Deep Sea Fishing

I'm always looking for new ideas for anniversary presents for my wife. Last year we had an "Little House" anniversary, and spent a night in a log cabin up on the way to Mt. St. Helens. As Heather is a HUGE fan of Little House on the Prairie, that idea was a smashing success.

One of the new hobbies we've enjoyed lately is fishing, and Heather and I have talked a few times about is going deep sea fishing, which she was a big fan of doing.

Unfortunately for me I had a pretty insane deep sea fishing experience when I was younger (about 7-8 by everyone's recollection). That trip resulted in us getting caught in a storm and me throwing up for hours. I also said some pretty dumb things on that trip, which my extended family has never let me live down.

So deciding to take Heather deep sea fishing for our 7th anniversary was a bold move, but luckily one she was completely psyched about.

We charted a boat called the Kimberly Ann, which runs through Dockside Charters in Depoe Bay, Oregon. The boat is about 36' long but only charters for six fishermen. On our trip there were only three other people beside Heather and I, so it was very fun. We left Depot Bay just after 6:00am and our captain took us south along the shoreline while most other boats either headed north or went further out to sea.

Within 15 minutes Captain Richard slowed the boat and started scanning for the fish. He found a spot and said, "There's a bunch of fish below us, go get 'em." We all let our lines out and pretty soon one of the other men on our boat hooked the first fish.

For the next four hours Captain Richard moved us between his favorite spots, and although the fishing was "pokey" as they say (ie. slow), we were still able to all catch our limits before the end of the day.

Most of the fish "we" caught were black bass (11), with two sea trout too. I say "we" because Heather caught FAR more fish than I did. She actually proved to be the most prolific fisher on the boat. The other guys were joking that I needed to stand closer to her and do whatever she was doing. She definitely helped us get our quota.

Just towards the end of our trip one of the other fishermen got a bite and man did his pole bend over. Captain Richard said "ok, that's not bass, you got something bigger going there." And sure enough, after a nice little fight, that guy pulled up a ling cod (pictured below). I was an impressive fish and definitely makes me want to do another trip some other time for something bigger than rock fish like bass.

One of the other great moments of the trip was the arrival of a few whales nearby. We tried a couple times but never got a great picture of them. It was still fantastic to see them rise and roll every once in a while though. Also you can see in some of the pictures below that the ocean was super still. We couldn't believe how little motion we had and how fantastic the weather was.

All in all we had an awesome time. The five hours went by so fast, we didn't want the trip to end. And although I was thrilled that this trip was a little bit of redemption from my last one, I was more excited that my wife had a great time and we returned safely to our children once we were done.

Back on dry land we spent the rest of the day with my parents in Gleneden, OR. Evan loves the beach and he could probably spend all day digging in the sand and building whatever. Hollyn hasn't quite taken to the beach like her brother, but this time we got her to enjoy it a little more than any other time.

We love the Lincoln City area and wish we could visit there more often.