NW Outdoor Explorer

The action continues.

The bar was a breeze and the ocean was almost a lake.  Cruising speed was 30+ mph.

This week, my first mate was finally able to get out on the ocean with us.  She needs to reclaim her status.  🙂

Unfortunately, this trip, my first mate was not the first to catch a fish.  That title went to another crewmen.  He has been on a roll this year after he went back to basics with his presentation.  So far, he has been catching fish every time out with us, earning his seat for sure.

We continued in this spot for a couple hours while we were catching several fish, many of which were natives that had to be released.  My first mate did manage to get the second fish.  Now she is on the hunt for the biggest fish.  This may prove to be a challenge as another crewmen pulled in a 20 lb Chinook.

We moved to our next spot where the ocean was a little bit rough.  My first mate lost her sea legs and was not feeling well.  I told her to take the wheel and I will watch the rod.  Lucky me because not long after, I got a nice take down.  The end result was one of the nicest Coho I have encountered.  It was almost as big as that monster Chinook already in the bag.

After a few more natives, we called it a day.  Only 4 in the boat, but it was a great day catching fish.

Again, only three people in the boat.  The wind forecast was worse than the day before.  If we can find the fish and get off the water by 2pm, we should be good.

Started in my new favorite spot.  Lines in the water not even two minutes and we get hit.  Manage to get the fish next to the boat and before I can take a swipe at it with the net, it is gone.  🙁

Lines back in the water and a few minutes later, another hit.  This time, it is gone before it gets near the boat.  The water is pretty rough and could be playing a factor.  Time to loosen the drags.

We continue this for several passes and each pass, we get hit once or twice.  Nothing in the boat so far, but the action is great.

After the bite turns off in this location, we move to my #2 spot.  Cut the motors and just drift.  Before too long, we have one in the boat, release a couple natives and lose a few.  This is turning out to be a great weekend.

The winds are picking up and we still need five more fish in the boat.

We manage to get one more in the boat before we decide to call it a day.

The wind chop was so bad by this point, getting back to the bar was a slow crawl.  I love my pilot house.  Once we actually get the the bar, it was not bad to cross.

Here we go again.  🙂

6am start to launch by 8am and cross the bar at low tide.  We struggled this week.  On the positive side, after the bar crossing, the water was so calm I was able to cruise about 35 mph up to the first spot.  Got there in no time.

We tried up north where the carter boats were last week to find they have moved on.  There were only two other boats giving it a go up here.  We tried shallow and deep.  We spent a short time with no bites at various depths then moved on to the south.  Trolled around buoy 2 and managed to get one in the box.  Fished a little longer and released two more shorts.  After no bites for an hour, we decided to try back up in the crab fields.  No luck.  It was time to call it a day.  Again, no Coho.

June 23rd, Ocean Salmon Opener.  I have been waiting for this day since the end of Buoy 10 last year.

I have a slip in Ilwaco, but not using it just yet because I have river plans for the 4th of July.  I will be trailering for a couple weeks.

We got an early start.  Hit the road at 6am to launch by 8am and cross the bar at low tide.  Got our beer, bait and ice.  We even plan to do some crabbing to see if any stragglers are still hanging out.  Heading out, there is a slight breeze.  The swells were not terrible.  That is, till we pass buoy 10.  The confused seas were evident.  This is what my boat was made for.  We pushed on.  Once we got a little north and in about 50 FOW, we start dropping pots.  We put out 9 pots with hopes of a big bounty.

The water looked fishy, so it was time to put the lines in the water.  It did not take long and Fred was on the board with a nice Chinook.  We stuck it out there for a couple of hours with no success.  It was time to push North to the Condo’s.  The wind chop was not terrible, but not great either.  It took us a little wile to get to where we wanted to be.  We found a few charter boats doing their circles, so we fell in line.  Not long again, we are starting to get bites.  Over the next couple of hours, we land two more Chinook and released a few small Chinook.  With the doom and gloom fishing reports, this was not a bad ocean opener.  We did not see any Coho.

Time to pull pots and head in.  Sad to say, most of the pots were small females.  We did manage to get 6 nice sized keepers.  All my crew went home with something that day.  I did not.  🙁

Till next week…….