[Mojo]

TEAM MOOSE DROOL is headed for Sekiu. The weather reports don't scare us :grin: . We'll be staying at Olsen's tomorrow through the weekend. If you are in the area, stop by and say howdy. Look for Idaho plates on a tan Ford F-250, that's mine.


I'll post an in depth report when I return...

[ 09-22-2003, 09:37 PM: Message edited by: Mojo ]

 

[Mojo]

Well, Here is the story...

Tuesday about noon, I took off from work, and headed out toward Mecca (Sekiu). Dean (BorntoFish) was about an hour ahead of me, but he had an appointment in Hermiston (at a boat dealer) so I figured I'd have no problemas catching him. Pretty uneventful trip, dragging my boat. I caught up with Dean in Hood River, where we spent night 1.

Wednesday we saddled up, headed for G.I. Joe's in Vancouver WA, where we bought our "last minute supplies". From there we smoked up to Sekiu. It's really a pretty long drive from Boise, Idaho to paradise. We threw the boat in, parked the rigs, and went fishing. It was 4:30 in the afternoon, and the "evening bite" was reported to be pretty bad. Dean caught a pretty nice fish to start the festivities...

Shortly after this picture the salmon police came and arrested Dean for performing unnecessary carnage upon a salmonid :grin: . (check out the "rough ocean conditions) Dean had the lucky rod, and tagged his 2 silvers right off the bat. I kept catching fishies with the "extra fin". Tally...2 keepers for Dean, and 4 or 5 nates for me.

Thursday morning at about 0230 (that's 2:30am for you civilians... :grin: ) the Spokane contingent of Team Moose Drool arrived. They launched the Duckworth (Denali's Boat), set up camp quickly, and crashed. We hit the Straights of Juan De Fuca at 6:30. There was rain on the horizon everywhere you looked. Seas were reasonable, and the winds mild. Denali had Adam (Idahewes on ifish) and Randy (Deputy Dawg from now on...) in his boat, and Dean and I were in mine. We fished hard, and caught quite a few fish that morning, but Dean and I both tagged only one. The weather was getting progressivley worse. Swell rising from the west, wind and waves from the east, and rain getting stronger. By 11:00 we were wet, cold, and steering the boat was becoming progressively more difficult...so we ran in and had lunch at The Cove. Amazing what a bowl of hot clam chowder and a cup of java will do for your mental state. Denali's crew had just docked when we got back to the docks, and they had limited the boat. Their report was "the seas are calmer, and the fish are biting". Off we run...and procede to get into one of the hot bites of the trip. Dean was running the "Don't mess with Lambeau Field" spoon, and I was attempting to run a R.S.K/herring off the Downrigger. I say attempting, because Dean kept hooking fish that I either had to net or release in the water, and I never got my bait in the water. I decided the downrigger was too much trouble, and Dean was wacking them on spoons, so I threw out a spoon. We had doubles, we had fish hitting spoons hanging off the side of the boat, it was a "slaughter on the water". We finally figured we had experienced too much fun, and I bonked fish #4 for the day...a boat limit :cheers: . Here are my 2 fish (and a great looking boat off my right elbow)

We got in just in time for the Team Moose Drool revival, with a little Drool drinking, lots of stories, and we met the crew of the Blue Pearl. Ifisher Dusty Reel (Marty) and the gang on the Blue Pearl, were a bunch of great guys. I enjoyed meeting you all, and look forward to seeing you next year (by-the-way, thanks for the advice, it helped!). We had a great dinner of Dean's famous chilli, smoked cheese (wonderful!) and smoked sturgeon. What a feast! and then we hit the sack.

Friday dawned calm with a mild overcast that faded as the day passed. The fishing was hotter than a $2.00 pistol at first light. Here is a picture of Slip Point...

