Big thanks to those that braved the wind and waves today to satisfy some need to kill fish.
Headed to Depoe and talked to beer waggin friday night, he was drinking beer off the lighthouse and not a ripple of wind on the water Friday night. I got to Depoe a few hours later and found still no wind at all, but it needed to hold for the better part of a day to be good fishing Saturday.
By morning it was blowing 10 knts, and building. As usual I was first out of the hole and last in keeping with tradition so far this year. Ocean didnt look that bad, we just needed to get out and kill fish and get back before it really started to blow.
For the first 12 - 15 miles we were able to do 17 mph +/-, then we found a confused patch of water and we could only do about 12mph
We amble along, never not feeling safe, and if you cant fish standing, you can fish sitting, when you cant fish sitting, then I guess it is time to go home
I knew we wouldnt have time to hunt for the fish, I went off a 2nd hand report of where Seasquid got 23 fish on Friday and headed to that area. We didnt find fish right off, and had to hunt for a while, finally we bag a fish. StgRules first, then her husband Buck50 got his first. We amble around for a while and listen on the radio as dogs were dropping out left and right. Fish Assasin turned around at 14 miles due to roughness and only having a 30 some foot maxweld catamaran,
Retaliate made it out 10 miles and headed in, Crazyfish lost an alternator belt and had to limp in with a CG escort
SanAnita lost his electronics and headed in, it was pretty much down to Beer Waggin and us and my shadow.
Beer Waggin called around 9'ish AM and was bailing as the seas were building, it was basically unfishable and I know we were in a solid 10 foot swell at one time that was breaking, Most of the time it was probably 8 foot, with "some" slop on top
we were taking water over the side of the boat which was a nice shower every few seconds at all angles to the swell but south, and to much South and we would have a miserable ride home unless we chose a new port to put in at. So we amble around with some gear in the water, and I dont know if nobody wanted to go pull the gear, or if we thought the 8 mph we could do headed for home was about the same as trolling speed
We head in with some rods in tow while we hide in the cabin. We get a driveby, then not long later we hit a double and had to emerge to deal with fish.
We get one to the boat and decided to not put the gear back out
Thinking we might be the highliner of the day with 3 fish when we left, but no
Beer Waggin bagged 4 fish
I again am in awe of his fish catching ability. I am aware of no others for the midcoast sport boats
After we got in 10 miles it got quite a bit better, and we could do double digit speed. I think we spent a little over 3 hours listening to some good tunes on the way in from 30 miles out.
It was bad out there, and the wind blew hard earlier in the day than I guessed it would, few on this board would be in that sea without heading to home ASAP, I think I found my comfort level and am in no hurry to get back out there in those conditions. As bad as it was, I never felt in danger, we just bobbed around like a wine cork in a washing machine on agitate cycle, I am sure glad the decks scupped or we would have burned out a bilge pump or two.
I heard the CR boys did a lot better than the midcoast crew.
Crew consisted of Waterdog, StgRule and her husband Buck50. Pretty much shows when you need a crew on a bad forecast, get a woman
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We called the trip on Sunday and headed for home :depressed: as I dont think the wind was going to die down again for at least several days.
note - I dont know who the guy was that called himself Oakie Drifter in the alum dory, but next time troll where your outrigger is NOT over my deck. I dont enjoy fishing the ocean with a boat so close. When I called you and asked you turn left so I could head West should have been a clue you were to close. You were closer to me than my shadow was.
Big thanks to the crew.
the heartiest crew
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