Posted by Webmaster on Oct 12, 2009 in
Crabbing in Oregon REEDSPORT — A handful of boats in Oregon’s crabbing fleet returned to sea last week for one last hurrah.
Their quarries were the derelict pots and buoys left behind this year by commercial crab boats.
During a volunteer effort held nearly seven weeks past the close of the Dungeness season, fishermen focused their attention on crabbing gear trapped near shorelines or otherwise forgotten at sea during the Dec. 1 to Aug. 14 season.
Read more…
Tags: clean up, crab gear, NOAA, ocean, recovery
Posted by Webmaster on Oct 8, 2009 in
Crabbing in Oregon,
Fishing Chinook fishing in the Coos River has slowed this past week. But with a forecast of rain and larger tide exchanges, we should see more salmon coming into the river. The wild coho season on the Coos has closed but you may still retain fin-clipped coho.
Chinook fishing in the lower Coquille River has also slowed, but the wild coho season has remained strong with good numbers of fish being caught in the lower river and bay. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife estimates we have taken about 45 percent of our 1,500 wild coho quota. Some fishermen have remarked that wild coho are larger the later we get into the season. The Coquille is also producing some 30-plus pound Chinook, and we still have plenty of jacks in both river systems to keep the fishermen excited.
Salmon fishing on the lower Rogue River in Gold Beach still is producing some Chinook, and there are plenty of fin-clipped coho being caught in the bay.
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Tags: Chinook, fishing, huting, Oregon, recreation, reports
Posted by Webmaster on Sep 8, 2009 in
Crabbing in Oregon This weekend was a great one for crabbing in Bandon. Due to the weather I wasn’t able to go out on a planned fishing trip so we went crabbing off of the docks in Bandon.
Armed with 5 crab rings and a crab trap we set out for my favorite spot, the middle of the dock. We added turkey to all of our rings and traps and a squirt of Gulp Alive Spray (Herring Flavor) and threw them in.
I can’t tell you 100% that the Gulp spray made all the difference but I do know no one on the docks was doing very good on Friday night and Sunday night but we managed to pull in 36 keepers in about 8 hours of crabbing.
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Tags: bait, Bandon, Crabbing in Oregon, Gulp, turkey
Posted by Ocean Harvester on Jul 14, 2009 in
Crabbing in Oregon,
General,
Ocean Harvest 
Albacore On the Line
It is time for the yearly makeover here on The Harvester, taking her from a heavy hauling machine to a sleek albacore tracking machine. We start by taking off the hauling equipment like the crab block, long line hauler and the deck table that we use for holding and setting the long line gear. Then give the boat a heavy scrubbing, paint the trim, and add the small hydraulic tuna pullers and landing table. All this takes about four days. Meanwhile in the evenings we keep a close eye on the terrafin sea surface temperature charts. They tell us where the water temperature is ideal for the albacore,between 60 and 65 degrees. Over the past couple of weeks we have seen that the warm water has moved from 100mi to 40mi off the coast of Charleston.
On the Hunt: Once we’re in the warmer waters we slow the boat to six knots and throw out nine jigs that vary from 5 to 150 feet behind the boat. They drag a few inches below the surface in the prop wash “disturbed water behind boat”. Albacore mostly travel in groups so they can corner schools of bait fish up against the surface. When they do this the surface is disturbed just like the water behind the boat. So when the harvester drives over some albacore they rise up thinking all that action means chow time. They bite the jigs swimming very fast, once hooked they dive down making the line behind the boat tight.
Video: Capt. Tyler Pulls a Beut
This is when the fun starts, we grab the line and slap it in the tuna puller that pulls the fish close to the boat then we hand pull them the last ten feet to the stern and yank them on. Once they are landed they are bled and packed in ice. Last year we averaged 90 fish per day, the first half of the season was more like 150 fish per day. As the season goes on they fatten up and don’t feed as much so they’re harder to catch, but if you want BBQ fresh tuna later season catch is the best. We can expect good albacore fishing now through the middle of October so get out the BBQ and pressure canner because it’s tuna time.
First Trip:
We left at four in the morning on Tuesday the 9th of July and fished half the day afternoon Tuesday and all day Wednsday for 330 fish at 65 miles off the coast of Winchester bay average size 15 pounds for 6000 lbs total. Weather was good and we offloaded and are heading out again. We expect to have fresh canned tuna available by this Monday.
Happy Crew is Good Crew
Second Trip:
Best albacore fishing we’ve ever had. We pulled 527 fish on Saturday the 11th of July and 180 on Sunday for more than 10,000 lbs of albacore tuna on our 34 foot boat (that’s a record) The guys at the cannery just about crapped their pants and had to hire on some more workers to finish processing (they are still cutting even now ha ha). We were 32 miles off Winchester Bay taking a chance on close in fishing. We hit the mother load and plugged our little boat. No other ships in sight the whole time sorry guys.. you were too far out!
So the canned albacore we JUST CAUGHT are available for you and your family. You can order on line and/or visit our spot at the Eugene Farmers Market Sat 18th. We are working on local pickup locations in Coos/Curry which will be ready soon — We’ll let you know. A lot of other boats have fresh albacore on the docks, just keep a look out for signs near your local harbors. We have some available but we’re on a hot streak so not sticking around on shore too long!!
Local Pickup now Available for Langlois & Coos/Curry by arraignment.
Capt Tyler and the Harvester Crew
Tags: albacore, fishing, tuna
Posted by Ocean Harvester on Jun 26, 2009 in
Crabbing in Oregon,
General,
Ocean Harvest 
The Halibut Fleet Heading Out
The 10 hour Halibut Season this year was a struggle for us on the Harvester. We stayed up the night before baiting with octopus, squid and herring. We set 30 tubs of gear (each tub with about 180 hooks) off Cape Arago with the hopes of catching 70 – 100 fish to fill our quota. Weather was great. It was blowing like crazy the day before but it was flat calm on the opening. This time of year our spot is usually pretty good since the Halibut spawn shallower in the spring and move out to deeper water later on. We’re pretty sure the halibut moved out deeper than we figured, since we know some boats who did better out there, so we basically got skunked catching only 10 fish at 230 pounds. That’s one fish an hour plus all the prep time it was pretty dire. Since you only get 10 hours you basically have make an educated (or not so educated) guess where they’ll be for those few hours when you are allowed to catch them. We guessed wrong 
Video One of the Few to hit the deck
Now its 2 days of going through the gear and fixing hooks checking the gangion, cleaning the gear really good with soap and bleach and putting it in the barn for the rest of the year. There may be other openings but its too much work for too little fish with the prices being down. We’re moving on to the Tuna which are coming closer in with the warm summer waters.
Stay Tuned for the Albacore Tuna!
-The Harvester Captain & Crew
Another Cool Video: Cabazon Fishing
Tags: 2009, cabazon, commercial, halibut, video
Posted by Webmaster on Feb 18, 2009 in
Crabbing in Oregon Charleston’s annual Crab Feed brought in droves of about 1,200 people who happily gave their sweethearts crab for Valentine’s — or for the Sesquicentennial, depending on who you talk to.
But after the meal, many local businesses benefited from the fundraising event, as the diners checked out what the fishing town had to offer. Mel Campbell, a Wild Woman of Charleston who also operates the information center, said shops such as Charleytown Marketplace and Chuck’s Seafood saw double the business as they would see on a regular weekend.
For photos of this event, CLICK HERE.
Tags: Charleston, Crab Feed
