Stoney the Fisherman

December Trifecta!

2011-12-14T11:07:00.000-08:00

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!!!

More Siletz Pics...

2011-11-11T08:36:00.000-08:00

Siletz Salmon with a Couple Snowbirds

2011-10-15T23:28:00.000-07:00

My parents are heading back down to Arizona in a couple weeks, so Last Saturday, I was fortunate to fish with them! We headed over to the coast to the Siletz River. We launched at Siletz Moorage around first light. We headed out to the mouth to hit the low slack, coming in an hour and a half. We dropped the crab pots in a channel along the houses on the Salishan spit and continued to the mouth. It felt like a parade with the fuzzy fat onlookers.

5-6 boat were already out there dragging herring, so I made my way into the traffic.

Bankies were lining the beach, casting their spinners. Most were #6 Blue Foxes. Some getting pretty close to the boat if you get near their casting area. So, we stayed clear while motoring out into the breakers. we turned to come back in on the outgoing tide.

This guy walked over from Salishan with his net and rod and we watched him beach a nice fish right in front of the seals. Walked away and went home for breakfast!

Depth was only 3-6 feet. I had never fished a shallow inlet like this before. I dropped a herring back on one rod. While getting the second bait out, my dad comments, "Is that rod supposed to be doing that?". I look over and the first rod was doubled over, line screaming out, and yell, "Fish on!". My mom gets first fish, so she grabs the rod and starts the fight. It made a semi-circle all the way around the boat, in this shallow sandy surf and pops off. We were excited for the day, seeing that we had a fish on in the first 5 mins of fishing!

We re-deployed the 3 herring and twenty minutes later, BAM! Fish on again! This time my dad fights it. This fish makes a couple strong runs, but again, eventually just spits the hook. We Finally hook a third fish, following the tide in on a pass. We clear the rods and quickly bring in nice chrome Coho. ONE FISH IN THE BOAT! Already this was a great day.

The tide started to rip its way in so we decided to head back upriver further. Just above the 101 bridge, we dropped our lines in. At one point, we had Ken Bolstad, of Rod-Action Guide Service landing a fish with a child on board. I took a picture of them taking a picture of this kiddos new memory!

It was a great moment.

We trolled our way up from the Siletz Moorage up past Coyote Rock. Along the way the weeds were the worst when we were trolling against the tide. So we trolled upriver with the tide and just kept going. It was a beautiful sunny day with no wind. Why not just keep going. Just around the Coyote Rock RV Park area, I felt we might as well reel up and turn around and head back down. I put the kicker into neutral and say, "Reel 'em up. Lets turn around". At that moment, I grab my rod out of the holder to start reeling and it starts tugging back... HARD! FISH ON! ...while reeling up! I grab it and give it to my mom. This fish is putting up an amazing fight. Its running her all over the boat. We get control of the fish and bring it up to the net! Another fish in the boat! That's 2-4! This one is a 16 lb chinook.

Just up around the next bend, my rod starts to bury. This one is a big one! It puts up a great fight. At one point, it swam around a wood piling but we were fortunate enough to get it free and finally net the fish. Right when my dad netted it, my line broke. It frayed from the teeth of the fish. Perfect timing! Much longer and that fish would have swam away. It had a small seal gash on the one side of it, but the meat was still great.

The sun was shining down and we were smiling ear to ear. I couldn't believe we had 3 fish in the boat and were 3-5 for the day!

The day got longer and we decided to call it. We collected our crab pots, with not so great success, and headed in. However, my mom says, "Lets keep fishing! We still have 3 more herring! This is fun!" I LOVED hearing that! So we did. Unfortunately, our luck didn't increase. We took a pass and were weeded up, so we just quit with our bounty.

Ended the day with dinner at Dory Cove, the best chowder on the coast! What an amazing day of fishing, and some great memories with my parents!

October Tuna!

2011-10-08T22:00:00.000-07:00

It's October, and the fall storms are starting to roll into the coast. The warmer water is starting to subside, pulling the tuna further and further out of range for our sport boats.

The water was clear and blue..

We had a very short weather window on Saturday and decided to head west to good ole' Garibaldi!

Mother ocean was calm to us in the morning, but began to blow hard from the south by afternoon. The morning met us with a comfortable 6ft swell from the WNW at 12 seconds. Wind waves came from the South at just a foot or so in the morning. The ride out greeted us with a partial rainbow and photographic moment.

After clearing the jaws, we knew we had a good window of opportunity to catch fish. We headed west past Johnny Bowles and the salmon crew.

