Halibut - Garibaldi

     I got the call from Buddy to head over the hill and meet up at the boat for a round of Halibut wrangling!   We didn't make it an early start, it was more of a banker's hours trip.  I headed over in the morning, enjoying a great sunrise!

We made our way out to halibut hill on a beautiful spring ocean.

Once we set up our drift and dropped baits, we instantly hooked up.  Here's Toby hooked up with a nice flatty.

Gotta love the electric reels!  Pulling up a fish from 760' is a long way!

The day was nothing short of limits.  We put back many smaller fish, but ended up with our keepers.  This was my best, about 42. 

 Doug stayed inshore and got this piggy!  ...About 60 lbs!!

Thanks again for the trip, Bud!!

Melissa's Second Salmon

     Finally got back out on the water for some springers with Melissa.  She came equipped and prepared with magazines, blankets, pillows, the whole nine yards...  She was ready for a quiet boat ride in the sun.  Well, most of the day was exactly that.  It started out with a great sunrise.

We started the boat and headed out to troll, hoping it would be productive! 

The day wasn't as productive as we wanted...a.k.a. we didn't get a bite.  We tried out by the mouth of the Willamette with no luck.

However, our last pass downhill along the barges took us out a little deeper and we were marking more fish below the boat.  We turned toward the middle of the river to pull up gear and call it a day when WHAM!! ...the rod buckles!  The tip is getting yanked into the water, while the drag is screaming out.  FISH ON!  I set the hook and hand her the rod.  After clearing the other rod, I grab the net and prepare for the boarding of our guest!  As the fish came to the boat, we could see only one hook was still in the fish's mouth.  It made another surging run about 20 yards before finally turning and coming back to the boat.  She reeled it right into the net, bringing us/me, sadly, the only Springer of the year for my boat..   Women DO have good luck!!

Willamette Springers (April 24th, 2012)

Okay, today wasn't my best day.   I only had one fish strike, and fought him to the boat, before it shook itself off.  I trolled right by Gary and Dwight as they hooked with their SECOND fish in less than 20 mins!  The fish came at 17 pulls on a green label herring.  A flasher and a super-secret spinning attractor was also used.  Glad I got some action shots!

Great job on the fish.  The guys went 2-2 that day. 

December Trifecta!

Brrrr! Yesterday started out cold and icy, but we new the sun was coming up, and the wind was dying down. The ride across the coast range at sunrise brought the temperature down to 19. Once we got to LI and launched, it was a balmy 25.

The docks were slick. Just getting down to the boat made for an adventure.

While launching, I couldn't help but notice those two damn bar lights flashing. "Uh oh", I thought....

But then realized, it might just be restricted. I hailed and heard it was restricted to 16' and under. WOOHOO! That's what we needed to hear!

We dropped 4 pots in the bay by barview, and headed out to the tips. We poked our head out and was literally smooth sailing! A GREAT DECEMBER OCEAN! The forcast was for 2 and 5 at 13 or so, and was more like 1 and 4. We shot across and headed south for some rock fish.

I took a friend that hadn't been out of Garibaldi before, so I wanted to show him 3 Arches, and some of the scenery around there..

For those that haven't, its almost as amazing, just floating below those cliffs and rocks.. Makes you feel pretty small!

Well, we slid out a little ways and found some pinnacles to fish. After fishing a couple hours on some different mounds, gathered our rock fish and started back. I also caught a healthy cabazon, but it needed to go back down.

We rolled across a 'flat-as-a-pancake' bar to check the pots. Almost had our two limits in one pull, but tossed them back in for another soak through the high slack.

Hearing that there are still a few chinook stragglers out there, we thought we'd try to 'Mine some Chrome Gold from the Glory...errr, Ghost Hole.

As you can see, it was windy the rain was blowing sideways! ...okay, not so much..

There was only one other boat fishing, and was the same boat we saw earlier in the morning. The tide was JUST starting to run out so we went just south of the pooper, turned back toward Garibaldi, and deployed a couple herring. Within 5 mins, Gary's rod almost looked snagged but then started violently ripping line. He jumps up, grabs the rod, and the fight is on! It may have just been us, but the color of that fish, with the sun above, was UNBELIEVABLE! the Greens and blues and purples were SO amazingly vibrant. More so than I've normally seen (I was net man, so no pics of that). This fish was hot and took 3-4 good runs. I wasn't about to scoop at him til his head was coming at the net.. He cam right up to the boat and it was a standstill for what felt like 5 mins.. Him on the surface, just out of net's range, and head pointing away from us... wait...wait...wait... FINALLY!! He turned his head as it to dive under the boat and run. ...However, I wasn't going to let that happen. I slid the net down in the water so he ran directly in.

SCORE!! A 32lb December Chromer! We were ecstatic! What a trifecta! Rockfish, Salmon, and Crabs! Felt almost like August!

It was now about 2:30 so we made a couple more passes and decided to call it. We went back out to the pots, grabbed some monsters, and filled our limits!

Sure makes for a great ride in, when you have a boat full of bounty!

We couldn't have asked for a better day, or better weather window. The temp finally reached about 45-50 and was very pleasant with no wind until the end of the day when it turned around from the north.. but I can take a 0-5kt wind from the N!

See ya at the next weather window!!!

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