Friday March 11

North Fogarty Friday morning.
Forecast has insignificant winds all day.
I have to believe Depoe Bay will be very busy.

Forecast improved slightly for Friday at PC according to MSW. Already made plans to go steelhead fishing with a buddy. Hopefully people are able to get out and post some pictures and reports.

If current forecast holds, I'll be at Depoe Bay at 6:30 am.

Planning to launch at Fogarty at about the same time. Sounds like a good number of us will be out there. Fish beware!

forecast looks great for Sunset Bay area on Friday, I'm still planning a 9am launch, heading for Simpson Reef.

As wind has come up a bit on this thread, it is worth noting that the direction of the wind (ignoring it's effect on beach launch/return) has a different impact for fishing at different locations.

When fishing Simpson Reef (~1.5 miles SW from Sunset Bay launch), the best case wind to have coming up from the S or SW because it will be at your back as you are heading NE back to Sunset Bay. A NW wind, 10mph for sure, makes for a crappy ride back, definitely one of the factors that would have me fishing out NW towards the Whistle buoy.  cheers, roger   

Yesterday launched late went out and came back without wetting a line glad I did as it got pretty nasty that point on, going out earlier today was thinking was going to be like yesterday as wind was already up abit but it laid down !! Was a great day for lingcod I lost count of how many were released,  blacks tho I found to be scarce. Got a limit of both, turned out to be a great day! Hopefully a repeat is coming tomorrow? Good luck out there and be safe to those that make it. Let’s kill some fish!!!!

It was good.  Windy from 6:30 to about 8, then died down.  Lings ate everything I put near the bottom. Caught 10 of them and about 15 Black Rockfish.

Dave

Similar report. Early am was a bit windy but all in all the day was great. Went out a ways with Monkey fist and on my first drop hooked a very big ling. Got it to the boat. Tried to get it in the net ( big net) as it was sliding in the net the hook popped out and the fish gave a big wiggle and gone. Pretty constant bite and got a couple decent fish. Struggled to find rockfish and ended with only 2.

Simpson Reef was loaded with small keeper lings that were biting anything, landed 12 but best was a 26"er. Strong Cabezon that felt like a 10# lingcod. Once again there didn't seem to be many rockfish schools, some but less than normal. The two that I retained had not spawned.

No wind but the secondary swell on 6s period decided to exceed expectations as the day went on. Only 1 crab which has me thinking they are out deeper?

Talk about a turnaround from two weeks ago. The big girls came out to play! Second drop of the morning, I hooked into a 39", 18 pound lingcod. I thought I may limit out quickly, but other species got in the way.

Landed five big yelloweye, including a monster 28 incher. It took over four pounds of lead to successfully descend her. Picked up a half dozen quillbacks ranging from 15-20 inches. Another half dozen blacks, one of which was a husky 23 inches. Released a stud 26 inch cabezon.

By noon, I'd released a handful of lings in the 25-30 inch class. The strong drift combined with the south breeze made for constant pedaling and rudder adjustments, and I even had a hard time keeping 10 ounces near the bottom. At one point, I lost a bait and reeled up through a school of blues suspended 50+ feet off the bottom. Two 11" blues grabbed my two mooching hooks on the way up. I released one of the blues, but I dropped the other one back to the bottom. That blue lasted all of 60 seconds in 100 feet before getting blasted by a 33" ling. Sometimes I forget the effectiveness of live bait!

I had to time the sets a bit before slipping over the reef and onto the beach. Seemed like a large set of swells would come through and break over the reef every 5 minutes or so. I got back to shore with no issues, but I kept my head on a swivel and my paddle at the ready in case I was about to surf a swell. Stuff like that is part of what makes kayak fishing exciting, right? Anyway, it was a fantastic day!

Awesome haul!

holy cow Clayman, I definitely should have turned right on 101 and headed north instead of south...lol

Thanks, guys. I love poking around the deep structure when given the opportunity. Takes a while to pedal out there, but it's *usually* worth it!

Biggest thing with fishing in 100+ feet is ensuring you have enough lead with you to descend rockfish. I usually have no issue descending yelloweye with a 32 oz ball, but I think I'm gonna swap it out with a 48. I had to string together a necklace of lead weights to get that monster 28 incher down.

Nice catches, Chris! Keep fish out deep and you will eventually get that nearshore halibut, hopefully during season!

Fishing