Port Orford 8/28

How do I know?  crash came to town while he was still quite justifiably pissed with me, but I ran down the hill and gave him advice on how to fish the coves (at that time of year), he caught fish, posted it here, but didn't go into specifics.  And I didn't ask him to keep it confidential.  We shouldn't have to.  We're fellow members of NWKA.  We do not do that to each other.

I don't hold grudges and our mutual offenses are minor.  You did rage quit the facebook group after I posted the report though. 

I also wouldn't bother going out of my way to fish those little coves.  The offshore structure is epic and not heavily pressured.  It has pretty well recovered from the devastation of the trawling fleets of years past and intensive public/private/industry coalition efforts.  It's also at a Cape and its not for beginners or even intermediate paddlers.  It can get downright nautical.  Those little coves at PO aren't anything remarkable though fishing wise and if I were going to do a quick hit for some quality rockfish I'd stop at sunset or brookings depending on which way I came from and only bother hitting them if I was in the area for another reason.

Now lets talk about steelhead and salmon fishing the sixes and elk.  Now that is worth the trip. 

Did I whine?  Maybe a little, I won't deny it.  I was plenty angry when the lookie-loos clogged the coves the day after the post.  That's what happens down here, in this area, when that level of detail gets published.

You really think that 20+ kayakers converged onto Port Orford on a Tuesday to fish all because of a NWKA post vaguely generalizing fishy looking coves catching mostly average (no offense) fish?

One fish over on a new sublimit for someone from out of state with regs book in hand and trying to follow the rules certainly seems minor in the grand scheme of things.  For Dilbert fans, this is not a damnable moment to rot in Hell for all eternity, but he could probably be darned to Heck for 5 minutes.

Yes, agreed.  I apologize for being so strong worded on my second reply, making an accusation of poaching when it was just a mistake.

Did I whine?  Maybe a little, I won't deny it.  I was plenty angry when the lookie-loos clogged the coves the day after the post.  That's what happens down here, in this area, when that level of detail gets published.

You really think that 20+ kayakers converged onto Port Orford on a Tuesday to fish all because of a NWKA post vaguely generalizing fishy looking coves catching mostly average (no offense) fish?

Yes I do. Matt - and no offense taken because the fish are only medium-sized at best.  You have to understand the area.

The "coves" are only coves in name.  They're short, narrow cracks in the bluffs.  Call one out by name and you've narrowed a fishing spot down to a 100-foot diameter circle.

When the guy on the Sevylor raft passed me on his way out, he asked if I'd read about [this place] online, too.  A bit later I asked a guy in a tiny SINK why he kept crowding in on me and he answered that a friend called to tell him there are reports of easy fishing "over in those coves", but he wasn't ready to get too far from someone (me) with "all the stuff" - okay, this last one I'm reading between the lines a bit and "all the stuff" meant immersion gear and electronics, because he had neither.  Nor did anyone else who passed close enough to me to see them clearly have "all the stuff".

Does that mean the others rushed here because of something posted online?  Honestly, the answer is much more likely yes than no.  There were six or eight people out there with "all the stuff".  The others were tossing whatever they could find into the sea and, by God, going fishing "over in those coves".  We never see that.

YMMV

The Port Orford tourism website is pretty informative.  Take your kayak out and fish Nelly's Cove.  It's on the damn brochure!

http://www.enjoyportorford.com/fishing.html

What's more likely?  They saw a random report on NWKA and decided to go fishing right away or they read your tourism page and took it up on it's advice on where to go fishing?

btw on the wild rivers coast FB page we are trying to decide between Rogue Bay for salmon and PO for bottomfish.  If you see a bunch of hobies well west of teichinor rock on the way to the cape reef, that's probably us.  We'll be on 69 if you want to shout howdy.

If you look forlorn enough, there's a private dive boat that might offer to mothership you to the reef.  He offered to take surfs12foot and I out last Monday, but I think surfs12foot was the one with a forlorn look on his face - he looks forlorn in those brief moments when he doesn't have a fish on the hook - and the skipper took pity on him.  I was a mere afterthought.   

The Port Orford tourism website is pretty informative.  Take your kayak out and fish Nelly's Cove.  It's on the damn brochure!

http://www.enjoyportorford.com/fishing.html

What's more likely?  They saw a random report on NWKA and decided to go fishing right away or they read your tourism page and took it up on it's advice on where to go fishing?

btw on the wild rivers coast FB page we are trying to decide between Rogue Bay for salmon and PO for bottomfish.  If you see a bunch of hobies well west of teichinor rock on the way to the cape reef, that's probably us.  We'll be on 69 if you want to shout howdy.

The Pacific Ocean – In a kayak, canoe, or rowboat, you can catch bottom fish, including lingcod, kelp greenling, red snapper, cabezon (a rockfish), and black snapper just waiting to snap up your bait around N***’s Cove. Or charter a boat at the dock for bigger fish. There are more than fifty species of fish in the deep waters off shore.

Canoe or rowboat? Sheesh! Bad, if not downright dangerous suggestion. No mention of safety or the often rapidly changing local conditions (winds). Red snapper? Black snapper? hmmm... Also, cabezon are not rockfish; they're a sculpin. Who wrote that stuff on the brochure? Maybe someone who knows what they're talking about should rewrite that paragraph. I haven't been there for quite some time, but I've dove & fished PO in my yak since the '90s & never seen that many people out there. Although it's common knowledge among locals, I'm not saying where I think the best spot is.

I didn't think the info that I posted on Monday was anything that would not be obvious to someone looking at a chart on their own.

That was exactly my reaction. I've looked at PO on Google Earth several times and those just seem to be the obvious places to fish. I affects me like "don't tell anyone you were fishing around the rock at Pacific City!"

I enjoy reading posts about other poeoples success and thought I was returning the favor. Apperantly I was wrong.

You aren't wrong, and I enjoyed it. Sounds like it's a small community of kayak fishermen down there who are understandably already weary of growing pains. Unfortunately with Oregon being in the top 1/4 of the states in terms of growth it's only going to get worse.

QFT:

The Port Orford tourism website is pretty informative.  Take your kayak out and fish Nelly's Cove.  It's on the damn brochure!
http://www.enjoyportorford.com/fishing.html

Thanks everyone for all the input, Tinker included. He went out of his way to be nice to me when we met on the beach and I appreciate that. I regret the limit screw up and the toes that got stepped on. We love Port Orford and had a great vacation.  As I said earlier all of the people we met there seemed like great people. Unfortunately you can't separate tourist money from tourist impact. I hope the town can manage it well and stay small thriving community.