Since no fly rods were involved, I'm keeping this out of the normal Trip Reports subforum. I had an 8wt ready to go, but the opportunities never really presented themselves.
My friend and I drove from Gresham over to Tillamook Bay Saturday evening. Found a cheap RV site where I slept in the boat's cuddy cabin. Slept great after the idiot lighting off fireworks across the street stopped around 11pm.
4am came and we launched at Garibaldi before the crowds showed up. Quick n easy launch and we were headed for the bar at first light.
Took a 1hr boat ride to my favorite bottomfishing grounds. Ocean was a bit choppier than I had anticipated, but we made the run at about 20mph, so could have been way worse.
Got to the spot and started fishing around 6am. Took a bit to get dialed in to the drift and currents that were happening, but we finally got the program dialed after a bit. Started off by losing a very large ling at the boat. But we had plenty more chances and got a good bag of 25-30" lings, black rockfish, and a beefy cabezon.
Some fun adventures: while I was reaching out with the net to get a ling my friend was bringing in, the fish shook the hook at the last second, sending the coltsniper jig and large Mustad saltwater treble straight in to my hand. The hook buried in to my right index finger all the way to the bend. My friend was far more distressed than I was, but he kept his cool enough to get the pliers and yank as hard as he could. Wasn't as bad as I was bracing for, so I turned around, grabbed my rod, and made another drop to the bottom.
This time, I hooked in to something MUCH bigger and heavier. I kept thinking I had been taken in to the rocks or something, but would get some head shaking to confirm I did still have a fish on. I'm also using a M action Shimano Trevala spinning rod... I use them for tuna, but they're still not a beefy stick. I was convinced I had a VERY large ling on until about a 40" halibut made it to the boat. As you can guess, I was NOT prepared for this as it was not a target species. We weren't even entirely sure on the regs because they get really complicated. So I had this grand idea to try and get it in my large net and call my friend to look up the regs. Seemed like a great idea until the net got in the water and we immediately realized the fish was literally twice the size of the net hoop, so that wasn't happening. And I wasn't about to gaff a fish I wasn't sure was legal. But one of the assist hooks on the jig I was using got caught in the net, and he spent a minute flopping around until coming loose. Checked this morning, and it was indeed the right outcome as inshore halibut is only open Mon-Wed right now in that area. Still, that would have been a nice windfall of meat.
We had our ling limits plus the bonus rockfish and cabezon by 10:30, so headed out a ways for salmon. -- and no, that's not the net we tried to use on the halibut
Spent all of 2hrs doing that job for a few nice early season coho. These fish grow about a pound per week this time of year before heading back, so they're not huge right now. Still, some 4-6lb coho is a nice addition to the haul.
The final damage. A great meat haul for two of us. The creel checkers at the dock said we had far more success than most. Apparently the only one they'd seen with this complete of a haul, especially for two people. So we felt awesome about what we did. Good timing on this as we used up the last package of lingcod in the freezer last week
Got a couple things to dial in on the boat, but am VERY happy with it so far. Going to be a great vessel for what I like to do out there.
My friend and I drove from Gresham over to Tillamook Bay Saturday evening. Found a cheap RV site where I slept in the boat's cuddy cabin. Slept great after the idiot lighting off fireworks across the street stopped around 11pm.
4am came and we launched at Garibaldi before the crowds showed up. Quick n easy launch and we were headed for the bar at first light.
Took a 1hr boat ride to my favorite bottomfishing grounds. Ocean was a bit choppier than I had anticipated, but we made the run at about 20mph, so could have been way worse.
Got to the spot and started fishing around 6am. Took a bit to get dialed in to the drift and currents that were happening, but we finally got the program dialed after a bit. Started off by losing a very large ling at the boat. But we had plenty more chances and got a good bag of 25-30" lings, black rockfish, and a beefy cabezon.
Some fun adventures: while I was reaching out with the net to get a ling my friend was bringing in, the fish shook the hook at the last second, sending the coltsniper jig and large Mustad saltwater treble straight in to my hand. The hook buried in to my right index finger all the way to the bend. My friend was far more distressed than I was, but he kept his cool enough to get the pliers and yank as hard as he could. Wasn't as bad as I was bracing for, so I turned around, grabbed my rod, and made another drop to the bottom.
This time, I hooked in to something MUCH bigger and heavier. I kept thinking I had been taken in to the rocks or something, but would get some head shaking to confirm I did still have a fish on. I'm also using a M action Shimano Trevala spinning rod... I use them for tuna, but they're still not a beefy stick. I was convinced I had a VERY large ling on until about a 40" halibut made it to the boat. As you can guess, I was NOT prepared for this as it was not a target species. We weren't even entirely sure on the regs because they get really complicated. So I had this grand idea to try and get it in my large net and call my friend to look up the regs. Seemed like a great idea until the net got in the water and we immediately realized the fish was literally twice the size of the net hoop, so that wasn't happening. And I wasn't about to gaff a fish I wasn't sure was legal. But one of the assist hooks on the jig I was using got caught in the net, and he spent a minute flopping around until coming loose. Checked this morning, and it was indeed the right outcome as inshore halibut is only open Mon-Wed right now in that area. Still, that would have been a nice windfall of meat.
We had our ling limits plus the bonus rockfish and cabezon by 10:30, so headed out a ways for salmon. -- and no, that's not the net we tried to use on the halibut
Spent all of 2hrs doing that job for a few nice early season coho. These fish grow about a pound per week this time of year before heading back, so they're not huge right now. Still, some 4-6lb coho is a nice addition to the haul.
The final damage. A great meat haul for two of us. The creel checkers at the dock said we had far more success than most. Apparently the only one they'd seen with this complete of a haul, especially for two people. So we felt awesome about what we did. Good timing on this as we used up the last package of lingcod in the freezer last week
Got a couple things to dial in on the boat, but am VERY happy with it so far. Going to be a great vessel for what I like to do out there.
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