Posts Tagged ‘Halibut’
I think every father that loves the outdoors dreams of one day sharing that love with their kids. For me that dream became a reality Saturday when I was able to take my twin daughters Kristina and Jessica offshore for the La Push Halibut opener.
Taking children fishing has its challenges and with daughters it is a little different because I didn’t want to put any pressure on them to be tom-boyish or tough just to impress me. Beyond that Kristina is diabetic so that raised challenges of it’s own.
On the drive up to La Push we talked about safety issues, diabetes issues and how things were going to work. We stopped at Fat Smitty’s because everyone should experience that at least once. I also got to share with my children some of the most beautiful scenery in the State of Washington if not the country. When we got to Lake Crescent they were awestruck. And they loved the Olympic National Forest. But nothing could prepare them for the drive into La Push. When you come around the corner and see Smith Island with the sun setting behind it. Even Kristina was rendered speechless, and that is no small feat.
We took a sampling of all of our diabetic supplies. Being six to eight hours away from a hospital means we had to be prepared for any contingency. Thankfully, the only issue we had was when her Blood sugar got a little low and her tummy was a little upset so she couldn’t eat. she was able to choke down a little juice to bring the blood sugar up and later, after she caught the first fish on the trip, the queasiness went away and she was able to eat.
We chose to have both kids wear the scopalamine patch. This was their first 
ocean trip and we wanted to do everything we could to make it as pleasant as possible. When we left La Push the kids were very excited by the first few waves and seemed to really enjoy the ride out. After sitting at the corner for a few minutes both kids got a little queasy, Jessica got a little upset about this which made it worse. Once she settled down and was able to eat a little and take a nap she felt better. Toward the end of the day we were able to have a nice talk on the bow, sitting in the sun and giggling a bit.
Kristina caught the first fish, She said it was easier than arm wrestling Tristan. I don’t know who Tristan is but he must be pretty strong. Jessica caught the last after she got over a little bout of seasickness. Patti, my terrific wife, caught one about 40 pounds and hooked up two others. The weather was perfect and the ocean conditions were as good as they could be. It was sunny and 70 degrees. Patti caught the big one in a bikini (I Win).
I had the best crew on the planet. My friends Kevin and Jeff agreed before we went that this day was about the kids and they both made sacrifices and were very helpful to them.
Jeff pulled up several lings and was getting a little frustrated by the end that he couldn’t hook a halibut. It was funny to watch him cuss about catching a 20 pound ling.
We got all our halibut. We decided not to go out to our ling hole as this would be harder on the kids but we did catch a few in the halibut spot. The kids each got to real in a few and Patti was a halibut machine. we even caught about a 15 pound Chinook Salmon that we successfully revived and released.
Final count was 6 Halibut, 8 Ling Cod, 1 Chinook Salmon, a pipe jig, a spreader rig and about 800 feet of spectra line we snagged off the bottom. Oh, and a sea cucumber, I think. 2 kids completely worn out, 1 happy wife and the proudest father ever.
MY FAMILY ROCK!!!!!!!!!
Good Fishin' To Ya'
Kerry W Allen
WDFW sent me a note today with this years Halibut Openers. For LaPush, where I usually fish, it will be just as we suspected. May 10, 12, 17 and 19th these are Thursday, Saturday. If there is quota left there will be an open on May 31 or June 2. If there is still Quota left after that there will be periodic openers Thursdays and/or Saturdays till the quota is filled.
For the rest of the coastal Marine areas and the Puget Sound you can check the press release here.
Good Fishin' To Ya'
Kerry W Allen
Readers meet Mike…Mike meet the readers. OK, now that the introductions are done let me tell you about my buddy mike.
Mike came Tuna fishing with me this year. The first time we communicated about that he told me he could bring whatever gear I needed to fill the gaps in what I had. It is common that people want to bring their own gear so I told him what I tell everyone and that is you can bring if you want but we probably will just use what I have, But what do you have?
Mike responded with a list of top of the line gear for everything from trolling to live bait to “casting iron”. Needless to say I decided that we would use his and ended up leaving my stuff at home.
Mike is a gear guy. Mike has forgotten more about rods, reels and other gear than I have ever learned, which makes him a good guy to have around. In the day I had him on the boat and since he has taught me tons.
I was down at the Lamiglass factory outlet store with Mike last weekend. He was going to buy a pile of gear (pictured) and I went along to see the place and do research for the blog, post to follow. It was great to watch someone that knows so much pick through a place with such precision.
