Northwest Reel Life April 2023 Volume 2 Issue 8 - Flipbook - Page 23
For a few precious minutes, the porpoises
ran ahead of the boat, their bodies briefly
above the gray water, then beneath; twisting
and spinning. And then as quickly as they
had appeared, they peeled away. Twentythree miles out, Mike cut the engine. The
Miss Raven bobbed in the deep swells that
rolled through us. One moment we towered
on a wave, the next we were in the trough.
Here the ocean floor humped toward the
surface. Here the baitfish congregate as well
as the sharp-toothed predators that feed on
them. Sean punched holes in a big kitchen
wastebasket, then filled it with tuna heads
and carcasses. Roped to the side of the boat,
the basket milked tuna gore and soon we
had birds above us - seagulls and albatross.
Matthew and Paul rigged fly rods with steel
leaders and big streamers. We watched the
surface of the water for black fins. That was
when we saw the sunfish. Ocean sunfish are
a seldom seen species that make their living
on jellyfish. They are as tall as they are long
and can weigh up to 3,500 pounds. This one
sunbathed at the surface and we were able
to get a good look. In some languages they
are referred to as moon fish, because of their
shape. The Polish name means “head alone”;
because it doesn’t have a true tail.
A school of 40 or so dolphins found us and
ran through our greasy tuna chum line. They
circled and came through again and again,
breaking through the swells and flashing
away below the boat. An albatross paddled
nearby and took the fly in its beak. Then he
dropped it. That was when I knew we would
not catch a shark. The sharks had taken the
weekend off. Out on the horizon, I saw a
spout and then another. A great barnacled
beast breached, its great, gray body lifted
above the surface.
Foamy spray crashed out of the swell. In
the afternoon, back in sight of the bridge at
Newport, Tiffany dipped the hook and pulled
in the first buoy. Sean put the rope on the
pulley and we held our breath as the pot
came into view, brimming with Dungeness
crab. Minutes later, we took our stations,
sorting males from females, throwing back
the little ones. In the dark next morning,
we motored south along the coast. Off
Cape Perpetua, Mike Sorensen pointed out
a watch station that was manned during
World War II.
In range of the ghost coastal cannon
emplacement, we drifted on a large
underwater hilltop. Our jigs and flies
bounced through a biomass of rockfish, and
in moments, we had our first raw material for
fish and chips. In one pass we had filled twothirds of our limits. On the second drift, we
had to call a halt and reel in. Multiple times
we caught two rockfish in one cast. Once,
we brought three fish aboard in one cast.
We came away with a rich haul of crab and
rockfish, but that sort of memory is quickly
gone in melted butter and tartar sauce. We
set out into the Pacific in the dark of the
night and watched the sun light up the West
Coast; we looked for one thing and found
much more. Sharks. Who needs em?
GARY LEWIS BIO
Gary Lewis is an award-winning author, TV host, speaker and photographer. Recent books include
Fishing Central Oregon, 6th Edition, Fishing Mount Hood Country and Bob Nosler Born Ballistic.
Gary has hunted and fished in eight countries on three continents and in the islands of the South
Pacific. Born and raised in the Northwest, he has been walking forest trails and running rivers
for as long as he can remember. Lewis is twice past president of the Northwest Outdoor Writers
Association and a recipient of NOWA’s Enos Bradner Award.
FOR A SIGNED COPY OF FISHING MOUNT
HOOD COUNTRY, SEND $29.99, INCLUDES
SHIPPING TO:
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PO Box 1364, Bend, OR 97709
Contact Gary Lewis at
garylewisoutdoors.com
JUNE 2023 | 23