Happy Birthday, Dad!

On July 21st, Melissa and I went out to Siletz Bay to take my Dad crabbing for his 79th birthday.

He and my Mom had the greatest time out on the water.  The weather was absolutely perfect as well!

  We didn't end up hooking any salmon, but didn't really try, either.  We mainly crabbed and enjoyed the day.  This day was his.  So, whatever he wanted to do, which was relax and catch some crabbies.. 

So we did!

My parents enjoyed seeing the seals that inhabited the bay.

 If you hook a fish, you need to get it in quick, because these seals would swipe your salmon so fast your head would spin!

Dad helped pull the crab pots and keep the back deck organized.

We ended up with a few crabs...enough for some crab cocktails, but no limits, that's for sure.   The plan was to sneak a cake out with us, and sit on the beach and have steamed crab, some wine, and some cake and celebrate his birthday.  Well, everything went well, except we didn't catch our crab... soooo, we just headed back to Salem to celebrate.  Little did he know that we had a cake with us during the WHOLE trip, out in the cooler in the front of the boat!  Needless to say, he was VERY surprised and LOVED it!!! 

Happy Birthday, Dad!  I love you!

4th of July Tuna!...err, 5th!

Well, it wasn't exactly the 4th of July, but we DID get out to fish for some tuna on the 5th of July.  My friend Chris saw a nice weather window for a week of calm weather so he loaded up the boat and headed over from Idaho. 

I drove over the night before and met him in Newport to launch the boat.  We set a plan for the next day, which entailed a later start.

 
 We loaded up and took off under the bridge, through the thin layer of fog.

 
The fog quickly dissipated and sun broke through.

We made it out to the 33 line and dropped in.  We instantly hooked up!  A nice single to start the day!

 Right after that fish was bled and chilled, we had a double. ...then a triple. ...then a QUAD!  We landed all 4 fish during that quad, too!

It eventually slowed down and the fish went off the bite for a while during the late morning and early afternoon.

There were plenty of signs of life, and lots of birds.  We found a few friendly albatross that danced along the water beside us, looking for a meal, themselves.

Its amazing how large these birds are.  It definitely takes them a few waves to create a runway to take off.  They almost run along the water until they finally glide up into the air. 

The bite turned back on and Rapalas and swim baits were the meal tickets.  

We ended up with plenty of fish for both of us, along with a great day full of memories.
 
Thanks again, Chris!!

Halibut on KillerTraylor

    Joe Traylor sent me a text asking if I'd like to join the guys for some halibut.  I couldn't resist!   Besides, the new chest freezer needed some weight, anyway.  A beautiful morning drive took across the back bay, exposing the sunbeams peeking through the fog.

     Once in Garibaldi, I met up with the guys and planned our day.   We launched and headed across the bar.  We first headed North and dropped crab pots before heading out to the hill.

Once we were out there and set up a drift, the bites began.  First were a few chickens, but eventually we finished out with our limits.

Amongst the drifts and the halibut, were the the occasional skate.

 
We would be bringing up a heavy fish, getting our hopes up, hoping for that 100lb piggy halibut, but noooooo.... Another skate.   Pretty much a worthless fish.  Some people stamp out the wings with a cookie cutter, making calamari, but eh.... no thanks..  I'll stick with halibut!  We saw a couple regulars bellying up to the Halibut bar out there..  Dave, Bud,

Also saw Bud and the boys on Seelicious filling the fish boxes..

 We grabbed a couple picture before cleaning the white gold!

Here's a final picture with a couple of our nice fish.

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!!