Brown UGLY's and 10-legged creepy crawly's

Opted out of chasing shiny pretty ones on the big river today and made the decision to chase ugly brown ones in the big blue pond. First ocean voyage for 2015 on the F/V eyeFISH paid off handsomely.

Superstar in the rockfish category was JesseM. Amongst the dozen or so dinker throw backs and the dozen or so keepers, the boy clearly came out on top. Check out this brute!





But ALAS.... Poseidon would soon snuff out his fire as the chop and swell crescendoed to the point where even his precautionary morning dose of Dramamine was rendered utterly ineffective. Down for the count!

Good thing he brought his lovely lady Katie along to pick up the slack as we ventured even FURTHER off shore for even bigger and uglier brown critters. (Yeah, I guess ya find out who yer friends are!) First pass and looky what she bounced up as he lay slumped over in misery....



Lings and big bass continued to hammer our bounced goods seemingly at will.... and who were we to argue? No complaints from f4b....





Even the captain managed to luck into one...



Friggin' FAT-head...



Ms Katie later hooked THE monster ling of the day. Much to her dismay, the critter's massive headshakes and bulldogged determination would eventually earn the unseen leviathan its freedom.

It didn't take much longer for our hotspot to literally BLOW UP... and after taking a good wet one over the transom, we decided to retreat to calmer, more sheltered water. Couple more passes and a few more keeper sized bass and we were content to call it a day. (JesseM, "Lawd have muh'cy, Hallelujah!")

Finished the fishing day by hauling up 7 keeper creepy crawly's out of several dozen in the pots for the evening feast. Pulled out of W'port and ran back to town to deliver some ocean love gifts to a chosen few before heading back for the barn. This is what the team eventually kept for ourselves.



After the requisite cleanup after a good salty excursion, a fine meal was prepared and enjoyed by all. Well.... except for the GLARING absence of crab butter for the captain (GD domoic acid alert!).

Should have been in bed an hour ago after a near-instantaneous case of food coma, but a few moments on the keyboard quickly summoned that dreaded "second wind". Hope it was worthwhile.

Tight lines all.

Fun day. With seasickness you have to get better to die.

Those are some of my favorite days.

Fish on...

Todd

Some goods eats right there.

Last time I got seasick I was skeered I wasn't gonna die! I am older and smarter now and will not go out on the ocean again.

At least I hope I NEVER DO,

fp

Nice! Fun kind of fishing, for sure. Much better in mild conditions, in my opinion, but as long as they're biting, it's all good.

Jealous of what must have been a great meal (and a pretty good time, too.)

Nice jig head!

My kid turned green and puked out there, too, Doc.

To tell the truth, I was feeling a little green myself by the time we got back to the dock.

Nice haul you got there.

Good to see you and TD out there, Dan. Figured it must have been "lights out to limits" fishing when you guys were already headed in as we were just departing.

Calmer conditions prevailed today. Jumped over to King Katosan's boat ALL OUT and found a few more brown uglies.... including a big FLAT half-white one.



And to think I ALMOST missed out on the halibut season for 2015.

Yum.

Fish on...

Todd

Part of that Butt looks familiar.
Thanks,

fp

I don't think Shawn is that ugly.

I think you did better than we did, Doc. I felt bad about leaving the kid at the truck, and I was half green myself, so we called it a day earlier than we would have otherwise. Figures we'd pick the day the water was so rough to giver 'er a go.

I'm too old to put up with turning green to bring fish home.

Pukers are useful....bonus bag limit.

It was funny. The night before we left, his mom said "you'd better take some Dramamine if you're going out on the ocean".

He scoffed and said "OK, mommy." And went about his business.

When he was puking over the rail, I said "Your mom is going to love this."

1 meclizine the night before, 2 in the morning.

This Ornamental went totally "haole boy" with tonight's dinner preparation of the fishy weekend groceries. Not a speck of ginger, green onion, black bean, or rice on the menu. (OMFG, my mom is rolling in her grave!)

Broiled halibut collar and cheeks, dipped in lemon garlic butter... tomato cucumber salad... broiled asparagus spears...toasted French bread.

I think my slanty eyes grew three sizes in the first three bites!

Food coma setting in as I type... and I swear I'm hitting the sack before that dreaded second wind kicks in.

Man am I glad I RARELY get sea-sick.

Haole or not...that sounds pretty damned good.

I, too, feel blessed that I have never been sea sick...the sufferers I have been around on boats are some of the most wretched and pitiable people I have ever seen...if it's half as bad as it looks then it is really bad.

Fish on...

Todd

I was on a charter boat once when this poor lady got sick, puked, and then spent the next couple hours rolling around on the deck in a mixture of vomit, fish blood and scales, and herring guts. She couldn't even get up to move herself inside, and nobody wanted to touch her in the condition she was in.

She was lucky the bite was hot and the boat limited in a pretty short time span so her misery was short-lived.

When she started puking, it caused a chain reaction down that side of the boat and really opened up some space. One guy hacked up what looked like an unchewed half a pancake.

I usually take Dramamine because I'm scared to find out if I'm one of "those people". That's not a risk I want to take, because I've seen the results.

I' m a puker in the big blue, dosent stop me one bit. Puke n rally, when I was a kid it was the worst thing ever. After puking several thousand time its no big deal. Dads boats where nicknamed the "barf a lot" because of me!!! About 12 I finally got my see legs for Puget Sound, but still get sick in the big blue. Dranimine , patches nothing works just makes ya stronger. Only time in the big blue that I didn't get sick was in Costa Rica, flat as a pancake.
Puke n rally!!!

