OUTDOORS & REC
B2 — THE OBSERVER & BAKER CITY HERALD
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2021
OVGARD
Continued from Page B1
I’d put him on some
small cabezon the night
before in the sea lettuce
beds of my favorite inter-
tidal zone, but the appeal of
the world’s largest sculpin
is lost with hand-sized ﬁ sh,
and we both knew that.
Due to a lack of tradi-
tional boat ramp or harbor,
relative isolation, small
population size, marine
protected areas to the
north and south and dis-
tance from Highway 101,
the Paciﬁ c City ﬁ shery is
one of the healthiest bottom
ﬁ sheries not only in Oregon
but in the world.
As a result, you can ﬁ sh
shallower than you would
anywhere else from Astoria
to Brookings and still catch
ﬁ sh, but if you ﬁ sh deeper,
each angler will catch a
party boat’s worth of large
ﬁ sh. Another advantage of
the deeper, colder water
is a reduced parasite load
and ﬁ rmer meat in the ﬁ sh
you’ll catch, so they taste
better, too.
I quickly traded my
medium spinning-jigging
setup for the even lighter
rods on the boat, and it paid
dividends.
We plowed through
large black, blue, canary,
copper, deacon, quillback
and yellowtail rockﬁ sh
ﬁ shing three- to ﬁ ve-inch
swimbaits on remark-
ably light half- and one-
ounce jigheads. It felt like
cheating, ﬁ shing with such
light gear, but you could
feel every take, the ﬁ ght
was superior.
I managed my larg-
est-ever yellowtail and
copper rockﬁ sh — both
topping ﬁ ve pounds. Dom
caught some huge black
rockﬁ sh. We added a few
lingcod, Dom got his larger
cabezon, and I even caught
a new species when we
drifted over a deeper reef: a
yelloweye rockﬁ sh.
Like many deepwater
ﬁ sh, rockﬁ sh have what is
called a swim bladder. The
Tom Claycomb/Contributed Photo
Prepping the poppers. Cut a strip of bacon in half. Lay on a slice of marinated dove breast, slice of jala-
peno and onion and roll it up and pin together with toothpicks.
CLAYCOMB
Continued from Page B1
So, if you have a pile
of doves in the freezer
tell your wife that you’ve
got dinner tonight. Whip
out these bad boys and
she’ll likely beat you with
a stick to go out and get
her some more. And that’s
a good problem to have.
A wife who wants you to
go hunting. Gee, I ought
to go into marriage coun-
seling! (If you don’t have
any doves, don’t panic. I
made these poppers out of
Eurasian doves and pigeons
which I’d just shot with
my Umarex .25-caliber
Gauntlet airgun.)
Luke Ovgard/Contributed Photo
3 Webinars
to Choose from. . .
Dom Porcelli with a cabezon.
large ﬂ eshy sac inﬂ ates
or deﬂ ates accordingly to
help a ﬁ sh’s body deal with
varying pressures at depth.
When a ﬁ sh is brought up
rapidly, the sac inﬂ ates
and prevents the ﬁ sh from
swimming down.
Oregon angling regula-
tions require the use of a
descending device for ﬁ sh
with barotrauma, which the
protected yelloweye had.
While Captain Josh dug his
out and prepared it, Dom
snapped a few quick pic-
tures of me and the vibrant
orange ﬁ sh with those
striking namesake yellow
eyes.
When we called it a
day, we surfed the waves
in. Captain Josh planted
us squarely on top of a big
wave, killed and raised his
outboards in a ﬂ uid motion,
and let the momentum
of the surf plant us on
the beach. Though I had
nothing to do with it, I felt
proud by association.
We unloaded our gear
and chased other quarry
while the captain cleaned
our catch. Dom was living
in a motel and planned to
return to Florida in two
days’ time, so he graciously
added his catch to my own,
giving me a solid portion
of clean white ﬁ llets to take
home.
Dom ﬁ nished his trip
to Oregon with more than
15 new species, including
those he found on the dory.
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Topics vary for each webinar:
Credits approved by Oregon Dept
of Agriculture, Washington State
Dept. of Agriculture & Oregon
Landscape Contractors Board
Nov. 2, 2021
For all
Pesticide
Applicators
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Nov. 4, 2021
5 ODA, 5 WSDA, 5 CEH from LCB
Nov. 10, 2021
4 ODA, 4 WSDA, 4 CEH from LCB
Full agendas online.
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