My wife, Boni, and I had planned for a July visit with our daughter, Vicki, in Reedsport , Oregon. I had called in April to make a reservation aboard the Betty Kay, out of Charelston. My initial hope was for a salmon fishing trip. When I called about a month ago, it appeared that it was unlikely that there would be a salmon season in July... so I opted for a tuna trip instead. Late Thursday evening I received a call to inform me that due to a local tragedy... the owner/operator of the Charelston fuel dock had suddenly passed away, hence no fuel available for the 50 to 60 mile trip into the ocean after tuna. My only other option was a Rockfish trip the next morning, so I jumped on it. Arrived in Charelston at 5:00 AM, a quick bite of breakfast, check-in, and heading out from the dock at 6:00. Not a cloud in the sky, but a bit chilly in the early morning and a glorious sunrise to the east as we headed out of port. Fourteen fishermen and women aboard the Betty Kay. The bar was quite rough on a strong out-going tide, but once across, we headed south along the rocky coast for about 45 minutes, and began fishing a bit after 7:00. Terminal tackle was an 8oz lead jig with a orange and yellow fly tied on a dropper about 18" above the jig. We were into fish immediately and an assortment of Rockfish began to be hoisted up over the side of the boat. We had Black Rockfish, Quillback, Yellow Tail, Canary Rockfish, Blue Rockfish, at least one Cabezon, several Kelp Greenling, several large Yellow-Eye, Copper and China Rockfish which had to be returned to depth via a depth release device. It was pandemonium for a while, keeping the captain and deckhand, Max, running from bow to stern to disengage fish from jigs, and untangle lines... some were less adept at the procedure and had some trouble getting hook-ups... open the bail and let the jig descend to the bottom (140' to 160'), bounce along the bottom, release the bail until bottom is hit again, then reel back up. The drift of the boat will quickly raise the jig off the bottom, and most anglers end up fishing far off the bottom, where the fish are. I caught a total of 11 assorted Rockfish and two Ling Cod, although both Lings were under the 22" minimum (one was 21 1/2" and I would have stepped on it to get it to the minimum, except that there was a young woman from ODFW on board the monitor the catch. The boat ended up with four legal Lings. Our limit (7 Rockfish per angler, 98 for the boat) was reached by 8:30 and we headed back into port. We could have tried for more Lings, but fuel was getting low and captain Curt didn't want to take any chances. We stopped at the fuel dock on the way in and took on 396 gallons of diesel. Had an awesome day on the ocean. A flood of memories all morning long, as I have fished the Northwest Pacific Ocean from Neah Bay, WA, to Coos Bay, OR, since I was 10 years old. My dad has been gone for seven years now, but the memories of fishing together are as strong as ever. Just can't help but think how much he would enjoy the trip out of Charleston with me. My only solace is in knowing that he is in Heaven where fish are the last thing on his mind! PTL!

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