Depoe Bay 1/17

Did not leave the house until 8 due to severe ice the day before. Got to Depoe at 10. Not a parking spot to be had trailer or car. Launch was great, ocean was nice. A little breezy with a fast drift at times. I kept a couple 26 inch Lings and 1 smaller. Released about 6 more. About 12:30 one of my newbie buddy made a rookie mistake and wound up swimming.

Both friends, father and son. Was their 1st time on the ocean in kayaks. Was Justin's maiden voyage in the new to him Hobie he bought from Cameron. We went over emergency plans and safety stuff. I had noticed that he had a fancy tackle crate strapped to the rear deck. I did not think much about it.

Well, I watched them both close when we 1st got out. Everything was fine and we were having fun. Couple hours later. Justin lands 2nd keeper Lingcod. I had moved away a little bit to see how his dad was doing. Justin decided he wanted to put the fish in the front hatch since his rear deck was full of tackle crate. In the process of doing this he flipped the Hobie with the front hatch open. Not sure if I heard him or what but I turned around and saw he was in the water so I hurried over to help. I helped him right the kayak, but it was 80% underwater and the hull was flooded. I did not know how he had done it, but it was a bad scene. I radioed the coast guard for help and since they were already out doing exercises in the area they were on scene in only a couple minutes. They got him in their boat and managed to lash the kayak to their side. I gathered the floating items and headed in.
Once on the dock I learned what he had done. Was definately a learning experience! He did lose 1 rod and some tackle. Several of the handles on his kayak broke under the stress of trying to hoist a fully flooded kayak. May have been while CG was trying to secure it.

In the end everyone was in good spirits and actually still had fun.

Huge THANK YOU TO COAST GUARD STATION DEPOE BAY!!

Sorry to hear about your friend taking a dip. At least it was nice conditions out there, probably made for an easier rescue!

I snagged a parking spot (grass margin) around 0730, and the main parking lot was filling up fast. Got out, turned north. As soon as I reached Government Point, my depthfinder powered off. So my plans to head north to the Deep Reef and work my way back were nixed. Plan B was to fish up shallow where I knew from experience the depths are generally 40-50 ft and it's a rocky bottom, slow rolling a herring and being cognizant of any time I felt my weight bump the bottom so I could reel up a few cranks to prevent snagging (I still snagged up several times anyway).

The smaller lingcod were on a tear. I landed 17 lings total, mostly undersize or up to mid-20 inch range. Ultimately bonked a 32" and a 30", saving that third ling slot for something special. Also picked up some incidental blacks on the herring. The coolest part of the day was seeing a 12-14 pound Chinook salmon chase my herring up to the kayak, not something I was expecting to see in the middle of January. Looked like a feeder fish, kinda lean and very crisp fins.

I found the depthfinder issue when I got home: corroded wire. Easy fix.

Wow. Glad everyone is OK. I made a dumbass move in November and flipped for the second time ever. Lost two expensive setups  and did some swimming. Nice catch, Clayman.

Daniel, Blake n I did Depoe today. Was so cold that half the parking lot asphalt had frozen water on it, causing cars n people to slip a bit.

Only a handful of cars/trailers when we arrived. Breezy n cold to start, but warmed n calmed nicely. Big black on 1st drop, followed by what had to be a huge ling or cab, but got off just before I could see what it was.
Lots of rf schools about, but only a 1/4 of em were biting, but bite was great when we found the right schools, and we didn't get any small fish. My biggest was at least 20". Got my rf limit pretty quick and started targeting lings. Total score for the day was 11 blacks, 10 lings, 2 greenling (a 16.5 and a greedy 17" that attacked my 8" gulp grub on 6oz head), 1 super pretty china and one chunky blue. I think all the lings were probably legal, kept 2 29"ers. Lost a lot of fish, including some that felt a lot bigger.

Daniel and Blake both got rf and ling limits, with a couple cabs beside. Their biggest lings were 28-30"ish, and all the ones I saw at fish cleaning station were barely legal. Overall a very fun and productive day. Would have got some good points if I was doing AOTY this year.