THE LONG WAY AROUND TOO FLORENCE

October 8,2008

Today is another day of traveling to new parts of Oregon to see what other towns or cities have to offer. One of the big things we have been noticing is the amount of homes that are being offered in Lakeside and Florence, so rather then crossing them off of our list to move to we figured it would be best to check out the community's and the country side.

The original plan was to head right up to Florence via Hwy 101 along the coast highway looking at Winchester and Lakeside again. It was last year when we went up to Winchester and since it was kind of a hurry hurry trip, we figured we would take our time today too look over the area better. Well, it didn't take long before I talked myself into taking another route through Hwy 38 along the Umpqua River at Reedsport to the Elk Viewing area . Of course this was my brilliant idea and this time we did not take a map with us. I assumed that Hwy 38 would circle around and come back into Florence. Mistake one. Never assume you don't need a map of the area!

While traveling up the Highway along the Umpqua river we went by a Roosevelt Elk viewing area called Dean Creek. This is located between Reedsport and Scottsdale. Stopping at the viewing area we did see some Elk and they were impressive. Lots of large Bulls, some with nice size racks. We were able to get within photo distance of the herd and did get some pictures, but not as close as I would have liked.


Now since we were at the Viewing area I thought I would ask one of the locals that were traveling through about Hwy 38 tying back into 101. I was informed it did indeed tie back in to 101. The big kicker is he did not tell me I had to go clear into Eugene Oregon first, which was quite a jont. You may say just a little out of our way. Like about another 80 additional miles or so out of our way.



































Elks Creek, between Elkton & Drain. Elks Creek joins the Umpqua River at Elkton


One thing at least I did get the chance to see Eugene, which is a pretty big city, not really centered like most city's it's scattered all around the hills and valley.

I have to admit it to Helen, but she did tell me I was heading the wrong way and that we were headed toward the East and Hwy 5, not the coast, and she was right. Being a retired Forest Service employee we never get our directions mixed up, at least this is what I thought.

One thing I thought was quit unusual is the cost of gasoline in the different parts of Oregon. You would think gasoline in Eugene would be far cheaper than in Coos Bay and the gasoline in Florence being a smaller town along Hwy 101 would be more expensive. Wrong again. I have not figured out how they come up with their gas prices from area to area.

Now Florance s a little bit biger then Coquille. Why the big difference?

Here is the break down on Gas prices and population census:

1, Coos Bay $3.59 per gallon, Population 16,200

2, Grants Pass $3.49 per gallon. Population 30,930

3, Coquille $3.63 per gallon. Population 4184

4. Eugene $3.50 per gallon. Population 153,690

5. Florence $3.22 per gallon. Population 7318

TRIP ALONG SEVEN DEVILS ROAD

OCTOBER 5, 2008




Along Seven Devils road







Overcast day, but a great day for a trip back down to Bandon via Seven Devils Road. Not sure where they came up with the name Seven Devils .














One thing about the areas along the Pacific from Bandon to Whisky Row is its prime beaches, which are somewhat isolated and have great potential for finding agates. Here you can walk on the beach for miles with very few access roads coming down to the beach.

We never had the chance today to look for any of the Agates, but on our last trip to Bandon in February we observed some people sifting through the sand picking up agates. We originally thought of looking at Bandon for some, but since it was a little cool and the surf was still rough from the previous storm we decided against it. Temperature was in the mid fifty's.

There will be other days that we can pursue looking for these gems, but not today.












We stopped at Whisky Row Beach to see if there was anything that would be of interest to us. We were not aware of agates in that area so we never pursed looking for them. Real nice beach and well maintained. Would be a great place for a picnic in the summer.











Whisky Row Beach












Whisky Row Beach

THE MIGHTY PACIFIC OCEAN

OCTOBER 4, 2008

Last night Mother Nature did her thing with heavy rain and wind. Some of the gusts got up to 58 miles per hour, which shook the motor home around a little. I almost got up and closed the westerly slide out portion of our motor home to help reduce the wind drag from moving it around. As it stands if you have all the slide outs out, especially the dining room and the couch room, it acts like a big airplane wing.

One thing about all this rain is it cleaned the motor home up real well.
Talking to several other RV people I found out a lot of them wait until a good hard rain and then get out and scrub the home down. Leaves a real clean wash without wasting any water . The other advantage is the rain is free of minerals, which stains your home when you wash it with a garden hose.

Since it was predicted for rain off and on all day we decided to do some more sight seeing. The weather forecast had predicted extreme high surf conditions with waves reaching 12 to 15 feet in size. Since we're only about 3 miles from Coos Bay Jetty this would be a great place to observe the ocean. Their was indeed a lot of vehicles in the parking lot and most people were taking pictures of the waves coming in.

Looking out on the Coos Bay Bar from the Jetty

In side the Jetty near Charleston







Inside the Jetty during 12 foot swells


I could see this would not be a good day for boats or ship to pass the bar since the ocean is in a turmoil with rough seas.

Kind of funny how something like the ocean can be so intriguing and yet so restful.
.


Simpson Reef


This picture doesn't really give justice to the size of the waves as we're looking about 1/2 mile out. The rocks are covered with hundreds of seals, which of course are too far away to make out in this picture.

WILL THE REAL HALIBUT PLEASE STAND UP?

OCTOBER 3, 2008


I have this burning question on Halibut fishing in Oregon. Reading, the regulations they talk about refer to the Pacific Halibut and then in another page they talk about Halibut with a limit of 25 fish. On the special Pacific Halibut they talk about special regulations for possession, which is set by the Fish and Wildlife. This is a harvest cap.

Being confused I decided to take my question to the Oregon Fish and Wildlife office to have them explain the difference. OK here it is . Evidently there is more than one Halibut species. The halibut they're referring to with a 25 fish limit are the California Halibut not the Pacific Halibut. OK here is the big difference, which was explained to me. The Pacific Halibut is a right eyed fish and the California Halibut is a left eyed fish. Simple right, not quite there is some exception to this rule as sometimes a Pacific Halibut is a left eyed fish.

