Eastern Oregon Excursion

Having the day off, Dylan and I decided we were going fishing, we just didn't know where. We checked out the usual choice of the coast. However, it seemed as though every coastal river was blown out from the storm and was unfishable. We quickly put our heads together and decided to head east! Lets try the Deschutes or the John Day! We decided to make our way east on 84.


View John Day River Trip in a larger map
Thanks to some dead dinosaurs, we fueled the car and ventured on.



We kept bombing past Multnomah Falls, but I was still able to get a few good shots!



Right around Bonneville the showers began. A few miles in, we noticed a NICE boat on the side of the road, headed east


... As we got closer, we noticed it was SEELICIOUS!...the boat we Tuna fish for, all summer!


Bud had the motors taken off, and it was on its' way back to North Carolina to have some work done on the hull. Small world!
The journey continued and we guessed the rain would quit once we hit the east side of the range, and luckily, this was exactly the case.


Through the tunnel, and on to the east side, we kept on driving. Dylan and I made our way through The Dalles and past Hood River.





We rounded the corner to see the mouth of the Deschutes River.



The river looked to be in great shape, so we knew we'd have good conditions at the John Day also! We took the Biggs Junction and made our way SE. We saw the smallest of towns.. Like the ones you'd make horror movies based upon. Here's Wasco. Not even a 'One-stoplight town'.


Making our way deeper into Eastern Oregon, we ventured across some unique places...


Heading across the open plains we noticed all of the wind farms and the GIANT wind machines!



These things were so large! It was amazing listening to these things hummmmmmm, and the power they must be producing!


We came across fields and fields of wind machines. Eventually, our road began winding its way down the canyon to the bottom.



These farms were everywhere out on the plains. We had to stop and take lots of pictures...


Saw an old Windmill with the new ones behind it... thought it was a great picture!

Came across some old homesteads that had been long-abandoned..



We were excited, knowing that our destination laid at the bottom of this vast ravine.


We pulled into the parking lot, geared up, and got our waders on.


We pulled up just in time to notice a couple guys that were just taking out. They had been on an 80-mile float that lasted 10 days!


These guys were burley! One guy was lucky enough to apply and GET DRAWN for a big-horn sheep tag. Just two days earlier (thurs.) this guy was so lucky, they had a herd of sheep up the hillside and they made their stalk. After 3 shots, he was fortunate enough to earn a trophy of a lifetime!


Not too many people on earth can ever say they shot a big-horn sheep! Was a beautiful animal!



Click on the picture and check out the road. A truck along the road gives a good idea of how far away this was.


Anyway, the wind was howling down the canyon, making it feel like 30 degrees out there! Was SOO COLD! However, we bundled up, walked up the canyon and started fishing.


The catching wasn't so great, but we did see a nice steelhead caught as well as a couple that had followed my lure all the way up to the surface a few times, yet never decided to bite! Grrr!



Now THAT'S frustrating! Oh well, it was our first time trying that river so we expected very little. However, the scenery was absolutely amazing, and just being able to see such geological formations was awesome!


We are so fortunate to live in Oregon and have this dynamic landscape available to us!

Coastal Chinook

Bolted over the hill early in the morning with Dylan to a quiet creek and tried our luck for some fall chinook. We hiked through some awesome older-growth forest areas. We found this giant Sitka Spruce.


Amazing to think of the storms they've weathered, as well as the the stories they could tell. These things wouldn't budge!!



All of the signs were there for fish... The water had risen, but was on the drop.


I put a nice silver-dollar sized clump of eggs on my hook and through the offering up in the hole. The bobber floated slowly down the seam of the current until it just turned and went under as if it were stuck on the bottom. I knew it was only set at 6ft and the hole was about 12 feet deep. So, taking what seemed to be an eternity to realize I should set the hook, I reeled up and let 'em have it. Bobber Down!!! I felt a couple strong head-shakes and could see him flash back and forth as the the fight began. He jumped more than any chromer, coho, or steelhead that I've seen!


Once I got him in, we tailed him and realized it was a hatchery fish. One more fish that needed to come out of the system. Soooo, we bonked it.


I made good use of this guy and smoked him up. Turned out to be one of the best smoking jobs I've done yet! (I've only done two)...but I'm progressing fast, so look out!


We had battled thunder, lightning, hail, pouring rain, and torrential winds, but prevailed. We also landed a nice chrome native coho that we quickly released, and a couple other dark fish. We were pretty proud that we had prevailed and endured the storm, but came away victors. We made our way back over to the valley meeting up with the back edge of the rainstorm, with the one fish, but many memories.



The sun began to come out just before sunset giving us a 'thumbs-up' with a rainbow. Was a great day~ Sure beats sitting at home!

Tillamook Tales!

Went over the hill to Garibaldi for the weekend. We didn't go out fishing til around 10, so we watched the zoo at the ramp. I'd call it 'controlled chaos'.
Many weekend warriors, excited clients, and others dreaming of coastal chrome!


It was still a bit windy in the morning, even in the harbor.



I was impressed with how quickly and smoothly it went! Glad I wasn't a part of it, and was only documenting it!



Walked over to the Tillamook Bay Boathouse and got a few more shots before it got light.


