Sturgeon, 2006

TyBoo

TyBoo

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Staff member
I stuck the boat in the water this evening, and I always worry about it the first couple of nights. So I came up with this grand idea. I am going down to stay on the boat tonight, and go sturgeon fishing in the morning. I am also taking a couple crab pots along. If the wind is blowing like it was this morning, I will probably skip the trip west for the crabbing and go to my old favorite spot for sturgeon. If the wind is blowing there, then I got the shakedown run for the boat covered just the same. So there. That's a plan. It's not even midnight yet and I am almost ready to go. Such a deal.
 
What a life I tell ya, what a life.
I am stuck at work sleep working and you are out there sleep boating.
I think I wanna trade...

As I once heard from a wise old Millwright... "If I didn't get paid I'd have to quit..." or something to that effect...
 
That was fun. Caught one sturgeon of legal size (let him go). I got one legal crab, too. I guess them crabs only like turkey legs around Thanksgiving. Had a dozen or so in the pots, but only one was big enough. I thought them things were supposed to grow over the winter?

Great morning. Enough of a breeze to make anchor fishing difficult, but the water was smooth enough to make crab pot grabbing easy. Good thing, because one of the kids took the telescoping boat pole out of the boat to get a frisbee or something out of a tree. She's grounded as soon as I find out which one.

The boat ran great. Kay's new contraption works real good.
 
Excellent -- a Stoijin! Do you fish the flats?

Yup, the crabs should be goin downhill...this month is the last of them until September. Try chicken...I haven't had that good of luck with turkey. Further down the coast, I've heard Waldport is better than Newport for some reason...and they just flat out don't come in if there's too much rain in the water.

Anyhow, I'm hopin we might get to Waldport the weekend after Cathlamet to see if we can get a few crab....freezer's empty...almost void of fish as well :-( BUT the CatyMae is BACK! Yeeeehaaaaa!
 
Tyboo, do you rinse the anchor chain off after anchoring in the salt? I have yet to put the anchor out in the salt and am kind of affraid to do it. Maybe I'm just being paranoid. :smilep
 
flapbreaker":145x9xww said:
Tyboo, do you rinse the anchor chain off after anchoring in the salt? I have yet to put the anchor out in the salt and am kind of affraid to do it. Maybe I'm just being paranoid. :smilep
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How in the world did I miss this one in this thread? Nope - I have never bothered to rinse the chain that is below deck when stowed. The river water is brackish at most, and is even less salty than that at low tide. The galvanized chain has never shown signs of rust or electrolysis, but I imagine it would if used in true saltwater. The PS guys probably have a better feel for this one since they can't get out of the salt.

We are going out early in the morning to drop a couple crab pots and then try for some sturgeon. Two friends will be at the dock at 6:00 am. Tiff wants to stay on the boat tonight so I reckon that's what we'll do. If the wind isn't blowing 20 kts like it was most of today we will stay out there a while tomorrow, otherwise we will probably quit after a couple hours when we grab the pots at high slack.
 
TyBoo":1wls7p0a said:
We are going out early in the morning to drop a couple crab pots and then try for some sturgeon. Two friends will be at the dock at 6:00 am. Tiff wants to stay on the boat tonight so I reckon that's what we'll do. If the wind isn't blowing 20 kts like it was most of today we will stay out there a while tomorrow, otherwise we will probably quit after a couple hours when we grab the pots at high slack.
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Tomorrow morning at high slack and later, two of us will be paddling with the tide down from Knappton to Ilwaco, wind permitting. Shall we pull those pots and check them for you? :roll: :lol:
 
Flapbreaker,
I always use my anchor in the saltwater. I does get a rinse at the end of the season before winter storage. The hot-dipped galvanized coating on the chain and anchor is probably the most durable and rust-resistant coating there is.
 
flapbreaker,

I think it's more important to rinse off any mud or sticky sand from the anchor and chain than just salt water. Damp, salty mud can start rust spots.
 