The California Halibut or California Flounder, Paralichthys californicus, is a large-tooth flounder that ranges from Washington to Baha California waters. It feeds near shore and is free swimming. It typically weighs 6 to 50 pounds (3 to 23 kg). It is much smaller than the larger and more northern-ranging Pacific halibut that can reach 300 pounds.
A top level predator that hunts by stealth, it is prized by fishermen as great table fare.
Sport fishers typically use light fishing gear and live baits for this halibut. Baits include anchovies, sardine, squid, mackerel, and queenfish (brownbait). Some anglers use plastic lures and scampitype "lead heads" to fool a halibut into striking.
Mostly fishing from boats in the coastal regions, anglers catch good quantities of halibut in 10 to 80 feet of water. Sometimes the fish are caught from shore or by kayak fishermen in very shallow water. Slow trolling and drift fishing is the preferred method of bait presentation.
This is an unusual fish in that one eye has to migrate around from one side to the other as it grows from an upright fry or baby fish into an adult fish that lays on its side. The adult has two eyes on the up-side as it lays on the bottom. The fish hides under sand or loose gravel and blends into the bottom. See flatfish for more information on this.

The Pacific Halibut is the largest of all flat fish, with an average weight of about 25 - 30 lb (11 - 13½ kg), but they can grow to be as much as 400 lbs . The Halibut is blackish-grey on the top side and off-white on the underbelly side. When the Halibut is born the eyes are on both sides of its head so it has to swim like a salmon. After about 6 months one eye will migrate to the other side of its head, making it look more like the flounder. This happens at the same time that the stationary eyed side begins to develop a blackish-grey pigment while the other side remains white.

The California Halibut in Coos Bay can reach 30 lbs in size and are caught in the muddy, sandy areas.

Now you know the difference.

They predicted rain for today and it finally arrived. Since it would not be a good day to crab or fish we figured why not make a good day of it anyway, and check out some more of the real estate along the North Bay near a couple of small communities known as Glasgow and Cooston. These areas are along the East Bay Road . We did see some pretty nice homes along the road overlooking the Bay.

We stopped by to check on one home that kind of met our fancy. Of course this was a short visit after we saw the price of the home, $450,000. A little over our price range. It was really nice, which encompasses almost 1 1/2 acre. It does overlook the bay, very scenic. The hillsides along the bay look like they could be unstable. The problem I see with the areas along the hillside is the amount of sloughs we observed. Not really to enthused with the area.

Funny even though it was raining pretty good you still see everyone out doing their own things, even the kids were out playing in the rain. In our area its in the house and wait it out.

LUNCH ANYONE ?

OCTOBER 2, 2008

We pretty much figured this would be another relaxing day. Helen's cousin and her husband came down from Coquille for a Birthday lunch. We we celebrating Helen's birthday as well as Ed's birthday, although Helen's birthday was on the 28th we figured we could celebrate both birthdays on the same day. Helen was very fortunate on her birthday as I took her out and she was able to help pull up crab pots. Not many people I know has this type of birthday, now do they.

We ate at a small restaurant in Charleston called the Sea Basket Café. Not bad food and they do have a variety of different meals, but like all restaurants in Charleston they specialize in fish dinners. For me it was the old standby fish & chips and Helen had the pop corn shrimp.

Since it was early in the afternoon we figured on a short site seeing trip to Cape Arago to see the seals. Weather was cloudy and some what of a light mist. Still a nice day for site seeing.

Free Counter

MORE INFORAMATION ON CRABBING

OCTOBER 1, 2008



We took our RV into an RV dealer today to have the backup monitor replaced. We had this ordered over two weeks ago and although I gave them all the information on what it needed, they did'nt order one part needed. So guess what, it was not repaired. I love it when I can say," I told you so," but that doesn't help me get it fixed now does it. You would think a reputable dealer would have checked on what was needed before ordering the back up monitor. Here again, not to brag, but I gave them all the infromation they needed to do it right based on the manufacures directions. I even gave them a letter from Gulf Stream that told them what monitor to order. Oh well, now we have to wait until the 14th to take it back in with hopes they get the right parts.



The RV dealer stated the part would be in on the 6th or 7th, but rather than moving our RV once again, I thought it would be better to wait until the day we were leaving to bring it back in. It's such a pain to move the RV too many times as we have to put everything away to move it.



I talked to another genetleman a couple of spaces down from us today He gave me some more information on crabbing and told me to boil the crabs for 17 minutes. Don't start the counting until the crabs reach the boiling stage again, and then time them. He also sugested using ocean salt water and Zatarain, which is a spice for boiling your crabs. He gave me a couple of cooked crabs he just caught and cooked using this method. They were really good. He also gave me information on where I could dig a lot of Martha Washington Clams, but for now I have to keep them secret. Sorry.

FINDING A GOOD DOCTOR

SEPTEMBER 30, 2008



Not much happening again today, pretty un-eventful. I had an appointment with a new skin doctor in Coos Bay today. One of my intents is to get everything lined up, so when we are able to move up to Oregon we'll have good medical doctors already established. Since good doctors are hard to get into and with my age and medical problems, it is highly recommend to do it now. Many specialists here are booked up, and when you are not already an established
patient it can take several months to get an appointment.



We're still waiting too sell our home in Janesville, but since the housing market is so bad we don't have much hope of selling this year. Our plans are still up in the air to rent a covered storage area for our RV for a few months, or bring the RV back home.

TWO FOR THE ROAD WITH 50 FEET TO SPARE

SEPTEMBER 29, 2008

We pretty much stayed around the RV Park today, since yestereday was kind of a fun filled day I needed the rest. Actullly I need to get my stuff together so I don't really scew up again.

One thing I decided was to add another bouy to my pots since this was recomended by other crabers. It makes it easer to fetch you pots when you pull them, as well as make them easier to see. I added another 50 feet of rope to each crab pot also, but now that I think about it, and talking to others it's not such a a good idea. By having to much rope there is more of a chance that other boaters could run over the slack rope, which could cut the traps loose or screw up the other boats prop. So now back to the 50 feet that I orginally had with and extra float. Most of the crabes are really caught in 35 to 40 feet of water anyway.

DAVEY JONES STILL ON THE PROWL

SEPTEMBER 28,2008



Helen and I decided to take out the boat solo to do some crabbing. It's warm today with just a slight breeze. We decided to go over to the area that our neighbor told us about. I think its near Buoy 1, over toward Hungeryman Cove.

Now for the typical McGrath blunder. While heading out I noticed the boat did not have much power. I was getting a little worried that maybe this is not the day to go out if the motor is acting up. No mater what I tried the boat would not pick up any speed. Then thanks to Captain Helen she brought it too my attention that I forgot to lift the wheels on the boat. See picture below.

