PC report on 8/16

Good day! Part of this report comes from my "Summer of Fred" entry that I have on my Facebook page: Although most of it is directed toward a non kayak fishing audience, I still hope you enjoy it...

Summer of Fred 2021: August 16th - Ugh... 2:45 a.m. comes around a little too early! Oh, wait... Is there fishing? THERE'S FISHING TO BE HAD!!! Woo-hoo! Let's go! Let's go! As early as it was, there were fish to be caught so I finally got out the door about 3:30 and on the road. The drive from Hood River wasn't too bad. Not a lot of traffic this early in the morning. There was one accident that I came upon about 25 miles east of Tillamook on Hwy 6 which is a bad stretch of road. It looked like it had JUST happened. I slowed down as much as I could, but I was sandwiched between two trucks that were not going to stop. Fortunately it looked like someone had checked on the passengers in the vehicles.
I got my parking permit and unloaded all of my gear on the sand before heading back to park in the lot. I get a little nervous just leaving my truck on the beach with the tides and all. There are a LOT of other trucks taking out their dory boats and they leave them there all the time. There is a guy who parks the trucks on the beach for the captains to make it a little easier for them to get out and in. Seems like a nice guy so I asked him, "Do you make a pretty penny parking their trucks for them?" He just looked at me and smiled...
I finally got out about 7:30 but not before taking a full wave straight into my face. I timed that one pretty badly! The good thing was that I didn't stop and get pushed back but cut on through it. NO YARD SALE FOR YOU! But I'm sure the guys on the beach were all going, "Dang! Wave 1, Fred 0!" I will admit I got a little water in my nasal cavity on that one...
I didn't bring crab gear with me as I was going to focus my attention on halibut and salmon. I headed over to Haystack Rock to start and was rewarded with a good-sized rockfish that tried to swallow a lure that was meant for a halibut or a lingcod. Well, if he didn't want a day long trip in a kayak, he shouldn't have bought a ticket. I punched his ticket and threw him in the back. Hopefully he wouldn't take up too much space for all of the other fish I had already caught in my mind. As I was putting him away, I got a LITTLE too close to the rock because the tide pushing south was just RIPPING. Add to that, my rudder went wonky for a moment so I had to pull it up out of the water, reset it and tie it off before I could steer to avoid getting pushed up against it. Thankfully I did and from there went toward the NW corner of the rock.
The tide here wasn't much better. The only thing is that you have more time to react even though the waves get so much bigger from the 80-foot hole that is about 100 to 200 yards from it. The swell lifts you up and then down you go kind of like a kiddie roller coaster. I didn't see any baitfish on my fish finder so I turned north of the rock and the bell buoy picking up a 24 inch lingcod who wanted a ride. I threw him back as it was still early in the day as I could only take 2 of them throughout the day and the day was still young.
I switched over to salmon gear and continued to about 100' of water. The only things in the water were different species of jellyfish. Ugh. touching your fishing line when they're in the water is NO fun. I let more line out to fish a little deeper and then saw a seagull in the water pecking at something with a fin that didn't seem quite dead. I thought  maybe it was a salmon that someone had caught and then thrown back, but after the seagull flew away I noticed that it was a Mola (sunning?) that was about two feet long. It didn't look like the seagull had done any damage to it and I circled it for a couple of passes. It looked at me like it was wanting help, but what could I do? It continued to splash a bit and finally seemed to recover a bit and went back down to the briny depths. Seemed a little far north for it to be swimming. A lot of times they follow the warmer currents, but then get stuck in a colder current and then die from the change in temperature. The water was a little chilly even for a mid-August day.
With so many jellyfish tentacles in the water I switched back over to focus on halibut and about 30 minutes later caught my biggest lingcod ever! It measured out at 39 inches and threw up a couple of small octopuses (octopods?) when brought aboard. I tried out my new fish-bonker that worked like a charm. After a little ike jime and bleeding it, I threw it in the back under a wet towel to keep my pet rockfish company. Then I wondered about sharks in the area... Thankfully that wasn't the case because it was a big fish and there was a LOT of blood. I used my scupper plugs on the Ms. Salma to make sure the trail couldn't be followed back to me after a certain point.

