boats up north. When the Tuna show up down there it looks like a Bouy 10 fleet from what I have been told. I have never gotten to do the Tuna fishery there but thats going to change. As you probably know they have had one up here as well but I never made the long run its suppose to be........Anyway, We dig clams tomarrow then raise heck with the Jacks Fri and Sat.

[ 06-26-2002, 10:20 PM: Message edited by: bigshark ]

[AngleThis]

Really? This is good information. No I have never taken my boat south of Newport, but that too will change soon.

Just today I was thinking about where to go tuna fishing this summer. I know they are available but at the very outter rim of my range and safe operating distance...would have to be a dream of a day. I've done the long range trip thing three times now, and one was too rough for comfort, so I'll be super picky about the days I choose from now on

I am aware of calmer seas off of southern OR, so I'd be pleased to join you when you set out after Mr. Albacore. Please do keep me posted.

[Nookie Monster]

AT,

You have stated a number of times at how well you have prepared yourself to handle any situation. What I would like to know is... where was your back-up trailer? :shocked:

[AngleThis]

I have two of everything once I am ON the water. On the way to it, I have to rely on but a single trailer. I replaced both of the cross beams with oversize angle anuminum to handle all the extra wieght, and I cary a spare tire and wheel, but when the lug studs exit stage right, I'm pretty well scr****.

[fishbait]

As I have said before, if you want to catch fish, lots of fish, there is a price to be paid. Welcome to the club Dino........