We found our first fish along the 30 line but headed further west as far as the 125.03. We stayed south of Garibaldi, around the 23-30 N/S line, knowing that we were going to have to run back to the barn with the wind at our back.

The ocean was teaming with life. Jumpers, birds, whales, and dolphins were everywhere.

We spotted many sets of jumpers but none that we could hook up and keep the school at the boat. We kept heading west until commie (commercial tuna boat) after commie began to pop up on the horizon. Before we knew it there were 11 commercial guys all around us. We couldn't get an iron bite, so we decided to troll a couple swim baits. FISH ON! Even with these fish being hooked, we still only hooked up a handful on live bait during these stops. For some reason, the fish were keying on trolled swimbaits today, rather than LIVE bait!? odd, for sure! But we found the pattern, put it together, and made it happen! Trolling 4 rods at a time, our numbers slowly rose. By the time the wind was howling up from the south, we had 27 tuna on ice and we called it a day. Pulled in gear and ran east. The run in was pretty smooth and the bar crossing was like glass. ... I even slept the whole way across and was woken up once we were inside! That's a first.

Well, that was probably the last trip of the year before they get out of reach for us sporties. Thanks Charlie Tuna for another fun year to play! Can't wait til you come back next summer! Bring more other pelagics with ya!

A Big Siletz River Fall Chinook

2011-10-06T23:40:00.000-07:00

Got to fish the Siletz with Gary and Dan this morning. I had to work in the afternoon so it was going to be a shortened trip. We launched at a new launch this time... The Siletz Moorage, just above the 101 bridge. The owners are the nicest people and everyone should give these people their business. They are happy to help with anything you need, donate fish bags, etc.

After putting the boat in, we trolled upriver with an incoming tide with no runs, no hits, and no errors. We turned around and headed back down. I was running the kicker while holding my rod straight out the back, rather than using the rod holders. I felt a SMACK on my line, then looked back in time to see it buckle numorous times. I finally lift up and set the hook. FISH ON!! A couple screaming runs, as well as a trip under the boat and back around later, the fish began to tired and swam in to Gary's new net, that had only been used twice now.... Both of MY Siletz fish!~ Sorry, Gary, had to christen the net for ya.....Twice!
This fish was pushing 30lbs! ...One of my largest salmon in the past few years!

Around noon, they dropped me off to clean my fish while they trolled out front and checked the crab pots. As Gary was letting out his line, BAM! I hear the commotion from land and yell out to them. I grabbed my camera and was able to document the whole fight in just a few pics...

A nice 10lb coho! Congrats! These fish, along with limits of large crab are going to make for some great dinner tonight...

Crab Cake-Stuffed Salmon! MMmmmm!

Bon Apetite!

Chinook Salmon w/ Johnny Bowles

2011-10-03T20:04:00.000-07:00

Johnny Bowles, of JB And Water Guide Service, invited me on board to fish with him last week. He has some openings, so I bolted over the hill to meet him at the dock at 6:30am. I got there early to take a few pictures before we headed out.

We had two clients in the boat that we needed to get onto some fish. The weather was barely nice enough to let us out for the morning.

Winds were scheduled to come up by afternoon, so we tried to fish as much as possible, early. We got the okay from the coasties that the bar was open and off we went.

We started fishing just out in the bubble. Herring were deployed and waiting for action.

Not more than a couple mins before my rod hits hard and starts taking line. I quickly grab the rod, set the hook, and hand it to the gentleman in the back of the boat. "Take the rod", I said. Al was his name. A father and son combination that had come along. His father played the fish great, all the way back to the boat. We saw it was a coho and had to release it. The regulations for this area were no coho, wild or hatchery, could be taken from the ocean...ONLY from INSIDE the jaws. Well, we were outside, so off he swam to live another day. After this it was non-stop. We couldn't keep the coho salmon off our lines. These fish were getting large and almost could be mistaken for chinook. Some were in the upper teens! Pelicans and gulls were diving everywhere!

Baitballs were being pushed up to the surface by the fish underneath, and the birds would dive and have their way with the bait from the air.

The water was black with anchovies as we drove the boat through these giant black balls of bait. Each trip through one of these bait balls brought the rods screaming. Doubles! Triples! Coho action everywhere! We had some definite fire drills on board. Finally, after weeding through 20 or more coho, we found a couple chinook for the clients! They were happy and so were we.

What a great day and thanks to JB for the invite! I love getting out on the salt and just enjoying the world out there!

