Fishing Report: Garibaldi Jun 13th & 14th Ling, Rock Fish and Halibut

Drove down on Friday afternoon, went out to the dinner reef, a half mile or so off of the north jetty, for a few hours, about 12:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. saw some schools on the fish finder, but none that wanted to bite. Went back to port and rested up for two full days of fishing. At 6:00 a.m. Saturday Jeff and Inna , Team Schwab arrived from Portland.

We launched my boat, and headed to Three Arches, it was not a calm day, the waves were mixed , but we finally made it. The bite was very good early, maybe 7:00 a.m. till about 9:00 a.m. for bottom fish, we all limited on bottom fish and Jeff and Inna each caught a nice ling cod. Then the bite died, could still see schools but no action. Decided to call it a day about 12:00 p.m. and head back to clean fish and relax at my travel trailer in the Garibaldi RV Park. Staying in Garibaldi rather than driving round trip back and forth to PDX in one day is awesome! For years I would dread having to load the boat up, drive home 1 hour and 40 minutes or so, then deal with fish cleaning, flushing motors, washing boat off, etc. Now it is a 30 second drive to the RV and I can begin the clean up process, significantly less stress.

On Sunday I fished with Pat, Todd, and Tony out of Pat’s new to him, 26’ Striper with twin 150’s on the stern. I have a 20’ aluminum Weldcraft, the trip to and from Three Arches was much much more comfortable in the larger fiberglass boat. I do really enjoy my boat, but the smoother ride was a welcome change. The bite was the same as Saturday, really good early, then it died off. Before it died off, Pat managed a limit of bottom fish and a nice ling cod, I got a limit of bottom fish, Todd and Tony each caught several bottom fish, but the real excitement was Todd hooking and landing a halibut. Since it was not an all depth halibut day, it was legal to keep. We headed back to clean fish around 12:00 p.m. We all had a great day and really enjoyed being in Pat’s boat, for Todd and I the first time in it. Now, to get through some “work” days until I head back next Thursday. I have still never caught a halibut, hoping that changes next weekend!