Offshore halibut from our 26' Bartender

[L.W. Baxter]

My brother, my son, and I trailered our 26' Calkins Bartender to Tillamook, Oregon for this weekend's halibut opener.

We over-nighted at the transient dock at Garibaldi...

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I slept out on the deck between the engine box and the cockpit ceiling, and found it quite comfortable. The idea was to leave the cabin for my son and his uncle but the boy decided to sleep on top of the engine box, even though his legs were too long by half a shin length. Our bedrolls got a little damp from dew fall but the morning broke full of promise.

We headed out to the halibut grounds in company with a couple friends in their Pacific City style dories.

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We took our turn breaking chop on the 25 mile run offshore...

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We fished in 750-800' of water, with 3 lb lead cannonballs and squid skirts with bait strips on 16/0 circle hooks. That much line and weight is wholesome exercise, what with multiple drifts, bait checks, and hookups. At one point my boy and I were working on a double, both of us complaining bitterly of the burning and cramping...

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continued...

[L.W. Baxter]

We did get our limits, one halibut each.

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My brother also got a hake before eventually getting his halibut. It appeared to be in barometric distress so we kept it and tried it on a plate. Very poor fare, especially when there is fresh halibut available!

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We made it home late afternoon Saturday and hoisted our catch for the home crowd in the driveway. Happy and exhausted.

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I've made a more complete photo essay here. (http://www.flickr.com/photos/22940376@N03/sets/72157623949901567/)

Cheers!

[Nanoose]

Well done!, and a beautiful boat!!
We spend a week of Spring Break in Cannon Beach, and drove down to Tillamook last year. Nice to make the connection.

[John B]

Hey thanks Lee , very enjoyable looking at those , we don't get anything like that here.( flounder maybe , a foot long max)

[Chris-on-the-Boat]

Very cool pictures. Glad you found a few. The hake are in shallow early this year - a few of the highliners made a killing out on Nelsons Island a few days ago, and all the kings were full of foot-long hake.

A warning to those with deeper drafts - anything over about 4 foot draft will spend half it's life on the mud in Garibaldi. You have to be snugged up to the fish plants to stay afloat at low water.

It's great to see ocean fishing passed on to the younger generation - hope you get 'em next opener!

[AstoriaDave]

Super trip, Lee. You grabbed some stellar weather. Good to see the brother blooded with 'but!

[Lew Barrett]

Great work Lee. That boat just gets better looking every time I see it.

[woodrat]

great pictures and a great trip!

[BrianW]

That's great! Thanks for sharing.

[eastern270]

Nice pictures and boat. Must be a good feeling completing a boat and then taking your son to catch fish with you on it.

[Paul Pless]

Damn nice Lee!

[MiddleAgesMan]

The boat and the 'but are real beauties but don't you ever get sunshine out there? ;)

[Uncle Duke]

Let me join the chorus: that is a beautiful boat and it must have been a great day!

[Bobcat]

Good trip, it looks like. Beautiful boat.

Used to fish out of Garibaldi so it looks familiar to me.

Hake? What a nasty fish. Used to say that no one but a Russian would eat one. (the USSR had factory trawler off the Oregon Coast in the 1980s sucking up the hake.)

[rufustr]

Thanks for the thread.

Great photos.

Good the see family together.

:cool::cool::cool:

[Jim Ledger]

How do you keep that boat so nice with all that fish blood and scales'n'guts getting into every corner on every trip? Must have some kind of little toothbrush thingy, eh? Dental pick? Both? :D

[Hal Forsen]

The picture tells all.........:D
Flattieee Yum.


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We fished in 750-800' of water, with 3 lb lead cannonballs
SPECTRA I hope!

[L.W. Baxter]

Thanks for the compliments, folks.

Some responses more or less in order:

The halibut fishery here is very healthy and well-regulated. We get only a few days a year to chase them past the 40 fathom line so it is nice to get cooperative weather! We had a stellar day last May as well, brought home a 70 pounder.

I learned more than I wanted about the shallow waters of Tillamook Bay 15 years ago with my first powerboat. I have been vewwy caywful ever since.

My understanding is that hake is typically used to create imitation crab meat.

We never get sunshine here. The weather is terrible and nobody should move here from anywhere else.

The really tough dried blood and guts get painted over.

Tuffline.

[David G]

Lee,

You're gonna have to give the Dirtsailor some lessons. He went outa Depoe Bay - and the fotos look all of his were about the size of a CD :p

[L.W. Baxter]

Yeah, I saw that. Appears they invaded a halibut nursery. Took them flopping and squalling out of their bassinets.

Okay, is that sufficient public taunting to draw him into posting on the WBF, or did we overdo it?:D

[AstoriaDave]

Hake is a tough one for the casual fisherman to make use of. Their flesh has enzymes which immediately, when the fish dies, begin to break down the flesh into smelly nasty stuff (amines, in particular). Consequently, commercial fishermen flash-freeze the things and stop the decomposition, for transport to a processing facility (in the case of the Russians, a factory ship, in with the fleet). Making fake crab (aka surimi) is a big-dollar business here, and competition for hake quotas is fierce.

The 80's Russian factory ships were part of a joint venture deal with US commercials, to benefit both. At least that was the theory. Many of the Russian vessels laid over here -- quite the cross-cultural deal!

[L.W. Baxter]

I didn't notice a particularly foul taste (the enzyme process you describe sounds more like arrowtooth flounder) but it was very soft. Like a McDonald's filet-o-fish sandwich.

My understanding, which I looked up just now, is that hake flesh softens due to, not an enzyme, but a parasite.:eek:

[AstoriaDave]

Lee, it is the enzymes in the parasite. The parasite is news to me. Thanks for the correction.

Quote from the following link: This softening of flesh is most likely a result the release of proteolytic enzymes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proteolytic_enzyme) by the parasite[3] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kudoa_thyrsites#endnote_Tsyuku).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kudoa_thyrsites

Makes ya think twice about surimi, no?

Surimi: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surimi

[L.W. Baxter]

Makes ya think twice about surimi, no?...

It would make me think twice if I ate it, but why start now?;)