Mmmmm...


Big Tuna Marine at First Light


We eventually made our way out to Barview to watch the fleet start harvesting chrome.


Glad to have these guys watching over us!


Was a pretty calm bar, with most of the boats venturing outside the tips. Look close, two boats have fish on!


Looking North, the sky began to get light...


We headed back to Big Tuna to get the crab pots rigged and lines ready.

Trying to get out between the salmon boats was like a corn maze out there!
Looking back at them, once we were out, they looked like you could literally walk across them!




Saw Captain Johnny Bowles out there puttin a hurt on the feesh, while we slid out past the Chrome-seekers.



Ended up with some large ocean crab as well as a pile of rockfish.



Great day on the water... Could be the last nice one for a long time, looking at the weather forecast!

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Passions and Pelagics: Pacific Pork and Pomfret

Ahhh! Let me first start by saying, 'what an AMAZING day yesterday on the water!' From the time we stepped aboard The Seelicious, we knew it was gonna be a great day. We idled out to the coast guard tower, then throttled up. Made our way out past the tips with no concern. Flat bar. The sun peeked its rays above the coast range.




Little Italy, once again, has treated me to a head full of memories!



Bud, Mike, Dylan and I made the run west, only after a nice filling breakfast at the Wheelhouse. Mmmm, what a way to start out the morning...coffee, biscuits-n-gravy, bacon, eggs and toast! Can you tell I'm hungry this morning?
Seelicious was loaded with its late-season arsonal. A porcupined boat; quills armed with fishtraps and iron. Chovie along with light green/clear fishtraps worked the best, with purple/clear also getting a little action.



Mike brought his own gear, and found the fish REALLY liked his BF jigs.



Oh yes, lastly, to add to the arsonal of Late-season tactics, we had a livewell full of anchovies just WAITING to become heroes! This was their day to shine! This was the day they lived their whole lives for.. The big dance...
...Go get 'em, squigglies!





So we make our way out past the tips, across a relatively smooth bar. The ride out was comfortable and seemed quick given the distance. We found green/blue water and some good temp breaks around the 125 line. The wind laid down as the day progressed. Sheep never appeared, making the spotting of jumpers MUCH easier! Most of the time, Ole' Eagle-Eye Mike would spot 'em 1000's of yds out before the rest of us saw them.... (I think its a trained eye that comes with all those ocean hours!)
The fish were a bit skittish and would sound fairly quickly as we rolled up on them. For the most part we could slide up, throw a few traps and iron and hook right up. Livies would then be deployed creating the second wave of the attack. This hooked up the next couple fish in the pod. By this time, the fish would normally sound and be below us. Once it seemed the pod moved on, the third and final wave of the attack was deployed...Iron to 100ft. Iron Mike would hook up on his BF jig down around 50-100'. Granted, not every pod out there produced these numbers. We Did have a couple stops that were bounty-less. But for the most part, we made it happen when we needed to.

Dylan spotted what we thought were 2-3 dorado under a kelp paddy we slid up on. We casted EVERYthing at them, including live bait but no hits. I was fortunate enough to see the forked blue-green tails as they were swimming off. We even slow trolled the livies around the paddy, with no results. We decided to move on to the next set of jumpers.

A little later, we came across a small baitball getting worked. We slid right up on it, and it moved right towards us. The predator fish that were workin this baitball were smaller....so we casted all around and thru the bait ball, and immediately hooked up with a Pacific Pomfret. You could see these chrome, crevalle-lookin piranha fish down in the water flyin in on the baitball, hitting it from all sides. Apparently our iron jigs looked extremely tasty to them, and we had 4 in the boat within a couple mins. They aren't large fish as you can see.







After the excitement wore off, we continued on our quest for longfins.

In the afternoon, the bite really picked up. We were noticing more and more pods of jumpers. The wind dying down and the ocean calming helped this out! We managed a healthy number of fish throughout the afternoon. Unfortunately, it IS October... The sun is setting earlier and the days are getting shorter, so we decided to run in.


We pointed the battlewagon east, and ran back to the barn at a smooth and comfortable 28 kt cruising speed. It was like a lake out there!





On the ride in, we recollected the events and highlights of the day. The calm conditions, seeing the dodo's, sharks, casting and hookin-up, (and yeah, losing a few), catching the Pomagranites, err PomPoms, err Pompanos, err....POMFRETS!, whatever they are! just kidding, they're pretty cool little fish!



These fish have some Sharp little teeth.. I'm not at my normal computer to edit, but you can kinda see them in this next picture. They also have a nice deep blue line along with that lighter blue along the back of the fish.



Anyway, just be be out on the ocean in and catching tuna in October definitely gave us a sense of accomplishment. To be blessed by Mother Ocean with 23 tuna, 4 exotics, along with visuals and memories to last till...well,. NEXT TRIP!


I couldn't have been out there with a better group of guys. I enjoyed fishin with all of you! For the most part, we were a fairly-well-oiled machine out there... Glad we got to fish together again, Mike! and of course a HUGE thanks to Bud for another AMAZING trip on the pond! You've allowed my head to swell with some amazing memories, yet again. Thank you, Amigo!