I grew up near the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia and thought I knew what crabbing and fishing was like, but I was wrong! The Dorey boat experience with Mark was an absolute blast. It was the perfect way to be introduced to the unique scenery of the Oregon coast and Pacific Ocean. The trip has an early start but the push out to sea from the beach wakes you right up. As soon as we got past the waves, Mark set us up with polls and showed us how to use them. I didn't expect to catch anything because in my academic fishing experience (I studied ecology in school), we used big nets that guaranteed you a catch. But I caught sea bass after sea bass and felt totally comfortably by the end! The next stop was to pull up crab cages. I grew up cleaning and eating Virginia blue crabs but these crabs were different - they were huge!! We had no trouble meeting our individual catch limits either. Our final effort was for salmon. At this point I was a little tired and cold but after Mark loaned me an extra coat and we saw sea lions, sharks, and sun fish, I was ready to wrangle again. The salmon were much more challenging to catch but our group managed to land one that will feed us well. I had no idea just how enormous salmon can be! The ones we reeled in were not your typical grocery store fish, they were big and beautiful. The trip ended on a special request. I had heard seals barking the entire day but never saw them until Mark drove us up to a large metal bouy. Sitting on top was a family of seals including a little pup. Mark circled around several times so I could take photos and I was completely impressed by their size. It was the first time I'd ever seen a seal and so I didn't realize... you guessed it... that they are also huge! Mark describes getting back to shore as a coordinated crash but I thought it was very graceful. It was pretty neat to blow the horn to warn the surfers we were coming and then have an audience of beach goers watching as we landed like famous people. Having moved from the south, I sometimes feel people in the northwest are a little cold and unfriendly. So you can imagine my joy that Mark and his wife Linda welcomed us to their home with warm open arms. They helped us prepare our catch and served us beer to enjoy on comfortable couches. Their warmth and friendliness really made the trip. I would love to hangout with them again and I strongly encourage you to spend a day with them too!