Tackle For ORC Success

Note that halibut are NOT eligible for the tourney.  Only ling, cab, rockfish, and greenling.

-Allen

I' like to catch a 20 lb. greenling 

imma get me an orca... just a baby one.  you can only keep one a day, right?

Catch, please don't take my above post personally. Although I referenced you, it is not about you specifically. I've never met you or know anything about you. You possibly may have many more hours logged upon our mother ocean than myself or other more experienced kayakers.

I just spend a lot of time in and around that particular port, and when a kayaker screws the pooch I hear about it. Whether he was NWKA or "just fishing" or a tourer, I hear "one of your paddle buddies got caught with his pants down."

Hopefully no hard feelings Catch, hope to see you at Chinook Bend. :-)

Let me offer an opinion on experience, hopefully to back up the point you're making. 

In learning anything where safety is a factor, the learning process can be divided up in three phases:

First: Curious, unaware, excited
Second:  Adventurous, over-confident, and brash
Third: Humble, safe, and limited

I've only kayaked for around eight years, off and on, and not in the salt; but I've been a daily motorcycle rider for 16 years.  I see a lot of people - regardless of time in the saddle - stay stuck in that second phase.  Same type of person to paddle out past the limits to catch that halibut because "they can handle it".  I've gone out with motorcycle groups on Meetup.com entirely composed of people caught in that middle - and left because it wasn't safe.

I'm confident enough to go out in a group of experts and do what they're doing.  If halibut means compromising safety, even if there's a group going for it that are 'qualified' to do so, I'm still not interested.  Talking shit is fun and "going for it" is fun, but a distant second to the fun in being a safe, responsible team player who enjoys an incident-free day on the water

If you're in the Portland area, I'll be hosting a rockfish and lingcod fishing clinic at the Next Adventure Paddle Sports Center on Tuesday June 18th at 7pm. There should be a few of us veteran ocean anglers there that can help answer any of your questions.

Catch, please don't take my above post personally. Although I referenced you, it is not about you specifically. I've never met you or know anything about you. You possibly may have many more hours logged upon our mother ocean than myself or other more experienced kayakers.

I just spend a lot of time in and around that particular port, and when a kayaker screws the pooch I hear about it. Whether he was NWKA or "just fishing" or a tourer, I hear "one of your paddle buddies got caught with his pants down."

Hopefully no hard feelings Catch, hope to see you at Chinook Bend. :-)

Let me offer an opinion on experience, hopefully to back up the point you're making. 

In learning anything where safety is a factor, the learning process can be divided up in three phases:

First: Curious, unaware, excited
Second:  Adventurous, over-confident, and brash
Third: Humble, safe, and limited

I've only kayaked for around eight years, off and on, and not in the salt; but I've been a daily motorcycle rider for 16 years.  I see a lot of people - regardless of time in the saddle - stay stuck in that second phase.  Same type of person to paddle out past the limits to catch that halibut because "they can handle it".  I've gone out with motorcycle groups on Meetup.com entirely composed of people caught in that middle - and left because it wasn't safe.

I'm confident enough to go out in a group of experts and do what they're doing.  If halibut means compromising safety, even if there's a group going for it that are 'qualified' to do so, I'm still not interested.  Talking shit is fun and "going for it" is fun, but a distant second to the fun in being a safe, responsible team player who enjoys an incident-free day on the water

 

-Allen

If you're in the Portland area, I'll be hosting a rockfish and lingcod fishing clinic at the Next Adventure Paddle Sports Center on Tuesday June 18th at 7pm. There should be a few of us veteran ocean anglers there that can help answer any of your questions.

I'm up in Seattle or else I'd be there

If you're in the Portland area, I'll be hosting a rockfish and lingcod fishing clinic at the Next Adventure Paddle Sports Center on Tuesday June 18th at 7pm. There should be a few of us veteran ocean anglers there that can help answer any of your questions.

  I didn't see any feedback on your bottomfishing clinic...how'd it go ?
  Still gonna do an "on the water" follow-up ?
  Details please......

to start, am looking to have fun and learning the salt here and would like to come home with some fresh fish,  will be there Thursday sometime anyone want to partner up Friday and fish?? I NEED to get a feel for the area and am thinking with the tourney going on and all the other yakkers/support boats that this is the best way for me to do it. yes, I am registered but am using this just to learn ya know? am not total clueless have been in salt before just not around here.

am not looking for anyones secrets but could someone tell me what I should bring  as in line test?  also jigs and jig head size?

to start, am looking to have fun and learning the salt here and would like to come home with some fresh fish,  will be there Thursday sometime anyone want to partner up Friday and fish?? I NEED to get a feel for the area and am thinking with the tourney going on and all the other yakkers/support boats that this is the best way for me to do it. yes, I am registered but am using this just to learn ya know? am not total clueless have been in salt before just not around here.

am not looking for anyones secrets but could someone tell me what I should bring  as in line test?  also jigs and jig head size?

Yup. Find the heroes on the water Portland crew and we'll show you around. Jig heads 3-6 oz with as big a swim pair or scampi tail you can find. 30-50 lb test.

to start, am looking to have fun and learning the salt here and would like to come home with some fresh fish,  will be there Thursday sometime anyone want to partner up Friday and fish?? I NEED to get a feel for the area and am thinking with the tourney going on and all the other yakkers/support boats that this is the best way for me to do it. yes, I am registered but am using this just to learn ya know? am not total clueless have been in salt before just not around here.

am not looking for anyones secrets but could someone tell me what I should bring  as in line test?  also jigs and jig head size?

Yup. Find the heroes on the water Portland crew and we'll show you around. Jig heads 3-6 oz with as big a swim pair or scampi tail you can find. 30-50 lb test.

For someone who is just trying to figure out ocean fishing on a kayak I would go with 15 to 25 pound test line, but nothing more heavy.  Since it's your first time fishing on the ocean from a kayak, you are probably going to snag up a lot and your experience will me much more enjoyable if you don't have to try and break ~40 pound line when you do snag up.  If you don't snag up a lot, congrats, you'll still be able to pull in most, if not all of the fish you catch.  That strength of line may fall victim to the gnarly teeth of a big ling, but the trade off you'll be making will be worth it, trust me.  As you get more comfortable with the way the ocean moves and how to feel the bottom, it'll be good to step up to the 30 to 50 pound range.

I run IIRC 50lb braid for the mainline, but add a 20lb mono leader.  Makes it easy to break off if I snag bottom, and at a known weak point.

I like to run a 40lb braided line with a 20lb leader but a 20lb mono line would be just fine for me as well. It's still somewhat hard to break off the leader when I hit a snag, which is not all too often. Just don't leave your jig on the bottom in the event the current moves it into a crevice. Bounce the jig up as soon as you feel it touch. You're going to lose gear bottom fishing but if you're careful it will not be bad. I concur 2-6 oz jigs are good for fishing lings and rockfish, current and conditions dictating what is best. When I don't want to catch the China Rocks or other smaller fish I switch to a 6oz jig with a bigger hook. To bust off from a snag I usually place my hand under the tip of the rod and pull hard to break the leader. Doing it that way doesn't load the rod and it's usually pretty quick.

65# braid, 40# or 50# leader... 40# braid, 30# leader... 1.5-4oz jigs

Hogg's Jo/Mar out in Hillsboro just put out a new shipment of Big Hammer baits. I picked up a dozen Yesterday.

Wobbler

Hogg's Jo/Mar out in Hillsboro just put out a new shipment of Big Hammer baits. I picked up a dozen Yesterday.

Wobbler

Hey Steve, do they have the 6.5" ones?