We specifically chose to go to Gold Beach this particular weekend so that we could fish in the annual fishing derby. I can't tell you how many people asked if we were crazy going over to fish in the derby. It's bumper to bumper boats; boats so thick on the river you can walk across them! If you gonna go, go big, right!!!
I'm not sure I should tell all of you this, but the proceeds from the fishing derby, and after hours entertainment, goes to pay for the "Seal Patrol". What is the Seal Patrol you ask? Well let me explain this to you. The seals and the sea lions got so abundant in this section of the river that they were stealing fish from the fishermen. It got so bad that the animals were trained to spot a fishermen raising his net to bring in a fish and they would all swim directly over to his boat and steal the fish before he had time to actually land it in the boat. Hence the invention of the Seal Patrol. These guys spend all day trolling back and forth in their boat shooting at the seals and sea lions. Don't worry, they are only shooting rubber bullets. If things get really bad, they put a "bomb" in the water and make a large boom, which sends the animals back out to the sea. I tell you this because all day long while your out enjoying the quiet, peaceful, "being one with nature", you hear gun fire. You also hear everyone around you secretly cheer that another seal or sea lion is gone.
So, we got up early Saturday morning to a foggy day, which is pretty normal around these parts.
We drove over to the campground where Vic and Penny spend the entire month of August. Their spot was pretty easy to find due to the firefighter's boat with flames painted on the side of it.
I still am not sure why we had to be the first people out on the river. It was an early morning, but I was excited at the thought of catching that big salmon.
Soon enough the other boats started showing up. There ended up being less boats on the river on Saturday than on a normal day (according to Penny). We're not sure if it was the derby that kept people away, or the fact that the fisherman's almanac said this was supposed to be one of the worst fishing days of the entire season!
Vic caught a fish pretty early in the day. Now you and I might be impressed by the size of this fish, but Vic was not. He just wanted to bring in a fish so that we would have at least one.
After a couple hours went by with no other bites, Vic put on his "Pedro" hat. He thought this would bring us luck.
He also let Scott drive the boat for a few minutes. Maybe this would be the trick.
This section of the river is a high traffic area for the jet boats that go up the river. It never fails, as soon as a jet boat full of tourists comes by, you snag a fish and the boat comes over so that everyone can see you land the big one. We got excited every time we saw a jet boat. That for sure would make one of us snag a fish.
All of the sudden it became like an scary Hitchcock movie. The birds saw all the feeder fish we were in and swarmed us. They were dive bombing into the water all around us. They practically landed on the boat. If we were in the feeder fish, we for sure had to be near the big salmon.
We are used to white pelicans were we live so these brown pelicans were something new.
We only had until 4:00pm to weigh-in our fish in order for them to count towards the derby. Since Vic was the only one in our boat to catch a fish by 4:00pm, he took it up for weigh-in. His fish weighed-in at just over 15 pounds. The winning fish for the day, 34.9 pounds. Ummm, I don't think I could have landed a fish more than twice the size of this one. For the entire derby, only 24 fish were caught; and one boat caught four of those fish. We were actually one of the lucky boats who landed a fish that day.
One nice thing about only catching one fish, it makes the cleaning process go faster.
Following the fishing derby we headed back to the parking lot of our hotel where the rest of the festivities were taking place. I may not be able to catch a fish, but I can definitely fetch some beers.
A lot of people came out to support this cause. We really got the feeling that this community comes together to support it's people and it's way of life. The next night was another fundraiser, equal to this one, to support a local family whose mother is battling leukemia.
Sunday was not such a nice day out on the water. The weather was cloudy, windy, and downright cold.
We spent the day trolling the river with absolutely no bites. So what do you do when you spend two days and don't catch a fish? Why yes, you go down to the shady docks 30 miles away in Port Orford and buy fish from the commercial boats coming back in. These are not the touristy docks that I remember as a kid in Newport. NO! These are the docks where the boats come in after days of being at sea. Many of the fishermen don't have a full set of teeth (and are probably wanted by some form of law enforcement agency). This was not the kind of place to wander around and take photos. I tried to not draw too much attention to myself. But in the end, we came home with a cooler full of fish.
I can't believe how much fishing takes out of you. We enjoyed a nice dinner and were back in our room by 6:30pm, where I promptly fell asleep by 7:00pm. We had big plans for Monday and I needed to be ready for a long day.
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