(NWKA aside - At this point there may or may not have been a Spot sighting. I'm not sure, he's like a Bigfoot sighting but on the water)

Peddling (not "paddling" as it is a Hobie) a little farther north I got into about 60 feet of water and hooked something BIG... It shook its head and then just kept still. I could feel its full weight when I put pressure on the rod but it would not move. I was using 25 lb test on my new reel (which I am now in love with) that in hindsight probably wasn't the best idea for super large halibut, but I could still put some pressure on it. We continued to fight for about 45 minutes and a dory fisherman with his clients came over and he asked if he could be of help. I told him if he could just check on my in another 30 minutes or so to see if I was still kicking, that would be great. He laughed and said he hooked a 100-pound+ halibut last week a little farther out but had to throw him back because it was caught on the wrong day. Curse those pesky fishing regulations! Luckily for me, today was the right day for catching halibut. He went off about 1/2 mile from where I was and I continued on in the next chapter of my independent version of Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea.
At one point in the battle, I started laughing out loud, thinking of my situation. I hadn't brought a gaff or my halibut harpoon because I thought, even at 60 pounds, I would be able to fit a halibut that size into the overly large salmon net that I had taken with me and then bonked him, but if it so happened to be more than 80 pounds? I'm sure my harpoon was at home resting on the side of my work desk saying, "Sucker! I told you to bring me! Now you get what you get and you don't throw a fit!" Still, would that even be an option or safe to do? I would cross that bridge when I came to it, IF I came to it. I looked down several times to see if I could see the white from my jig. I couldn't, but a couple of times in that hour and a half battle I could swear that I saw something VERY large and very dark as long as my 5 foot kitchen table swimming underneath the kayak. Unfortunately, with about 15 feet of line to go it threw the hook and I reeled in my jig with nothing to show for it.
I tried again for another hour near the same spot but came up with nothing. I was a little tired and I knew that my old high school wrestling injuries would be revisiting me in the morning as achy joints and sore muscles. I ate a granola bar and peddled back toward the rock feeling a little defeated but a little wiser. I got off the water after a landing (much better than my entry) and talked to Helium Head and Wilyakfish (Thanks for taking my photo!). I had seen them both launching in the morning. Most of them had caught their two-salmon limit by going out about 4 miles from where we launched. One had hooked and lost a halibut that he estimated to be about 24" long. I told him about my fight and that I would have given it all back (which I did) just to bring home a 24" halibut. Ah, well... I did have a few fish to bring home and photos were snapped and visitors oohed and asked questions about fishing. I was definitely in my element.
I got home around 6:15 to unload everything and take mental notes on what to do and NOT do on my next trip to the salt. Unloading my gear and the fish, my neighbor was impressed with the size of the lingcod and I promised him part of the bounty after I got it filleted and bagged up. Who's going to say no to fresh lingcod? Madelynn and Debbie ordered a pizza from Andrew's Pizza and I did as much as I could to wash my gear (salt is the WORST for fishing equipment) and put everything away. At about nine o'clock I showered and fell fast asleep hopefully to dream more about Hemingway's tale and less about Herman Melville's...

Lessons Fred learned on this trip:

#1 - Take the halibut harpoon. There's a reason why I made it.
#2 - When you put stuff in your front hatch, it's staying there. Don't assume you will have access to it when you are on the water. It can get dicey out there on the ocean and isn't worth taking a risk to open. Keep gear above it, on you or behind you.
#3 - Hobie Sidekicks are worth every penny. I love my training wheels for launching and re-entry in the surf.
#4 - When it comes to ikejime, make sure you have access to the ice and the soft sided cooler you are hoping to access BEHIND you (see #2).
#5 - When fishing for halibut, use 40 lb. test at least. 25 lb. is nice, but if you meatier rod and line for just that purpose, don't get lazy and stick with the Medium Heavy Intercoastal rod. I mean, it was nice, but it won't pick up an 80+ pound halibut off of the ocean floor for too long...

