NorthWest Kayak Anglers
Kayak Fishing => Events => Oregon Rockfish Classic 2017 => Topic started by: bsteves on July 18, 2017, 10:42:21 AM
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Have some ORC photos?
Photos from the event?
Photos from pre-fishing?
Grip and grins of your fish?
Photos of others on the water?
Photos of at weigh in?
Photos at camp?
Post them here!
I'll start off with a few...
First a couple photos of Chris Mayes "Clayman" (right, 1st place winner) and Doug Kaber "crash" (left, 2nd place winner) and their 20+ lb lings.
A photo of my son Owen manning the weigh-in station "like a boss".
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Owen and I didn't fish during the tournament, but we managed to get out on Friday for some pre-fishing. This was Owen's first time fishing in the ocean and he had a great time. He also got to practice various "grip and grin" faces.
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Anonymous yakkers.
Taken at 9:30, south of the bell buoy.
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Friday morning view out the tent
(http://www.northwestkayakanglers.com/gallery/medium_527-180717172849-54422353.jpeg) (http://www.northwestkayakanglers.com/index.php?action=gallery;sa=view;id=5443)
Tournament morning sunrise
(http://www.northwestkayakanglers.com/gallery/medium_527-180717172852-5443493.jpeg) (http://www.northwestkayakanglers.com/index.php?action=gallery;sa=view;id=5444)
I lost an absolute monster before 10am. It had my heavy ocean rod & reel setup (the one I catch halibut with) completely buried and when it wanted to run there was nothing I could do to stop it. It pulled down into the rocky reef twice, maybe three times, and I was able to work it free. When it took its fourth run, the line had been grinding against the rocks too much and I felt a rush of agony when the line parted and I slumped down into my seat. I grinded it out for the rest of the morning without catching anything else worth noting. I had already sorted through what seemed like three or four dozen rockfish, a few smaller cabbies and lings overall for the day.
I headed to the bell buoy as I was making my way back in. At about 1:20pm I figured I'd give it 10 more minutes as I dropped down onto the top of a shelf that it was only about 30 ft. of water. Absolutely nothing of interest was on the sonar. I had a feeling this spot was getting worked over pretty well all day - still not sure as to why I felt like dropping there. I wasn't down for more than a couple of minutes when I hooked into what seemed to be a pretty heavy fish. It came up surprisingly easy and not wanting to chance it in any way, I scooped it with the net.
Then all hell broke loose.
All that energy it was saving while I was reeling it in was expended in a matter of what was probably less than 10 seconds, but felt like more than 10 minutes. I have rarely felt that a fish was so powerful that it might actually flip me, but this was one of those times. I held on for dear life as an explosion of water was occurring next to me. I finally had a lull, heaved it in and wrapped it up under my legs, then it was quiet.
(http://www.northwestkayakanglers.com/gallery/medium_527-180717173205-5445337.jpeg) (http://www.northwestkayakanglers.com/index.php?action=gallery;sa=view;id=5446)
Snapped a couple of quick pics and headed for the hole
(http://www.northwestkayakanglers.com/gallery/medium_527-180717172847-54391117.jpeg) (http://www.northwestkayakanglers.com/index.php?action=gallery;sa=view;id=5442)
It ended up at 24 lbs and 40 inches on the dot. It got some cuddling and spooning at the weigh-in station...
(http://www.northwestkayakanglers.com/gallery/medium_527-180717173027-54441808.jpeg) (http://www.northwestkayakanglers.com/index.php?action=gallery;sa=view;id=5445)
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Nice write up and absolute brute of a lingcod. Way to go! I'm still amazed (aMayesed?) that we pulled 3 20+lbs fish on tourney day!
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Nice write up and absolute brute of a lingcod. Way to go! I'm still amazed (aMayesed?) that we pulled 3 20+lbs fish on tourney day!
Me too man, crazy!! It's been proven before that good ORC conditions = big fish, but dang.... I mean, DANG.