I made my biggest mistake of the trip, when I turned the second, third, and fourth keepers I brought to the boat loose. I had a nice 8 pounder in the fish box, and didn't want to have to quit too soon. About 11:00 someone flipped the switch and the bite stopped. Denali and the boys had limited their boat, and were headed west of the Sekiu River to bottom fish. Dean and I trolled for 6 hours without a keeper. Matter of fact we didn't catch anything but little guys (8"-13"). No one was getting anything, from the conversations I heard on the VHF. We showed up back at the dock with one a piece, just in time for "surf and turf". The Boys had caught a handful of bottomfish, and they were ceremoniously fried and served with a side of beef (large steak) for dinner. Denali is not only a great fisherman, he can cook as well. Saturday was the big Sekiu Derby. Everyone and their brother was arriving at Olsen's Resort. We watched the boat ramp follies, and laughed till we were about to wet our trousers. ("What is up with people putting hitches on the front of their trucks?" :laugh: ) The little hand was pointing at the 10, and I was getting blurry eyed, so off to bed we went.

Somewhere around 3:30 or 4:00am Saturday the "Sekiu Security" guy started the 4-wheeler races. His ripping around the lot woke us all up. Since we couldn't fish till 6:00, we prepped the boats, made a game plan. We were out at 6:05, and lines in at 6:15. We didn't hit a fish for 15 minutes. I was starting to doubt myself :hoboy: when I had a whopper of a takedown. It turned out to be a nice 9 pounder with no adipose, BONK...in the box. Now my plan was to fish till 10:00 or so, then drive as far as possible. Well the morning bite was great, and we caught a ton of fish, but they all had the extra fin. Finally I got my second "clipper" and tagged out. Dean was catching nates, and then he hooked a 4 or 5 pounder that was clipped. Dean was going to release it, but it was bleeding a bit, so BONK...in the box. Well the fog crept in, and I was getting antsy, so Dean jumped in Denali's boat, and I broke out the "Plastic Jesus" and ran to port. What I found crazy was all the little rental boats, out 5 miles, in the fog, with no instruments. I think it is irresponsible...no, CRAZY! I pulled the boat, broke camp, and headed home. Made it to Boardman Saturday, spent the night, and was home by noon Sunday.

WHAT A TRIP!!! Thanks to everyone that made it a possibility, especially Dean...who put a roof over my head, and put up with my neurotic behavior. Jim, Randy, and Adam...you guys are awesome. Can't wait to fish together again (soon). Marty, and the Blue Pearl Dudes...it was a pleasure! Keep in touch, we'll hit it again next September.

I'll leave the rest of the story for Dean and Jim to fill in. They fished 2 days longer than I did, and had some adventures to boot...

[ 09-24-2003, 09:58 AM: Message edited by: Mojo ]

 

[Ramstrong]

Mojo,

Sounds like you had a blast. So, are you hitting the Harrison this fall? I'm not going to be able to make it, but my buddies are going up in two weeks.

 

[Wheeler Dealer]

Great Story, and Pictures!!

Thanks for sharing!! :grin: :grin: We were over to Sekiu during Labor Day week-end and the morning bite was phenomonial also!! :cheers: :cheers:

 

[snit]

It's a great place EH? Super report, keep 'em coming.

 

[Mojo]

Ryan,
I think the Sekiu trip, and my upcoming trip to the Hanford Reach probably are going to have to suffice for this year. Maybe next year we can rally at Harrison Mills Campground EH?

[ 09-23-2003, 08:06 AM: Message edited by: Mojo ]

 

[Denali]

Mojo,

Glad you had safe passage back to Boise. To pick up where you left off, we let Born to Fish board our boat. First things first we had to scrub all of the "bad" mojo off of him. Once we had him clean and applied a fresh coating of herring oil we proceeded with the task at hand. We had no trouble limiting the boat but sice it was derby day we probed for a big one. We never did get it although the Sherrif did manage to weigh one respectable fish in at the derby. Randy weighed in at 13.8 lbs. Derby winner was 17. We dined on some fine lasagna that evening and toasted the successful day. We rose early on Sunday and proceeded to the fishing grounds and wacked a bunch of silvers again. We also released several respactable kings. We pulled out some old lake Michigan "stuff" to finish off our eight fish limit. Then the boys wanted some white meat so off to the bottom fishing grounds we went. It took a while but we finally found hard bottom and proceeded to catch a bunch of the ugly fish. Copper rockfish, Quillback, some unidentifiables, multiple sharks and some nice ling cod. We reluctantly wrapped it up at 5pm and headed the 9 miles back in with a box of white meat. We fired up the deepfryer again and enjoyed the days bounty. One last campfire and a good burner in the wall tent and our trip was over. We pulled out early Monday am and plowed back to Spokane. The fishing was great and the company better. Been a while since I laughed so hard or so frequent. Good Times.

