Bottom fish on the fly

The yummy kind of fish!!!

Blue or Deacon?   

-Allen

Yes.   

Snopro and to the rest this story as funny and weird as it seems is true. Just got my yak and it wasn't quite salmon season in the bay so there was some boats in the bay. Heard about Cali buts in the bay (around the North Bend bridge and the railroad bridge) and that nobody ever fishes for them on purpose. So I gave it a go "mind you with a flyrod" people thought that I was crazy anyway fishing from a kayak. Ended up with two fish about 10lbs a piece, boy was excited! Got back to the boat ramp and the usual small talk about fish and saw you out there and that you in the wrong spot and  getting pointers on how to do things. I said that I wasn't salmon fishing and that I was fishing for halibut. The weird looks that I got from everybody no you fish for halibut out in the ocean not in the bay and especially not from a kayak or with a flyrod. Once they saw the fish the questions started to flow. Now we need to remember that the boat ramp was the BLM one on the north spit of the Coos River so there are houses on the other side. People who don't have anything better to do love to watch the fishermen and clamers and they call the State Police when fishing laws are broken (use of high powered spotting scopes to see who is breaking the law) well buy time I got questions answered and the kayak loaded on the truck mister State Policemen had arrived. Ask the usual questions and told me that the halibut season was not open and that there was a big stiff fine for taking them out of season. I let him see the fish and told him that they were Cali buts and told him about the difference-tail, lat. line, the mouth and that the Pacific but was diamond shape and that Cali. was more of a football shape. He stood there for a moment scratching his head and said he just didn't know. So to find out for sure he said follow him over to OSU Marine Biology school in Charleston. we get there and the school out for summer and the people that are there are on a week long ocean sampling work shop. Ok, lets go to the docks the fishermen will know. Ask a couple of fishermen and the answer we got was "Yup those are Halibuts" So by this time the State Policemen was getting more confused so I said lets call the Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport they would know. I gave him the name of a professor that I knew that work there so he called and said we where going up there the next day since it was late afternoon. He let me take the fish home but I couldn't clean them and had to freeze them whole. The next day he pick me and the fish up and drove to Newport. We talk about the fish on the way up and he was really curious about them and that he was still new in the job and learning was a everyday thing. We got to the Science Center the professor met use at the parking lot really excited (guess somewhere in the phone call it got lost that I had caught them in Coos Bay and not at Newport) the professor ID them as Cali buts and wanted to know when and how and the time and a bunch of other questions. Once he found out that I had caught them in Coos Bay the professor was bum out saying that they are pretty common down there and not so much up here and that why he was all excited about them. So mister State Policemen said he was sorry and that he had learn a lot about both kinds. So over lunch that he bought we talk more about fish and game rules and how hard it was to keep up on everything because  everything changes or something new pops up.

That!  ... is an awesome story!

-Allen

Thanks for writing that.  Great read. 

Maybe its just me but part of OSP training for those dealing with wildlife should include an hour on how to use a dichotomous key (and gogle image ). In your case it sounds like the officer was a good guy but it was a waste of time besides his training.

I'm surprised more people don't target them in CB.  Are they there year round?

What is the limit on Calibuts in Oregon? 

Yeah, I'm too lazy to go look for myself.   

What is the limit on Calibuts in Oregon? 

Yeah, I'm too lazy to go look for myself.   

It should be the same as flounder, so 25 of them per day, any size.

What is the limit on Calibuts in Oregon? 

Yeah, I'm too lazy to go look for myself.   

It should be the same as flounder, so 25 of them per day, any size.

Nice! 

I would love to get a mess of them.

Thanks to the damn furballs, we don't have crap for flat fish population up here in the north coast bays.