Exchange students from Okinawa

Michelle, David, and I had the pleasure of hosting an exchange student, Shoko Yamazato, from Okinawa, for about 3 weeks. We also had a bonus visitor, Toko for the first week as her host family bailed out due to health issues.

The students were part of a group of 30 or so that came to visit as a part of the CHI(Cultural Homestay International) program.

The initial welcoming party was cool and soon we had our student and a bonus guest in tow and brought them home to get settled. Toko was immediately home sick but Shoko seemed just fine.

Of all the things they saw and did during their visit, I thought the visit to Mark's house for dinner and playing sports and games around with Jacob and Skyler were their highlights. They really enjoyed the interaction and fun there.


They had classes daily and then came home to a normal evening of dinner, homework and playing with young David. During their stay I was very busy doing the fishing thing on the weekends but Michelle and David kept them busy with many different activities which included a trip to the game farm in Sequim. They also had field trips to Seattle, Olympia, and Mount Rainier. On the last weekend of their stay, we went to a friends property in Chinook, WA to camp overnight and do some sight seeing around the mouth of the Columbia river. The North Head Light House and the Columbia River Maritime Museum were a couple of the places we visited. Shoko had fun around the campfire and got to meet new friends.

We got back home Sunday night after the trip and it was time for Shoko to pack. She left to return home to Okinawa on Tuesday morning.


It was a very nice experience and we would do it again!

Here we are at the Sayonara party.



Shoko on the right doing a traditional Japanese dance.




Shoko and friends.

Westport Washing Tuna Classic and Wounded Warriors Salmon

Just a quick Defiance perspective on the WTC and our fishing experience.


The boat: Miss Guadelupe 2011 The Gun Slinger!

Bo and the guys have done an awesome job in creating and preparing our new ride for this years parties. The twin 250 Verados are awesome, quiet, and powerful. The rest of the boat is pretty much the same as last years with the exception of the outriggers. The Bait tank is the focal point of the vessel around which all others activities revolve. 100 plus gallons and about a 6 scoop capacity gives us the ability to bring fish to a frenzy and keep them there for as long as it takes to fill the boat with excellent bait liveliness and nearly zero dead loss.

The Team:

Bo as our fearless leader, myself, and Defiance factory guys, Dan (all around rigger), Casey (the glass man), and Jacob (motor guru)....

The fishing:

So far this year we have had some very scratchy fishing and Westport was no exception for us. We headed North to a very crisp break and started out in the vicinity of 47.03x125.13 There were birds, a charter, and a commercial boat in the vicinity. We set trolling lines and got a couple of P nuts to get it rolling, then got another fish that converted into a micro bait stop. Did a couple of moves and ran out of time with 7 fish in the box. The one bright spot was a point when we had them boiling at the boat but were only able to keep them there long enough to hook 2 on the bait conversion. This is exactly the pattern we have been seeing so far this year, fish few and far between, and not willing to stay and party with us.....

The banquet:

Very cool to see all the Brothers and Sisters at the awards. Kudos to the Wounded Warriors for all their hard work to help make it happen and their previous sacrifices to our country. Mitch and the gang worked hard and we appreciate that as well. The food was excellent once again. Thanks to john Keizer for keeping it rolling and providing the entertainment to break it all up.


Congrats to the winners. Well done! Also worthy of mention was the big yellowtail from Team PainKiller. Nice work!

Amazingly, we were tied for the most fish donated again with 7....Pretty pitiful after last years stellar performance with 63 fish caught and I think we donated them all.


Sunday Salmon with the Warriors:


I had the pleasure of running the Gun Slinger with Dan, Casey, Jacob, as well as our 2 warriors Mike and James. We ran pretty much straight out to 250 feet and tried it there for a bit with some coho for the stop and a small king. Then headed out to 330 with some others friends that were getting some nice kings. We fished through the day and managed to scratched up 9 or 10 keepers, 3 being kings up to 24 pounds, a humpy, and 5 nice keeper coho. The warriors had a great time and it was a pleasure to have them aboard. Our last move in to 180 feet., provided our best fish, a chrome 24 pound buck that took a whole herring behind a 5 oz. red lead on the surface. Mike, one of the warriors fought it to the boat and we wrapped up our day late in the afternoon. Sorry to say, we didn't make it in for their BBQ....There was work to be done on the grounds ....Eating and sleeping will have to wait 'til our primary mission was complete!


I have been slacking on taking pictures this year but here's one of Warrior Mike and Jacob with Mike's nice king:





Thanks Bo for supporting the cause! Thanks to the crew for all their efforts. Thanks Mitch and to all the WTC guys for a fun event. Thanks to the Warriors for their sacrifices and their continuing service.


