slabjig

I'm 75 years old, and fishing is my passion. Primarily fish bays and ocean, although have been known to pick up a bass rod or fish for kokes. Because I'm retired, I can be very selective about when I fish the ocean, looking for the calmest days with the least tidal flows. My mantra is over 10 (second interval between swells) and under 5 (foot swell) with winds under 10 kts. I love to take a limit of rockfish from along the Newport jetties, it's very satisfying to catch the same fish folks are paying big bucks to ride a charter offshore for, and only burn a gallon or so of very expensive marine fuel. A bit immodest here, but I'm very good at fishing along the jetties where a lot of folks have trouble with success. Because of an ongoing feud with ODFW, I don't purchase combined harvest tags or shellfish licenses, only pursuing those marine species I can legally land with only my pioneer license (bottomfish, flatfish, surf perch, albacore). I have 5 boats, an 8 foot Koffler white water pram, 12 foot Smokercraft Alaskan (my cartopper which rides full time on my truck), 14 foot Gregor with 15 hp Suzuki and and electric trolling motor, 14 foot Lowe Big Jon with an 18 hp Evinrude jet drive and and electric (my Willamette river and tribs "bass boat"), and an 18.5 foot Willies Asaltor with 140 Suzuki and 10 hp kicker (offshore boat). I also make fishing tackle, primarily soft plastics and cast lures (jigs and "iron"), and I'm a bit obsessive about this, have the capabiity to make virtually any lure in that range from crappie jigs, albacore butterfly jigs through 12 inch twintail soft plastics with up to 24 oz jigheads suitable for halibut. I've fished a lot of places around the world, Belize, Texas gulf coast, Alaska, British Columbia, Hawaii, and Australia, which has helped me develop an encyclopedic understanding of fishing, while still realizing that local knowledge is paramount to success. Enough about me!!!!!