Report: Yaquina Bay 12-22-10

My little bro is in town for the week so we took the kayaks down to Newport to cruise around the bay.  Weather was beautiful!  We lucked out and didn't get any rain.  A breeze picked up around noon which made our return trip easier.  We headed out to the finger jetties and I managed a decent black for dinner.  I caught a couple of small blues and one other small rockfish that I couldn't quite ID.  Anyone want to guess? It's the second attachment.  I somehow snagged a little baby rockfish right through the belly.  At one point I got hung up on what I thought was rocks.  I couldn't work it free and was afraid I was going to loose my three-hook setup.  It finally gave way but had a little extra weight on it.  I reeled it up and found I had somehow managed to impale a sun starfish right through the center.  We stopped and chatted with a friendly spear fisherman who was working one of he bridge stanchions.  Hit up the Rogue Brewery for lunch and some mighty tasty suds after we got off the water.  Felt great to be back on the coast!

Nice work on getting out! Did they demolish the old boat ramp by the brewery like they said they were going to? I thought they should have left it for non-motorized craft, but if they put that nice gravel down, I guess that's pretty good too.

Were you marking any steelhead running through there?

nice report!

I think that might be a kelp rockfish. http://montereybay.noaa.gov/visitor/slideshow/pages/13.html

nice shot of mt.noaa in the background.

Great pics! Its nice to see that someone got out on Wed.
Oh and Merry Christmas everyone!

Mt NOAA or mount Moolahh?

Sell your 1.6 bungalow in Renton, build your 1.1 dream home in Seal Rock with 1/3 commute. A great coup for Newport! Merry Christmas, Lincoln County Tax Collector!

Nice work on getting out! Did they demolish the old boat ramp by the brewery like they said they were going to? I thought they should have left it for non-motorized craft, but if they put that nice gravel down, I guess that's pretty good too.

Were you marking any steelhead running through there?

Didn't see any steel on the sounder.  I probably would not have been able to see them if they were there.  I had to make an emergency repair to my transducer so I wasn't really trusting anything it was telling me except the depth.  Right as we were about to launch I was hooking up my battery and noticed my transducer had been knocked free.  Luckily I had a half-tube of goop in my kayak gear box so I was able to stick it down with that and it worked ok. 

The boat ramp next to the brewery has changed for the better since I was there.  It used to be just a regular cement boat ramp that had barriers across it only making it accessible for launching stuff like kayaks.  Now the cement leads down to the barriers and past that it is all round pebble which is AWESOME!  With fish cleaning tables and bathrooms 30 ft. from the launch it makes the perfect kayak launch spot.

Good deal Rawker! Amazing to get a nice day in amongst all the nutty wx.

I think that might be a kelp rockfish. http://montereybay.noaa.gov/visitor/slideshow/pages/13.html

Kelp rockfish tend to be more green in coloration. The stripes on the gill cover and spotting on the body are pretty clear signs of a blue rockfish.

Z

Great pics!  Hell, I aint seen the sun like that in weeks.