Italian Tuna, Turbulance, and Taters!

On 9/8/09,
Dylan and I ventured our way over the hill Tuesday evening, to the Mediterranean of the NW in hopes of stinging some bluewater bullets.


When we got over there, we learned of some unfortunate news that put a hault on a Wed. run to tuna town. He and I had the next couple days off, so we decided we'd stick around and check out the sights and sounds of the harbor.



While walking down the dock we saw Johnny Bowles, back from a trip, unloading a few coho and a nice amount of crab!
Crabbing looks pretty good over there.



We made our way around some other docks to look at some of the vessels. This is when I found my namesake boat! ... The Stoney! I had to get a picture with it~



We meandered over to Tillamook Bay Boathouse just in time to see this Crusty Ole' Salt hoisting a load of crab out of the boiler. Some larger crabs than I've seen lately.



I noticed this planter that they had there as well. A tribute of respect to those that lost their lives.



By now, boats were arriving back to port. Many of which didn't make it out to the grounds due to the lumpy conditions. One of which was Chris (id. painter). We ran into him a couple weeks ago while over there.
He was out Wed. but turned around about 12 miles out due to the conditions. However, he managed a nice coho out of the day!

We listened to the forcast that evening, and noticed it was trending down, along with the wind. The decision was made to go for tuna on Thurs!

Next morning, we made our way out. Wasn't a bad run, and even nicer than we thought.


After finding some warmer water, we dropped in. About an hour later, the first rod starts singing. We made sure Chris took the first fish! It was a good one too!



Dylan put the sting on this albie...right in the head! First fish, in the boat!


The Captain was glad to see the skunk off the boat.



A little later I get my chance to fight. This one is a PIG! Took some great runs, until eventually surrendering itself to the gaff. This is my biggest fish to date! 35 lbs. You can definitely tell the difference between a 25 and a 35 lb fish!


Still only had two fish by the afternoon. With each hook-up, we tried casting iron and swimbaits to create multiple hook-ups, but to no avail. Run and gunning to jumpers was out of the question due to the swells and the wind (sheep).

A while later and Dylan gets his chance to scrap. We only had 30 lb line, so we couldn't exactly horse the fish in. He had a good fight with a nice grade of fish also.



While he was fighting this fish, I noticed something about a 100yds behind the boat, moving across the stern. The deep blue water turned milky white, like the color of an iceburg just below the surface. You can see it just below the long white cap at the top of the picture.


A pod of pilot whales (?) surfaced to breathe. Was an awesome sight.


The sun was starting to get lower in the sky, and as much as we all wanted to stay out and enjoy it, we knew we should probably head back to the barn.


We made our way past the tips and towards the harbor.



We had a couple watchful onlookers overseeing our return.



Was a great day with some great people! I enjoyed fishing with you, Chris, and hope to again soon! just gotta keep that boat of yours out here.. no need to trailor it back to ID!

Took a few pictures as the sun set, and before heading back over the hill to the valley.



Any day that you are alive, and out on the water, is a great day, fish or no fish. Chris, I love your perspective on life. I hope some of it rubs off on me. Thanks again!

Killin Tuna and other fish out on Lake Pacific

I had some time to put together some of the trips I've taken out on the Pacific Ocean. Most trips were out of Newport, OR, or Garibaldi, OR. We have seen some amazing things out there, but never have the camera for all of it. The quality isn't very good, sorry about that. But hope you enjoy it anyway!

Bushwhacking th Coast Range!

Ran back over the hill to the coast to take advantage of the couple days of dry weather. Once we got over the pass and took a peek at the river, we noticed it was down and in great condition! This watershed has some of the most amazing old-growth timber, including Douglas Fir and Sitka Spruce.


Dylan took this shot of me dropping down between a fallen tree. Definitely a DENSE forest.


These trees were larger than life. We were in the land of the giants.




Dylan, Taylor, and I, geared up to start whackin brush.


This lush rain forest is full of moss, lichens, mushrooms, and other forms of life that need this moist, thick, dense forest to survive.



At one point, we came across an old road.


This helped the bush-whacking for about 100yds... At the end of the road, we noticed an old bridge crossing the creek.


We walked down the creek, took some pics, and kept on scaling the river banks.



Here, I was just playin with how long I could leave it open without ruining the shot...


We made our way up, from hole to hole, and finally Taylor hooks into one. It looked like a good head-shaker at first, but then......We got to see it. . . Poor little Boot! However, we made SURE that Taylor got a picture with his prized catch!