These wheels are for transporting the boat over sandy areas so you don’t need a trailer. Works great as long as you lift the wheel up when you’re in the water. Hey, what can I say, so I forgot to lift the wheels. Well just a trial to see if my wife was alert. Right?


We dropped our pots in around 35 feet of water. Worked out good on our first retrieve. We had one legal crab in the pot, which was only in the water for about 15 minutes. The other pot had several crabs, which were all Red Rock crab. They were pretty good size, but we let them go because our sights were on Dungeness crabs. We moved the pot about 200 feet further out in the bay. This was very productive as we caught 3 in this set and all were of legal size, one nice one. When we checked the other pot near the buoy we got 2 more crabs and then retrieved the first trap for 1 more.

I just knew it was a limit of 15 Dungeness crabs for each of us.

And now for my first mistake, which a lesson well learned. If your crabbing and the tide changes too an out going tide, which is extremely swift you better not crab anymore or else their goes your trap. Yep you guessed, it went under. I should have known better since we dropped the buoy over the side it was not floating. Just a little of the top of the float was sticking up.

This is when Helen and I realized the mistake and decided to pull the pots out. Well ,we were OK with one of them and since it had a lot of rope the float was on top. We got that one, but by the time we got back to the first one we set, it was gone. We must have cruised up and down the area for over an hour with no luck. We decided the only way we were going to get the trap back was go back out in the bay during low tide, which was around 5:30 that evening. One of the other crabbers in the area lost one of his pots also. Not a good idea to tempt Davey Jones.

We docked our boat over by the Betty Kay charter boat since it was not worth taking the boat out of the water and later re-launching it.

Our neighbor offered to go out and help me retrieve the pot which was great. He showed me some real good spots to fish for sea bass along the jetty, as well as an excellent crabbing area while we waited for the tide to go out.

We cruised back and forth for over an hour and a half looking for the trap, but the current was still pretty swift. We did spot another buoy while we were cruising that was under about 3 foot of water. This was the one the other crabber lost and he was fortunate that we were able to fetch it for him. Another 30 minutes went by and low and behold we spotted another buoy starting to float. I was thinking it could not be mine, since it was a long way from where I set the trap too begin with. Well low and behold it was ours. We pulled it up and it was covered in sea weed, which I am sure was the big culprit along with the swift tide combination that pulled the buoy under and moved the trap. The real trick I think is to crab during slack tide if possible and maybe just a little before it becomes slack. As long as the current is not strong then no biggie.

Real funny, but while we were crabbing out in the bay we did not catch any female crabs. Now when we were crabbing from the dock it seemed like most of any legal size crabs were female and you have to toss those back.

Well at least we had a great crab dinner today.

HEALTH CONSCIOUS

September 27, 2008

We did not go out today figured it was a good time to visit Helens Cousin in Coquille and pick up our crab cooker. For some reason we did not pick it up when we arrived on the 15th of this month.

My thoughts at that time was, I guess, since they have a crab and fish cleaning station here at the Charleston Marina Park, why not use their equipment. The great thing about using their fish cleaning station is it’s a covered building that has everything you need to clean your fish and they even furnish the propane and crap pots for boiling the crabs.

As you can see by the pictures they have two burners as well as two fish cleaning stations with cutting boards.

The only problem we ran into is they're well used and you have to wait your turn for the crab cooking pots.

Naturally when we went up to Coquille we had to stop by the local vegetable stand and get some fresh vegetables. What really shocked me is they had green tomatoes, which Helen fries up like eggplant or fried squash. If you have not tried them you’re missing a treat. They're a little tart, but sure tasty right out of the frying pan. Their fresh tomatoes are also great and real tasty. Nothing like the ones you get in the grocery store. I believe the tomatoes were grew in Roseburg OR.

We even bought fresh okra, which we both enjoy. Okra is a vegetable that not many people like that much. I guess it’s the slimness of the ones you boil, however they're sure good deep fried. I know this is not the healthiest way to eat vegetables, but like they say if it tastes good it’s probably not good for you. This is really not a good thing too tell your doctor about eating your vegetables deep fried, so we will just keep this a secret between you and me.

We naturally had to stop by the Chinese restaurant that we stopped by in March called Yu’s Dynasty. Since Lacy, our dog was with us we had to order the food to go. Now here is what you get for a total of $15.00 for the two of us: Pork Chow Mein, Pork Fried Rice, Sweet and Sour Pork, Large Fried Shrimp, Mar Far Chicken, extra carton of Sweet & Sour Sauce, two fortune cookies with all the condiments. I mean there was enough for both of us with left over for another meal the next day.

Heavens that works out to $3.75 per meal. You could not eat out for that price at a fast food place.

ANCHORS AWAY

SEPTEMBER 24,2008

The day began with an overcast sky, rain predicted in the pm and the temperature not bad, around 57 degrees at 12:30.

Our neighbor,Tim will be going with us to show where the best place to crab is at. He was the one I talked about in an earlier post who is a diver that worked on boats for a living.

Funny, if you look at my Goggle map I pretty much had that place earmarked to begin with. I was told last year by another crabber the area was pretty good.

We launched the boat at the dock. They charge you a $5.00 launch fee, which can get costly if you use it a lot. Your best bet is to purchase a yearly launch fee, which is just $50.00. If you're going to launch your boat 10 times or more, this is the way to go. I thought about it, but it's a little late this time of the year for me. Next year I will purchase the yearly permit.


Early this morning we drove our truck over to the area called Peterson point, which is really another jetty that helps protect the Marina. We noticed that a Coast Guard cutter was at the boat ramp checking out some boater. Not sure what the problem was, but I am sure it was a safety issue. These Coast Guard personnel sure do their job. I have to admit it sure looks like they had enough personnel on that one boat.

Outside the Marina was a smaller Coast Guard boat working on a buoy marker, which I assume the lights were being replaced?

We finally got the boat launched around 12:30 and motored over to the crabbing spot, which was a mile or two away from the Marina. The bay was fairly calm with just some small waves. This was the opportune time to try out my depth finders. I have the Bottom Line Finder and also the Lowrance depth sounder . Both work great.

