Rough water but the Salmon made it worth

Today was an awesome ocean day with a run down to the Tillamook Head lighthouse to load up on bottom fish. We were joined by a pod of Orca part way down, including a relatively new calf! The rockfish were more than happy to hop on our lines and we found a quick limit of black, canary, and copper rockfish as well as a beautiful kelp greenling. With only a few ling cod around it was time to make a move back up north. Whales made an appearance there as well with a gray feeding just south of the Columbia River. Once we got the lines out we quickly landed several nice lings and even got into a double. Two blue ling cod even joined us to add to the red colored canary and copper rockfish for a full spread of fourth of July colors. We finished up the day with a full boat limit of rockfish and several limits of ling cod. More importantly we broke a 20 year long dry streak of not catching any fish on the part of one of our crew. I'm super excited to see these guys on the boat again :)

This awesome family joined me for an amazingly fun sturgeon trip. We only had a short time but still managed to get over a dozen to the boat with nearly all of them over 6 foot. We did find a few "smaller" ones that we could bring out of the water for pictures. To make the trip special we also had a rare green sturgeon make an appearance. To make it even more special, Noah set the record for being the youngest person to bring in an oversized sturgeon on my boat at 7 years old! I can't wait to get these guys out for more adventures. They're an awesome crew and a great family :)

Today was a perfect day for a Columbia River sturgeon fishing trip. The weather cooperated with minimal winds and pretty smooth water. More importantly, the fishing continues to be absolutely on fire. Today featured lots of big fish with multiple sturgeon above 7 feet long. The gymnastics were particularly impressive with large fish jumping and splashing close to the boat. The action was fast with very few times that we were able to keep all of the rods in the water. Multiple doubles and a triple hookup made for a lot of tired arms and big smiles. I love having kids on the boat and today we even managed to get smiles out of a couple of teenagers. I can't wait until my next trip!