PC 09/09/09 report

Howdy all,

Quick report.  Made it out today to PC.  Ran into another yakker on the beach, forgot your name, sorry.

I got out on the water probably a little after 7.  Easy launch, and headed back out to the area where Yaknitup and I hit last time.  Birds all over the place this morning.  I rolled into a large group of gulls, murres and pelicans on the east side of the buoy, and dropped a rig down.  Got plenty of hits, but nothing stuck .

Turned west, and kept heading out.  Dropped down near the buoy, and again, a bunch of hits, but no hook-ups.    Kept going west, and got a hit that hammered the lure.  Got a good 15 seconds of back and forth, rod tip in the water, stripping line, and then it lets go.

Finally got a rockfish on board, my first China rockfish.  Cool little feeshes.  Piggie shaped like the quillback.  Had another really heavy hit, and did the back and forth for about 30 seconds, maybe longer - line stripping out, rod tip in the water, turning the crank and watching the spool go the other way.  Got the fish within 8 feet of the boat (saw the albright knot connecting my fluoro topshot to the spectra, which is 8 feet), and then gone.  Damn...

Got a black rock fish shortly after that, and then basically nothing.  A bunch of hits but no stick, the occasional underling.

Landed a smallish canary, they are very pretty.  Tossed it back in, I think it came up with barotrauma, which is hard to believe given that it came up from about 70 feet.  Not sure if it made - I need to figure out a good descender.

Had another good fight, this time a 16" Cabezon.  Since it was on the bottom end of keeper, and since it fought hard, I tossed it back in.

After that, I got another good bump, and fish on!  Similar to the first two big fights, but this one was on for sure.  I got the net ready, brought the fish up, and realized I had a double on.  Went to net under the big one on the lure, and of course the one shrimp fly, between the fish on top and the fish on the bottom, snags the net.  The big fat cabezon that was on the lure managed to snap the leader.  Double Damn!!  I netted the fish that was still on the top fly, and turns out it was a female kelp greenling.  Really pretty fish.  And it got to go back as well.

Reset my gear, dropped down, got a good solid hit, and felt the leader give again.  this time it was at the top dropper loop.  Swimbait and two shrimp flies go bye bye.

Which was about it for fish for the rest of the morning.  The swell started getting bigger and bigger, and I finally decided that "one more drop" was enough.  Dropped in, this time with just a jig head and swimbait body.  got a couple of taps, and then a good solid hit.  Had a brief, intense fight, and brought up a ling that was 2" shy of keeper.  lucky bastard.

Headed back in, got into the breaker zone off the beach, and decided to ride in with the drive in place and the rudder down.  I have done this on the past two trips, and it works if I jump off in waist deep water, and then pull the drive and stow the rudder.  Which was my plan.  Got into what was waist deep water right about the time that a wave broke right behind me, and turned the boat.  I leaned hard against the wave, and managed to keep the boat upright, I started to straighten the boat out (when I should have just jumped in), and got turned again by the next breaker, and failed to brace.  Got rolled, but nothing got away.

No joy at Nehalem - got there, took a brief nap in the car before putting in.  Salmon were jumping, finning and rolling all around me.  I realized quickly that they were not going to buy what I was selling - I was pulling a chartreuse and green alvin behind a green kone-zone.  Since they were on the surface, I tried buzzbombing them as well.  neither thing worked.  But it was very pretty, and cool to see.

I am exhausted.  Pics to come, although there are only one or two.

Cheers,
Madoc

Nice report, sounds like you had pretty good action. Sometimes the suckers just wont stick. way to get out there..

Those rockies that won't stick are lings and cabbies. They're really good at playing around biting the end of your plastic and holding on for the ride. I've landed a few that hitch hiked to the surface but it's a delicate dance. I've also almost huli'd trying to set the hook on some of them. Pole saw me do that and just about bust his gut. It must have looked hilarious.

Z

Some Pics!


I normally stop at the parking lot to stretch my legs after the drive, use the toilet, and get into my drysuit.  Yesterday was cloudy in the AM, but really pretty.  The clouds in the east were showing a nice pink/red glow.  Which made me worry a little bit, (red sky in the morning...).


Kelp greenling are really pretty fish.  My pic doesn't do it justice.  This girl came up on the top shrimp fly on my dropper rig, and a fat cabezon on the swimbait that is the bottom.  Lost the cabbie, but landed the greenling.  First greenling, CPR'd.


Finally, my first AOTY entry.  A nice little China rockfish.  Much, much prettier fresh out the water than after eight hours on ice.  But since my on the water cameraman antics suck, this is what we get.  These guys are much, much tougher than the Black and Blues - skin is much harder, the scales are tougher, and the spines are bigger.  Similar to the quillback.

Cheers,
Madoc

Beautiful greenie! Thanks for the pics Madoc.

Z