Next stop Garibaldi!


Til next tide,



Beeeeeee

From my buddies perspective Billy Bob co-owner of the Main Break:



Like Anyone really wants to read another Report of the EPIC weekend at Westport...Here's the tale of the tape. The Main Break Rolled West 270 on Saturday AM with my boat partner RoadRaceRick, Randall and my longtime pal Gary Orr from Shelton who I owe a few awesome fishing trips. The weather and ride out to the "Killing Fields" was just like Westport has been ALL summer (flat). Pulled into the week befores mark and could not find the Kings. After an hour pulled up and ran to the 300' line and commenced to putting the hurt on a large pile of Kings up to 32lbs. Very difficult to drive away from a smoking HOT King bite at 10 AM. Went on the hunt for some Ling Cod and other assorted bottomfish. Put the wood shampoo on 8 Lings and half a dozen nice Cabezons to top off a beautiful summer day on Lake Pacific.

Got back to the docks by 5 and commenced to doing what I do well...Butchering Fish, along with catching a few. Bullshitted with fellow BDer Curt (aka Zingfisher) and his buddys Steve and Don they're on Float 7 also. Headed to the Islander and had a few "Duck Farts"(mistake) and then hit the One Eyed Crab for some late supper. Davey B (KillerBeeee)called us and he was just rolling into town so we headed down the docks to find him and LingCodTodd was just finishing up cleaning their days load at 10:30 PM. Mind you, my son calls me Bruce Willis/"Die Hard" but LCT plain gets it done.We were impressed by the dedication those fellows put in on Saturday. And they did it again on Sunday!

On to Sunday where we were Blessed with another one of the West Coasts true "Hard Cores" the one and only KILLERBEEEE! Hit the receiving pens for some litte wigglies behind "Halibut Herb's" ride. Our Boats looked like twins with our twin 225 Mercs. Rolled west 270 again to Saturday's #'s and it was the same song. Found some rag Hatchery Silvers but No big Kings. Pulled up and headed to the 360 ft. line and started finding a few quality fish, and released a number of teeners looking for Mo. My buddy Paco calls on the radio and says to work towards the fleet because it looked "like a butterfly convention" About then we hooked up with the largest fish of the day, a 34 lb. Pig. Kept beating that mark hard but could not find the elusive 40. Congrats to Fishin Luhrs, Jailer 1, FishHeadEd and all the rest of the BDers who put a fish of a lifetime aboard on Sunday! And to Paco's buddy Deanno got a 44. I have fished Washington for 24 years now and would have to say that was the most EPIC King bite I have ever been around with more HOGS (for Washington)caught Sunday than any other bite.

Put the last of our Kings, a 17, in the boat at 12:30. DaveyB looked at the Water,(Flat Calm) the Wigglies and said lets go boys! Knowing the kind of schedule KillerBeee runs with the upcoming tournements and rolling with Team Defiance we just smiled and started clearing the Salmon gear and started hooking up the Troll and live bait rods for the Big Show. Headed SW to Guide's Canyon doing 34mph and found the most beautiful "Blue Water" at 62.5 degrees. Saw a "Leather Back" sea turtle that looked like something from my kids old Super Mario Bros.nitendo game. Pulled up a couple miles short of a small group of other Tuna fishers, I love the visability from the Tower atop the hardtop. Threw out the spread and in less than a minute you veterans know the drill.ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ and ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ ! Hooked up a double on the troll and DaveyB starts showing us the ropes. Curtis (HuntElk) and myself are getting our arms tore off while Ricky and DaveyB are clearing the troll rods and chumming the chovies on the slide. Curtis puts the wood to his fish, a 26lb and takes the hand off from KillerBeeee who already has another hookup on the bait stick. RickyT missed a bite on his chovie but not to worry cuz Dave has another hooked up. Went back on the troll after putting 4 in the boat in the first 20 minutes of trying to become Tuna Fishers. Never lost a tuna. Found 1 more peanut on the troll for a total of 5 Tuna, 4 Kings to 34lbs., 4 Silvers to 12lbs, and 3 Yellow tail "Bombers" The Troll fish were caught on a brown/yellow and a silver/white clones. Salmon on Herring of course along with hootchies and a Coyote spoon.Called it at just past 6PM for the 47 mile run back in. The "Main Break" ran like a champ and we cleaned everything up and got out of Westport at 9:30 PM and home to Puyallup at 11:30. Was hurting on Monday but have 1 QUESTION...Is it Friday Yet?

