Miss B Haven fun!

[fishisabonus]

:smile: Once again I get to give a big THANK YOU to Mel for taking me out on his beautiful boat. Lucky for my kids and I, someone else canceled and I got invited. My younger kids, Hannah 10, and Travis 6, mouth dropped when they saw Mel's boat. They now understand why I had so much fun with my folks on their boat.

Here's the story.

I drug them out of bed and we head for Warrenton to meet Mel and his wife, Toni, our arrival time was between 8 and 9. There wasn't a cloud in the sky the entire drive to the coast. When I came over the hill and could see the Astoria bridge, I had to call my Mom to brag about the beautiful day.

We loaded up and headed out to drop our crab pots. The river was a little rolly and Toni wasn't feeling too hot. After a couple of hours of trolling, we pulled the pots and felt pretty lucky to have a bunch of nice crab. Threw the pots back out... hoping to catch a fish.

We really had low expectations of catching anything. The river was full of bait fish. They were jumping all around us.

We hooked a fish, but the leader broke when it was at the boat. BTW, Mel did not buy those junk leaders... someone left them on his boat.

Toni wasn't feeling good and since she is the boss, Mel knew it was getting close to time to go. We were going to reel up and I had my pole in my hand. Mel said, I just want to make one more pass thru that spot. He was worried about us all having the poles in our hands, jerking the hook out of the fish's mouth (steelheaders disease). So I sat down. BAM, my pole goes down. I quickly landed a very nice silver. My kids were jumping up and down. It was so cool to be holding the pole and feel the fish hit. I knew I had him good. I was using my lucky red diver again. Of course, Travis wanted to keep going so he could reel in the next one.

About then the boat rolled. Toni turned to look up to the flying bridge and before she could open her mouth, Mel yelled down "we are going... reel up". Man she has him trained good. She did admit it took her 23 years to get him that way.

Off to check the crab pots. We ended up with a big cooler full of crab. I came home with 11 really nice crab and a filet and a half of salmon. The weather, just don't get any better than it was. I just wish Toni had felt better tho.

Tonight, my family is going to have a little seafood feast. Enough to share with my folks and my brother-in-law and neice. (Sister is out of town, sorry Ape, we aren't saving any for you either).

Thank you again Mel, for another wonderful day on your beautiful boat. It was nice to meet your wife too, and my kids had a great time! :grin: :grin: :grin:

Lynda

[Pete]

Who the heck would cancel a trip with Mel? What were they thinking? Glad you got a chance to go - it really is a treat to cruise aboard the Miss B! I'll forever remember my first tuna thanks to Mel's generosity. And I won't forget the feeling of sitting at the helm, 14 feet above the swells as I took her over the Columbia Bar and through the Buoy 10 crowds ... Miss B "Haved" perfectly! Great boat, great skipper! Thanks again, Mel!

[fishisabonus]

Mel is a great skipper. I like him because he has a lot of respect for the power the water has.

He even gave my kids a big head, letting them navigate the boat. They were fighting over who's turn it was. :tongue: If they weren't driving the boat, they were watching the TV, Saturday morning cartoons were on. :shocked:

Heres to Mel & Toni

[Miss B Haven]

Hey!- thanks fishisabonus and Pete. :smile:

Flattery WILL get you everywhere. Had fun Sat it's always a special treat to teach the kids to drive the boat. Comes in handy some times too. I'll tell that story on the board some day. :grin:
A special thanks to fishisabonus for not mentioning that the skipper wrapped one of his own crab ropes around a prop Sat. The really stupid part was laying on the swim step with an auto-inflating life jacket on (complete with crab rope and filet knife in hand) and having the waves lapping up under my belly. Fortunatley I had this sudden vision of getting blown off the step and flying across the water like a balloon that you let go of. :shocked: :shocked: It didn't go off but I think it was pretty close. :grin:

[fishisabonus]

If that would have happened... I would have quickly got my camera out and made a post about what we found floating in the river. I would have tried to add horns, or course.

It happens to the best of them. I got a couple stories out of my folks about the same thing. You did okay... you didn't lose your crab pot, or the bouys, only a couple feet of rope. You kept your cool, and I didn't hear one four letter word either!

[ 09-23-2002, 08:25 PM: Message edited by: fishisabonus ]