You guys should hear that John (Pilar) is now an ocean expert! He can tell ya the co-ordinates to halibut hot spots or about anything you'd need to know about running bars; saltwater type or otherwise . His now larger blue fiberglass boat "Pilar", so named after Earnest Hemmingway's boat the Pilar, is a well know fixture on the Columbia for the sturgeon fishery also. John has more good stories than most old seahags, and he ain't old yet. Most of his stories start with "This ain't no [Bleeeeep!]". Really cool to have you here dude! ...

Your story above is eerily like one I had concerning the gas tank part of it. I was fishing Bouy 10 for slivers many years ago in a small flat bottom sled with just a 6 gallon portable gas tank. The 3 of us had 5 fish as the tide started to ebb. You know how much ya want to limit the boat when you're that close and fish are still around; and we were still hooking but losing some. I knew the Columbia bar isn't a place to be on the outgoing tide, despite the good weather; but we HAD to get that last fish. After the tide started to run fast and strong I'd have to pick up and run up to 12 or so and start backtrolling herring again. We finally got our fish. But by this time the swift current and growing swells were such that we could only slowly gain ground at full throttle. Unnerving for sure! I didn't want to drift half way to Hawaii. But the real scare came when I lifted the gas can and it was almost EMPTY. Yikes!!!! And I hadn't cleared Clatsop spit yet, so had to stay out in the stronger current making slow headway. We finally got up past the spit so I could move over into slower water and also be closer to shore in case we had to paddle or swim for it. Well, I don't know how that tiny amount of gas lasted, but it got us to just short of the Hammond boat basin entrance where we were able to row to the docks. Whew!!! Lesson learned! Big time.

RT