First ocean trip of 2023, Mar 18th

Finally, a nice ocean and a bright sunny day forecast. Loaded up the boat and headed to Garibaldi at 5:30 a.m. Met two friends, Todd and Troy, and headed south to Three Arches, on a very smooth ocean. There were a lot of commercial crab pots to maneuver around. The bite for lingcod was great right at the start. Troy and I were using Big Hammer swimbaits, and Todd experimented with several options. However, we lost a lot of them, but got five pretty quick. Then things slowed way down. We moved several times, caught our sixth ling cod, and some bottom fish. Did not limit on bottom fish, ended with eight or so. Knowing a large tide exchange was coming in the afternoon, called it a day about 12:00. Crossed a slightly agitated bar about 1:30 or so, and headed back to Portland. Good to get back out on the ocean, make sure all systems, trailer, lights, etc. working with no issues.

I have learned that the down and back in the same day is not nearly as much fun as when I have my boat in the slip and my travel trailer in the RV park. Looking forward to the summer days.