Pacific City 6/4 Report

Yaknitup and I hit the beach a tad after six. Fog was so thick that the rock was not even visible. No wind and hardly noticeable surf. I marked the beach on my backup hand held GPS and we headed out. I had more depthfinder problems, cuda 250, this time I had plenty of power and the GPS worked but it showed no depth?? . The blacks were on the surface and after some experimenting I had a limit at about 25-30ft, in about 70ft of water.  LOTS of bait balls and birds.  Had several schools of herring/anchovies etc come out of the water as they were chased ( I will be taking my sabiki rigs from now on).  The Dahl porpoises were out in force.  Had one surface at 30yrds headed at me then surfaced at 10 yard then I watched its sleek form slide under my yak at about 5ft deep.  The lings were cooperating too.  Yaknitup scored a monster (I'm sure he will post a pic) and I had 2 keepers and then released 3 more keepers, some bigger than my smallest keeper, that will teach me to keep the first keepers I catch . My largest ling promptly spit up 3 fresh 10 inch sardines upon hitting the deck, and then when I cleaned it, it had a skate? in its stomach (pic below).  Great company and great conditions!

Dang!  Looks like a nice day on the water!
Thanks for the report!

Fascinating and fun read.  Thanks for sharing.

looks like a great day and nice catch.. great job

Yeah, it was a fun day for sure! It was Lake Pacific all day. Barely any wind, small swells, no current, no sun... The only thing that wasn't lacking was the sea life! As pelagic paddler said, birds and bait balls everywhere, porpoises were hanging out, and I'm pretty sure we heard a few whale blows though it's tough to spot spouts when it's so gray everywhere. The thick fog ended up breaking up about half way through our morning, but then seemed to want to come right back again.

I was having to work a bit for some fish at times. The fish were there for sure, you just had to find 'em. After a pretty long fight I landed a 36", 14 lb. ling, a personal best for me so far. With that fish comes a story though that is rather embarrassing. Let me just say, don't use a gaff hook to hold up and show your fish from your yak, don't ask me how I know!  ....Ok, Ok, if you must know, the ling ended up falling off the gaff, into the water, and the gaff ended up sticking my thumb pretty good, all in one brainless motion. <- that pretty much sums up how I felt! Luckily, I had set my reel into freespool when I pulled him on board and the hook was still set really well. I was also fortunate that I had my first aid kit!

That fish ended up being enough for me, the rest of the morning was C&R, and doing my best to take in the great conditions. Thanks a lot pelagic paddler, had a blast!

To give you an idea of what the fog looked like when we first got out




pelagic paddler scored a nice China rock

Great report. Thanks for taking the time. That is a flat sea!

Holy Monster Lings Batman!!!!!

   

Wow, that is some flat water!   Nice ling Yakintup!  PP, your freezer must be full by now! 

Any dory's going out that day?     

Thanks guys!
Yeah there were a few dorys out. They waited for the fog to clear up so they started showing up a little later.



(yes, I cut out the embarrassing parts! )

Awesome vid bro.  Fat fat ling! 

Sweeeeeet!  What did he hit?
-Scott

HEY!  Where's the part where you impale yourslef and loose the fish?  That's the best part! 

HEY!  Where's the part where you impale yourslef and loose the fish?  That's the best part! 

Yes, we all want to see THE BEST PART!!!

-Allen

ok, ok, fine!! As damaging as it is to my pride, it is pretty damn funny. You can see it coming from a mile away! If I would have only turned the gaff around.. The look on my face as the fish starts to fall off is priceless!
I need a good cup-'o-fail every once in a while that's for sure. Enjoy!

http://s229.photobucket.com/albums/ee181/jephree_a/?action=view&current=gafffail.flv

Man.. Jeff, you really need one of those $150 clipping gaffs.

Let me just say, don't use a gaff hook to hold up and show your fish from your yak, don't ask me how I know!

Actually, I think if you held the gaff with the hook up instead of down you probably would have been okay.   Thanks for sharing.

Brian