We almost blew it when we set out our first pot. It was a little deeper than we planned on, or should I say did not have enough rope for it. You guessed it the buoy disappeared real quick. After we set the other trap we noticed we could not see the fist buoy we set. We headed back to the general area and started zig zagging around to see if we could find our pot buoy. After we had made about 5 or 6 trips we finally spotted it. The buoy was under water about 4 feet, and thank goodness I had made up a 4 foot gaff for retrieving our traps earlier this week. Without the gaff it would have been another pot for Davey Jones Locker. Hey, this is one big lesson to learn. Use the dumb depth finders you have before you set your pots, DUH.

When we finally did retrieve the pot we had one legal crab and 8 or so just under the legal size limit. Now since we did not have the trap set for too long, with already one legal crab, I just knew we were in for two limits of crab. Well that was a short lived dream. It started to rain a little bit and since I am such a fair weather fisherman I figured its time to head back to he barn. One of the big worries is if the wind was to come up, and since our boat is not that big, we could have problems. Now its not that I can't maneuver a boat in larger waves, but why take any chances.
Made it back to the boat ramp with no problems, just a wee bit on the wet side. Mainly just showers, not a wet soaking rain.

Some things I've learned on this excursion is to make sure you have enough rope on your pots and don't use the standard white & red Buoys. They're pretty hard to see when its overcast or there are a lot of white caps. Another item you may want to add to your equipment is a crab pot pulley, which connects to the side of your boat. In the long run this can save a lot of sore muscles and makes it much easier to get the pots back up to the boat.

Naturally I have to get one tomorrow from Wal-Mart. They have them for around $32.00.

ADDED ATTRACTION FOR WHERE WE ARE?

SEPTEMBER 24, 2008


Some of you have been asking why you can't zoom in on the Goggle map I made up where we're located (dated September 22, 2008.) However, thanks too Randy for his help, I was able to put it in the blog.

Enjoy:

In order to open the file do the following:

1. Click on Tom's Placemark
2.Under the File download window, click on Save
3. Save the file on your desktop
4. Then go to your desktop and it should open for you.

When your through with it, you can easily delete the file.

If you have Explorer 7. It will ask you to save it , however it will put it in a program called MiniDM. This will open it automatically without putting the file on your Desktop.

Tom's Placemark

CHECKING OVER THE NORTH EAST SIDE OF COOS BAY

September 23, 2008

Another clear day again, with a little breeze. Should have went crabbing, but decided to do a little looking at some of the homes North of Coos Bay. We have never looked around this area on any of our previous trips here. On our way we decided to stop by a Myrtle wood store which is called naturally, The Myrtle Wood Factory. Neat place, that specializes in furniture and nick knacks made of Myrtle wood. They do have some beautiful bowls made of Myrtle wood, but pretty pricey.

You can get this little Jewel for around $750.00

The bowls vary in price anywhere from $20.00, up to over $75.00

If you go back to one of my Blogs dated 4/4/08, (FINAL PLAN FOR RETURN) you will see a picture of a home that has a Myrtle wood tongue and grooved floor.

We noticed traveling back an forth from Coos Bay to Coquille some nice looking homes on the North East end of town. There was several homes along the mountain side just above the slough. Some of the homes look pretty nice from the highway, so we figured why not see what they had to offer.

We noticed there was quite a mixture of older and newer homes. The views of the bay were not as great as we expected. The area has a lot more large trees and brush than I thought it would, so the view was very limited. Oh well, we have plenty of time to find a home we like. I think one of our problems is we're trying to compare what we have now, with what we want to find here. Can't do that; like they always say there are no two things alike.

AREA WERE STAYING AT VIA GOOGLE EARTH

This is for Randy. He is always trying to track my moves and he does a great job of that. To save him time I found the site that I was able to edit and show the area we're staying in. You will notice that I also show some of the hot spots for crabbing and clamming.

Weather today was a little on the cool side, but did get up to 58 degrees, however it was sunny all day with a slight breeze.

Still seeing fisherman coming in every day with limits of crab. Not sure what their doing with so many crabs? I will need to finish up the crab that was given to me a few days ago, which means a large crab cocktail and maybe a small crab Louie salad. It all sounds good too me.

Now if I can just find someone that would be willing to crack the crab and get the meat out of the shell it would be great. I asked Helen if she would like to learn the fine art of cracking crab. Yep, you guessed her answer. Must be from her knowing me too long.

Hoping to take the boat out tomorrow assuming the weather will remain the same as today. By then I will be ready for some more crab. I would like to take some fresh crab up to her cousin, which lives in Coquille. Of course, if both Helen & I catch our limits that would be 24 crabs, so we would have to spend some time cracking crab. Would like catch enough to freeze and take home with us.

Been trying to figure out how I could use my Seal-O-matic so the shell does not put holes in the plastic wrap. Tried to freeze some last year by this method and found the plastic bags you use for the machine are not heavy duty enough, causing the shell to poke holes in the bags.

I want to do some clamming, but the tide is still to high unless a person wants to get up at 2 am. I think it will improve in a few days where the tide is low at a more reasonable time.

JUST FOR THE HALIBUT

September 21 2008

Well we went into town like I stated, however the storm they were predicting never materializes in fact it got down right warm that day. I guess I should have shot for getting out in the bay, but not knowing how the weather conditions change in this area we felt it may not be a good idea.


Went down to the dock around 4 or so, to see what the fishermen were bringing in this time. Both cleaning stations were busy with fishermen cleaning Halibut. They got some pretty nice fish. I had to ask them where they went and they told me about 15 miles outside the bay.
















I believe all of the fishermen limited out. Tried to learn how to fillet the Halibut by watching them fillet, but I don’t think I learned much. According to them it’s pretty easy, but of course it’s easy to them since they do this all the time. I think they were local residents. I was able to take few pictures of them filleting, but really looking at the pictures don’t show you much.

There is a charter boat here at the marina that specifically goes out for Halibut, but its pretty expensive. Who knows, when I get my new 45 foot yacht. I may attempt a trip or two out in the wide open Ocean. I know, dream on Tom.

KICKING BACK

September 18, 19 & 20th. 2008

Pretty much stayed around the park the 3 days enjoying the weather. Like I mentioned it’s a little cool in the am, but nice in the pm. It is supposed to storm Sunday, so we won’t do much that day. Probably a good day to travel into Coos Bay to Bi-Mart and Supper Wal-Mart for the necessities of life, you know like the evening beer when you’re just sitting back doing nothing except enjoying the great outdoors. Good day for taking pictures!

TOUGH CRABBING

September 17 2008.

We pretty much stayed at the RV site all day since I was feeling a little under the weather that day. The weather for the past 4 days has been excellent. Nice in the afternoon, but a little cool in the early morning.

