| I felt a feeling of excitement as I stepped | | | | up on top. All of the exhaust was routed thru |
| onto the charter boat. Would this be the | | | | a pipe that went up through the center of the |
| time? Would I finally get my Salmon? Every | | | | boat. This arrangement was probably ok when |
| time I had been out deep sea fishing I didn't | | | | it was windy, but on our day the exhaust was |
| even get a bite. The arguments have been | | | | sucked down to the passenger area. We all got |
| flying around for years as to why the Salmon | | | | a little green because it took an hour and a |
| have gotten so rare. I haven't been paying | | | | half to get to the captain's favorite fishing |
| too much attention to these arguments. I have | | | | "spot". |
| to admit that I am selfish and just want to | | | | |
| catch my Salmon. | | | | When we reached the captain's "spot", the |
| | | | high school kid handed us each a Salmon rod |
| My day started at 6:00 AM, when our windup | | | | with the bait already attached. We fished for |
| alarm went off in our tent. Our little party | | | | about an hour without any bites. Since there |
| consisted of me, my dad, and my Uncle Bob. | | | | didn't seem to be any Salmon around, the |
| | | | captain had the high school kid give us |
| We had set up our tent in a public campground | | | | bottom fishing gear. We caught lots of fish |
| only a couple of miles from the harbor of | | | | with the bottom fishing gear. |
| Garibaldi, Oregon. Garibaldi is a small town | | | | |
| situated on the Tillamook Bay along the | | | | I was thrilled to haul in a couple of bottom |
| Oregon coast. Garebaldi has the perfect | | | | fish. Another guy caught a Rockfish. This |
| location for a harbor and a marina because | | | | fish was the oddest living thing that I had |
| the waters are relatively calm in the bay. | | | | ever seen. It looked prehistoric. It was |
| | | | black with orange dots all over and it had an |
| It was still dark, so getting up wasn't easy. | | | | orange mouth. Very strange indeed! |
| As we pulled out of the campground, several | | | | |
| cars sped past us going in the other | | | | After we fished for bottom fish a couple of |
| direction. I found out later that these were | | | | hours, the captain had us pull in our lines |
| the charter boat captains driving out to the | | | | and motored for about an hour to another one |
| jetty, so they could see what the bar | | | | of his Salmon "hot spots" Nobody caught a |
| conditions were like. | | | | Salmon, so I guess the spot wasn't that |
| | | | "hot". |
| I was comfortable with the boat because it | | | | |
| was fairly new and looked to be in pretty | | | | We pulled in our Salmon lines and traveled |
| good shape. It looked big to me. I was used | | | | for one and a half hours back to Garibaldi. |
| to my grandfather's 14 ' boat. There were | | | | Once again, the captain ran down and looked |
| eight of us fishing plus the captain and a | | | | at the engine before we crossed the bar, but |
| high school kid who baited the hooks and | | | | by that time, I was too tired and too green |
| netted the fish. | | | | to care about the bar, I just wanted to get |
| | | | back to dry land. |
| As we approached the bar, the captain ran | | | | |
| back, lifted the cover off the engine and | | | | We got back to port about 3:30 PM. We didn't |
| looked around. He had a very serious look on | | | | catch any Salmon, but at least we caught some |
| his face. That's when it hit me, "uh, oh, | | | | bottom fish, and had fun doing it, so the |
| going over the bar is serious business". I | | | | important thing was, we didn't get skunked. |
| couldn't believe the size of the waves at the | | | | |
| bar, they towered over us to about ten feet. | | | | The trip cost $145.00 . It's less if you |
| I felt pretty sheepish when the high school | | | | decide to only fish for Salmon or bottom |
| kid said that the bar was pretty good that | | | | fish, but if you only go for one type your |
| day. | | | | chances of not getting anything goes up. |
| | | | |
| Once we got into the ocean, the waves were | | | | I'm glad that we decided to fish for the |
| only two or three feet and there was no wind. | | | | bottom fish too because they really made our |
| After we got out into the ocean, we were | | | | day. As for the Salmon, the arguments and the |
| happy to see that we wouldn't be dealing with | | | | finger pointing about what caused their |
| the wind. but after awhile, a little wind | | | | rarity goes on. It would be nice, however, if |
| would have been nice. The boat we were on was | | | | next time there was more wind and at least |
| a cabin cruiser with the captain's position | | | | some Salmon. |