Siletz River Fall Chinook

2011-09-14T08:28:00.000-07:00

Met up with Gary and Guide, Kelly Short for a morning incoming tide. We trolled downcurrent til it switched and started coming back up the river.

Once it was on the way back in, we anchored down with wrapped kwikfish.

Nearing the end of the trip weeds were floating by. and I mean WEEDs! haha

Found this 4-5ft pot plant just floating down the river.

We decided to haul it in, and throw it into the next boat up, (another guide friend) and mention how bad the weeds were in the river!~

Was a great day for me! Hooked one nice 20 lb'er on the troll and one other good kwiky take-down. That was all for the day...then I had to go to work for the afternoon.

Garibaldi Ocean/Tuna Fun!

2011-08-10T19:37:00.000-07:00

My friend Chris saw a weather window and brought his travel trailer, as well as his boat, over for a month or two, from Idaho. I drove over and joined him for a couple days.

He brought his family over as well, and we got his son into some nice fish, also! He caught some tuna and ling cod and had a great time!

The crabbing was phenomenal!

Many limits and fresh-cooked crab each night.. Mmmmm!

We found a new "Honey Hole" for lings and other rockfish that supplied us with some entertainment, as well as meat for the freezer. We got his son into this nice ling for dinner..

One day, we saw flat ocean and brought his son out with us. We headed west for tuna...

By noon, we had already caught 10 tuna and were grinning ear-to-ear. The sun was shining, the dolphins were playing, and we decided to get some video footage.

It was time to go in for some salmon. Not more than 30 mins. into fishing, we scored two 20lb chinook!

Got to watch the Coasties doing some practice out there in the evening. Was amazing watching the waves kick up!

The winds came up by evening and I went out to Barview to watch the sun set on an awesome day!

36 Tuna, Risso Dolphins, out of Depoe Bay

2011-07-17T00:24:00.000-07:00

We noticed a weather window opening up, so Chris loaded the truck and headed west. I met him at Depoe Bay, where we launched the boat. Another friend joined us for what turned out to be an amazing day on the water. The tuna were close that day. Only 22 miles! We headed west, out of the hole, to the tuna grounds! Another flat ocean day! While out trolling, we came upon a pod of Risso Dolphins.
The were leisurely breaching, tail-slapping, and swimming in pairs all around.

Would love to learn more about what they were doing. We took some video as well.

I didn't bring out the camera while we were out there, but was able to get a few shots of our bounty.

36 fish that day!! Came back and had some chowder at a local pub and grub, watched the Coasties come back in, and saw an amazing sunset on a great day on the pond!

Yellowtail/Tuna Trip- Garibaldi 7.10.11

2011-07-10T22:53:00.000-07:00

Went out yesterday in hopes of chasing my first tuna of the year. There WAS no bar, no worries when crossing, and very little wind to speak of..

We left at first light and were blessed with a sliver of a sunrise on the way out...

The ride out just got smoother and smoother...

The water was Split Pea Green for the longest time. Finally it started clearing up.

We continued a little further til it was the clearest, deep blue, almost purple. We were amazed to be fishing on this calm of an ocean in July with such ideal water.

The Captain checking his spread...

First couple fish were scratch one's and two's. Raps or clones, didn't matter.

At one point, we had a fish hooked up and I grabbed the WaxWing from Shimano that John Childs had brought, and dropped it back behind the boat. I was using the new Curado 300DSV... Talk about light action! I felt like I was bass fishing or something?! It instantly gets hit. FISH ON! We pop a few anchovies in the water and the fish come up to inhale them...

...First live bait stop, currently in action!

We bagged 10 fish in that stop.. Bloody decks around! Next troll, Dick rolls the gear right past a giant kelp raft and 'THUNK' the outrigger releases.. FISH ON! I was fortunate to be at the reel for this one. It fought differently, with more erratic head shakes. We get it to the boat and net Dick's first Yellowtail on Tuna Time! Not just a dink, it was about 15#! VERY strange for early July up here.

The day got calmer, the fish boxes filled up, and the wind died.

Was an actual lake out there by the time we loaded the boat and decided to run for the barn.
Ideal conditions for all who ventured out!

Thanks again for the sushi last night, Dick and Nichole! Awesome time!!

Spring Chinook 1... Me, 0...

2011-04-03T18:16:00.000-07:00

Fished the Willamette and the Columbia this past week. Tried our luck on the Willamette for an hour or so before dark.

No luck but the rust was off.

The next morning headed down the Willamette,

and eventually fished the Columbia. The water raised about 6 feet the night before (thanks, BPA), so the fishing wasn't near as good as the day before.

