Randy's Boat Shop

Fish Taco had her first outing of the season and she performed as great as every.  You may remember that I replace the transom corner knees and the transom center knees this last winter.

I went to Green Peter reservoir, about two hours south of Portland, for Kokanee fishing.  The fishing was very poor but the weather and view were excellent.  I had added pads and power connectors for the downriggers and this was the first time I have tried them out.  The downriggers are mounted the bridge deck about amidship and this turned out to be a good location for them.

I trolled east on the lake and after 3 hours I had a nice run back to the boat ramp doing around 17 knots.  I had a little problem getting the Fish Taco back on the trailer because I had forgotten my boots.  This week I will pack Fish Taco for a crabbing trip which I hope to have better luck.

For the third attempt at Razor clamming in Seaside Oregon the weather was cooperating.   We arrived at the parking lot at the foot of 12^th Ave. a little before sunset and were treated to fabulous water colors. 

As were we were heading down to the beach several experienced clammers were leaving with limits of Razor clams.  We were told we should have good luck that evening; unfortunately our luck was spotty.  For about an hour we traipsed down the beach looking for clam show and then backup up for another hour.  When clams were found they were bunched together but the shows were elusive.  I ended up with 7 and 1/2 Razor clams; enough to make clam chowder.

The next and last clamming trip will be on December 1^st, weather permitting.  Low tide is -0.15ft at 6:01PM and sunset is at 4:31PM.

I made another attempt at Razor clamming in Seaside Oregon.  Low tide was at 9:07 PM so Mike S. and myself left Lake Oswego at 3PM to get out of town before the evening traffic.  The drive to Seaside was uneventful until we arrived at the junction of Hwy 26 and 101 when traffic stropped for about 45 minutes; about every 15 minutes traffic would move and then stop.  Once traffic cleared we did not see the reason for the delay.  It was after 5 PM when we stopped to eat at Tom’s Fish and Chips and had the all you can eat cod fish and chips and the fish was surprisingly good.  After diner we got to the parking lot at the end of 12th Avenue and put our gear on and we were on the beach just before 7 PM.  For the next two hours we walk up and down the beach and never saw a clam show and none of the other clammers had any luck.  The one bright spot was my new LED headlamp.  The Neolight T5 head lamp has five LED’s with 6 settings, 2 18650 Li-Ion rechargeable batteries and is reported to be waterproof but after inspecting it I would say that it is only water resistant.

I went Razor clamming yesterday and I wanted to let you know how it went.  This is my first Razor clamming trip in almost 50 years and I had a great time.  I left Lake Oswego around noon and arrived at the 12th Ave. parking lot in Seaside just before 2:00PM.  I geared up and headed out to the beach which was a little bit of a walk in soft sand.  Once I was at the wet sand I saw a clam show and had bagged my first clam.  I quickly found another show and had my second clam within 5 minutes  I thought that this was easy so I moved to into the surf line and worked my way south.  For an hour I pounded sand and did not see another show so I gave up and when back to where I started.  Once back I quickly saw a clam show and had my third and final clam.  I just put the clam in my bag when I was overrun by a herd of tourists running into the surf.   The best part was when the father told the kids not to get their clothes wet.

Too much stomping on the beach frightens the clams so they don’t feed and when they don’t feed there are no shows.  It was now just after low tide so I worked my way North to get away from the tourist and getting frustrated I started digging at anything that look like it might be a show; I startled many sand crabs.

I am going to try again this coming Friday, October 20th.  Low tide is at 9:07 PM so I plan to leave Lake Oswego mid-afternoon to avoid the Friday traffic and be at Seaside around 5 PM. I will get something to eat at be at the 12th Ave. parking lot around 6:30.  At 7PM the tide will be 1 ft and at 9 PM it should be at 0ft so I will clam between 7 and 9 PM.  I will let you know how I do on my second Razor clamming trip.

I was in Sitka Alaska last week fishing for Salmon, Halibut and rock fish.  There was a couple of firsts: first time fishing for Halibut and the first time I caught a Lingcod.  I went with my uncle Chester and we each brought back about 100lbs of fish.  The Salmon fishing was very similar to what I have done at Sekiu WA; use the down riggers to get the bait or lure to the right depth and wait for a hit.  The Halibut fishing was out in the ocean in 300 to 400 ft of water.  We lower the bait to just off the bottom and then wait for the Halibut to show up.  It takes a while to bring anything up from 350 feet.  My uncle caught an octopus which was exciting as the octopus did not want to give up the bait and was attached itself to the boat.

The rock fish and Lingcod were caught near the shore off some rocks.  We used spoons and jigged near the bottom for the Lingcod and up and down the entire water column for rock fish.

We did an all inclusive trip with Kingfisher Charters & Lodge in Sitka which is first class outfit.  The food was excellent even if they put red bell peppers in the colesaw.