Little Cos and I arrived at Depoe Bay at 6:15am today, almost completely fogged in, maybe 50 yards of visibility. Water looked a bit lumpy but there was no wind.  As we pulled into the launch, there was another group of NWKA guys gearing up and heading out.  The fog appeared to be thinning out, so they gave it a go, while we continued to setup.  Within 15 minutes, the fog was back, as we were putting the kayaks in the water.

As we paddled out, we could hear other boats on the water saying that visibility was maybe 100 yards. In hind sight, 100 yards was generous.  We got cleared to shoot the hole, and we were out in the ocean.  We both marked the mouth of the bay on our gps, just in case, and headed out to toward the red can, and agreed that we would stay within eye sight of the can.

Quickly the swells got big and lumpy, but the bite was good, and the wind was calm.  We got into several huge black rocks, 19 and 20 inchers, and were having a blast.  We also landed a ling each, 24 and 28, mine was the 28, in case anyone is keeping track.

We were nearing our limits of rock fish, and then the wind started to pick up, and the fog came back. We could still see the red can, but couldn't see land anymore.  One of us had a radio on 69 and the other had it on 80 so we could hear when boats were coming in and out and keep an eye out.

These were probably the most severe conditions we have fished in, but neither of us got sick.  We decided it was time to go in.  Luckily we had that gps marking for the harbor, because we didn't see it until we were about 50 yards away.

As we were shooting the hole on the way in, Little Cos says, "Dad, thank god we weren't coming in at PC today, we would have had some serious troubles."  I was already thinking the same thing.

All in all, it was a blast today, and pushed our skills up a notch.  Here are a few pics from today.

Good luck if you get out this week.

BTW, awesome report!   

Cosmo, I would highly recommend strapping a non electronic compass to the decks on both your kayaks. 
Learn to trust what they say by watching them on a clear day.  On a really fogged in day, they can really be the icing on the cake for making sure you are facing the direction that you "think" you are facing.  Fog has a dirty way of diverting sounds and that is really frustrating.

A good one to get that is pretty easy to attach on deck is the Brunton 58-Kayak Marine Compass.

Thanks for the tip Insayn.  Just placed an order on Amazon.  It will be here Wednesday.  Had our fish finders crapped out while we were out there, we would have been in deep doo doo.

Great report Cos.  I can't wait to get back out there again.  Although in those conditions, I probably would have just watched from shore...

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I do the same thing!  I haven't needed it yet, but the boyscout in me never dies.