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Picture Of The Month



SD2OR with a trophy fall walleye

Topic: Tillamook bay Rockfishing anyone?? - friday 1/25  (Read 2338 times)

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alpalmer

  • Salmon
  • ******
  • Location: Albany, OR
  • Date Registered: Apr 2012
  • Posts: 504
I'm thinking of heading out tomorrow for my first voyage in Tillamook bay in my new yak (Hobie Compass). I am a newbie kayak angler, and I am hoping you guys can answer a few questions:

How was it today? (Weather forecast looks very favorable for tomorrow) 
Looks like you all are fishing the low tide? Is this the preferred tide?
Do you crab near the south jetty while you are fishing?

I imagine these questions have all been answered somewhere in other threads, so thanks for the patience!

-Tim

Note of caution,   do not go out to the south jetty until you know the relationship of low tide and time of departure.   You could get sucked out into the jaws if you do not time it right.  Talk to the people that went out today before you  go.
"A venturesome minority will always be eager to get off on their own,
and no obstacle should be placed in their path;
let them take risk, for God sake, let them get lost, sun burnt, stranded, drowned,
eaten by bears, buried alive under avalanches -
that is the right and privilege of any free American."
--Edward Abbey--


Stinger Hook

  • Lingcod
  • *****
  • Location: Hillsboro, OR
  • Date Registered: Sep 2015
  • Posts: 250
Timbeer,

Let me start saying that i would not recommend doing your first voyage in Tillamook Bay alone.



I fished Tillamook Bay quite a few times. Where i don't mind fishing alone when chasing salmon (which is done further upstream), i ALWAYSs go with someone when going towards the south wall for rockfish. I know other people fish there alone. Personally I don't think it is worth the risk.

The tides can be ripping there, and surely when go through the bay's thinnest section (just upstream of the south wall) the current is STRONG. It is so strong that it will be hardly doable to go against the current, surely when the current is outgoing. So once you are at the south wall you need to wait for incoming tide (or slack tide)  before you can head back to Garibaldi. But also don't underestimate the currents when the tide is coming in. It will require a lot of paddling to go against it. Therefore, when in a kayak, folks head out during outgoing tide, and head back during incoming tide. It is simply a "must do". Fishing is best during the slack tide.

There are some huge rocks on the way from Garibaldi to the south wall (before you reach the thinnest point on the bay). It very useful if you have someone pointing out where these are. These rocks are typically exposed during lo tide and under water during high tide. You can damage your mirage drive (or worse) if you hit these.

Typically, crabbing is indeed done near the south wall (basically on the opposite site of the bay right across from The Three Graces.
There are tons of pots out there (from power boaters). When looking at the map you will see that the south wall makes a turn where the actual jetty starts. In general it should be avoided to go beyond that point as ocean waves easily get to there. So stay to the "wall", don't go as far as the jetties.
Fish close to the south wall. Sometimes even very close.

Now today's report.
There were four of us (hdpwipmonkey, helium head, codeman and I) and we were all in for a nice calm fishing day.
When heading towards the south wall we could already see some waves brake on the shore from quite a distance away - something quite unusual. When passing the thinnest section, we entered an area with huge swells. I had NEVER seen anything like this before when fishing TB. Swells/waves were really high on the south wall. Two us (including me) did not like these swells at all and stayed on the north side and fished near Three Graces. The other two tried the south wall but were pulled towards the ocean. Current was too strong. So they also came to the north side. With the south wall being a no-go, i dropped my crab pots near the north side. Only had three keepers. To make things worse, one found a way out of my kayak. So only brought two home. Cooking them NOW.

After an hour and a half, when we were already considering to go back and label this a wasted day, the swells suddenly disappeared (when the tide stopped going out). We all headed to the south wall and fished for a few hours. I had a handful of fish with three of them very nice sized rock fish (that will turn into fish tacos). So fishing was OK but by no means hot.

hpdwipmonkey, helium head and codeman went for pile perch in Garibaldi, when i called it a day and went home. Curious how they did?? (it did not happen if no pics:-).

I hope this helps.

Let me finish with what i started with: I would NOT go there alone on your first voyage.


