NW Outdoor Explorer

With the dwindling salmon fishery, thank you WDFW and ODFW, we are looking to other fisheries to keep fish in the freezer. I recently got invited to buddy boat to halibut grounds out of Garibaldi. Since our springer season was pretty much a bust due to the pandemic, we accepted the invite.

The plan was to launch at 5am and get an early start. Apparently, the Port of Garibaldi has some pretty messed up scheduling and launch rules that caused us to scramble for a transient mooring the night before. They do not even open the ramp for launching till 6am. WTF!!! Also, due to the pandemic, they only have one lane on each side open which caused a huge backup when they did finally open. Needless to say, I will probably not be taking my boat to launch out of Garibaldi very often.

Anyway, even with the overnight mooring, we did not quite get out at 5am. We did manage to leave the dock shortly after 5:30am with plans to follow another boat out to their numbers. It was max ebb at the jaws and the crossing was pretty rough, but we had no problem getting out. Once out in the ocean, it was not quite as smooth as we had hoped. My buddy boat could not quite keep up with the other boat we had planned to follow out to their secret spot and had to call off the chase. Fortunately, my buddy boat had their own set of numbers as a backup and we started our very rough trek out.

Two hours and twenty minutes later, we arrived. We had to make one stop on the way to allow for a little chumming. One of my mates did not get quite enough sleep the night before. 🙂 We baited up and dropped our lines. As this was my first halibut trip, I really had no idea what to expect. It took almost 5 minutes to drop the line to depth. It felt like forever. Within 3 minutes of bouncing the bottom, we had a double hookup. We were extremely fortunate to have a great friend that let us use two of his brand new electric reels. I am not sure we would have had as much fun without them. Even with the electric reels, it took more than 15 minutes to reel the fish in with the occasional tugs and runs. My friend on the other reel got his up first. It was a pretty large rock fish. To the cooler it went. Mine got to the surface a few minutes later and low and behold, it was a halibut. WOW, this halibut fishing is easy. 🙂 We continued to hookup within minutes of bouncing the bottom for about another 2 hours before the bite turned off. Unfortunately, we only landed the one halibut. Better to be lucky than good sometimes.

With the one halibut per person per trip and only six halibut per year, this could be a very expensive fishery, especially of you happen to not land a halibut on any one trip. As expensive as it may be, I could see us continuing to make halibut runs from time to time.

In the midst of this COVID-19 stay at home order, we all just have to get out now and then.

After Washington closed all recreational fishing, Oregon quickly followed suit and closed the Columbia for all salmon and steelhead fishing. They allowed fishing on the Columbia for all other species which tells me this closure has absolutely nothing to do with the pandemic crisis and more about bad fish management. I will leave it at that for a discussion another day.

Anyway, back to my post…..I thought I had read that Oregon also closed the state to all recreational fishing like Washington. I had not seen any posts of anyone fishing. I basically wrote off springer fishing for 2020. After some time, I did start to see a single post here and there of people catching springers. At first, I assumed this was just people posting of fish caught in past years. I finally got curious enough and talked to someone that was apparently in the know more than me and they said they have been fishing the past few days and caught one the day prior. Holy Cow!!!! I have been missing out on some quality water time!

The very next day, my wife and I headed out. I saw a post from one of the many guides I follow showing a fish they just caught in the location I was planning to target. I was having a good feeling. Got out and had our lines in the water about 2 hours before the low tide. 10 minutes into the first pass, the rod goes down. It had been so long since I caught my last salmon and dragging the bottom the way we do, I first thought I was snagged. I grabbed the rod out of the holder and immediately felt the head shakes. Adrenaline started to pump and the fight was on. The only thing going through my mind at this point was “DO NOT LOSE THIS FISH.” 🙂 After a couple of runs, the fish finally got tired enough to bring it to the net. With my wife’s excellent netting skills, we got it in the boat. F@#K YEAH!!!! The first springer of 2020. It is by far the latest first fish of the season for many years, but I will take it.

We had a couple other drive bye’s, but nothing stuck. They were just ripping the bait and not coming back for seconds. After the tide change, we did not get another bite or saw any action on any other boat.