Funny I was out side basking in the warm sun when a fellow Rver parked down the road came over to talk to me and offer me some fresh crab they had just caught. Being the gentleman that I am I could not hurt her feelings and jumped at the chance. I really only wanted enough for a meal, but her and her husband gave me 10 crabs all were cleaned, so all I had to do was boil them. I know something’s are a little tough, but I guess I have to do a little work boiling them. Have to watch the critters cook. I had been boiling them for 15 minutes, but now the new way is no more then 10 minutes after the water comes to a boil. To be on the safe side I tried boiling them for 12 minutes, came out ok.

I ate 3 of the rascals that evening by myself. Helen was not into eating crab that night.
Still have 3 packages left to munch on.

I would like to get enough crabs and clams to make a large pot of Cioppino.
Maybe I can get enough fish together before we leave to make up this tantalizing dish.

I talked to some Rvers that are going out in beyond the bay and catching Lingcod and Sea Bass. I will attempt fishing for them in the bay, but not much faith in catching them in this part of the ocean. They are catching Salmon, but I’m not interested in them.

I was able too find an old rock jetty that was built back in the teens that may be a great place to catch rock fish. The jetty is under water now, but with a depth finder you could find it. It extends on both sides of the bay just off shore.

LOTS OF TUNA THIS YEAR

September 16,2008

Got up late this morning and decided to try our luck crabbing on the docks. Was not ready for the boat as of yet. Still had to do some more maintenance on it like install the depth finders. We crabbed for about 3 hours with very little luck. Caught several small Dungeness crabs and some small rock crabs. Decided to call it quits for the day around 4:30 or so. On the way back we noticed a fisherman at one of the cleaning stations on the dock cleaning Albacore Tuna. Naturally I had to stop and watch the man cut up the tuna. Most of the tuna he was cleaning were around 25 to 30 lbs each. He would fillet them and cut them into large boneless steaks. I guess the man comes down to the dock every evening to clean other fisherman’s tuna. They’re catching the Albacore about 30 to 40 miles off shore, which is pretty close. They are predicting a large harvest of tuna this year in Oregon.

I talked to one of the fisherman and asked how much they were charging for their tuna this year and he told me $2.50 a lb. Now figuring you have a 20 lb fish and you pay $2.50 per lb, that’s about $50.00 per fish. Of course you have to figure in for waste such as the head, entrails etc and that makes up about ½ the weight, so in realty you’re paying around $5.00 per lb and getting about 10 lbs of fish.

TROLLING FROM A SEA PLANE?

September 15, 2008

We left early in the morning on our last part of the journey to Charleston Mariana, southwest of Coos Bay.

Now here is a good one I bet hardly anyone ever sees. While coming into the city limits along the bay I noticed a small sea plan on the Bay. It got my attention since the plane was slowly moving. I figure it was getting ready to take off since the bay was so clam with no wind and was pretty smooth. Looking at the plane a little closer and pointing it out to Helen we noticed there were fishing poles sticking out of the windows. Yes, I said fishing poles, and no I was not drinking anything! There was a boat just the South of the seaplane that was trolling, and since they have been reporting the salmon fishing was hot in that area and that is what the sea plane was doing, trolling.

I have seen much in my life, but heck why not people fishing from a sea plane.

Like I have mentioned in many of my early Blogs last year, there’s so many neat things to see out there if you just want to look.

Used out computer GPS to find an RV repair site to have them look at our backup monitor since it went out and was still under warrantee. GPS worked great this time, however the traffic was not bad. Arrived at Charleston around 2:30.

Glad we had our reservation in advance the Marina RV Park was full.

Met one of our new neighbors next door that is probably in his late forties. He helped us unhook our motor home and get my boat ready for fishing

I guess he is a professional diver that works on the boats while they’re in the water. One of the better dives he does is in the winter months when the commercial crabbers are working the sea. Eventually they get a lot of rope from crab traps wrapped up on the screw (that’s layman talk for propeller shaft). He has to dive and free the tangled rope from the prop. I guess he doesn’t make much money doing this about $40 to $60 dollars a shot. However, when you have lots of commercial crabbers working it does not take long to get several clients. In 99 % of the cases the commercial crabbing boats are able to limp it back to the bay to work on it. Interesting enough, he was telling me he used to work for this outfit that dove for clams and shipped them to the various aquariums in Oregon. They used the clams for feeding the Sea Otters.

ON OUR WAY

September 14, 2008

We left home around noon with the plan to get to Roseburg Oregon by night fall. It must have been a dream, as we never got there until the next day. Of course this is one of the plans you make in advance and timing is not there. Originally we were going to leave at 10 am, but you know how that goes there is always that last minute check to see what you forgot to do.

Needless to say we got to Ashland Oregon and believe it or not, got lost in this small little town looking for a gas station. My Jim Dandy computer told me the cheapest place to get gas in Oregon was there.

Now with the Computer GPS unit telling me which turn to make to get to this service station it did not warm me about the 5 o’clock evening rush hour, and since this was the only gas station that had gas on sell, guess where all the traffic was heading for. To make it worse it is not a very big station and trying to pull our pickup with the RV it takes a pretty good turning radius to get around. Figure on 32 foot motor home with and 16 foot tow vehicle. Of course your in trouble if its too tight to turn and there is no way to back up the motor home when you have the two vehicles attached, Anyway had to by pass the station and travel on in hope we did not run into any dead end streets. About 25 minutes later after several circles around the town we found our way out. You know that feeling like you have been there before and you were. Another lesson learned. To save a buck it probably cost me 5 bucks more in gas.

Finally back on the freeway and headed North in hopes of finding another gas station easier to get in and out of, and hopefully an RV park a little further up the road.

We found a real nice RV campground in Medford called the Pear Tree. Nice clean RV site, not cheap, but well worth the price. They have a real nice pool and of course a great hot tub, which we didn’t use.

FINAL PLANS FOR RETURN

March 31, 2008

Here is a picture of a hardwood floor that was made entirely out of Myrtle wood from several trees that were cut on her cousins property and then milled specifically for there home.

This will be our last Blog for this trip but WE WILL BE BACK.