Joe, got the front hitch mount yet?

 

[Mojo]

Denali,
:laugh: :laugh: Front hitch mount... :laugh: :laugh: . I ain't that old.

 

[Mojo]

Dean,
Where is your two cents worth? You got some good pics, and at least 10 pages of laughing at Mojo stories...

 

[Born to Fish]

You guys pretty well covered the highlights, but I'll add some comments and pics. But first of all Mojo I want to thank you for dragging a response out of Denali....holy smokes, the Silver Tongued Devel is now pushing 110 posts. Yee Haa...a star is born.

:wink: Next we need to teach Jim how to use the Graemlins to lighten up and accentuate his posts. :grin:

Joe's sled was already pictured in the background of one of his pics. Pictured below is Denali's Duck Boat which I was honored to ride in for the last two days. Both of these boats are real fishing machines and a tribute to the dedication and expertise of their owners. Guys, that bit of sucking up ought to warrent more invitations - Huh?

You mentioned the hawg that Randy (The Sheriff) caught and I was able to get a picture of him with it after his outrageous victory dance. Nice fishee.

As mentioned, the last day we had a ball on the Duck Boat chasing down ugly fish. Caught quite a variety and several we couldn't ID from the limited pics in the regs. Here's Jim looking at an unidentified beastie that Adam caught. We released it and were amazed at how it looked as though it was flying away in the water instead of swimming.

And last but not least, the guys mentioned how well we did with some of my Wisconsin spoons and here they are. The yellow/green job I named the Green Bay Packers/Lambeau Field Salmon Butt Kicker - it got pounded so badly that it was eventually retired to the tackle box. The other two weren't as hot but they also provided a lot of action whereas other spoons failed to score.

By the way, the spoons were pulled in a number of different ways - behind 4 oz. banana weights; and also behind Pink Landy and Dipsy Divers.

That covers it for me. Thanks again to my brothers from Team Moose Drool for what has been the most memorable fishing trip in years. Gotta make it an annual affair.

Dean

[ 09-24-2003, 08:58 PM: Message edited by: Born to Fish ]

 

[Mojo]

Dean,
Getting a response out of Denali isn't too hard. Try getting Dustreel or Idahewes to post something :hoboy: .

 

[Denali]

Nice picks of the spoons Dean. Idahewes and Dustyreel remain anonymous. Joe ID's one of those alien creatures as the Pacific Ratfish. I'm assuming they were blue sharks that we caught? We'll be better prepared next time.
PS Dean the Packers lost to Arizona??

 

[Pounddown]

WELL DONE the pictures are great and the water looked ideal, thanks for sharing.... :dance: :bowdown: :dance: :bowdown:

 

[Mojo]

Denali,
I think the sharks you caught were dogfish. They apparently are the "scourge of Puget Sound". I read that somewhere and thought it was funny. I thought Team MOOSE DROOL was the scourge of wherever we were that day... :grin:

 

[Born to Fish]

Jim, bad rumor about the Packers losing it in Arizona. :shocked:

Word I get from my reliable sources back in Wisconsin is that the Pack hasn't lost a game yet. :wink: :grin:

Who to believe?

:shrug:

Dean

 

[Guest]

Mojo

I'm finally surfacing on ifish in your honor. Everybody pretty much summed it up. Great trip great weather,fishing and company. Definitely an annual trip in my schedule. Couldn't have had a better time.

 

[Born to Fish]

Great story Adam....told like an old pro. Now all you'll need is 109 more posts to catch up with Jim.

Now we need to get Marty to come out of the bushes and add his 2-cents worth. Marty.....DustyReel.....are you lurking out there somewhere?

Jim said he knew of at least 20 other people who'd like to join us next year, and Joe commented on five others he knew of. Looks like we'll need more boats and will take over Olson's docks with our fleet. Also looks like we'll need "The Sheriff" again, to maintain the peace.

Dean

[ 09-25-2003, 07:36 PM: Message edited by: Born to Fish ]

 

[Mojo]

WHAT!!! IdaHewes breaks out with the inaugural post...I'll alert the media! Glad to see you here Adam. Yeah, we definitely need "The Sheriff" to maintain peace next year.

Marty, where are you?