Until my next trip out!

Fred "True" Trujillo

Beautiful report! We were there too standing with HeliumHead when you landed and commented on your Sidekicks setup. Too bad I had to make it home as soon as possible because my wife had to leave to work otherwise we would have chatted with you. We both caught a wave during launch that went over the hull and splashed into our faces. We also saw the sunfish. At first I saw a fin and thought it was a shark but the way it was bobbing it didn't look like shark so we came closer and investigated. My companion hooked into a nice size (under 30in) halibut on a first cast after we switched our setup from salmon to rockfish but it came of after a short struggle taking a jig with him (25lb leader). He used a white jig. You also mentioned that you were using a white jig. Is that something halibut prefer? Also I was under the impression that we kayakers can always take the halibut this close to a shore. The rules apply to the guys with boats who go out farther past certain number oh phantoms. Can someone clarify this please?

Sorry I missed you. You were in the tall white multi-purpose van parked next to me, yeah? If that was the case, I saw you talking with someone but it looked like you were in a hurry to get moving. Regarding jigs, I was always taught that halibut like white, which I was using, but I put a hoochie over a large curly tail jig because I know that they also like movement. The ling I caught also liked it too. A strip of squid or a little fish oil never hurt anyone either.

Regarding the fishery, I spent far too much time researching the all depth and near shore halibut fishery and even then I'm STILL not sure I get it all. As of this time, to my understanding, the all depth is on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, but if you have one, you CAN'T target bottom fish unless you're long lining in 40 fathoms of water or more? If you're on the other days that is the near shore (within 40 fathoms) halibut fishery, you CAN fish for bottomfish during that time. Also, a halibut doesn't count toward your bottomfish total kind of like salmon or lingcod. It is its own separate item. And if you're going to fish outside of 30 fathoms, you need to take a quick descent device with you to return any hapless, eye-bulging bottomfish that  decide to take the 18 story elevator ride from the bottom of the ocean.

Fred "True" Trujillo

Nice report and congrats on the Lingcod.  You had a great day.  Gotta ask though, what is a "Spot"?  Bigfoot I get but was lost at "Spot".........

Sorry I missed you. You were in the tall white multi-purpose van parked next to me, yeah? If that was the case, I saw you talking with someone but it looked like you were in a hurry to get moving. Regarding jigs, I was always taught that halibut like white, which I was using, but I put a hoochie over a large curly tail jig because I know that they also like movement. The ling I caught also liked it too. A strip of squid or a little fish oil never hurt anyone either.

Regarding the fishery, I spent far too much time researching the all depth and near shore halibut fishery and even then I'm STILL not sure I get it all. As of this time, to my understanding, the all depth is on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, but if you have one, you CAN'T target bottom fish unless you're long lining in 40 fathoms of water or more? If you're on the other days that is the near shore (within 40 fathoms) halibut fishery, you CAN fish for bottomfish during that time. Also, a halibut doesn't count toward your bottomfish total kind of like salmon or lingcod. It is its own separate item. And if you're going to fish outside of 30 fathoms, you need to take a quick descent device with you to return any hapless, eye-bulging bottomfish that  decide to take the 18 story elevator ride from the bottom of the ocean.

Fred "True" Trujillo

Yes, we were in a Sprinter van. Thank you for tips. I have some white Lancer jigs coming my way and also stopped at the Fisherman's yesterday and picked up some large squid hoochies. I talked to a seasoned fisherman who said there is no problem taking halibut any day of the week near shore, however I will try to find this info from the official source.

Nearshore halibut are indeed available to take 7 days a week (during nearshore season). The problem lies when you try to keep rockfish (or lingcod) as well. It's fine Sunday through Wednesday. But on the all depth days (right now every Thurs, Fri, Sat) it's either halibut on board, or rockfish. Not both, regardless of where you are fishing.