So I’ve asked Mike to write some gear stuff for the blog. You can look forward to some very detailed information coming soon.
Good Fishin' To Ya'
Kerry W Allen
If your a regular reader you know this year I have been learning to fish Tuna.
So I get on line to the great offshore guys on Bloodydecks.com and learn from people that have been doing it for a while. 
One of the things I learned was that because it has been a fairly small market it is hard to find good tuna gear here. Until now.
Many Washington anglers will be familiar with Bo Palmer from Defiance Boats. Local Gig Harbor folks will know that Tiderunner Boats were once manufactured and sold here. And by a long and winding road Tiderunner is now part of the defiance boat family.
So I get on line and see that Bo has opened a new store out by the Bremerton National Airport in Port Orchard. Guys from Bloodydecks that had been there say he has everything I need for tuna. And they are the guys that know. The wife and I decide it’s a nice day for a road trip so we jump in the car and off we go. 
From Gig Harbor you can get there taking 16 to hwy3 through beautiful downtown Gorst (gateway to Belfair). but we decided to take back roads for fun. On the way, out in the middle of nowhere, We hit this road construction that turns out to be another perfectly good intersection our wonderful state of Washington is screwing into a roundy round (Pet Peeve).
We get there and The store is great!!
Bo himself helps me find the things I need and explains to me how to rig and use the gear. Now you know that when you go to a store asking what do I need for this fishery usually the salesman will grab a hand full of what ever costs the most and say you absolutely need this and a dozen of those etc. So I did a little homework ahead of time. I knew going in I needed x-wraps, clones and live bait hooks. Bo explained to me which hooks to buy, how to use weights to keep live bait underwater and even helped me find some purple x-wraps that were in the back. What he did not do was try to sell me a bunch of crap I didn’t need. I was also able to find some salmon stuff I had been looking for but was sold out in other places.
Bo even helped my wife pick out a kick ass birthday present for me. 
Overall the store was a bit of a hike. For me it is about the same distance as Sportco in Fife or Warehouse in Silverdale (but those places don’t carry much tuna gear). Prices were about what you would expect. The big difference for me is that this is a real fisherman’s store. 
It has all the stuff you really need without all the extraneous crap larger stores have to carry. I can see this becoming a regular stop for me when planning any type of fishing.
Thanks Bo
Good Fishin' To Ya'
Kerry W Allen
From the WDFW:
The Marine Area 2 recreational halibut fishery is projected to have taken the Pacific halibut quota set aside for the primary season. A separate quota set aside is sufficient to continue to allow halibut fishing seven days per week in the northern nearshore area. There is sufficient halibut quota remaining in Marine Areas 3 and 4 to re-open the recreational halibut fishery for two days. This rule conforms to federal action taken by the Pacific Fisheries Management Council. Anglers are encouraged to check the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife website or hotline for information regarding re-openings.
I’m trying to work out trips both days. If your interested let me know.
Good Fishin' To Ya'
Kerry W Allen
Ha Ha made you look
Good Fishin' To Ya'
Kerry W Allen
The trip this week started with a stop at Fat Smitty’s. I’ll be doing a separate post on that but it was a great way to start out.
We got to LaPush. set up the boat. my Yachters finally showed up around 6ish so we decided not to go out but instead they tightened up some stuff around the boat. I give these guys a lot of crap about being boaters and not fishermen but they are great to have around. I don’t take the boat stuff seriously enough sometimes and these guys are great at straitening things out.
Again we were unable to get moorage but Billy really has that place running like clockwork so launching was actually kind of fun. We set out about six and the water was almost dead calm. it was about a four foot swell with about fifteen seconds in between. We made about 20 kts out and reached the Southwest Corner a little before 8am.
We did our first drift where we caught last week with no success. we made our next drift about 200 yards east and hit four small halibut at one shot, all of which were released hoping for larger fare. Our next drift produced nothing and we started to get a little concerned. I talked to my buddy Todd and he said anything anyone was catching was smallish so we decided to keep the next few we caught.
On our next drift we had four fish on at once, all of which were boated and immediately we had another three on at once two of which had to be released as there were only five of us (Jared hates me now because he had to hog up three fish and I only let him keep one).
We went across the canyon in search of big lings but didn’t find them there. We returned to the Southwest Corner and tried a little shallower to no avail. The weather started to get gloomy so we headed for the rock pile for one last attempt at lings. Here we ran into my friend Paul that told me herring was the trick, and gave me a little. We tried the herring and had a couple strikes but couldn’t hook anything up.
