Newport Marina and Charters

I have fished the Pacific Ocean a few times, twice with my Grandpa Burris and a few more with my dad. We always fished the jetties and tide pools and caught lots of kelp greenling, or sea trout, and the surf perch, or sea perch as we called them. Sometimes a flounder or rock bass was landed, but I mostly remember the sea trout and perch.

Once my grandpa took me on a 75 foot cliff. We fished off of it and hooked quite a few. But the long haul back up proved difficult for landing a thrashing fish. I'd have loved to have been in a boat at the bottom watching the fish POP when they hit the surf. Catch and release from that height doesn't work out so well. We did land a few though. I also remember scaling a nasty hillside/almost cliff, to get to some tide pools at low tide. The fishing was fantastic, until the seals showed up. The rocks we fished off of were covered in mussels. There was a pool of water in a depression in the rock platform we kept our fish fresh in. There were star fish and sea anemones in there too.

I have always wanted to return and fish the coast again, and honestly I've always wanted to charter a fishing boat and go out on the ocean. So last week we scheduled a 6 hours trip through Newport Marina and Charters. We were on the Ms. Raven, a 46 foot charter boat. It was AWESOME. We were targeting rock fish and cod. The cod fishing is best in the early spring as they are spawning and very agressive.

We boarded the boat around 7:30 AM and headed out of Yaquina Bay into the Pacific on a rising tide. We dropped a dozen crab pots and then headed south to fish. I caught the first of many black rock bass. It was a blast fishing with my dad, brother-in-law Matt Yoshioka, his daughter Mori, and my 3 oldest kids, Tyler, Corey, and Abbie. Everyone caught fish, but my dad was the lucky one of the day.

I wish I had taken more video and just sat my rod in the rod holders. The "motion of the ocean" added enough movement to the jigs that hook ups were consistent for those who fished that way. But I like to cast, reel, and jig, so I didn't video much of what I should have. Like a couple of hundred black and blue finned rock bass, finning, or surfacing on dungenous crab larvae. The larvae were there by the 10's of thousands, and the fish were surfacing in 70 feet of water, sucking in the larvae, growing fat on pure protein. I would have killed for a fly rod at that moment. The sea birds tipped us off, grouping on the surface to feast. When we got closer we could see hundreds of fins breaking the surface as the rock fish fed.

I was having so much fun watching Matt puke--hee hee hee--that I didn't film him "chumming", or the fining rock fish, or the birds, or all the hook ups. Typically the kids brought in two fish at a time. We easily filled our 7 fish limits. We hooked a lot of cod as well, both green and brown, but only had one keeper. Cod have to be over 22 inches to keep, and my dad got the only keeper, a green cod of around 30 inches. Tyler, Corey, and I all caught fishing in the 21 to 21 and 15/16th range, but no keepers.

I think Tyler caught the greatest variety of fish. One of his doubles was a canary rock fish--which must be released--and a copper fin rock fish. Both are a bright orange, but the canary has yellow striping on its head and body. We caught yellow fin rock fish, kelp greenling and Mori got a cabezon that was a legal 16 inches. Most everything we caught, though, was a black or blue finned rock fish.

This is video of Tyler's Copper Finned Rockfish. I couldn't get the video out fast enough to show him fighting it. Honestly, we were hooked up on fish so often I wouldn't have fished at all had I been trying to video everything. Because you never knew what you had until it was almost in the boat, it was hard to get something "unique". So I just fished until something "unique" surfaced, and then got out the camera.

Tyler was reeling in one of his many doubles when Grandpa Isaacson's rod dipped. He set the hook on what he thought was the bottom. That is until the bottom exploded, moving at warp speeds, wrapping EVERYONE'S lines around his. When the Chinook Salmon broke the water, Captain Mike yelled, "we have a Chinook on".................................and that is when things got crazy, and my camera came out. Captain Mike and Billy, one of the deck hands, moved in from both side of my dad while he fought tooth and nail the biggest fish of his life! They got all the lines untangled working as a team, passing rods over, under, and around. They cleared everyone out and Captain Mike kept telling him.........nice n easy, nice n easy.....................but why ruin the experience, better if you just watch if for yourself. It's much more exciting!

This is the 3rd salmon caught this year on their charters for BOTTOM FISH. This is the only one caught during an open season, by a person with a tag, so it was triple cool, cause dad caught a salmon bottom fishing, in season, and he had a tag. By the way, it measured out to be 38 inches long and weighed in at 34 pounds! Can you say HOOKED! All grandpa wants to do now is fish the ocean for salmon! Can you blame him?