We trolled down past quite a few plunkers along the banks tryin their luck. We had to troll just outside of 'lead-hucking' range of the Bankies. For the most part, we didn't hea

We didn't see many fish caught, so we weren't too worried we were doing something wrong.

The bright spot of the day was watching the M/V Pacific Tracker cruising by.

I like the giant golf ball on top! FORE!!

Or perhaps it's a 'Floating Epcot Center'?

...Okay, not really, but here's a link to what it DOES do...
M-V-Pacific-Tracker

Nehalem Steelhead, Elk and Bobcat

2011-03-26T00:01:00.000-07:00

This past week, I went up and fished a tributary of the Nehalem. The cold frosty morning brought the elk herds down from the hills. One herd of elk were in a farmer's field near Elsie, OR.

I saw mostly cows in this group. I continued on til I found my destination.

The main river was blown out, but the tributaries were quite the exception! They were running gin-clear.

Once I hit the river, the first cast brought a beautiful native steelhead.

I took a quick video and let him swim another day. Driving along the creek, a giant bald eagle flew up in the tree right next to the road.

It was munching on a dead fish down below.

As I was driving down the forest road, I saw something run across the road. I realized it was a bobcat, so I quickly grabbed my video camera and got a little footage..

Those things are 'stealthy'!!

Trask River Elk Herd

2011-03-20T00:47:00.000-07:00

I headed over towards the Trask River to do some steelhead fishing. I looked for the elk that usually reside in the field next to the airport, but didn't see them. I took the next right, on the way up to the river and noticed quite a few along the river. Many younger spikes practicing their techniques.

Very interesting watching them spar.

Newport Ling Cod/Crab Fishing (3/6)

2011-03-13T23:00:00.000-07:00

I had the day off today and wanted to enjoy the day fishing, but wasn't sure where. Its my new boat and I wanted it to get salty...

I thought about it and:
...I could've gone up to Portland and dragged some herring around...
...OR I could try and slip out during this weather window before the next front hits! I've come to notice there's usually a pretty nice 'calm before (most) storms'.

Well, I got up early, hitched up my boat and figured I'd try my luck at the bay.

My luck was on my side! The sun was shining and the wind WASN'T blowing.
...and to top it off, as I snuck out to the tips to see how it looked, I noticed a pretty flat ocean! (along with some other competition for the fishing)!

I ran out past the bouy

and north and dropped the pots.

Then headed up toward the lighthouse and looked around.

Eventually I made my way back to the South, down near Seal Rock. I found some nice pinnacles that held some fatty Lings.

I released 5 other smaller lings and kept one nice one, along with 9 big dungies~!

What an awesome day to break in the new salty boat!

I didn't want to get stuck on the outside, so I came back into the bay after the tide changed.

Good thing I did, I noticed the "ROUGH BAR" lights flashing tonight as I left to come home. Got to see a killer sunset.

Great time to SEIZE THE DAY!!

Blazers Vs. Clippers

2011-02-14T22:59:00.000-08:00

I took Melissa to the Blazers v. Clippers at the Rose Garden for her birthday. Saw Mike and Mike, The Shonz, and T.P.

We had 9th row seats, right behind the Blazer bench!
Rudy's mom sat right in front of us,

and he gave them plenty of reason to cheer.

Although Oden isn't playing yet, his family sat to our left.

I wish we still had Przybilla... Love that guy!

Aldridge with a great job against Griffin.

The starting 5 for the night...

We won the game, and Aldridge got the Sheryl Miller interview for TNT

Great game to be at!

Elk Herd Fighting

2011-02-11T18:00:00.000-08:00

I noticed these elk while out along the Trask River, near Tillamook, Oregon. I had to pull over to watch the young spikes learn how to spar. I'll bet those points had to hurt, though!

New Boat! ...First Fish!

2010-11-10T23:40:00.000-08:00

We recently bought a new boat but have yet to have a chance to use it. We chose Wednesday 11/10 to try Tilly bay out of Garibaldi. It was absolutely POURING the whole day/night before with 40 mpg gusts, so we had a few second thoughts about going. However, the forecast showed it to be a 'transition day', and we all know how nice those can be.

Sooo, we went anyway. I brined up some herring the night before, tied up some leaders, and we were off.

Last time I was in Garibaldi was for longfins, so it was change to drag some herring so slowly in the bay. We got there and noticed barely a ripple on the bay.

The weather was AMAZING for November. Hell, for almost any day over there!
The few clouds around, quickly evaporated.

We started out by the CG tower, but it was fairly rough. We set the crab traps, made a couple passes, but no feeshes...