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I'd heard about ORC for years when I lived in NorCal, and now that I'm an Oregon resident, it was a no-brainer to sign up. Depoe Bay is only 45 minutes away from my home base in Yachats. Although I missed out on the pre-tourney camping festivities, it was awesome to put faces to names at the post-tourney ceremony and potluck. BTW, the potluck was awesome!! Thank you to everyone who contributed. Big props to the sponsors and tournament organizers as well--it's a monumental task to get all of this stuff together, and you all have my gratitude!
As for the fishing: couldn't have asked for better conditions. This was my fourth outing from Depoe Bay, and it was by far the nicest ocean I'd experienced out there...and also the best fishing! It started out terribly slow for me at first, with my usual waypoints only producing blacks and mid-20 inch lings. But some shallow-water prospecting got me onto the target fish, the highlight of which was a 40.5 inch, 22.75 pound lingcod. Once I had that ling in the bag, I knew I was a contender. Followed it up with a 9+ pound cabezon, then waded through blacks until settling on a 4.75 pounder. Rounded out my bag with a 1.33 pound kelp greenling. I was basically done by 1030, but it was so nice out that I kept fishing with the light tackle and exploring the inner reef.
I was only hoping to place somewhere in the Top 10. I know ORC brings out many stellar anglers, and since I'm still relatively new to Oregon I figured my day would be more of a meet-n-greet type of thing. But sometimes the cards fall into place and great things happen. Stoked to place 1st in my first ORC foray! And I look forward to fishing with more NWKAers. We can dramatically improve our fishing skills learning from one another. There's always room to improve ourselves in the craft, and that's what keeps me going.
Here are some pics from tourney day!
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Few more pics.
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Nice write up and absolute brute of a lingcod. Way to go! I'm still amazed (aMayesed?) that we pulled 3 20+lbs fish on tourney day!
Me too man, crazy!! It's been proven before that good ORC conditions = big fish, but dang.... I mean, DANG.
+2. I've never seen that many BIG lings brought in for a tournament. Every now and then I'm used to seeing maybe one 40+ being weighed in, but three? ORC was always renowned for its monster cabezon, but this year is one helluva notable exception!
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Great pics and congrats on the win!!
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A few pics on the water
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And the biggest sighting of the day (first attempt embedding a video)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iv3rEkkZ9nc
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Awesome pictures and videos everyone!! I expected somewhere around a 30lb bag to win it all and you guys did not disappoint!! For my first time fishing out of Depoe bay I was amazed at the quality of fish to be caught! We could've caught our limits in a few hours and been off the water in time to get breakfast!!
I wish I had more to contribute in the way of pictures or video!! I brough my gopro with me, had the batteries charged, yet didn't realize that my memory card was full and I never thought to check... Oh well, live and learn I guess.
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Great pictures! Sadly I have none that I can add. Hoping more people add to this thread.
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Damn there were some nice fish caught, and Brian your scale and tub weigh station looks amazing. Way better than years past. Congrats on pulling together another successful ORC.
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Damn there were some nice fish caught, and Brian your scale and tub weigh station looks amazing. Way better than years past. Congrats on pulling together another successful ORC.
Thanks Nate,
Yeah, the scale and tub worked out really well. I might need a flatter base for the tub, but otherwise, I was very happy with it. I think the specs are max 35 lbs +/- 0.01 lbs. Much better than those hanging scales. The scale also has an RS232 port so in theory I can write a little program to record results directly into a laptop.
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My two Lings. Not much compared to some of the HOGS that crossed the sail, but I was totally happy with my kayak ocean trip!
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https://youtu.be/7mswnxUHIbA
Here's some video from ORC. I hope you enjoy it. Have a look you might see yourself on there
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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Great video Casey.
Thank-you for sharing with us.
Are there more pictures guys ???
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Great video, Casey, and congrats to Clayman and all the other big fish haulers. Rawkfish that ling is gorgeous!