The author and his wife with a couple nice kings
from Barkley Sound.
HERE’S HOW YOU DO IT:
Rule No. 1. You need to be a salty dog.
What this means is that you need to
know how to operate responsibly in big
water. Rule No. 2. What kind of boat?
See rule No. 1.
But basically this means having a
boat designed to fly off a swell and go
boom and boom and boom again. It’s
probably going to be 24-feet or more
and relatively heavy, not necessarily
glass, but thick aluminum. What’s
between your ears is much, much more
important than how long the boat is.
It will probably have a cabin or a
hard top with curtains, but you will see
center console T-tops and even open
tiller controlled Alumawelds and such.
You’ll need good electronics and either
two big motors or two radios. (Sorry,
old joke.) Radar and sonar, of course.
Downriggers.
But that’s really it. If are confident
going outside at Tillamook or Coos Bay
or LaPush or Westport or Neah Bay, or
Buoy 10, and respect the ocean, you can
do this.
You’re not going to be alone. You will
meet the guides and other guests at
a resort and get their boat names and
you’ll be able to talk to them on the
radio out there. When you’re getting
thrown around and wondering if it
might not be a good idea to go inside,
you have somebody to talk to. They will
be helpful.
The conventional wisdom on the
fishing forums is that towing your boat
on the gravel roads to the west side of
the island is roughly equivalent to driv-
ing an unescorted NATO fuel truck in
the mountains of Afghanistan. Certain
death. But it’s not. These logging roads
aren’t like the Cascade and Coast Range
logging roads where you’re sliding off to
oblivion on mud one second and sink-
ing up to your door handles in talcum
powder the next. They are wide, graded
regularly and well maintained.
Yes, they are gravel. Your truck and
boat will get dirty. You should have mud
flaps or a gravel guard if you have a glass
boat and drive fast. And the most im-
portant thing — you need to have your
truck and trailer brakes inspected before
you go. The grades can be steep.
And yes, you will run into stretches
of shallow washboards, but it’s not for
miles at a time. And look at it this way,
there will be a nice relaxing glass of
Okanogan cab waiting for you at the
lodge.
So, starting in the north...
Quatsino Sound
This is the farthest north, the hardest to
get to, the wildest, the roughest water
because it catches the westerlies head
on, and it’s the first to get the fish.
kenmoreair.com
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