Then a couple runs by the CG station. Again not a whisper...of fish, OR wind...

We decided to head over to the ghost hole, where most of the other 20-30 boats were.

Lines were deployed.

I can't help but notice Johnny Bowles alongside.
He had a good day, btw

First pass, heading downhill on the incoming, my dad notices his rod going ape-crap and jumps up and the fight was on! A nice buck that took a couple good runs around the boat, but finally contained. My dad followed that fish around the outboards, and under the boat like a pro!! I was even
impressed! I net the fish and the hook immediately pops out. WHEW!

FIRST FISH FOR THE FIRST TRIP OF THE NEW BOAT! 20 lb buck!

...and what better person to have it then dad!

My dad is 6'4 if that helps for perspective of the fish...

We were fortunate enough to pull 3 crabs from two pots for the day to add to the fish. We were very thankful for such a great bounty from the bay!!

Another great trip to Little Italy!! ...Winter Styleee!

Bluefin Tuna Off of Cape Cod, MASS

2010-10-09T23:43:00.000-07:00

*Warning, Picture Heavy...Sorry*

Just a recap, I entered a Fishing Videos Contest on a rival site, and was fortunate enough to win the contest!
Prize being:
2 12hr days of fishing aboard the FORTUNA for Giant Blue fin Tuna
3 nights stay at the Scituate Harbor Inn.
...all i had to do was get there. ...Not a problem!

Our journey began as my brother and I flew in to Salt Lake City, where we had a 45 minute layover. We darted into the airport bar to check scores and have a cervesa. We had to try to pint of the local, Utah, of all places , Polygamy Porter, "Why Have Just One!"

After our plane arrived in Boston, we made our way to a commuter train that took us out to the coastal town of Scituate. {sit - chew - it}

There, we met up with our guide, Greg Sears of Mass Bay Guides.
On our way to the hotel, he took us on a little tour through the town and showed us the area.

It is a small, one-road town (practically), but gets pretty packed in the summers.

We drove by the marina, where Greg pointed out his fleet of boats,

The FORTUNA was our boat both days. This is a tuna killin machine!

as well as some of the other nice ones in the tuna hunt.

One of the boats he pointed out was on the Lobstermen show on TV.

Another boat there is on the Swords show.
We drove out by the lighthouse, and he showed us some nice houses right along the water.

He mentioned these houses get destroyed or partially wiped out about every 5 years. Not to mention, they can't get insurance out there, so they refuse to leave, and instead, just pay to fix it each big storm. I mean, their streets get washed away, large boulders from the jetty crash through the houses, and onto the roads. ...Amazing when people have enough money to just keep fixing and living.. They must want that property pretty bad! (But I don't blame them, the other 4 1/2 yrs! )

We met some lobstermen and other fishermen in the local sports bar who had some great stories, and made for some great info/entertainment!
Down on the docks, I saw a couple older gentlemen enjoying the afternoon, catching smelt....1 at a time. Probably caught one every couple mins. But hey! I could tell they were having a great time doing it!

We stayed at the right across the street from the harbor at a nice little hotel.

We had a Great view from our window, looking out over the harbor and the lighthouse.

Most of the boats had already pulled out for the winter, but there were still a few left tied up on the water.

The fall colors were starting to turn and made the place look even better.

DAY 1:

The next morning, we met up with Greg and his Mate, Cory, at the boat before sunrise.

Once light, we headed out. In Oregon we watch for crab pot bouys, but the amount of lobster pot bouys out there multiply in terms of how many there are. These guys have to go through a mine field everyday. The week before, and even the past few days leading up to the days we fished, were rough, 10-14' seas, so the boats didn't get out. Therefore, we'd be trolling to start the day. I've never used bars this big before!

This is the best way for them to locate the fish after they get stirred up. The seas had calmed down, but still weren't ideal. From Scituate Harbor, we could be fishing just a couple miles off the tips, but started a little further out.

We fished the Stellwagon Bank and down into Cape Cod Bay, and out around the hook. Scituate is where the Red Dot is. and We'd head across to Cape Cod, which is about 30 miles across the bay, to give you an idea.

The deepest we noticed was around 200'. At some points we were fishing in 18' and it would drop off to 200'.. Just visualize a 'grand-canyon' style plateau under the water.

The clouds would roll in, then the sun would burn off. The wind kept fairly steady, but by the end of the day, the sun was out to stay.
We trolled a few areas until we made our way out by some draggers. (by the way, when I say draggers, that's what they called them.. errr, "Draggas".. They'd drag the nets, but weren't allowed to drag bottom. Mostly just mid-water column.)