It's that bad, believe me.

Went to Florida in april. Was on Scopolamine patches AND Zofran. They didn't help... anything 4+ft seas and I was toast. Luckily I can just close my eyes and I feel fine.

Next time I'm adding Promethazine to the mix. Maybe that will stop me from throwing up... If I can find the boat.

I find that the patches generally work for me, at least on fairly calm waters. Consequently, I don't do boats all that often. Has to be a real opportunity for a grand time.

My sea legs are getting stronger as I get older, but every couple of years I'll get bit with the sickness bug. Usually it's because I partied too hard the night before; didn't eat or get enough rest.

So this process works for me: Get to good night's rest. Eat something 1 hour before going out. Don't go under cabin until legs are firmly on for the day, especially on a Diesel. Keep eyes on the horizon at all times and bend your knees with the swell to keep it flat and level. Coffee, Gator-Aide & Beer in that order.

Seasickness sucks but its nothing compared to altitude sickness. I have had both many times and if forced to pick, I'll take seasickness every time.

I used to get sick every now and then when I was young. As I got older, I did the Dramamine thing, and had good success. Then about 8 years ago, I went out with a friend on his commercial troller for salmon. Fog so thick you couldn't see 50', and that 42' wooden double ender was burping diesel exhaust and was bobbing like a cork on the big swells. About mid way into the day, I just layed down on the deck and chummed out one of the scupper slots. A few hours later I couldn't stand, and my buddy headed in. I layed on the dock for a good hour, but when I got in my truck, it was obvious there was no way I could make the hour drive home. Went to a flea bag joint in Newport and continued to puke all night. Drove home the next day, but was still too sick to eat until day three. The most horrible experience I have ever been through.

*But* since this experience I have never again been sick, nor had to take any form of medication. I somehow purged the curse of seasickness from my body that day.

Been afflicted 3 times.... all three times while on charter boats for albacore.

Each time, one good purge and I was pretty much good to go again within the hour.

I've gotten sick about a 1/4 of the time I've gone out over the years. One or two good heaves and I'm usually good to go thereafter. No meds for me.

What gets me is exhaust filling the air with engines at idle, diesel being the worst. for this reason I no longer go one charter boats.

I did a brief stint as a deckhand at Westport out of HS. One day, we had a doctor on board who lost all control going over the bar. He puked so violently and bellowed and moaned so loud he was genuinely convinced he was going to die of dehydration(it was his first time on the ocean). It got so bad that he offered to buy the skipper's boat right then and there if he'd take him in!

The skipper just laughed.

+1 on Dramamine the night before for chummers

I miss my old water bed.

Glad we got our chance to partake early...


WDFW NEWS RELEASE
Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife
600 Capitol Way North, Olympia, WA 98501-1091
http://wdfw.wa.gov/

June 5, 2015

Contact: Dan Ayres, (360) 249-4628

South coast of Washington closed to crab fishing

OLYMPIA – Effective immediately, the recreational and commercial Dungeness crab fisheries on the southern coast of Washington will close until further notice because of elevated marine toxin levels, state shellfish managers announced today.

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) closed crab fishing today (June 5) in coastal waters stretching from the Washington/Oregon border north to Point Chehalis. This area includes Marine Area 1 (Columbia River) and the portion of Marine Area 2 (Westport) south of Point Chehalis, as well as the crabbing area inside the Columbia River and inside Willapa Bay.

The area north of Point Chehalis, including Grays Harbor, remains open to commercial and recreational crab fishing.

WDFW announced the closure after routine testing showed domoic acid levels in crab exceeded standards established by the Washington State Department of Health (DOH). Domoic acid, a natural toxin produced by certain types of marine algae, can be harmful or even fatal if consumed in sufficient quantities. Cooking or freezing does not destroy domoic acid in shellfish.

Levels of domoic acid have been increasing in coastal waters for several weeks, said Dan Ayres, WDFW coastal shellfish manager. In May, the department closed all Washington coastal beaches to razor clam digging due to high levels of the toxin.

“We’ve been closely watching toxin levels in shellfish since closing beaches for razor clamming,” Ayres said. “Domoic acid shows up more quickly in razor clams than in crabs.”

All crab gear must be removed from the closed areas by 12:01 a.m. June 10 or it will be subject to confiscation by Fish and Wildlife enforcement officers. WDFW is requiring that any crab captured in either commercial or recreational gear in the area now closed to fishing must be returned to the water.

This is the first time since 2003 that a crab fishery has been closed in Washington due to domoic acid, Ayres said. The toxin was first detected on the Washington coast in 1991.

Regular testing of shellfish species found in Willapa Bay – including oysters, hard-shell clams and mussels – shows those shellfish remain safe to eat. The exceptions are razor clams and Dungeness crabs. The harvest of mussels elsewhere on the coast is closed annually from April 1 to Oct. 31.

DOH will continue to test shellfish in all coastal marine waters. Harvesters should check for closures on DOH’s shellfish safety webpage at https://fortress.wa.gov/doh/eh/maps/.../biotoxin.html.

More information about domoic acid can be found on WDFW's webpage at http://wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/shellfish...moic_acid.html.
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Good haul! I'm sure that dinner table spread was nice!