This video is of the trip out, setting crab pots (Billy, the deck hand, has the black hoodie on, Captain Mike has the red hat). I didn't video us bringing them up because I was busy having fun helping. Sorry.

The crabbing was okay. Lots of females and only about half the males were keepers, but we still brought home 9 big dungenous crab. The kids loved them. In total we brought home 49 rock fish, one cod and one salmon besides the crab. And if that wasn't enough, we got to watch the human filleting machine at the docks. It's $1 per rock fish, $1.50 per cod, and two-fiddey (as he said) for the salmon. I have always prided myself in my filleting abilities, but I am humbled by this guys sharp knife and quick hands! It was a wonderful time with family and an experience I won't forget. One that I hope to repeat again, and again, and again, and again.................and again!

Below are the videos of the human filleting machine. I've included both the salmon and some rock fish so you can see how fast he fillets and also learn from his technique!

Filleting Salmon

Filleting Rockfish

Photo Time at the Cleaning Station

How to Kiss a Fish

I always tease my kids about "no tongue" when kissing a fish, so while Corey and I fished I gave him an example of how NOT to kiss a fish for the camera! You with weak constitutions should by pass this video! The faint of heart and stomach should not proceed further. If you can watch the "kissing scene" in the movie, "Gentleman Bronco" you can handle this! This fish is one of the 4 keepers we caught, and one of the 7 I hooked with Corey on his "day of paradise". I love using quotes, it just makes what you say seem............................................. I don't know................ kind of fun, I guess.

Sethy The Mighty Fisher Lands Steelhead

Seth went with us. He has struggled to catch many steelhead this year. He did get a 31 inch native hen on the upper Grande Ronde that was a blast to catch, but overall he has gone pretty much fishless. But not today. Today he hooked 4 and missed a 5th. He landed 3 of them and found out he likes drift fishing as much as spinners. You can watch his two videos below.

Steelhead Can Jump

This video is of a nice, 28.75 inch wild buck I caught. It jumped 3 or 4 times. Corey actually captured one cartwheel on film for YOUR viewing pleasure. In this cold water they aren't as acrobatic as the summer run fish, but when they decide to leave the water, they do it in STYLE!

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Corey's Day In Paradise

Story and videos to come later when I have some sleep. I'll tell you though, he landed 16 steelhead from 21-32 inches! 10 of them were hooked by myself and other men in our little party, 6 of them he did from hook set to tailing! That is more steelhead in one day than he has ever landed/hooked in his life! He hooked 6 others and being the unselfish sportsman he is he practiced some long line releases for those fish that were unworthy to be counted in the total! He was sore the next day from fighting fish! He also ate the ENTIRE bag of snack size Snickers by himself! Did I mention he slept both ways? Yeah, he's the man! Envy him NOW! I do.

Jared Got Caught Playing With The Flip

I downloaded a bunch of videos the other day and found one on there I didn't recognize. Jared found the flip video camera and was playing with it and this is what we found. Thankfully it didn't break the camera! If you get motion sick you may not want to watch this too much!

Corey Lands a 30.5 inch Buck

Corey's wrestling season stretched into March. So he hasn't been fishing with just me yet. The Thursday before spring break was a day for me to see my wife and help get her ready to leave for southern Utah the next day. Corey and I were supposed to fish, but we canceled because of weather and because Kim needing my help. But, we got reports that the fishing was good, so, we planned a morning fish on Friday, before they left.

The water was high and fishing was decent. It had rained a bunch the day before. I hooked 5 on eggs, drifting them deep in the fast runs, but we only landed two of them in the heavy current. The boys didn't fair too well. I hooked a keeper hen almost immediately, but Corey was down river, fishing a good spot that happened to be open when we got there. I offered it to Tyler, but he declined, tailing it for me. Tyler finally hooked a fish up river on his fly rod, just before we left, but lost it.

Corey didn't pick up any fish down below , so he came up to fish with us. Just after he got there I hooked this fish. It was strong and the current made it almost impossible to move. Corey really had his work cut out for him. He couldn't reel, he had to just hold on. Finally he moved the fish out of the hard current into a seam and was able to crank it up to me. I tailed it, lifted it out of the water and it tried escaping. I had to hug it to my body to not lose it. We got it to bank and tagged it quick. Corey was REALLY excited.