Planned busy day today in getting everything ready to leave early Tuesday morning. Went to Coos Bay to return the oxygen machine and pick up a few other things for the RV. I figured this was the time to get them before we return to California. Went to Les Schwab and they checked our air in the tires for the motor home. Met a real nick person believe it or not the first person I think we have met that w a born local in Coquille. As always friendly and help full. He told us next time we come back to Coquille to look him up and he would help us find a good fishing spot and even help us look for another house. Going to miss this country and all the friendly people we have met.
Got propane for the RV at a gas station at $3.25 per gallon. Pretty good we stayed up here for almost two months and probably used only around 18 gallons of Propane. The tank on the Rv only holds 11 gallons but with the spare 7 gallon tank we never really had to move the RV just filled up the spare 7 gallon tank. Worked great. (see earlier Blog Dated February 25th TRIP TO CHARLSTON MARINA AND COOS BAY

OK WHO SAYS IT NEVER SNOWS IN COOS BAY OR.

March 30, 2008

Took up a large load of stuff I felt we could leave at Helen's cousins’ house for storage until we come back up again in August. Since we live in the desert I find not much need for our crab traps at home. Still a little cool today with a pretty strong north flow. We did get about a ½ inch of snow again this morning, which is kind of hard to believe, since the elevation here is only 36 feet above sea level.

LOADING UP FOR RETURN TRIP HOME

March 28 & 29, 2008

Pretty much winding everything up for our return trip home. We pre loaded a most of things we had stored under the RV and Helen is putting up a lot of the knickknacks and things setting out in the motor home. We’re really not taking a lot of extra stuff home this time since we plan on being back up to Charleston later this summer... Since Helen's cousin has a fairly large storage barn we will leave most of our ocean fishing stuff here, such as crab traps surf poles etc. When we come back this summer we will bring back the boat and truck. Even though the truck does not get that good of gas mileage it’s more logical to have the truck to haul fishing equipment around.

Gasoline prices are still up there, around to $3.42 per gallon in Coquille, still cheaper than the gas in Susanville. I figured it would take us about 45 gallons of gas to get our motor home back to Susanville. Checking on gasoline prices it looks like our best bet would be to get our gasoline before we get back into California. Some of the current prices as of the 29th are as follows: Winston OR at a Texaco station at $3.38 per gallon, Klamath Falls OR $3.60 per gallon, Medford OR $3.48, Ashland OR $3.45 and Yreka CA at $3.77 per gallon. Will figure on Ashland OR as a stop to fill up, which should take care of the gas until we get home.

We have one stop planned on our way home to a Home Depot in Roseburg. They have the Wagner paint sprayer on sale there with a $50.00 rebate as well as there is no sales tax, which will save us and additional $15.00. Since this is just a few miles out of our way I figured this would be the time to buy it.

KOOS TUG BOAT AND HISTORY

March 27, 2008.

Made a trip to Coos Bay again to pick up some food and other needed items. Pretty much cloudy with showers. Not a pleasant day for crabbing like I was hoping for.

We stopped by the Board Walk at Coos Bay and looked at the old boat Koos No. 2. This was an old tug boat launched in 1948. It had a steam engine, which was pretty large. Great display.

There are also a dozen or so wood post from the different native species that are on display they grow in Oregon. You name it if it grows in Oregon they have a poster on exhibit of all the species.

HO HUM Day

March 25, & 26 2008

Not much to report for Monday or Tuesday. Just a couple of days to sit around and do nothing. Like I have really been doing a lot of productive work lately. Planned on fishing in the Coquille, but it was pretty cool out both days. Strong North wind, which did not do much for my enthusiasm. It did get into the low 50s, I think around 55 °. If it was not for the wind it would have been nice, since it was a little overcast.

ho hum day

MANS HIGHEST INSULT

March 24, 2008




It happened just as I knew it would. The story that tells it all. To begin it started out like just an ordinary day. Last evening we had a little sprinkle, but it was sunny and warm today. One of my big plans was to get some of our things ready for our return trip back to Janesville, although we're not leaving until April 1st. I wanted to get some of the things we're not using put up for storage as well as get the motor home hitch ready for the car. Helen did the wash and finished up some paper work.

Around 4:30 or so I decided since it was a warm day, why not try to fish the Coquille River again. This time I talked Helen into going over to the boat ramp across the river with me. We hooked everything up and were ready for some fishing. Helen decided to use the old stand by, night crawlers and I stuck with the given, grass shrimp on a large hook for the Sturgeon or Steelheads. I cast mine out with the intention of getting a fish, like really I believe this was going to be the day. Well ,I guess you may say it was the first cast Helen caught a sucker about 11’ long. Threw it back and she cast back in with her trusty night crawler. 5 minutes later she pulled in a real small Coho salmon, too small to keep, but at lest she caught two fish, which is better than I have done on this dumb river for almost two months. Of course she threw her line back in and pulls out another small Coho, which was too small to keep.

Now this is the highest insult a guy could get. Here again two months not even a bite and within 1 hour or so Helen catches three fish. Hey it was great I really enjoyed myself and even though I did not catch anything it was nice to see Helen at least catch something. Next time I will have her bait my hooks for me it must be that loving touch that does it.

EASTER SUNDAY IN OUR RV

March 23, 2008

PINK AZELIA FLOWERING SHRUB



Easter Sunday, rained real well in the early morning and sprinkled most of the day. Still a mild day not short sleeve weather by no means, but comfortable. Helen got a real nice ham Saturday to cook up this holiday being our first Easter Sunday dinner in the motor home. We used the convection oven, which is the first for us. Never really used one before and this was a learning experience. We finally realized after cooking the ham in the oven that we needed to increase the cooking temperature to at least 350 degrees and use the combination convection & roasting method. Turned out pretty good.

Since Helen's cousin was sick we thought about taking some ham and fixings up to their house so she did not have to cook for her and Ed. We visited for a while then headed back for our meal. Actually the meal turned out good and we will know better next time, however we really don’t plan on having a lot of Easter ham dinners in the motor home. Pretty tight to cook a large meal in a small confined area the size of this motor home. But it will work in a pinch. If weather would have been permitting it would be nice to barbecue, but it’s the wrong time of the year for this.