The stars and moon were in alignment. The tide was just right. No wind, not even a ripple on the water. We launched and had lines in the water just before sunrise. There was a light fog hovering just over the water. The water temp was a cool 46.4 degrees. The air temp was about freezing. Everything suggested we were going to catch a springer today. Something was missing though, the springers. 🙂

It turned out to be an awesome day on the water, less the catching fish part. After the sun came up, it started to warm up pretty fast. We made a few runs here and there before we decided this boat shakedown was long enough. We called it before noon. I did discover I have a couple repairs to do after the long winter. My wash down pump was not working and my dock lights would not illuminate. Hopefully just a little corrosion to clean up and we will be back to full functionality.

As excited as I am, it is a little early for springers. I believe our earliest was March 4th. We will continue the hunt and keep you informed.

After the Fall salmon season has ended, if you are like me, you start thinking about the next years springer season. Yes, there is plenty of Winter steelhead fishing to be done, but I am a big salmon junkie.

It is that time of year now and I am itching to get out there. Typically, I am out mid February hoping for that lucky first springer. Unfortunately, that ship has sailed. I have been seeing a couple of posts of springer’s this season already.

As a newish resident of Washington, I finally got my boat registered and am ready to hit the water. This week, I have an opportunity to “work” from my floating office. I want to make each trip count and be a little more efficient than I have been in the past, especially with the even lower than normal forecasts. Looking at the weather, tides and Solunar forecast, later in the week is looking much better than sooner.

Today, the wind is moderate, the gusts look to be high at times and the fish forecast is showing fish possible, but not an abundance.

Now, Friday is looking to be like the day for me if I were looking for the most efficient day of the week. The wind is light, the gusts are minimal and the Solunar forecast is looking much better.

I guess I will continue prepping gear till Friday and hope to update you on the results with great success.

WOW! I have mixed feelings about the fishing trip today. We took our old neighbors from Sherwood, Mark and his son Alex, out for a second day hoping to repeat what we experienced yesterday. The drive out to Ilwaco was typical. Nothing to report. Got to the boat and prepped the crab traps. Today, we were going to make the effort to set a line. Launched by 8am and made our way around to the bait dock. Loaded a couple pounds into the live well and started with a pound on ice. Out to the big blue we go. The weather synopsis was indicating even less wind than yesterday. The wind waves and swells were supposed to be about the same. Crossing the bar was a non event. No waves or swells and almost full speed ahead. Once we got outside, the ocean was as flat as I have seen in a while. We raced 40mph to the crab grounds north of the jetty. Set our line and as long as we were stopped, decided to throw out the lines. Within minutes, we got our first bite. It was short lived. After a couple head shakes almost to the boat, it was gone. We trolled for a few more minutes before we decided to head further north. Again at 40mph, we reach our spot in just a few minutes. Weeks prior, this is where we were getting nothing but Chinooks. Hoping for the same, we start our troll. We tried several depths, all directions and a few different spots without so much as a nibble. Just a little disappointing. Listening to the radio, it sounded like most of the fleet was back out at the canyon in 300-500 FOW. That was a bit farther out than I really wanted to go, but we decided to make the treck. With the ocean as flat as it was and flying at 40mph again, it did not take long till we got out to 300 FOW. I c ould start to see the fleet on the horizon, but really did not want to go out any further. We dropped our lines and started out troll to the east. within minutes, we got our first bite. I am thinking I made the right decision. This one makes it to the net and we now have our first fish in the boat. A few minutes later and we now have another fish on. This one turns out to be native and had to be let go. This continues consistently, but we managed to lose several and the ones we did get to the net were all native. It was finally time to call it a day and go pull the crab pots. I was a bit disappointed to only have one in the boat, but it was not due to lack of fish on. With the ocean still flat as a small lake, we fly to the crab traps and begin our pulls. If success is gauged by the number of crabs in the traps, then it was an awesome day crabbing. Unfortunately, after the females and smalls were tossed back, we only ended up with two keepers. It was an awesome day with plenty of action, just not much to take home today. Cannot wait till next week.

