Weather looks good for the opener. We'll be out of Port Angeles with the rest of the throng fishing the humps. First time I've fished there, any pointers for a rookie? Who else is going out?
Todd- I just fished out of NB on the SW corner of the closure in water that deep with 2# pipe jigs for big lingers with Jambo last week. Did well and managed 2 chickens that got returned. My boat's too small for that far out but go get `em!
I'm planning on going out of PA on Thursday. New water for me as I usually fish out of John Wayne Marina - Sequim. Weather and tides for Thursday looks good.
RF, nice! We have a spot a little closer in for the halibut, but will be ling fishing pretty much exactly where you were last week...Then heading in for rockfish on the way back!
Also - no hyperbole, but I have what maybe the world's best Halibut recipe if anyone is interested. Just made it again for my mom's 70th Bday and she said it was easily the best Hali she's ever had. Let me know and if there's enough interest, I'll post it to the recipe board.
Well the sand flea pattern may have been the answer because no traditional baits were working today. Deader than fried chicken. Heard of one hooked and that was all according to the chatter on ch.68 and confirmed by the creel checker. In fact, the creel checker advised me to get a Canadian license and fish over there this year.
13 rod hours for my boat without a bite. Fished the Green Point area (thought I might have seen your boat in that area this morning RF). We came in about noon due to some other commitments. Checker had seen 5 fish for 5 boats by then. Heard radio talk on fish caught. Friend was fishing Dungeness Bay - anchored up - and he put 3 fish in the boat - 64, 32, and 24 lbs. Maybe my luck will change Saturday.
It all depends on the Dept catch calculations. Some more time on the water would be nice. Sequim, Port Angeles, and Sekiu all appear to be below last years numbers. Had strong winds yesterday. A lot of us stayed on the beach. Those that got out had some lumpy seas. Heard that USCG LaPush had some restrictions on the size of boats that they'd let out. Sounds like it was sloppy there, too.
There was some talk around the campfire about the possibility of to give us the opportunity to purchase a halibut punch card (if you will). Say 3 or 5 fish from say mid April through June. That would eliminate this current screwy season set up and frantic over crowding. A guy could head out and fish three consecutive days, instead of this crap of Thursday then Sunday or some other BS.
Some say fisheries could never monitor it . I think that it could be monitored just as well as they are doing with the salmon...............oops
That herring was inside of a squid hood that has been removed. I was about 4-5 feet off bottom. No snag.
The snag speculation is not entirely wrong though. I was in a snag about 15 minutes before and really had to yard on it to break it loose. Best guess is all of that pulling compromised my hook....,
The requirement for having a descender device on board in the ocean fisheries will go into effect July 1. There will be an emergency regulation coming out in June and the WAC will be updated to reflect the requirement for all saltwater areas. Would have been a whole lot easier had the regulation as originally drafted and presented to the Commission been passed.
Use of a descender will save a lot of rockfish and is critical when one encounters any of the listed species. I hope if anyone encountered the listed species during the halibut fishery that they had a descender on board.
We did manage to get some halibut on Thursday, though our spot did not produce at the same clip that it usually does. Due to some serious operator error we not only missed a few bites, but went a dismal 2-8 on hooked up and fighting fish, losing two of them with less than 100' of line out after doing the heavy duty of getting them over 400 feet off the bottom.
A couple of nice lings and rockfish limits on both Thursday and Friday, but that Friday weather was a bastard!
Overall I came home with a decent haul of groceries.
Fish checkers and cleaning stations both indicated that fishing was rather poor, at least compared to the usual opening week halibut productivity.
We fished out of Neah Bay, and went south and west from Tattoosh
The requirement for having a descender device on board in the ocean fisheries will go into effect July 1. There will be an emergency regulation coming out in June and the WAC will be updated to reflect the requirement for all saltwater areas. Would have been a whole lot easier had the regulation as originally drafted and presented to the Commission been passed.
Use of a descender will save a lot of rockfish and is critical when one encounters any of the listed species. I hope if anyone encountered the listed species during the halibut fishery that they had a descender on board.
Great little video from ODFW on a simple style of release device....
At first glance, it looks like our local rockfish do a little better than other species elsewhere...
The hidden internal injuries do worry me, as I'm certain our fish are not immune. Yeah we can get 'em back down to depth without them floating back to the surface. But then what? The fish are weak and lethargic and unlikely to be very adept at evading predators. (Hungry ling?) Makes me wonder just how effective descenders really are for overall long-term survival.
We fished the 3 hali openers on my boat and got our fish each day. Some days took a little longer than others. Largest was a 65 incher (maybe low 140's?), with a couple in the 70 lbs district. Kept some smaller ones when the weather was up and we wanted to tuck it in. Pretty well stocked for white meat for now, but that is so much fun I might have to hit another opener or two, and then do some Canada work later in the summer,
Rec's get two more days. I gotta sit those out, so I'm hoping for the next two in early June when I free up. Not much effort or success for most of the fleet on day 2 or day 3 in my neck of the woods. I doubt there'll be much quota burned up over these next two days either, even with the nice forecast. Long ways for most of us to drive to catch one fish and go home. . .
Good luck out there.