AstoriaDave":3gh5suls said:
Tomorrow morning at high slack and later, two of us will be paddling with the tide down from Knappton to Ilwaco, wind permitting. Shall we pull those pots and check them for you? :roll: :lol:
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I would be afraid that our heavily laden crab pots might upset that paddle craft. But by all means, look for a green flat-top CD25 somewhere on the south side of the sands past Hammond (or above Warrenton if the wind is blowing) and shake an oar at us or something! If the boat will sit still at anchor, we'll probably be down toward the west end so you, being a young man, can paddle on across to the OR side and say howdy. I'll get the camera out and put it with the boat stuff right now so maybe we'll get a snap or two of you.
 
TyBoo":1ry0oukj said:
If the boat will sit still at anchor, we'll probably be down toward the west end so you, being a young man, can paddle on across to the OR side and say howdy.
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Ouch. Ya really know how to hurt a 61-year old guy! I think we'll only see you on radar from our side of the river. Catch a keeper for me!
 
No fish - not even a bite that we were sure of. We did get 8 good crabs out of twenty or so. What a gorgeous day it is on the river. No wind, no chop - just sunshine and smooth water. No sign of Dave in is kayak, though. Of course, he could have snuck by while I was napping and the others just didn't bother to mention it.
 
TyBoo":2jb41s8n said:
No sign of Dave in his kayak, though. Of course, he could have snuck by while I was napping and the others just didn't bother to mention it.
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You had about fifty crabs in those pots, with the thirty you did not see all gorgeous keepers, and they barely fit into our back hatches! :wink: :wink: :lol:

Stealth kayaks are the stuff these days ... we actually bogarted in the face of a strong wind forecast, and did a Knappton - Rocky Point round trip, making use of the tide both ways. Very pleasant. Beautiful day, best one this spring!

Might comfort you to know that the two large party boats out of Ilwaco we saw anchored off Grays Point showed absolutely no sturgeon action, just a lot of beer drinking, judging from the water temp downstream. :oops: :P
 
No fish for us either...we DID catch crab on our fishing rods -- only females tho, so we didn't get any to bring home...and WOW did the wind show up just after noon -- I'll load a picture later..whew!!!
 
OK, Mike. Here's a goal for ya.

sturgeon.jpg


this Sturgeon was caught in the Fraser River just above the Mission bridge in Canada. It weighed over 1,000lbs and measured 11'1" and 56" around the girth. Oh, and it was also said that it took 4 guys over 6 and a half hours and 4 dozen beers to bring it in.

Too bad it wasn't from a C-Dory.
 
OK - that's it. Last weekend I spent three days in 90º sun making concrete and a dog fence for the back yard. Today they made me go to work for half a day. The dog fence still isn't done, but I decided the stupid mutts can just poop in the house because me and the kids are going fishing tomorrow. In fact, I just dunked the boat and we are going to stay on it tonight. See ya later................
 
Zero on the fish. Fishing was good, though. Quiet, too. The kids and I stayed on the boat Saturday night, and before leaving for fishing in the morning both girls had very traumatic events happen to them that stressed G'pa out, too. It was a tragedy - first Tiffany touched one of Jamie's pretzels, and then Jamie touched Tiffany. My goodness - how much can you expect those poor children to endure? Anyhow, it was looking like the day would be more than I could endure, so I took them home and still made it out there in time for the tide turn.

I only heard of one keeper caught out there, and just a couple other shorts. Me thinks that with no smelt run, the ocean sturgeon don't bother coming in to look for the dead ones. I guess there was a ton of boats up around Tongue Point.
 
TyBoo":3la8d5l5 said:
Zero on the fish. Fishing was good, though. Quiet, too. The kids and I stayed on the boat Saturday night, and before leaving for fishing in the morning both girls had very traumatic events happen to them that stressed G'pa out, too. It was a tragedy - first Tiffany touched one of Jamie's pretzels, and then Jamie touched Tiffany. My goodness - how much can you expect those poor children to endure? ....
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I thought I felt a disturbance in the force this weekend. :wink:
My weekend was much worse but here's not the place to share. I'll suffice to say that I long for days when my kid problems were that simple...
 
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