Monday, June 27, 2011

I'm On A Boat

I am a logistics coordinator so it is my responsibility to get product from production to our customers as efficiently as possible. Many of our customers require that I use their logistics programs and carriers but we also ship to other customers as prepaid freight so I shop rates and chose the carrier. We like to use brokers, that way we know the drivers are certified, licensed and insured.

One broker has worked with our company for years and offered to take us out fishing Friday. How could I say no, I've never been out to sea other than the ferry between Vancouver and Victoria.

The broker made all the arrangements to charter a 43' boat and have 3 of us to go salmon and halibut fishing off the coast of Newport. We figured that an hour drive to the coast to catch the boat at 5:30am was a little much so we decided to go Thursday night, get a motel room and grab some dinner. We would be well rested and catch the boat bright and early in the morning in plenty of time, right?

We went down to the Rogue Brewery for dinner, this was not one of our better ideas.

We just made it to the boat on time and it was good thing they had coffee on board as we didn't have time for breakfast. Why we paid for a motel room I don't know, we certainly didn't use it. No sleep then eight hours on a boat, can't be that bad can it?

Buh bye land, I'll miss you.

The ride out wasn't too bad, the water smooth with only 2 foot swells and within an hour we were fishing for salmon. Our broker friend/host insisted the fishing would be better if he chummed and proceeded to grab the rail, he then took an hour nap on the bench in the cabin. Good thing I took Dramamine, it's the only thing that kept me from following his lead. The rest of us were all doing well with the boat under power and fishing for salmon but just when we finally found a hot spot and had two on our lines the US Coast Guard showed up.






There was some chatter on the radio but I guess that wasn't good enough, they wanted to come aboard. We had to stop what we were doing, the salmon spit the hooks, the Captain shut off the motors and we had to bring in our gear.








I don't know why they came aboard or what they wanted but they checked the safety gear, life jackets and all the paperwork while the Captain was on the phone to the Oregon State Police, the dock house and the Coast Guard. Everything was handled very well and amicably by both the Captain and the Guard. The radio chatter continued among other fisherman throughout the day, I guess the USCG overstepped their boundaries and were in big trouble.

The Captain was very apologetic for the delay and offered to extend our time and we were back to fishing. Another hour or so went by without a bite, we didn't catch anything and decided we'd switch to halibut fishing.

Pulling up our gear, the 1st mate went to work to switching all our rigging from flashers and spinners to a 2 lb. weight and bait fish. Turns out I do better trolling for salmon with the boat under power than I do drifting for halibut. The wind had picked up, swells increased to 4 and 5 feet all while fishing off the side of the boat. Where did I put that other Dramamine?

I did pull in the first fish of the day, a yellow eye rock fish but had to toss it to the birds as we weren't allowed to keep it.

Capt. Dick with my catch


Another hour and we were finally bringing in some halibut.

My co-worker with the first halibut.

My co-worker brought in two smaller fish while the Admiral hooked a bigger one and handed it off to our broker/host.

I was done for the day, my knees were aching from the all day aerobic workout not to mention being bashed up against the rails all day. My stomach wasn't doing well with the motion of the ocean and lack of food so it was my turn to sit it out.

Land-Ho!






Back in the marina.



The captain and crew treated us very well but a 10 hour fishing trip is too long, I'd be up for another trip but I'd limit it to 5 hours and make the hour long drive to the dock in the morning.




We did land some nice fish, not bad for a group of four guys who could barely see straight at 5am.





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6 comments:

  1. Troubadour,
    For an ex-yachtie, I don't handle big swells too well for the first few hours of any outing and regularly feed the fishes. Maybe you'd have been better off with a quiet night, but there again, it wouldn't have been half the fun :-)

    Haven't had halibut in years - not a local fish in our neck of the woods.

    Thanks for the entertaining post!

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  2. Sounds like a great trip. The last time I went salmon fishing off the Oregon coast was about 40 years ago and I was sick for most of it. Since then, I've done a lot of ocean sailing and never got sick. I blame it on the diesel exhaust...

    It looks like you had beautiful weather and live the shots of the bridge.

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  3. BTW, when is your big off road trip?

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  4. Geoff, why are you fishing in the woods? You are correct, it wouldn't have been as fun.

    Richard, I had to bow out of the off road trip this year, sad panda.

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  5. I am not agreat fisherman, and if your nigh preious was a bit "heavy ', I can understand the way you were felling. Enjoyed the post very much, but what wa the Coast guard up to?

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  6. Rogue brewery, no sleep, no breakfast, and sea fishing. This may not go well. Looks like a beautiful day out on the water though.

    My one and only time out on the ocean started similarly (well, no beer, we were a little young). My cousin and I ended up alternating sleeping and tossing our cookies the whole morning. Fun times.

    I'm not much for fishing, but I would love to go out on the ocean again, perhaps whale watching or something.

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