I have seen a lot of amazing and beautiful things in my fishing adventures. I have had Moose swim up right next to me in Alaska, Deer swim right in front of me in Oregon, and whales breaching around me in while fishing in Hawaii, but having a pod of Orcas swim right next to the boat in Pacific City Oregon has to rank as my top wildlife sight ever.
We were on our annual trip with guide Josh Putman out of Pacific City, Oregon and the day started like most of my other trips to this amazing place. A pretty easy launch off the beach - although Mike did get a little wet - and we were at the fishing grounds in about 15 minutes. We were searching for Rockfish and having some success, including this triple hookup with Chris, Mike and Myself. We were using Storm Largo Shads on VMC Hybrid Swimbait Jigs - Coated in Pautzke Sardine flavored Fire Gel.
Fishing was HOT right away in the morning!
Just as the fishing was getting good, we heard over the radio that there was a pod of Killer Whales in our area. We spotted them almost instantly and they were headed in our direction. Josh killed the motors and we all sat in awe as a pod of six killer whales including a baby literally swam right by our boat.
I have never seen an Orca in the wild and I was speechless as the pod swam right in front of us.
You could see the entire Pod at times including this little baby
As they swam away we all felt fortunate to be able to witness this rare event.
Back to Fishing - The Lingcod bite was on!
As the whales drifted away, we got back to fishing. We quickly rounded out our limit of Rockfish, and then got into some big Lingcod. We ended up catching 6 Lings, with two of them over twenty pounds
Once we had our fish, Josh pulled the crab traps and we got our limit of big beautiful Dungeness crabs.
Back on dry land in Pacific City!
We had a smooth beach landing and headed over to Josh's place where he cooked the crab and cleaned our fish.
Nothing like crab right out of the cooker!
This trip was truly one for the books, it has to rank as a top 10 ever fishing trip. Not only was the fishing fantastic, and the company great - but to have a pod of Orcas swim right next to the boat is a sight to behold - one that I have never seen before and will probably never experience again. I am so fortunate in this life to have experienced so many amazing things and I am very thankful that I was a part of this day.
Thanks for reading,
Bill