When we would see them start bringing up their nets, we'd sneak in behind and troll, using them as chummers.

We instantly got hit on the long rigger. an explosion at the surface, but no take. Not a minute later, it comes back and slams it again!

Again, No take... Our hearts skip a beat, but no luck this time.

We continued fishing different areas and decided to try out by the whales. This is another area where, if there are whales, then there are usually fish.

We came across numerous pods of humpback whales breaching and slapping the sea lice off their GIGANTIC bodies.

We could see other crashing tuna on the surface from time to time, but nothing hit the spreads. Day 1 was definitely a tough 'locating/scouting' day, with no luck on the giants. On the way in, we noticed another boat with a harpoon deck on front. Wouldn't THAT be something to 'poon a giant!

We finally trolled back toward the harbor, picked up around 4, and called it a day. They definitely don't have as much of a 'bar' as we do, crossing the tips.

This is our boat, The FORTUNA, coming in for the day...

The sights of the harbor alone, make it such a peaceful and amazing place.

That evening I decided to walk around a little, get some photos, and see some of the sights and sounds of the Harbor.

Also walked up and down a few rows of some pretty nice battlewagons!

Reel Knotty = 41' Lures

This next ride is a Buddy Davis yacht. These boats are completely custom, rather than a production boat, like this Lures (above) of almost the same size, etc.

That's the difference between a $400k boat, and one that will run you around $1.5mil.

Not a bad ride!

Day 2:

The clouds had blown away through the evening, leaving us a crisp clear morning.

Bright sunshine, much less wind, and a smooth ride out.

It's so strange to be heading INTO the sunrise.

When I see that orange horizon, I feel like we're heading into an Oregon evening trip..

This guy crashed North, just ahead of us...

Over the evening, Captain Greg had heard of 2, 700+lb fish taken just a few miles south of where we were fishing the day before. So, this day we ran across the bay, (about 30 miles), to Cape Cod, and fished along the beach for bait.

While fishing along the beach, I noticed alot of fishermen in trucks along the beach. These guys do it right.... Rod holders and coolers mounted on the grill-guard up front. Nice rigs!

The smaller gear was then deployed for bait...

We hooked up with some nice bluefish that would rival some of our coho in terms of size. I was shocked to see that this was our bait! Its hard to imagine something bigger will come up and inhale this fish!
While fishing bait, we also tied into some stripers.

Nothing of larger size, but still fun to catch, as well as another species off my list of fish to catch.
After 30 mins or so, we had 6-8 bluefish of perfect bait size... 3-6 lbs.

We put away the dink gear and brought out the 130's.

Once we located the area he wanted to fish, we shut down the engine and drifted. There was a 5-10kt wind allowing us to deploy a kite.

This was also a first, kite fishing for tuna! With one of the 50's, the kite was let up about 100 yds and an outrigger clip was tied to the line.

At this point the 130 was rigged for the bait. It was hooked through the top of the back, in front of the dorsal, under a 12' leader where it was clipped into the outrigger clip.

We simultaneously let line out of each reel, keeping our large volunteer dancing out there on the surface, inviting anything with large eyes below to come up for lunch!

Two other baits were deployed under balloons and set out to explore areas closer to the boat, giving us 3 baits in the water. Multiple times did our baits get nervous and get struck. The balloons would make a strange sucking sound as they darted down under the water. ...but right back up. Multiple times did we jump up, to just sit back down. These were determined to be smaller tuna that just couldn't eat the baits, but still flew up and attacked them, only to scare them.. not eat them. He guessed they were only 60-100lb fish and we were looking for larger.

We picked up gear and ran out to the fleet of draggers. We stopped and deployed gear for a while but no fish. Time was running out and the fish just weren't cooperating with us. These late, last-of-the-season fish are much more finicky and hard to find. Our captain tried all kinds of techniques but we just couldn't locate a giant.

As we were coming in, we noticed some smaller docks. I asked, they call them lobster cars.

The lobstermen pull up to these, throw their lobsters in the pen and leave them until the market price goes up.

The memories of the bluefish, stripers, fishermen off Cape Cod, size of baits, kites, whales, everthing, will be in my mind for a LONG TIME to come and can't wait to go back there and try it again!

Next time, probably in July when the fishin is HOT! All in all, it was a great trip that I couldn't have asked for much more. The experiences I came away with, far made up for the lack of a giant. I can only hope to go back and try again someday!

LI Tuna 9/11 - Shark Bite!

