Monday, 08/02

Howdy all,

Can't resist the call of the ocean much longer.  And it looks like Monday is going to be a pretty decent day to be launching from PC.

I'll probably hit the beach around 8am, maybe a little earlier, maybe a little later.  I'm booked on another tuna charter on Sunday, so I may be wiped out by that point. 

Okay, Ling Banger convinced me to stick around Depoe Bay after getting off of the charter.  So I'm hoping to launch at first light out of Depoe Bay for a little rockfish and ling cod action (Who wants to place bets we hook into a halibut or an enormous Cabbie?).

I'm going to have to be off of the water by noon, as I actually have work to do up here in Portland.  So if anyone wants to join in the fun off of Depoe Bay, then by all means, let us know.

hmmmm i was thinking of staying around town since I have a photo shoot to do at 5... I'll have to think on it...

Late report - things are going as things go, which means crazy town when you get back from a fishing expedition.

Anyway.  Sunday's Tuna charter was decent - I had fun, the boat crew was professional and the other people on the charter were excited to fish and worked well as a team, which made for a solid trip.  My only complaint, and I think it is just me being greedy, is that we only boated 31 fish, and there were 10 of us fishing.  So that only translated to 3 fish for me.  Not that I really need more fish, but hey, like I said, I'm greedy.  I think I may be done doing the basic trolling charter, or at least I only need to do one once a year.  No, I want a little more action - hanging out in the back of a boat waiting for a single hookup on 8-10 lines is boring.  Give me a troll hookup, and then jigging or baitcasting into a boil.  If that had been the fishing, instead of just trolling around, 3 fish would have been awesome.

Sunday night I hung out with Ling Banger in Depoe Bay.  That made things much, much easier on me, as far as the exhaustion part goes.  It was also coo to hang out and talk (and eat - fresh grilled tuna collars, steak, zucchini, yums).

Monday morning we paddled out of the Bay, and headed south for to see if we could find a trough of Lings.  It was choppy and there was a pretty chilly wind early on, but things smoothed out nicely and the fishing picked up.  I hooked up with a bunch of underlings, a couple of small cabbies, a small rockfish, and then got a double - an underling and a decent sized black rockfish.  Kept the rockfish on the stringer, and then bumped around a bit looking for something to bite.  Brought up a 24" ling, which went on the stringer, and then kept getting short strikes.  Finally stuck one (slow retrieve, and then a slow, strong takedown).  I had the drag almost at zero at that point, since I had just had to replace the dropper (broke the swivel off on the reef).  fighting back and forth, and then up comes a nice big mint colored ling.  Sweet!  26" on the hawg trough, so no AOTY upgrade, but the fish was a really good shade of blue-green.  Keeper.  It hit on a lipstick red colored 5" swimbait, if anyone is curious

Kept bumping around, and found some more good sized lings, and then on the way back in another double with a rockfish and a greenling.  rockfish stayed with me, greenling went back in.  One more greenling, which got tossed back in, and then back into the bay.

Over all, a really nice couple of days.  Looking at the forecast, I wish I could clear my schedule and go out for Tuna again, and then maybe launch from PC.  Oh well.

Man, I really got to get back up there. These reports have me jonesing!