THE SEAL PROBLEMS OF OREGON

March 22, 2008

Another great sunny warm day for crabbing, so we went directly to Charleston via Libby Lane. Like I mentioned it shaves off about 7 miles. I decided I need to buy another bait bucket at the the bait and tackle shop at the Marina. The lady told me I should be trying out different bait for the crabs. She told me to try cockle clams and of course be sure and try the mink out. I guess the mink meat is not liked by the seals, which have a tendency to steal your bait. Actually I have been using the plastic netting,which works real well for me. I figure why not try the different type of bait out, so in each net I put in 3 cockle clams, 2 chicken legs and ½ of the mink. No biggie with the other bait, but the mink is pretty gross. I would say it looks like a skinned cat. Anyway I figured I would offer the crabs a buffet meal.

This time we're going over to dock 3 to see how we can do on that one. Looking on the Chart Navigator that area is a little deeper than docks 4, looks like around 11 feet deep. We went out to the end of the pier where we met yet a another great couple. We were giving them all of our Red Rock Crabs and when the quit they invited over to their home for dinner. Talk about friendly!

Amazing enough we finally caught a couple of legal Dungeness crabs. I decided that I should start keeping all my Red Rock crabs, since one of them was pretty big. I think you are allowed 20 of them each. We got about 10 or so.

DUNGENESS --------------------------------------RED ROCK

I talked to one of the commercial fisherman who had his boat docked near where we were crabbing. Interesting, he was telling me that he had to stop commercial fishing for a while, since he could not afford the fuel for his boat anymore. Two years ago he was paying .50 per gallon for diesel fuel and last time he went out it cost him $3.00 per gallon. The main fish he catches is Albacore and since you have to go out 100+ miles off the coast you may use 200 gallons of fuel in a day. Based on today's fuel prices that would run you over 600.00 for a three day trip. This is not including your help you have to pay. Of course most of the crew is paid by the lb of fish they catch. Not sure how it worked with paying the minimum wage in this field of operation. The real kicker is if you don’t catch anything then it really hurts the old pocket book.

The main thing this captain does now is live off his boat and make Bongo Drums. Kind of unique drum since he makes them out of old wood that he gathers from ship yards off of older boats being refurbished. He has a complete wood working shop set up in the fish holding area below the deck. It has all the equipment needed that you would find in a wood cabinet shop. Besides doing this, he is a general maintenance person that goes around and repairs other boats, while docked that need repair work. Kind of like a handy man for boats you might say.

We stopped by the Port Side Lounge for a cold beer, since I figure we deserved after a hard day of crabbing. Interesting.. there was some commercial fishermen talking about the problems they're having with the government. Also they discussed the impact on ruling of the potential commercial Salmon restriction that may be imposed on them. Not only are the commercial fisherman mad about the fishery problems in Oregon, but your recreational fisherman are upset also. They are claiming the Oregon Fish and Game is not doing enough for fish and wildlife. They're concentrating to much on other things like increasing license fees and not really using the money for renewing the present resources they have. Instead they're using it on projects that have very limited impact on the general fish and game resources, such as environmental impact statements, protection of endangered species and studies of nonessential projects. Pretty confusing and a big can of worms.

I guess one of the big jokes is the new rule that Washington, Oregon and Idaho came up with to help the Salmon run in the upper Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River, where the seals gather each year to eat migrating spring Chinook salmon. They have received the OK to kill up to 80 returning seals that are known predators eating the salmon that are making their run up the river.

For further information read the report from the Columbian News. Follow the link below.

http://www.columbian.com/news/localNews/2008/03/03232008_The-Sea-Lion-Dilemma-Feast-or-Salmon.cfm

Here is another excellent site on the Views of the DFW in Oregon Oregon Fish & Wildlife

http://www.dfw.state.or.us/fish/SeaLion/index.asp


I guess there are some options on the table to deal with the seals. Euthanize them up to the 80 seals, however they will not be able to shoot them in the sight of other seals. At least this is what I have been told. They will only be allowed to kill the offending marked seals. Another option is make them available to catch for Zoos and Marine World aquariums. This is the preferred alternative. Great idea, but the cost for this would be out of the question from what I can tell. You have to include the cost of catching the animals, crating them and the cost of transporting them to zoos that really want them. There comes a point when they will not find enough homes for these seals, then we're back to ground zero again. So its back to shooting them again.

Now you may think destroying 80 seals is a lot. Well just travel along the coast sometime and see the amount of seals there really are. There are thousands of them. It was not a problem that many years ago when the Indians had the right to hunt the seals for the hides and meat. The seal population was pretty much in control and there was numerous salmon spawning in the rivers. The salmon was doing real well. Since the government stopped the option of the Indians hunting the seal they are now out of control again.

Although the seals eat other fish, they have are sweet tooth for the salmon. Not sure how many salmon they eat, but it’s a lot. Besides that I guess they really don’t eat the whole fish, but just eat the belly of the salmon, the rest is just wasted.

What I have heard from most people that deal with fishing is they want to see the Indains once again be allowed to hunt the seals. Which I have to agree with myself. I can see the fishermen’s concerns and why they're so angry. Again the concerns are not just with the commercial fisherman, but the recreational fisherman too. If they hook up to a salmon and there is a seal around, odds are going to be the seals will take the salmon off the hooks when they're bring in their fish. Here again they just take a large chunk out of the belly of the salmon and leave the head.

What the fisherman want is let the state run its own fish and wildlife program and not have the federal government step in with all there rules and regulations. I think there will be a time when a lot of the people get fed up the way things are controlled with both local and federal governments. I really can’t say I blame the fisherman for feeling the way they do about the way things are being handled.


Due to the increase in ocean temperatures it is thought that this is another thing having an impact on the salmon. However, this is not known yet and it’s a theory like so much of science is.

INFLATION HITS OREGON ??

March 21 2008

It was a nice sunny day, so away we go to Charleston to do some crabbing.

Had to stop by for a quick lunch like we always do, you know the McDonalds and Burger King trip. Hey, inflation is setting in! I got my Whopper Junior for a dollar still, but had to pay dearly for Helen's Double Cheese Burger, which went up in price from $1.00 each, to $1.29 each. I guess it had to happen sometime.

WHALE CARVING . OCEAN BLVD (to Charlston )

I would be willing to bet Whoppers will go up also. Going to have to limit our lunches down to once every other time we go to town. (I know, Randy, I'm a cheap skate! Not really, I'm frugal).

Could not take it had to stop by Bi-Mart to get another reel for Helen, since the old one went belly up. I thought the first one we purchased, which is a Shakespeare reel was a pretty good brand. I would have taken it back, but dummy me, I lost the receipt. Normal if you want a product to fail just throw the receipt away and I promise it will fail. Anyway we found another reel, which is pretty new to the market called Okuma, It-30. Nice looking reel, real smooth retrieve. Was a good buy on sale for 20% off. I have heard a lot of good comments on this reel.