2010-09-15T11:43:00.000-07:00

Hit the pond with Chris on Saturday.

Our day started a little slow but progressively got better and better...

Saw Danno running alongside for a few...

Turned out to be a pond out there!

Water changed at about the 28 line, and finally got blue around the 36-40 line. Most fish were caught around 46 and out.
Got one fish early, but didn't get into fish til the afternoon bite, for the most part.

We ended up with 14 fish between two of us. Most slow trolling rapalas and swimbaits.

4 more casting iron. Was great having 5 lines buckled over in rod holders with fish on and just two of us to wrangle them in! But we did! Turned 2 fish into 7 on one stop. A commercial boat must have seen us stop, because it turned right toward us, from a mile away, and ran almost over our gear. Hard to think we were having better luck, but then again, I never did see them pull a fish aboard.

Then a GIANT shark, I mean a GOOD 12', was about 20 feet down while we had two tuna hanging.
We quickly TRIED to get the fish in. One fish made a death run straight down and popped off. The second... well,... We fought that shark hard for this fish...

and got most of it back!!!

Definitely some razor sharp teeth. We didn't even feel him slice that tuna in half!!

We were guessing probably a salmon shark? Definitely not a thresher, but looked more like a salmon or white. AMAZINGLY big!!

Happy Hunting!!! They're definitely still around!!

Albacore Tuna-Live Bait-Underwater!

2010-09-01T09:02:00.000-07:00

Went out on the pond last Sunday and couldn't have asked for a better day out there! Flat ocean, very little wind, and LOTS of fish! We never had to troll for a fish. We saw a jumper and casted a butterfly jig. HOOKED UP, Got 'em on! ...Deployed the live bait volunteers! They did their job well! we were on a quad...then a triple, then another, then....

Underwater Live Bait Tuna Fishing from Sublime on Vimeo.

Less than 2 hours later, 42 fish were on board, and we were out of ice. We never had to turn on the boat and move once. One-stop shopping! Can't beat it!

Here's Bud with a nice piggy!

Tuna Time next to us hooked up with a triple...

Ahhh, Tuna!

Myself, with a nice fat Albie!

Can't waith for more calm water!!!

Sporty Seas Albacore Arrive! ...and DIE! (7/01/10)

2010-07-24T14:29:00.000-07:00

Thursday, July 1st was NOT a good day to be a TUNA. It was our first Tuna excursion of the year. The Seelicious, along with Tuna Time and Caddywhompus, left the dock around 4:30am and were running to Tuna Town on a nice slick ocean! Seas were 1 and 4 with very little wind.

However, we knew there were showers in the area and they would kick up some brutal SW wind chop in the afternoon. We zig-zagged between showers as we headed West. We ran over a warm plume of water that we saw the night before on the SST and felt the fish would be on the backside of that plume.

We found clean bluish water out at the 125 line and went as far as 125.30. The first fish hit around the 45.05/125.16 line for us. We had the outriggers down and clones were a'dancin' behind birdies!

Before we knew it, the sounds we were waiting to hear...
The outrigger popped, and the reel began to sing. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzz! FISH ON!

FIRST ALBIE OF THE YEAR!!!

The first few fish were singles, but consistent. An hour or so later, we switched out the birdies for Archer Bars and immediately got pounded! A couple doubles and triples, landing our first triple of the year successfully! After that, almost all fish were 'Bar Fish'!

Many of those fish ate up their last 'Hawaiian Breakfast'!

The weather continued to go to Tillamook Manure as the day went on.

...Waves were steeper, and troughs were deeper. But the fish kept biting.

We put a few more fish in the boat by 1pm, and with weather in the minds of us all, we chose to pick up and run back to the barn. Before we ran, we could see Tuna Time hooked up with another one!

Good thing we did! Running back up and across that SW chop made for a VERY sporty ocean!

Add blowing rain and it felt more like February out there!

We ended up with 28 fish for the day. We had a NICE grade of fish, for this early in the year, with a 20lb average. What an awesome way to kick off the 2010 Season!! Thanks again, Buddy! (great pic, btw)!

Happy4thofJuly!!

Salmon Fishing- Garibaldi

2010-07-15T00:13:00.000-07:00

I was invited to fish with Johnny Bowles out of Garibaldi for spring chinook and possibly some inshore halibut or rockfish. I headed across the hill with Dylan and hopped aboard with Johnny B. We set out across the bar, checked crab pots, and continued on...

FULL VIDEO LINK HERE

and here's more of the story...

Ran up to drift a couple areas for halibut, or maybe a rockfish.