Overall it was a great day on the water. We returned home, cleaned fish, retrieved the boat and headed out in record time. We stopped at the Seven Cedars for a terrific dinner buffet including a peach flambe over ice cream. WOW!
Here’s hoping we get one more opener in June but if we don’t this was an experience I will remember all year.
Good Fishin' To Ya'
Kerry W Allen
LaPush Saturday was a great experience.
We were unable to get moorage because one of the local forums descended on the place like locust and gobbled up all the spaces before April. This was actually worked out well for me. You see, this way I got to experience first hand the launching ramp process. If you’ve never experienced a launching ramp on a one day opener or a derby it can be quite a cluster and historically LaPush is no exception.
Enter Billy, the new harbormaster at LaPush Marina. He had the whole thing running like a Swiss watch. When we pulled into town we were met by a guy that directed us to the line and told us it would be about 15 minutes (we were about 12 in line and I was sure it would be longer). Things got moving well, there was plenty of help on the ramp. Another guy took our fee when we were about third and we launched in about 20 minutes. That was great.
We made good time on the run out. We arrived at the Southwest Corner of the C in about two hours. I think my friend Brent could have handled about another ten minutes but not much more. We immediately started catching lings. We let two small ones go and kept two. My friend Kevin got tired of letting lings go so he handed me the rod and I immediately hooked up about a 40 pound Halibut. Then things sort of shut off for us. The current picked up a bit and we snagged bottom a couple times. we did a couple drifts in the next 3 hours and caught nothing. Listening to the radio I was able to interpret some cryptic info and we moved to a spot about a half mile from where we were and Wham!! we caught three halibut and let one go in about the next twenty minutes. We started in and stopped at the rock pile for another ling, and to give away a little more gear, and then we headed home.
When we arrived back at LaPush Billy had a system set up for temporary parking while we cleaned fish and got the truck. The retrieve at the ramp was another very smooth experience and we were on the road in no time at all. Funny story I was in line behind a blue Dodge pickup with a freezer strapped in the back. Yesterday I saw that same truck towing a trophy 2002 and crossing the narrows bridge. If I’d a known you were a local I would have said hi.
Oh and
I LOVE MY BOAT
I can’t wait till next week
Good Fishin' To Ya'
Kerry W Allen
Quotas are up this year. The seasons will remain mostly the same as last year. WDFW says that the last two years sport catch in Puget Sound has exceeded allotments so they are hoping the combination of increased quota and the same seasons will help fix that.
The 2011 recreational halibut seasons approved for Washington’s marine areas :
-
Columbia River (Ilwaco):Marine Area 1 will open May 5, three days a week, Thursday through Saturday until 70 percent of the quota is reached, or until July 17. The fishery will then reopen on Aug. 5 and continue three days a week (Friday through Sunday) until the remaining quota is reached, or Sept.30, whichever occurs first. The 2011 catch quota is 15,418 pounds.
South Coast (Westport/Ocean Shores): Marine Area 2 will open on May 1, two days a week, Sundays and Tuesdays. During the fourth week in May the fishery will be open Sunday only (May 22). Beginning the following week the fishery will resume the Sunday, Tuesday structure until the quota is reached. The northern nearshore area will be open seven days per week, until the quota is reached. The 2011 catch quota is 43,500 pounds.
North Coast (La Push/Neah Bay): Marine areas 3 and 4 will open on May 12, two days per week, Thursdays and Saturdays, through May 21. If sufficient quota remains, the fishery will reopen the week of June 2. If sufficient quota remains after that opener, the fishery will reopen starting June 16. The 2011 catch quota is 108,792 pounds.
Strait of Juan de Fuca/Puget Sound: Marine areas 6 through 10 (Strait, Port Angeles, Admiralty Inlet and Everett) will be open May 5 through May 29. Marine Area 5 (Sekiu) will be open May 26 through June 18. These fisheries will be open three days a week, Thursday, Friday and Saturday closed Sunday through Wednesday except for Memorial Day weekend when they will be open Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The 2011 combined catch quota for these areas is 58,155 pounds.
This year is looking good but remember to check with WDFW for updates before you hook up the boat and make a long trip somewhere.
Good Fishin' To Ya'
Kerry W Allen
Gig Harbor Fly Shop
Gig Harbor.com