Nearshore halibut are indeed available to take 7 days a week (during nearshore season). The problem lies when you try to keep rockfish (or lingcod) as well. It's fine Sunday through Wednesday. But on the all depth days (right now every Thurs, Fri, Sat) it's either halibut on board, or rockfish. Not both, regardless of where you are fishing.

Thank you for a simple and clear explanation!

Nearshore halibut are indeed available to take 7 days a week (during nearshore season). The problem lies when you try to keep rockfish (or lingcod) as well. It's fine Sunday through Wednesday. But on the all depth days (right now every Thurs, Fri, Sat) it's either halibut on board, or rockfish. Not both, regardless of where you are fishing.

Thank you for a simple and clear explanation!

No prob! I had the rule explained to me very clearly by a LEO a few years ago   

Yes, the State Police have an incredible fish identification class they conduct on a personal basis.
It's not cheap though.

Great story about the halibut!  Now I want to catch one.

We probably saw the same Mola Mola and started to peddle towards it.  It is one of my favorite fish and I really wanted to see it but I was slowed down by a salmon that decided to join me.  With great pleasure I got to ask “Could you take a picture of it for me, I’m dealing with a salmon ”. Not great pics because of the reflections, and him being camera shy and subsequently disappearing.

That was the one!

Fred "True" Trujillo

Nice report and congrats on the Lingcod.  You had a great day.  Gotta ask though, what is a "Spot"?  Bigfoot I get but was lost at "Spot".........

Spot is an OG member of this group/ forum/ site/ family..he's given a lot to the general membership here in the forms of advice and friendship as well as  time. Great guy. Maybe you'll meet him some day at PC.

Great report, fun read, Fred. Hope you get your monster next time!

I know most big-water/big-fish guys will disagree with me, but I have a different perspective on line strength. You can only "lift" as much "weight" with your setup equal to the maximum amount of drag your reel will produce, unless you grab the line by hand. Most reels' drag systems do not produce more than the 25lbs that your line was rated for, so what would you gain by using heavier line? (There are lots of good answers, like insurance against abrasion, but one of them is not "being able to lift more".)

Also, an 80 pound fish doesn't require 80 pounds of force to "lift", even if it was dead weight, since it is at least partially buoyant.

And, finally, for me it's useful to think of the entire "fishing system" you're using, which includes the stretch of the line (close to zero for super lines), the drag on the reel, the bend of the rod, and the movement of your vessel - all of these things contribute to what the fish is fighting against. It only requires a little force to move a kayak pretty well through the water, certainly less than 25 pounds. Of course if you're truly lifting from directly below your kayak then this is a moot point but the vast majority of the time the fish is pulling you around at least a bit, even if it's a vertical presentation.

So, those are my thoughts on line weight and kayak fishing. Not trying to argue with anyone, just sharing my perspective. I'm bummed you didn't get to see your fish! There's more than a few folks who couldn't lift their fish that figure it was a large skate/ray or shark. Next time!

Nearshore halibut are indeed available to take 7 days a week (during nearshore season). The problem lies when you try to keep rockfish (or lingcod) as well. It's fine Sunday through Wednesday. But on the all depth days (right now every Thurs, Fri, Sat) it's either halibut on board, or rockfish. Not both, regardless of where you are fishing.

This is effectively true for kayak fishermen, however, the long-leader fishery does allow for both on board on all-depth days. But that fishery would be difficult at best for a kayak to participate in.

I have 50 lb braid and a 40 lb leader for the next few days. I HAVE had to break this strong of a line before and feel comfortable in doing so. I just don't want to have to fight another 90 minutes in a tug-o-war without anything to show for it - at least getting a better look at it would animate me a little more after a tough loss.

Thanks for the perspective regardless, Captain. Hope to see you out there on the water soon, but I know you are busy between many different outdoor opportunities. I will be taking my set up with 25 lb test, but it will be used for targeting Chinook and fin-clipped Coho.

Fred "True" Trujillo