T1B

Buddy of mine went to a tributary off Puget Sound a few years back and him and 3 others caught over 120 pink salmon in one day. They went out the next day and "only" caught 20 or so.

Anymore, I'm just happy if I escape catching West Nile Virus when I go fishing. Damn skeeters around here...

Pshaw. Check out My sockeye.

The greatest day in the history of fishing... is today. Leaving soon for 3 days of fun and frolic on a North Coast bay. If a few salmon don't die, one of my partners is going to. Safe bet that many, many crab will be having their last supper, too.

And we don't have to pay a silly guide to do it, either.

Dinsdale wrote:The greatest day in the history of fishing... is today. Leaving soon for 3 days of fun and frolic on a North Coast bay. If a few salmon don't die, one of my partners is going to. Safe bet that many, many crab will be having their last supper, too.

And we don't have to pay a silly guide to do it, either.

But that means you'll miss the UCLA / Nebraska game.

:o

The Seer wrote:
But that means you'll miss the UCLA / Nebraska game.

I did. But we got off the water in time to watch Oregon dismantle SECSECSEC. Then went back out in the evening.

Crabbing is gax... should have brought a video camera, then you fools could sit there and watch us pull in crabs. But we had a couple of OK days... not great, but OK.

One day's carnage of the nasty little scavengers:





I guess fresh crab is supposed to be some sort of delicacy, but shit's nasty to me.

Our accomodations, a friend's house, didn't suck at all -- freaking house has three seperate master suites.

Friday was fishing all day, with not much success to report, although it was as much of a scouting expedition as anything else, since we've never drifted the tidewater section of one of my very favorite rivers before. And having a hot lunch (brats and some reheated smoked pork loin) on the water never sucks. That grill thing sucks huge horsecocks, but beats no grill. I've had worse days.





I did manage to catch a beastly big cutthroat trout, which I would have released, but he hit a huge lure, and got himself in the gill -- bleeders go in the boat, if they're a legal keeper. But I guess I didn't get a pic of it... it was about 20" and fat.

Dinsdale wrote:

rack the Cinder reset

here's the "after" pic

Dinsdale wrote:

I did manage to catch a beastly big cutthroat trout, which I would have released, but he hit a huge lure, and got himself in the gill -- bleeders go in the boat, if they're a legal keeper. But I guess I didn't get a pic of it... it was about 20" and fat.

a 20" cutthroat?
sounds more like a cutbow....

in any event that's a big fucking trout

Felix wrote:
a 20" cutthroat?
sounds more like a cutbow....

in any event that's a big fucking trout

No cutbows on the coast. In Oregon, I believe they're mostly in the Deschutes and McKenzie systems. And we call them "redbands," or "redsides." Don't know why the rainbows and cutthroat never interbred on the coastal streams... maybe they spawn at slightly different times. But cutbows are pretty much an inland-stream thing. Or maybe there needs to be a native summer steelhead population to get them (although I've never heard of them on the Slitz, Umpqua, or Rogue, which are the coastal streams with native summer steel).

On the coast streams, we have sea-run cutthroat. Not the long-distance ocean voyagers thast salmon and steelhead are, they remain fairly close to shore, and only stay in the salt a few months. They return about this time of year, pretty much following the chinook.

And they get BIG. Over the years, I've caught many in that size range (many).

Fucker hit a 4.5" trolled plug (Maglip, like anyone cares). Very surprised that it hit a lure that big, but they are pretty aggresive. Would have released it if it wasn't a bleeder. Those are all native (no cutthroat hatcheries, thank goodness), and are starting to recover from low numbers 10-15 years ago, and I try to do my part.

KC Scott wrote:cool pic of the crab catch. Hard to believe the claws wern't PDG

Any pics / details of the traps / pots?

Guessing it was something like Deadliest catch where you throw some chum in the trap then throw 'em in overnight?

Basic crab pots of rings. Pretty simplistic. Bait them up, toss them out on the incoming / flood tide, go fish/drink beer for an hour or so, then pull them.

Dins may be one of those guys who throws the whole crab in the pot with out backing and gutting it, but I really doubt it.

Derron wrote:Dins may be one of those guys who throws the whole crab in the pot with out backing and gutting it, but I really doubt it.

I'm not... but the people who cooked them are. They're familiar with the other way, just too much work for them, I guess. As for me, catching them is too much work. Crabbing is for greenhorns who can't catch a fish. I would have just as soon trolled the whole time at the Forks (we were in Nehalem, in case you didn't figure it out). Well, OK, maybe not the "whole time," since Nehalen has the unique opportunity (that I know of) to park the boat and walk up to the bar, while being able to watch the boat/gear. There's no downside to that.

Scott - not really like Deadliest Catch (like I ever watch that. Hell, I can sit on the beach and watch commercial crabbers do their thing, the idea people watch it on TV makes me howl). We're on a small (and really slow) boat... we actually have to be able to pull them up... by hand.

We used 3 different types, but they look something like this:



They're about 2' X 2' X 8", or thereabouts. And when they get full, they're plenty heavy to pull up. We can only keep males (easily identifiable), and they must be at least 5.75" between... whatever the notch things on the shell are called (I used to know this). That's a small percent, so you have to sort through a few hundred to get a limit (we didn't limit any day, but they season is just starting again - in summer, the bay is too warm, and they go to the ocean to molt, and I don't really do ocean fishing, mostly due to lack of suitable boat, and it's dangerous, and it pretty much sucks outside of the excellent fishing... but I'll get out for tuna one of these years). And there's few things I enjoy more than sticking my hand in a trap full of angry crabs with pinchers a-snappin. Only got it once, and it didn't cut my finger up much.

Fuck that - it's fall salmon season, and the runs are awesome this year. Might go with a new fishing friend to the Big C (that would be the Columbia) tomorrow (not sure yet), and get into the biggest run since they started counting them. After 75 years, we actually have figured a couple things out that weren't helping, and the fish are starting to come back strong, although they still let the Commercials rape the river too hard. The Creek isn't my favorite place to fish at all, but it's in town, and has the most fish of any river in the world, so it's got that going for it. Only problem is you need to bring a lawyer to decipher the regulations that change every few days. Watercops are usually cool about the nitpicky shit, though.