I mean, this was a pretty nasty-looking fish. Along the river rocks, I think I noticed his last Spawning buddy! ...they looked about the same! hahaha!


The hike itself was a good couple miles through some of the thickest coastal rainforest. I admit, I'm a little sore today in the legs! Crawling up and over downed trees that are larger than cars in diameter can do that to ya! But its SOOOO worth the solitude!! Fish on!



Looks like its time to start gearing up for Winter Steelhead! We saw a couple of those caught. Time to scale down the gear and start targeting the Steel!

Astoria Sturgeon and Battleships

I was fortunate enough to get an invite sturgeon fishing out of Astoria with RODACTION (Ken), and his friend Doug, last week. Two Great guys to fish with! My brother went along, and we made our way up the coast to Astoria. One great part of being out there when we were, was that the United States Navy ships were coming in...so it was nice to share the water with such powerful company.


This next shot looks almost like another shot I think I've taken...just not a battleship below that copter...


We had to move around in the morning on the outgoing tides to different depths. We finally moved into some deeper holes and started getting some action. The fish were breaching all over. Was great to see those things come out of the water.


After a couple upper-30"s, let go, My brother gets into one that was 44 1/2"

Close but no Cigar...

Here he his with his fish. Look at that Loomis bend...


It had sores on the top of the head, along with the majority of the others we caught. We weren't sure what they were bumping up against, or rubbing on, or what... Here's one that we released, you can see the spots.


Just imagine if this was what you saw when diving and it was a 15ft'er!!


The bite turned on during the incoming tide, later in the day and we scored the rest of our keepers. I got into my first keeper here. Thanks Ken!~



The bites were few and far between, but the ones that stuck, were of quality fish. All fish were caught on sandshrimp and anchovies. Ken had a great way of putting that boat right on the fish. Its definitely good to go with someone that has it dialed in. We were the only boat back at the dock with limits that early.


All four fish were between 49-53"
We had a blast fishing with these guys! Hope to do it again soon! Btw, he has a Kicka$$ boat!

Coast Guard Rescue

Okay, here are some pictures from today's rescue at sea. These are only a few, for I'm pretty tired and am going to crash pretty soon. Bed is sounding pretty good right now.
I'll let the others give the details, but in short, here ya go.

I was out with Bud, Fishoholic, and Chasin' Tale (sp) going after some tuna, Tuesday morning. Once we got out there, we heard Ken, Crazyfish, on the Spotted Owl, on the radion mention their boat was taking on water. They chose to keep fishing and stuck by the rest of the pack. We asked him to keep us up to date every 10 mins or so as to their status. Reports were, that their pump was bailing water faster than it was coming in.

Afternoon: They started in a little earlier, before Tuna Time, SeaFox, Thunder, and us, Seelicious, picked up gear and ran. While running in, we heard, that up ahead, the Spotted Owl was taking on water more rapidly, and the motor had died. We heard, "We're dead in the water". They were about 5 miles ahead of us, and we ran to them to assist in any way we could.

By this time, they had hailed the Coasties. 2 47's from Garibaldi were en route, as well as the copter from Hammond. We all sat nearby for any help we could give.


Within just a few minutes, you could hear the thumping of the bird coming from the north.



The copter hovered closer, and let down the rescue swimmer to get in the boat and assess the situation.




Once on board, the swimmer radio'ed above to drop a portable pump to try and syphen out the water, and tow the boat back to port. The copter hovered in extremely close to the water, kicking up a big spray, leaned to the side, and dumped the pump overboard.


The pump was dropped, the swimmer got back in, swam out to the pump, drug it back to the boat, and assembled it. after a couple pulls, it began running and started dumping water out of the boat.


At this point, the cavalry, 2 47's were on the horizon, crashing through the waves toward us at what had to be 30-some knots. Once arrived, they pulled alongside Crazyfish and Spotted Owl.


Once they had the situation under control, the four of us that were there to assist, left and continued our way back to the barn. John, Fishoholic, has some more great pics, that I can't wait to see!

I was switching between the digital still camera and the Video camera. The rescue swimmer being deployed is on video and currently being edited for youtube, or somewhere similar. That video is coming soon!


Glad everything turned out alright. It was a situation that could've been ended up much worse, but thanks to quick action by the Coast Guard, it was avoided. All hats off to every one of you!