We only fished for halibut for an hour or so and wanted to come back in to hit the tides right.

Checked the pots and ran in to pick up Johnny's Daughter

and she brought us good luck!!

FISH ON! We tell Captain JB to take the fish (he never gets to,... always handing 'em off!).

Abby (sp?) was on the camera filming the second half of this video and did an amazing job keeping the camera still, focusing on the fish, and just plain balancing herself?! Great Job Abby!

We released a nice 28-30lb fat boy and were happy to do so! Was a great day on the water, just wish the sun would've come out a little earlier! The company couldn't have been much better. We even picked up a live sand dollar, that we decided needed to go back to the water and live a little longer, til we could pick up it's shell later.

Thanks again for a great trip, Johnny! Next time the sun will cooperate with us a little more! Your 1st Mate is a Great Good Luck Charm!

Tillamook Bay Spring Chinook

2010-06-13T10:47:00.000-07:00

Saturday was looking great...Sunny weather and warm temps. I got to play 'Guide' and took Gary and Dwight over to Tillamook Bay to try for some Spring Chinook action.

Great ride over, saw some local Tillamook golfers smackin the ball around.

sun beaming on the Cheese factory...

Getting ready to back the boat down the ramp, we noticed some cones on the ramp guarding a small seal pup that was emaciated, or just napping. It would look around, then go back to sleep...ON THE RAMP! I should've got a couple picture

Once we hit the bay, most of the morning was slow. We didn't see a net go up in any boat. We did see some familiar faces out there, including Bud, Dick, Johhny, etc.

Saw Johnny Bowles fly by a couple times to head out on the pond to check some crab pots...

The incoming tide had about another hour or so left as we were trolling with the tide. We ran along the Coast Guard tower,

and made our way back toward Crab Harbor and 'Shit Rock'. Gary decided he wanted a slower roll on his herring, so He reeled up, re-baited and dropped it back down.

No more than 5 seconds later, WHAMMM!!! His rod buries. He jumped up, set the hook and it was on! I grabbed the camera and started filming his fight.

Tillamook Bay Spring Chinook Salmon Fishing from Sublime on Vimeo.

This fish was HOT, and made some amazing runs! You could hear Gary's clicker screeeeeaaaming as that fish took off. It did NOT want to be near our boat. Eventually the fish got close enough and Dwight netted that fish so fast as if he's done it before! (which he has, about 1000 times in the past!)

First and only fish in the boat!! 26lbs of blinding Chrome!

Twas a good day on the bay!

Bald Eagles = Good Luck Charms

2010-05-21T11:03:00.000-07:00

I got the call to fish the halibut opener this past weekend but was blown off the water the first two days. However, Dylan and I had a Plan B. We brought our waders and salmon gear to go hiking up some NW rivers. The temperature was perfect; the bright greens of the moss and foliage, the deep blues of the sky, the sun glimmering off the water. We knew we could find some fish! We made our way to the river, and began our trek.

At the first hole we came to, Dylan hooked a Nice fish. The fight played out and as the fish came to the bank, it came unbuttoned. So we knew they were there...
We hiked our way through steep canyons, LARGE boulders, and 100yr-old trees. Beautiful area!Some pools were tough to navigate, but we would eventually find a path up to the next hole.

Unfortunately, still no fish were taking our offerings. We fished bobber/eggs most of the day through the deeper holes. Couldn't BELIEVE we didn't hook any fish holding in this hole. It seems like the perfect hole for fish to plug up in. We made our way up around these boulders, larger than cars, to the next run. You can see Dylan in the upper left-hand corner of the next picture. This shows how small we can feel sometimes.

While wading across one tailout, a large shadow cruises across the ground. We look up to see a HUGE bald eagle flying up the canyon.

We've seen it there before, and know there are others in the family. This one in particular stood out due to its larger size.

We continued up the river until I found a nice deep slot that ran along the far bank, and into a deeper hole. I pitched my bobber upstream, let it float its way down into the hole. As it entered the slow water it sunk...

FISH ON!! After a great fight, we realize it was a hatchery fish! So, up the bank it came.
BONK! Time to stock the freezer.

It seems like every time we see a bald eagle we hook up with a fish. So, we've concluded that they're our fishing good luck charms. The next morning, before heading out for Halibut, we spotted another nice bald eagle perched out on the tips of the jetty. We limited that day by noon.

Santiam Scouting for Springers

2010-05-10T10:57:00.000-07:00

Santiam River Spring Chinook Scouting Trip from Sublime on Vimeo.