Then of course had to buy one more crab trap. This time we got the round basket type. Good buy at $18.00. Eventually we will have another 3 more traps since you're allowed 3 traps each. These are good for crabbing on the dock, but would not use them out in the bay since they would drift a lot based on how light they are. Only bad thing about the round ones is you have to continually check your trap, since there open at the top. See pictures below not closed in like your square Danielson traps. Of course there is an advantage to using the round ones, as they keep you from getting bored while waiting around like you would with the enclosed traps.

30 INCH ROUND CRAB TRAP

We walked out to Dock Number 4. This is one of the docks that most of the people go out on to crab. According to a program we have installed on our laptop called Chart Navigator, dock number 4 is 9 feet deep (Low tide).

We started crabbing about 2 pm or so, just at high tide. We caught quite a few Dungeness Crabs, but once again under size or females. We did get some Red Rock Crabs. We met a couple that was crabbing next to us that were from Medford, Donna and Bill. Great people again. We gave the Red Rock Crabs to them, since they wanted them for a crab salad. We crabbed until about 5 pm until the tide got pretty low. Never seem to have a lot of luck when it gets to that point, however I have talked to other people that say they catch them anytime.

NO CATCH UM

March 20, 2008

Pretty much rained most of the day, with brief periods of breaks in the storm, however I was bound and determined to once again try to fool the fish. My new strategy was head across the river to a boat ramp that is located about 250 yards up stream, on the South side of the river above the RV park.

I am starting to run out of ideas on catching fish. I can’t believe as much as an avid fisherman that I am, I can’t seem to catch any thing.

Earlier I was watching a couple of people fishing on the bank near the boat ramp, which I assumed if others were fishing that area it should be a good spot to fish. I drove over to the boat ramp and watched another gentleman fishing, just to see what he was using. It appeared he using sand shrimp with a small orange like object on the top of the bait. I would assume it was salmon eggs. Also noticed he was using a bottle of WD-40 spray, which I have heard works pretty good for fishing. Did not see him catch anything, but at least I had a better idea on what to fish with and maybe fish this area. Its an area where you can drive right up to the bank with your car and cast standing, then get back in the warm car and keep warm while its raining. This is the type of fishing you do in Eagle Lake when it's cold and it seems to work... I have to admit fishing on a large river that is flowing so fast is not my specialty. The river is flowing so hard now you can’t’ keep your bait in one spot. Of course this mainly applies if your trying to fish for sturgeon. You want your bait to drift if you’re trying for steelhead or salmon.

Well I fished for over 3 hours with out even a bite. Since the river was really high and muddy it goes to show you it was not the best idea. What I should have done earlier when we first came up in the latter part of February was fish from the dock at the RV Park. I did see fish jump near the dock, should have stuck with fishing that area since the steelhead were running and I’m sure what I saw jumping were steelheads. Since the river is high and muddy it’s hard to tell where the fish seem to be hanging out.

Another dishearten day of fishing, not even bite as to say. Again skunked, you would think, or get the impression I belong to an organization to save the fish. The kind of an organization they have for birds, such as the Audubon society.

CRANBERRYS IN BANDON

March 19, 2008

Good grief! The sky is finally blue, the sun is shinning, so today we are heading for Rocky Point to try for Sturgeon again. Don’t really have much hope as it rained pretty good all night long and the Coquille River is running high and muddy, but since we have the time why not.

Zeroed out again today fishing Rocky point. We fished for about 3 hours. Helen tried with a bobber, which worked pretty good staying out in the current while I bottom fished, however the fish were not there. Neither one of us got a bite, not even a bump. Used grass shrimp and regular shrimp. After fishing for this amount of time and being so sunny we thought why not try Bandon again and do a little surf fishing. When we got there it was almost low tide, which is no good. Only saw one person fishing on the beach. Looking at where the water from the Coquille River was flowing into the Ocean it looked like a big mud bath. Pretty mucky.

I should have taken a picture of the Coquille where it meets the Pacific Ocean, its unbelievable on the marked difference. On the southern Jetty where we saw the fisherman it was just as clear as any day you would be on the ocean. The waves were not all that big, but big enough. We decided then to head to Bullards Bar, a state Park North of Bandon. Real pretty Park. This is where many of the fisherman go with their boats to crab. Of course the river needs to be down to a normal flow, otherwise too much fresh water is coming into to the bay, which the crabs don’t like. We took the road out to the lighthouse, which is called naturally, Bandon Lighthouse. The road that goes to the lighthouse borders also the Bandon Marsh Wildlife area. The paved road takes you within about 150 yards of the Light house real easy walk. The road continues even closer, but at this time of the year it’s closed at the lower parking lot. In the summer you can drive within 25 yards of the light house.

We walked just south of the lighthouse on the cliff that over looks the bay and it looked pretty promising for rock fishing. Pretty steep cliff about 20 feet down too the ocean at low tide. If the river was flowing at a normal rate and is was near high tide, it would be a great place to fish. Something we will try later. Going to have to be careful, but its much safer than other places I fished when I was younger.

The only problem with the Bandon area is the wind always seems to be blowing, which does not make is very comfortable if it’s overcast. It also makes a problem trying to fish and cast your line into the water. Another area to try at another time.

We headed home on highway 101 heading North and about 10 miles out of Bandon we spotted what appeared to be a cranberry farm, so we had to stop and check it out. And yes, indeed it was a cranberry farm. Pretty big farm seems to go on forever. For some reason I always thought cranberries were only raised back East somewhere. Well now that I think about it I see a lot of labels on cans and packages that have the name brand Ocean Spray, which surely stands for pretty much anywhere along the coast. This can be Maine on the East to Oregon & Washington on the West. The plants were all dead and the ponds where they grow them were pretty much dried out, but we took some pictures and you can surely see they were cranberries. Real neat farm, another first for me and Helen, as we never saw a cranberry farm before. I know, it does not take much to make me happy.



You know for the amount of travel a person does in the United States they never get to see all that is available in an area. The good thing about what we did was not really plan on any set time frame and went with the flow as they say. Even if your'e just traveling a short distance from home spend more time in the area to look around. You might just be amazed at what you will see and find out. Hey another plus, as you will save gas at the same time, maybe enough for a few extra restaurant meals.