May 11 - 13 in Garibaldi: North or South?

We began Thursday by heading south down to Three Arches (about 9 miles from Garibaldi.) My friend Jim and I fished at various depths on the reefs, from about 90 feet to 160 feet. It was a tough bite, but we did manage to get our limit of 4 ling cod and only 4 rockfish. We also lost a lot of gear on the snaggy, rocky bottom, which happens - this day just seemed like it was excessive. One thing I knew for sure: Friday we were not going south.

On Friday, we ventured north, off of Manzanita, where there are some nice reefs to fish (if you can locate them). I have a Navionics chip in my GPS unit, which shows the bottom structure very well. The ling cod were biting, and there were some big ones in the mix. We got our lingcod limits on these reefs both Friday and Saturday, in a fairly short amount of time. The bottom fish bite was slow here as well, but we did manage a few each day. I was amazed at the ebb chop we encountered on returning.

The crabbing has been slow in this area lately, but appears to be picking back up. While fishing on Friday we saw many tiny crabs floating (less than the size of a dime). Some of the sea bass we caught had these crabs in their throats.

The tide swings were not great, but the crossings were not calm on any of the days. You have to make sure and monitor the conditions, or you could be “stuck” outside waiting for the bar to calm down. The Coast Guard updates bar conditions on a regular basis (you can view reports for your area on the National Weather Service website).

I’m getting ready to head back down tomorrow to Garibaldi tomorrow (Wednesday, May 17th) to repeat the process. Until the northern spot stops producing, that will be where we are headed!