The weather synopsis is not always 100% accurate. The ocean conditions on paper looked to be similar to the flat conditions we experienced last week. Reality was something a bit different. Crossing the bar was not too bad, but once outside, the water never layed down. We headed straight out West from the river till we started to spot boats on the horizon. We got our lines in quick hoping for that first drop in bite. Unfortunately, it did not happen this time. After a few minutes, we pulled the lines and headed out further west. We got into the thick of the fleet and dropped in. It was not too long, we got our first bite. It was a short chinook and had to be released. Almost immediately after the release, we got our second bite. This one was a very nice keeper coho. We had a few more drive byes before the bite turned off a little. At this time, the rough seas claimed its first victim on the Aquaholic. It was overboard chumming time. 🙂 We were far enough out now, we turned the boat toward shore and trolled with the wind and waves. This made for a better ride, but was not calm by a long way. Trying a couple different spots and different directions, we found the fish again. It was not long before we had our boat limit after some short biters, drive byes and one other short chinook. Today was a good day. We were off the water by noon heading home with the boat this week. It needed to be fueled up and the grass pressure washed of the bottom. Next week is the Buoy 10 opening weekend and we will be ready.

We are a week late due to some mechanical problems on the truck, but the wait was definitely worth it.

Last week, we had a small issue with the truck not starting. I first thought it was a failed starter, but with a replacement starter, it still would not engage. At least I thought it was not engaging. After some investigating, I discovered the flywheel was spinning free from the engine. As a result, the torque converted welded itself to the adapter plate and also had to be replaced. After a couple $$$$, we were back on the road and ready to go fishing.

Got the boat launched and headed over to the bait dock. I have the live well mounted and wanted to try it out to keep the bait fresh this year. Loaded up with 4 pounds of bait. We were surprised by the size of the bait this year. Pretty large means not as many per pound. We should be ok. The bar crossing was ok today and ocean was a little rough. We headed straight out to one of my goto spots that seemed to produce more than not last year. Getting the bait out of the live well and trying to hook them on the leaders proved to be a little tricky. For some reason, they just would not stay still for us to run hooks through them. 🙂 Got the lines in the water and before too long, fish on! We had very good success last year running just a diver and leader with anchovies. We decided to keep it simple and do the same this year. It seems to still be working. The time between bites was a bit long, but the day overall was consistent. Lots of fish caught. Many wild coho had to be let go. Even managed to hook one chinook on a spinner, but it was a bit short and had to be let go as well. One of my crew caught his first keeper and even though it was legal size, he decided it was not big enough and let it go. Well, the fish gods did not seem to like that and rewarded him with natives the rest of the day. The rest of the boat limited out with some nice coho. The first trip of the season did not disappoint.

It was a cold day in early March, but it was a beautiful one none the less.

After getting the motor 100 hour service completed, we decided to get out for a little “Here fishy fishy!!”

We launched from the Ridgefield, WA ramp and had a short run to the Columbia River. DFW decided to close the lower Columbia from Warrior Rock down, so our favorite spot was not accessible. Our next goto spot would be Bachelor Island. We found a nice spot to snuggle up to the beach and set anchor. The water was a chilling 36 degrees and the wind was calm.

Wrapped the plugs with some good herring and floated them out about 60′. The rod tips had a nice rhythm going. Headed back into the cabin with the heat blasting and commenced to watching the rods.

After about 6 hours, the tide had turned and not a single bite. Maybe next time. 🙂

As the snow melts and the excitement of Springer season draws near, it is time to de-winterize the boat. De-winterizing is pretty straight forward with outboards. This year, my 100 hour service was due as well.

I looked into having a local Mercury dealer do all my 100 hour service, but at about $500 per motor and having two motors, the cost could not be justified. These newer Mercury 150 Fourstroke motors are very simple to do all the service myself and save a few buck. Everything I need can be found on Amazon and I can service both motors for just under $200.

If you are looking to do the same, here are links to all the products I use for my 100 hour service.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact me. I would love to help you save some money too.

We were fortunate to have a couple weekends of good weather heading into the end of 2018.  This made crabbing limits even more enjoyable this time of year.

Here is some of the equipment we have decided to use. If you would like to purchase your own, click the links below.

Our first outing, we launched from the Ilwaco marina and headed out at the bottom of the outgoing tide.  We set our traps along the red can line from buoy 18 to 22 in about 45 ft of water.  Instead of hovering, we headed back into Ilwaco while the traps soaked for the next 4 hours.  We took this time to clean up the boat a little, enjoy some adult beverages and even had a nice lunch up on the patio at Ole Bob’s.

After our little break, we headed back out to check the pots.  First pull, we got into 22 nice sized keepers.  We set the traps back and hovered for the next hour.  Our second pull, we reached our limit and headed back in.