the bus on my shoulders 2-10-10

N
nwkiller
0
bottom fishing is amazing fun and when you plan on staying on the coast thats all you can think about, i woke up around 5am on a crappie hotel bed. Not getting much sleep i threw on all my fishing wear...under garments, waders, hoodie and finally my rain jacket...just incase the angry looking clouds over our heads decided to release alittle might. A freind and i head down to our favorite jetty spot, its an oyster bed that is blocked from the rougher ocean on all sides, which means you can fish it even when the weather was bad. After grabbing my tackle and my four fishing rods that i was going to use through out the day. Normally i would only have two rods with me, but with so many different fish to catch including crab i figured id be ready for anything...
when we got onto the rock jetty, the oysterbed was covered with a top layer of froth from the mighty, pounding pacific just 30 ft on the other side of the rock wall. The ocean was dishing out 25' breakers like they were fists at an mma figh,t swinging at faces. We relized we were not going to beable to go out far on the jetty beacuse of the unsafe "sneaker" breakers. about a hundred yards from shore was far enogh for us to catch some fish, so we took turns watching the waves to make sure we wouldnt get a wet suprise. waves a quarter mile down the jetty wall were cascading over the wall with ease putting us on edge.
Keeping my eye on the fury and letting my friend get a few minutes of fishing in before my turn i noticed a wave that was heading are way looking alittle different, and standing at eye level with me. I shouted."BIGONE,GRAB SOMETHIN" and bent down and held on while the wave went over my head. I barley got wet but the ciggerette in my mouth was soaked and i was alittle damp on my left shoulder.....too close. We decided that anymore of those and we were outta there. after about ten minutes of "team fishing" we began to notice that although the waves werent hitting us, they were slowly closing off our escape route. We need to leave now or it will be closed off.
I put my back pack on and strapped the waist strap it has on it grabbed my four rods and started skipping accross the boulders that were wet with sea water, my friend was about 20 ft in front of me in a hurry as well. our goal was to make it to this 12 ft wall of three much larger rock that were about 100 ft from the beach and could protect us from the beating.
I was completely focused on not losing my balance when he yelled..."chris..big one". I didn't even look behind me, the look on his face told me everything. i headed toward the oyster bed side as quick as i could while setting my sites on a suitable rock for anchoring on to. The slow motion kicked in and just as my fingertips grasped mother earth my knees were pressed to the max by an amount of water that felt like a bus resting on my shoulder, there was no holding the weight, and as the water forced me off the rock i had no choice but to give the ocean my four fishing rods just to protect my face against the barnickle covered rocks
and then silent darkness and the taste of salt was abundant. Knowing that i was in the water now and in danger of drownding with all my gear on, i kicked twice to the surface, came out spitting out saltwater after swollowing a small amount. I was facing the spot where i had just been forced off and saw my freind getting preped to come in after me incase i had head butted any rocks and couldnt swim. Even though i was 45 ft off the wall i knew thet the same wave that pushed me in would carry me back to the jetty so i back paddled as hard as i could. when i got to the rock i was so releived and ready to get some dry gear when reality kicked back in that i was on the same rock i got swept off of and the walls of water are still coming. My tackle backpack was so heavy from the water in it and i was so tired there was no way i could carry it, my friend took action and grabbed my bag from me and said we gotta get outta here now. I barley remember getting to the beach but i do remember puking all the see water out staying warm from adreniline. and of couse then life came crashing down when i remembered my 2 salmon rods, a 8' rod with a crab snare on it and my friends trout rod i was barrowing were now owned my the sea, but i made it..... no moral nessecary....
 
God diggety thats a crazy story. good thing u made it out of it alive.

All those rods are replaceable.

I shouldnt of read that... i might be bottom fishing the ocean tomorrow or going for springers :)
 
Last edited by a moderator:
lol, just watch them waves.
rods are replacable but man those rods had some fish under there belt, but hey the best part about losing old gear is getting new gear!
 
Sounds like south jetty at Winchester bay!

Glad you guys are OK!!!
 
you guessed it
thanks man
 
I only fish the jetties on nice days!

I saw on the news that the Coast guard had to rescue surfers 3 different times yesterday around the Devils punchbowl!
 
nutty, that would be a scary place to get caught up, well at least i learned what it looks like when you shouldnt go out...been fishing there sense i was a little kid and pushed the envelope alittle far........still got a nice perch just before the maylay....the bite was on!
 
Wow crazy story. Something someone should only experiance once in a lifetime. Good story to tell the grandkids though.
 
so i wanted to add alittle more to the story, when my friend had yelled at me saying another big wave was coming he had just enough time to turn around and take 5 steps and slid behind the tripple rock wall and the wave crashed around him...just making it, later he said the wave he was looking at was 8 feet over my head and gaining....
 
I think we've talked about inflatable PFD's for jetty fishing here before. Got lucky man.
 
Jesus man, I am glad you are ok! I have heard of things like that happening but kinda figured it was a pretty rare thing. Those rods are a small price to pay for your life, I wouldn't even give them a second thought!

As a side note, I was in Newport when those surfers were being plucked up near the devils punchbowl and there were people fishing the south jetty at newport that day. I thought they were nuts because every 45 seconds or so a huge wave would crash over the jetty. I know the coat guard had quite a few helicopters out patroling that day, hoping they didn't have anymore customers who needed picked up!
 
Please be careful

Please be careful

SAFETY FIRST!! So glad you guys are okay! That is one scary hairy story that will stay with me a while.
 
thanks guys, in the future you wont catch me out there on a day like that again
 
I'm glad you guys are ok. I was out there a couple weeks ago fishing in the same spot and watched guys dodging waves. Sometimes that little voice we hear is "common sense" telling us what we need to hear to stay safe. I listen to that little voice more than not and you might try to do the same next time... just saying.
 
that wasn't me you seen was it???lol
 
LOL Well.. could of been you guys. I was fishing closer to the watch tower where the waves weren't too bad. There were some monster waves that day going over the jetty and a number of guys down there getting wet.
 
no, we were the only ones on the rocks at the time.....there were two boats crabbing the beds, but thats all the life i saw
 
Even scarier yet... no one around to help you guys out if it were to get to that point. Good to hear you have your life and an excuse to go get some new toys, but please re-evaluate a situation next time when it looks that sketchy. I learned years ago that if it looks like it might go haywire, then it probably will.

Damn it, I sound like my mom... LOL
 
lol, thanks
 

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