Depoe Bay Lingcod Today 4/19/2003

[Born to be Wild]

Some nice Ling’s caught out of Depoe Bay today on an offshore “Tug Trip”. The forecast yesterday called for 8’ swells and building to 12’ tonight. The forecast was wrong! Today it was forecast for only a 6’ swell. Although it is usually pretty accurate, sometimes you just have to stick your head out the window and look. It is calling for a 11’ swell tonight and a 12’ swell tomorrow.

The tug and processor is about 12 miles offshore of Depoe Bay and is known for its large lingcod. Beautiful day on the coast!

The first pic is of 5 out of his 9 customers holding up their limits of lings (2 each).




The second pic is of the other four happy customers.



The third pic is of a Depoe Bay local Howard Pruitt and the deckhand of the Zoea. Howard is retired and fishes with all the local charter boats and has earned the nickname "King of Lings". (Deservingly so)!



The last pic is of the charter boat Amigo customers 5 hour bottom fish catch.



Beautiful day and ocean for a change.

[Point-of-Sale Clerk]

Nice fish... Great pics

[Born to be Wild]

*** Clerk, you changed yer, yer a... icon or whatever it's called. I liked your old one.

[WP]

O.K., I am feeling pretty dumb...what the heck is a "Tug Trip" and a "Tug Processor". Have I missed out on something? Thanks for the help!
WP :grin: :grin:

[Born to be Wild]

WP,

The tug & processor are two separate sunken boats/ships in the same vicinity located approx. 12 miles due west of Depoe Bay. They create artificial reefs for rockfish and are not fished very much by sport or commercial fishermen thus the very large canaries & lingcod.

You need to be a pretty hardcore big fish hunter to enjoy the benefits of this specialty trip. I've only done it once and that was enough. It is approx. 600' deep and resembles offshore halibut fishing with the exception that you are usually using 16-24oz's of lead (torpedo sinkers) instead of the normal 32-48oz's (cannon balls) for halibut.

I do know some fishermen that do it over and over again and love it. But there again, I would rather go out and catch a half dozen yellowtail than one marlin.

Note> The tug trip requires minimal amount of wind and/or current due to the depth you are fishing. Trips booked in advance have to be changed to inshore or cancelled occasionally due to the extreme depth cannot be reached on account of wind and/or current.


Dan (Day 7)

[WP]

Thanks Dan,
I appreciate the information. Too deep for my liking. Halibut...yes, Lings...No
Maybe at another time or year I will consider it. The fish are certainly impressive! Does anyone have numbers for those spots? Just askin'
WP :smile:

[Born to be Wild]

The other pic of the guy in the yellow jacket didn't show his lucky bonus catch of a chinook while out fishing the "tug" for lingcod.

[Born to Fish]

Dan, great pics, nice fish, but I'm with you on preferences, all things considered.

So, I noticed the "Day 7"....is this your countdown to move from Depoe Bay to Longview?

Dean