     



Helium Head

  • Lingcod
  • *****
  • Location: Outer NW Portland
  • Date Registered: Mar 2016
  • Posts: 366
I second what Stinger Hook said 100%

There will be no fishing report
From Helium Head
There will be no pics
From Helium Head
Helium Head had a nice day kayaking
but does smell like skunk
Hobie Revolution 13 olive
Hobie Revolution 13 yellow


Timbeer

  • Krill
  • *
  • Location: Portland
  • Date Registered: Sep 2018
  • Posts: 18
Thanks to you guys for the replies and advice. I have fished the bay from my powerboat, and I have seen days where the swell is running up the jetty-not a good place for a kayak for sure. I will not be going out tomorrow or alone! Safety first always.  I guess I'm just jonesing for some time on the water in the winter.


codeman

  • Rockfish
  • ****
  • Location: St. Helens, OR
  • Date Registered: Jan 2010
  • Posts: 147
Thanks to you guys for the replies and advice. I have fished the bay from my powerboat, and I have seen days where the swell is running up the jetty-not a good place for a kayak for sure. I will not be going out tomorrow or alone! Safety first always.  I guess I'm just jonesing for some time on the water in the winter.

If youd like, send me your phone number as a PM, and ill add you to my group text. Ill invite you the next time we organize a trip. Usually this time of year is stellar fishing. However, PBs out there fishing and crabbing disperse the schools and and slow the fishing down.  Today there were more crabbers than ive ever seen, which resulted in the slowest fishing I've ever seen on the south wall. Check that, fishing was great - great company and great weather....the catching though, not so much...managed 14 fish in the yak, and 9 from the jetty prior to launch...

Like i said though, another fun day with my new crew!


hdpwipmonkey

  • Sturgeon
  • *******
  • Location: Cornelius, OR
  • Date Registered: Nov 2014
  • Posts: 1481
It was cold in the morning but the bay looked like glass on the drive over.  Even when we were making our way out of the marina it looked like it was going to be a calm day on the water, till we got closer to the narrows.  I have never seen breakers and rollers in the bay like that before.  It looked like an angry ocean.  I was a little hesitant to cross the narrows because once you do you are committed to staying till the tide change.  We all decided to go ahead and cross the narrows sticking to the northside as we did and then make our way across the bay to the southside once we were through the narrows but the more I looked at it the more I didn't like the looks of it and decided to just stay on the north side and fish the big rock pile.  I managed to get 2 rockfish from there and one greenling which all went back into the water unharmed.  After a little while we were going to call it an early day but Codeman was over at the south jetty so we went over to tell him we were going to leave but once we got over there it had calmed down a good bit so we decided to stay and fish some more.  Crossing over to the south wall was like trying to run a gauntlet.  There were soooo many crabbers out today.  Crab bouys everywhere and PBs zipping up and down along the wall pulling pots.  That could be why the fishing was so hard on the south wall.  I got one more greenling which took the ride home with me because I forgot my GoPro at home and I had no way of getting a quick photo of it and it was too many AOTY points to pass up.  So I turned it into 2 pan fried fillets for dinner tonight (yummy).  I also got a small Cabbie out there which also went back unharmed. 

We then decided to head in and Codeman and I were discussing going for Pile Perch at the old Coast Guard station.  We werent really rigged for it but Codeman had some Gulp sandworms so we figured we try to come up with something.  I left the jighead on the line and just removed the gulp minnow from it (Codeman asked if I wanted to clip the hook off the jighead and I said no, it would be ok.
 That decision would come back to haunt me later.) then tied a dropper loop up from it then put a small hook on with a piece of sandworm.  I was jigging along a piling when i got a hit and I expertly set the hook... right into the piling.  I managed to get it back out but of course there was no fish on the line anymore.  I then decided I should clip the hook off of the jighead.  I had a couple more hits there but nothing would stick.  So we decided to call it a day and head in. 

The day started out pretty sketchy but in the end it was a beautiful sunny day out there and I'm glad I stuck it out.
Ray
2020 Hobie Outback "Chum Chicken"
2018 Native Titan 10.5 "Battle Barge"
Wilderness Tarpon 100






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