Fishing Report: Garibaldi Jun 25-28th
On Friday June 25th, started a long weekend of fishing in Garibaldi. My wife and I dropped three crab pots in about 55’ of water between the North Jetty and Twin Rocks. We then went out to 130’ off Twin Rocks and trolled for coho salmon with one rod at 23’ on the line counter, the other at 40’ on the line counter. After trolling for about fifteen minutes, fish on, the 23’ rod had a native coho which was released. Before we had this rod set up again, the rod at 40’ went off. Fun, but another native coho, which was released. I figured it was going to be a banner day, we trolled for another two hours or so, with no more action. Picked up the crab pots, which were baited with fresh shad, and got 24 keepers out of the first two pots, with several more in the third pot, which were released. We then called it a day.
On Friday night, my friend Todd came down, Saturday morning we went south, dropped three pots, in about 60’ of water, and fished from about 130’ to 160’ towards Three Arches. I caught one native coho, released, Todd lost one fish. I was using cut plug green label herring, and Todd a Coho spoon. The bottom fishing was very slow, I caught one cabezon, released, and Todd had no success. Picked up the pots again and had 14 keeper crabs. We then fished the dinner reef for a while, with no success.
On Saturday night, Jeff and Inna came down, we headed out Sunday morning dropped three pots towards Twin Rocks and started fishing at about 160’. After about 58 minutes as we were reeling up rods one at a time to go bottom fishing, Jeff caught a hatchery coho, finally!!! This dictated that we troll for another hour, with Inna reeling in a very handsome jack native coho, which was released. We then went to the Dinner Reef, and Inna caught a black sea bass, using a bullet head jig, with a swimbait. Then, up to Manzanita, to fish some reefs up there, Jeff and Inna each caught a keeper ling cod, Jeff caught a nice canary rockfish, and Inna a yellow eye, which was descended to the depths. Picked up the three crab pots and had 23 keeper crab.
With these very large tide exchanges, caution should be used launching, the concrete ramp ends abruptly, and it drops off several inches, causing quite a jolt. If you have to launch during one of these extreme low tides, do it slowly and with caution. Make sure you have the boat secured to the dock, so it does not go floating away, if and when it bounces off the trailer.
On Monday, no fishing, bar restricted most of the morning, and when unrestricted, the wind had picked up, time for a beach day, then back to face the heat in Portland.
