Yaquina Bay Charters Latest News

Archive for the ‘Fish Counts’ Category

The Crackerjack brought back 57 albacore last night! They were out between 30 and 40 miles with a full boat of ten. Way to go guys!

The next open tuna  in August are on the 25th (6 spots) and the 27th (1 spot) and then we have room for a whole boat on the 31st.

The Sea Quell had a bottom fishing double header yesterday and got 53 crab in 6 pots on the morning trip! However, by the afternoon the next set of 3 pots only brought in 7. That's kinda the way crabbing goes in Newport! Captain Art is out for Salmon today and then a Salmon/Bottom combo tomorrow with one spot left. I will post again later with how salmon fishing was today.

Give us a call if you want to get out there! Keep me busy here in the office while I wait for the tuna trip to get in!

Above pictures are from Wednesday's trip, a mixed group of 9 brought in 36 fish! Light tackle casting when the boat stopped trolling helped bring in several extra fish, good job to the guys who reeled all those suckers in.

Today's private group of 10 brought in 36 fish and came in 3 hours early! Imagine what 3 more hours of fishing time could have done! Nice to see some ladies on this trip, thanks for coming out!

Today's tuna trip came back with 27. Not too shabby! Headed out again Wednesday and then Friday-Sunday. The next available trip is on the 17th with 6 spots left. The 18th and the 27th have one spot and then we have room for a full boat on the 25th. After that we're booked until September!

 Alrighty folks here's a run down of this week's activities at YBC:

We had one good Salmon day on Monday on the CJ and then the next days were just like old times, a.k.a. slooooow. Some boats went back to our exact spot as Monday and got nothing the next day, so those salmon are being quite elusive. There have been a few caught here and there, but no one is posting big numbers or even nearly an average of one fish per charter customer. We are still keeping our eyes out and hoping there will be another good day that will stick around a little longer!

Bottom fishing was a little slow this week as the water temperature remains a bit cold for them. When the water gets cold the fish metabolism slows down, so they don't want to eat as much and don't go for our jigs as often. Yesterday was a much better day though, the CJ had a few great drifts early in the morning and caught sea bass limits for everyone and a couple ling cod. The SQ caught a good amount of sea bass as well, but only found lings that were too short to retain.

Thursday the CJ went out on a special* 14 hour tuna trip and went a bit past 60 miles looking for the longfins. Capt. Jack came back in with about 2 fish per person from that long day since the fish were so far out. On Saturday he took a private group of 8 out for 12 hours and brought back 3 per person. Those guys said they had a great time and plan to be back next year so we're looking forward to seeing them! The CJ is back on tuna today with a full boat of 10 and planning on going out about 45-50 miles. Looking forward to seeing some albacore on the docks tonight!!

Here's a picture from the men from Saturday's trip having a little fish duel on the dock. Someone apparently puckered up for a tuna but I don't have the photo evidence! Next time…

Saturday was the opening day for Coho retention for the Central Oregon Coast and it looks like everyone in the port had a hard day fishing for them. We caught 1, lost 3, and released 3 or 4 natives and that sounded like it was one of the better trips for all the charters. We had much better luck at bottom fishing for the rest of the weekend, but Capt. Jack is going to take more shots at Salmon later in the week and has a good feeling we'll have better luck. At this point we are recommending full day Salmon trips rather than half days to improve catches, but it's always up to the customer.

Bottom fishing is doing well, and we've been catching a good mix of fish. Yesterday our boys brought in some quillbacks, brown rocks, lings, kelp greenlings, blue rocks and blacks, so it was neat to see the assortment. Crabbing is also finally improving, so we're ready to start dropping pots again on the way out to fish.

Aaaaaaaaaand what everyone has been waiting for…. we've heard reports of the first sport fleet caught tuna!!! About 85 miles out a boat or two got into them. We need them to be no further out that 60 miles to take a 12 hour trip, so in a couple weeks they should be there! We'll be watching the warm water currents and keep you all posted. We have lots of full tuna trips on weekends, so remember if you're looking to accomodate a large group you might want to consider trying weekdays unless you're booking at least a month in advance!

Hope you're all as excited as we are for the upcoming tuna season!

P.S. this kid was a pro at pulling up crab pots and he caught a nice ling cod too! Way to go!