Weekday Get-away

Tuesday, March 21st, 2023

Initial decision to go out Tuesday instead of Monday proved to be a wonderful decision as the first light peaked over the hills as we were about to head out on the water. I had no previous experience on a dory and no fishing experience on ocean, but my boyfriend (who is quite the fisherman himself) said it was always something he had wanted to try. I had seen the launch and landing videos beforehand, but experiencing the real thing was much more fun. As we’re headed into the waves the processes required much more timing and patience than I had thought, but it made for a smooth (and dry) ride into the water. Once we were out near Haystack rock, we put down lines and fish were biting. I think I caught my first rockfish on my first line dropped into the water (and I wasn’t quite prepared for how tough, or how fun it was to reel a larger ocean fish in). Between my boyfriend and I, I don’t believe we went longer than 5 minutes without a bite. If we were sitting down waiting for a bite, it was onto a new spot to find more fish and within the first few line drops at the new spot, another fish was on the hook. After catching our limits of rockfish and lingcod by 9:15, we headed over to another spot to pick up some tasty crabs to take home. It could not have been a better day. The sun was shining, the sea was pretty calm, and the fish were biting! Mark was clearly an expert. He knew the spots and did a fantastic job talking us through the process as we tried something we’d never done before. He was also wonderful to chat with along the way. Overall, today surpassed any expectations I had, and makes me very excited to experience this again.