Another great NW adventure awaits you in Garibaldi, Oregon. Located near Tillamook Oregon, Garibaldi is a small coastal town with many great fishing opportunities. I was invited by the crew of Outdoor GPS to go on a bottom fishing trip with Garibaldi Charters.
I arrived Tuesday night, and met up with the crew at Hook, Line & Sinker, a great little bar & grill located on the main street in Garibald. We had a couple of beers and got the game plan together for all 15 of us. The plan was simple, meet on the boat at 5:30am - thats it. Garibaldi Charters provides all the tackle. Make sure to bring some rain gear, lunch and a cooler to bring your catch home in, but that is all you really need.
I checked into my room at the Harbor View Inn and RV park around 10:00pm. This is a great little hotel and I would highly recommend if you are going fishing out of Garibaldi.
As planned, we met up with the crew onboard the Northwester. Captain Lance and
Deckhand Mitch were ready to go and we departed the dock before 6:00am. On the way out we dropped several crab pots and then headed about 8 miles south to the fishing grounds.
Once we arrived at the fishing spot, captain Lance gave us the “OK” to drop our lines. It took only a minute or two for several people to hook up on nice Black Rockfish, Blue Rockfish, Yellow Tail Rock Fish and even Lingcod.
We all knew right away that this was going to be a great trip! Here is a link to a rockfish chart for this area: http://wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/bottomfish/identification/rockfish/
The setup we were using was very simple. A 3oz diamond jig with a double hook, and a
shrimp fly tied on about 18” above the jig. To fish this set up you just open your bail and let the jig sink to the bottom. Once you see your line go slack you know you have reached to bottom. After you hit, simply reel up a few cranks and vertical jig the set up.
I was able to catch both Black Rockfish and Yellowtail Rockfish, and even hooked a Salmon, but it got off before we could net it. Although I did not hook any Lingcod, several other did, and someone even caught a sea cucumber!
We all caught our limits in less than two hours! After we had our fish, Captain
Lance gave us a sight seeing tour of some of the beautiful rock formations, Sea Lions and even a pod of dolphins that swimming by.
After our sightseeing tour we headed back to check our crab pots. To all of our delight all off the pots were full of big Dungeness Crab!!
We returned to the docks and had our fish cleaned and our crabs cooked. We all took home a fantastic amount of food!
It was an awesome, and easy fishing trip, that anyone can participate in. If you are looking to catch some great eating fish
and crab, see some beautiful scenery and have a great time, I would highly recommend this trip.
Thanks for reading,
Bill