THANKS a MILLION to KillerBeeee for rolling with us on Sunday. Also Thanks to RickyT for running her hard all weekend and to Randall, Gary Orr, and Curtis for keeping the finely Oiled machine goin.
Like my big brother Tommy Ray says..."Sleep When You are Dead"
and Killerbeeee's line "Till Next Tide"

See you all in Westport this weekend,
BillBob

Attached Thumbnails

Ilwaco OTC tuna, and salmon with Salt Patrol

I was supposed to pre-fish the tuna tourney with Team Defiance on our new boat, fresh from the factory, Miss Guadelupe 290 on Friday. It turned out that Bo and the fellas were still shaking out the last minute bugs.
Instead of fishing with my team, I found some new friends at the dock in Ilwaco and hitched a ride for an afternoon of salmon wishing.....Matt was the owner of an older Silver Streak with an inboard V-8. It was having distributor issues and I took some time to chat with him and his crew while a marine mechanic was working over his distributor. Before lone the mechanic had it rolling again and Matt invited me to go out for the afternoon. We fooled around and released a bunch of non fin clipped coho and wound up with only one keeper and no keeper crabs for 4 pots.

Back at port that evening I went to the captains meeting and then got busy prepping gear and the boat for the next days activities. We had rigging of rods, ice for the boat, provisions for the crew all to get done before getting something to eat then off to get a few hours sleep.

Got busy on Saturday morning and did the final rigging, picked up some weak bait, and headed out for the shotgun start. The ocean was a bit rougher than the forecast but still pretty decent. At the gun we rolled West 35 or so miles and got our gear in the water. Hooked a couple of small fish and couldn't get them to go on live bait. Reports in the zone were scratchy so we decided to pound it out in the general vicinity of where we started. By noon we had about 8 in the box and by the time we had to haul but to the weigh in we had finally tallied 14 with some bigger ones in the mix. The tuna were just not that thick.
We dropped our fish at the weigh in dock and got the boat cleaned and ready to display in front of the tent just in time to make it to the dinner and awards. It turned out that we finished 11th out of 53 teams that left the starting line that day. Our buddies from salt Patrol wound up in 4th, just .10 pounds out of the 3rd place money.

Sunday, I got the invite to fish with John, Mark, and Rich on John's North River for salmon. Armed with some local salmon intel, we headed North to find some fish. Everyone had a turn to either land or lose a couple of fish including a couple of kings in the 20 to 25 pound range. While on the salmon grounds, I did my thing and carked the tuna that we kept for ourselves.

It was a nice weekend of fishing and friends in Ilwaco....Next stop....PSA Gig Harbor Derby.....



Me with a nice king:



Doing the tuna carking thing:



Til next tide!


Beeeeeeee

Relentless joins the parade...big kings at Westport!

Got the plan rolling early in the week to go to Westport after watching the Smackdown crew scratch for fish during the tourney, then tortured myself thinking I could catch a salmon on the 30th of July in the South Sound.... Saturday I couldn't buy a bite at all around Point D but Sunday the wounds were healed.

Mark, Steve, and I made a leisurely ride to Westport to arrive by 6AM and crossed a mild bar to find a decent ocean and headed West. We overheard a report of decent fishing and rolled down to see what was shaking. We found once again a portion of the fleet enjoying Sea World like conditions. Birds were abundant, whales left and right, and many different creatures in the zone.

Got it started by putting a nice 18 pounder in the box then proceeded to put a 28 and a 34-35 pounder to round out the kings. Coho fishing was a bit slow but we were able to get our 3 by mid afternoon.
The great part of the trip was catching and releasing so many nice fish. Guaranteed a dozen nice kings in the 20-30 pound class brought to the boat and gently released to continue their journey. We were all laughs and lots of fooling around....Just one of those days to remember!
Hot gear for us.....Chartreuse fish flash and a whole herring followed by a Q-cove flasher with a not so secret hootchie.

Thanks to Mark and Steve for their having shared so much of what they know with me over the years as well as having become great friends. I happened to have the rod that was on fire but I guarantee those guys have caught more salmon than I have ever even dreamed of.


Nice BIG OL king...Turned out to be a white! 34 maybe 35 pounds...




Q-cove flasher and Hootchie combo responsible for some of the carnage and the big one....Bloody deck included!





Steve working a nice one....Video link


http://s89.photobucket.com/albums/k216/daveybeee/Relentless%20Westport%207-31-11/?action=view&current=RelentlessWestport7-31-11016.mp4


The fellas have some other photos and Mark's 28 was a gorgeous platinum hen that burned my retinas...Off to Ilwaco for the OTC this weekend and hope the tuna come to play!


Here's Mark's beauty!









Beeeeeeeee