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Picture Of The Month



SD2OR with a trophy fall walleye

Topic: I Finally Get To Write One  (Read 2929 times)

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Tinker

  • Sturgeon
  • *******
  • Kevin
  • Location: 42.74°N 124.5°W
  • Date Registered: May 2013
  • Posts: 3304
I went fishing yesterday.

You know how I am: Normally I'd hardly bother mentioning it, but fishing opportunities have been mighty rare down here since... well, all of last year and so far, all this year.  And not because of quarantines or pandemics or social unrest, but because the weather wouldn't cooperate.  Long patches of windless days with tall swells get interrupted by flat-ass calm days with gale-force winds.

Yesterday was forecast to be windless and I was going to my local lake to see if I could score a points fish for AOTY.  That was the plan, anyway, but as I headed out just after sunrise and drove down the hill, I ran into fog.  Thick fog.  Pea soupy stuff.  I could barely see the beaches fifty feet away.

I paused... "The heck with the lake, let's go out to sea!"

One might wonder why someone like me - someone totally committed to kayak safety - might want to launch into the ocean on a day when I might not be able to see the bow of my kayak?  And why-oh-why, would I do it all by myself?  Am I an idiot?  An adrenaline junkie?  Just plain stupid?  All of the above?

The first time I fished in a dense fog was when C_Run was in the area and we headed-out, confident the fog would lift.  It didn't, and I found myself in an area I know better than I know the back of my hand and nothing, not one thing, looked familiar.  It looked like something out of a fairy tale.  It was almost magical.

That whole magical-mystical sensation has haunted me ever since, like a siren's song.  Well, that plus a really thick fog can't hang around if the air is moving, and those days make for a great day of fly-fishing.

The only problem with yesterday was the 2-3 foot swell.  Odd swells, to boot, with curiously long periods between them, separated by about twenty seconds.  And they weren't shaped like long-period swells; they were just an abrupt ridge in the water.  I think.  I could only see them when they were five feet away, coming or going, so I'm making a seat-of-my-pants guess at what they may have looked like.

"Okay, my butt is down here where it belongs, and look now!  I'm three feet higher up!"

I admit I thought that part was a tad bit short of being fun.  Sometimes it was, but other times, like when I was changing flies and not paying attention, it could be quite startling.  You can - and should - start to question your sanity when you look up and see a hillside of water, taller than your head, and it's SIX INCHES AWAY FROM YOUR BOW.  The loud bang you hear isn't from dropping something heavy.  It has a more organic origin.

I caught a few rockfish that wouldn't pass the one-taco test.  They'd fit comfortably in the palm of my hand (with room to spare).  The good thing about fly-fishing is, even a fish that small bends the rod and you can imagine it being a lot bigger than it ends up being.

And I caught (and landed) my very first, ever, lingcod - who could also have fit in the palm of my hand.  To be honest, I didn't know it was a lingcod until that guy I would normally have been fishing with explained to me that if it had teeth, and if I didn't want to stick my finger in it's mouth, it had to be a lingcod.

No photos.  My camera was in the car with the freshwater gear.  Had any of the fish been more than mere babies, I'd have brought them in for a portrait, but alas...

I only stayed out for a couple of hours.  By then, my hair was dripping wet (NOTE TO ME: always wear your hat, even if the sun ain't shining), my ears were cold, and riding surprise swells had pretty well tuckered me out.

I really don't suggest anyone go out in the fog, neither accidentally nor intentionally, and no matter how familiar you may be with the area. In fact, I recommend against it.

Think what could have happened to me if the swell had changed to something more confused and threatening and I'd had to fight it instead of using it to guide myself back behind the jetty (GPS maps for this area haven't been updated since the jetty was rebuilt last year - and anyway, since the Russians are hacking our GPS system, I might have ended up in Hawai'i).  What would have happened in an emergency?  I'd have been mighty hard to find - impossible by vision alone - and even my signaling whistle would have been echoing off the rocks.

It was foolish.  Foolish enough that a couple of the commercial skippers kept calling me on the radio to see if I was still alive - and almost getting me killed when those darned waves would sneak up while I was talking to them.

But I got salty, by God.  And the correct answer was: "All of the above."
« Last Edit: May 06, 2021, 04:47:50 AM by Tinker »
I expected the worst, but it was worse than I expected...


C_Run

  • Sturgeon
  • *******
  • Location: Independence, OR
  • Date Registered: Apr 2011
  • Posts: 1214
I looked at your webcam down there yesterday. Darned foggy indeed. Should have brought the camera for your AOTY points. Don't leave money on the table.


Tinker

  • Sturgeon
  • *******
  • Kevin
  • Location: 42.74°N 124.5°W
  • Date Registered: May 2013
  • Posts: 3304
I looked at your webcam down there yesterday. Darned foggy indeed. Should have brought the camera for your AOTY points. Don't leave money on the table.
Yeah, it was.  The fog was thicker than I remember it on the day you and I were out in the fog.  I stick the camera in my gear bag so I don't forget it, but I have two gear bags: One for freshwater and another for saltwater, and I forgot to move it to the bag I took with me.

That might have been the tiniest lingcod caught in the entiree history of lingcod fishing, but it wouldn't have been more than 20 points.
I expected the worst, but it was worse than I expected...


Tinker

  • Sturgeon
  • *******
  • Kevin
  • Location: 42.74°N 124.5°W
  • Date Registered: May 2013
  • Posts: 3304
Hawaii might not have been so bad.  How many points for a green sea turtle?

Dave

I think we'd first need to get turtles classified as "fish".  :P
I expected the worst, but it was worse than I expected...


Captain Redbeard

  • Lauren
  • Global Moderator
  • Sturgeon
  • *****
  • Location: Portland, OR
  • Date Registered: May 2013
  • Posts: 3290
Congrats on your first lingcod. You can only go up from there!  ;D


Tinker

  • Sturgeon
  • *******
  • Kevin
  • Location: 42.74°N 124.5°W
  • Date Registered: May 2013
  • Posts: 3304
Congrats on your first lingcod. You can only go up from there!  ;D

Thank you, Cap'n.  And you're right, of course: The only way to catch a smaller lingcod would have been to catch an egg. :laugh:
I expected the worst, but it was worse than I expected...


 

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