I'm not sure if it was harder to keep Jesse or Lyndie out of the pictures. You can see Lyndie is excited about the fish. The first photo just shows her arm, but the second one she is the center of the photograph. She finally just walked in for a shot. We don't mind though. A girl this cute deserves to be on film!

Cole's Day

Cole with his 27 inch, fly caught, Wallowa River steelhead.

Cole was my next steelhead fishing partner. We got up REALLY early, I carried twice as much wood as when Abbie and I went, and we sat in the dark waiting for daylight. Fishing pressure had increased in the area we wanted to fish, and so we made sure we had our spot.

Cole got a fly rod for his birthday last year. I was a little hesitant to get him his own because of the detail required to cast, mend, tie leaders, fly choices, etc., etc., etc., so I made him a deal. If he would learn to tie the knots needed for building a leader, I'd buy him a fly fishing set up. I kind of figured this might deter him, since he was only 7; BOY WAS I WRONG. I had to get him line that day and he started practicing. I showed him a few times and within a week he had them down. He has also tied flies with me, and by himself. So, I figured he had the bug bad enough he might do okay. I really knew he was ready when he spent all of his free time in the back yard casting his brothers fly rods--I'm talking hours of practice, not minutes, and for weeks!

When he finally got his rod he cast it, instead of his brothers' and mine. Again, for hours. We finally got him out with it and he loves it. So, when we were sitting on the bank of the river, waiting for daylight I asked him what he wanted to fish with, his spinning rod, or fly rod. I'm sure you can guess the answer. I fixed him up his rod, and told him where I wanted him to fish. But, before sending him off I tried a quick cast to show him how I wanted him to mend line. I picked up a 13 inch mountain whitefish almost immediately. Cole landed it and then he went down, asked permission from some men that were fishing next to where I wanted him to fish, if he could step in. They weren't catching anything, so they said sure. In 3 casts I looked up to see Cole's rod bent over double. It isn't a steelhead rod, a nice trout rod, but it doesn't have a heavy enough spine to really tackle a fish like the one he was hooked into; a 27" buck. I couldn't tell if the guys were mad, envious, or dumbstruck that an 8 year old kid was out fishing them! I guess they weren't too mad, though, because they offered their net to help land it.

I unfortunately forgot the camera, both still and the video flip, so all I can do is tell you he was beyond excited and VERY proud of his fly rod caught steelhead. (The stonefly pattern worked like it was supposed to) I think part of his excitement was that he had landed a steelhead on his fly rod before Tyler and Corey. Tyler had hooked a few, but he hadn't landed one yet!

Fishing for us was pretty slow that day. I hooked 3, Cole landed one of them, Seth landed the other, and I made a long distance release on one more. Down river some guys hammered the fish, but our spot just didn't produce like it did when Abbie and I were there the week before.

Steelheading with my Abbie Jo

I started the year off fishing mostly by myself, through January and some of February. With my schedule I don't see the kids much, so I decided I'd take each one for a day of steelhead fishing, just them and me. Abbie was first. She didn't want to fish last year and with her excitement over catching a steelhead, and because she wasn't committed to a wrestling team, she was the obvious choice. We headed out early, and hour or two before daylight and headed to one of my favorite spots. We took a pile of wood on my pack frame and made a big fire, and we fished most of the day.

When we first walked up to the fishing spot, I noticed Kyle Carpenter there, a friend of mine. We went over to say hi, and he hooked a steelhead almost immediately. He gave the rod to Abbie and she landed it on his baitcast rod. My batteries were dead and in the cold the camera kept locking up, so I didn't get it filmed. It was a native, so we had to let it go. We fished with him for a little while, then decided to move to the top of the hole, where no one else was fishing.

Abbie fished by herself some, but mostly she ate the food I brought, sat by the fire and kept warm on that cold February morning (it was 13 degrees that morning when we left) and talked with me. It was one of the nicest days of fishing I've ever had, and I didn't land a fish. Together we hooked 9 and she landed 3 of them; one was a 30 inch buck that I hooked at our feet. With the two fish Kyle let her reel in, she added 2 more to her total, making it 5 landed for the day. Not too bad for a first timer!

TAGGED FISH #1

Abbie's first steelhead

TAGGED FISH #2

Abbie's 30 incher

TAGGED FISH #3

Abbie fills her tag! This video shows her landing it.

Abbie holding tagged fish #3! A limit of steelhead.

LANDING A FISH FOR KYLE ON HIS SWITCH ROD

Abbie couldn't keep this fish because it was foul hooked, so we let it go and kept fishing.