Our Second Annual
Crab Fishing Adventure

September 1999
Day 5

Thursday
Tom and I went out a little earlier today than yesterday. I drove the boat out to the same area we had dropped our traps yesterday. The day started out colder than yesterday, but the sun came out with us experiencing the warmest weather we've had since arriving in Waldport. I had a lot of good photo opportunities because of the nice weather.


Driving near the bay outlet to the ocean

We had a view of highway 101 from our fishing location. We saw a lot of motorhomes, of all kinds, driving by as they were heading to or from Waldport.

Tom and I really were having good luck with our crab fishing. We were getting commercial size crabs that were wider than the total size of the gauge. With the total width of the crab gauge being about 7 inches, we caught a couple of crabs that must have been around 9 inches across.


Gauge we used to measure crabs - Scale at top is in inches

Of all the crabs we caught on this day, only one crab that was a keeper, really required measurement. The remainder of our catch consisted of very large crabs. We caught our limit around 10:30, then suddenly the crabs quit. Even though we had our limit we stayed out to wait for Harry and Wally to catch their limit.


That is Harry and Wally on the far left out by the ocean breakers

Harry and Wally were out in the outflow of the bay for a while. Their boat was out where the water appeared to slope to the sea. As it turned out, Harry and Wally moved in closer to where we had been fishing next to highway 101. The area had become very crowded as word got out that the crabs were there.

We had been having engine trouble for most of the morning. The engine kept dying unexpectedly. I determined that the engine seemed to be starved for fuel. I had to keep pumping the fuel bulb to keep the engine going. The fuel tank was half full, so it wasn't a problem with a shortage of gasoline. Harry and Wally were short of a limit, but with the crabs not getting in the traps, it was decided to call it quits.

As it turned out, not only did we have engine problems, but also Harry and Wally’s boat was running very low on fuel. So we figured we would go in together with the idea that if Tom and I experienced engine failure, we could transfer our gasoline to Harry and Wally’s boat and have them tow us in. Fortunately, our contingency plan was not needed. We made it to camp without incident.


Home from the sea

When we came in for lunch we found the women were working on crafts on the picnic table in the middle of our motorhome circle.


A craft session in the campground

For lunch I had a great tasting salmon sandwich made with the fillet left over from last night’s meal.


That is Tom and me cleaning out traps

After finishing lunch, Tom and I removed the bait from the traps to prepare to take the boat out of the water. I tossed a piece of bait to the seagulls to watch them sort out which one of them would get to eat the old piece of turkey meat. Several birds swooped in to try to get at the food. When they fought over the old crab bait, they ended up all loosing out as the turkey meat fell in the water and sank to the bottom of the bay.

With the bait removed from the crab traps, I took boat out of the water. The wind was blowing hard so driving the boat was very difficult. It took me several tries to get the boat to the dock next to the launch ramp. Getting the boat on the trailer was the easiest part of taking the boat out of the water.


Wind made it difficult to get next to dock


Boat is on trailer ready to pull out


Now Dick's boat comes out of water

After getting our boat out of the water, it was time to get Dick’s boat on its trailer. Wally drove the boat around to the ramp, but the wind nearly blew the boat aground. Wally was able to turn the boat around and finally drive it up on the trailer.

With our boat now on its trailer, it was time to take the boat downtown to a coin-operated car wash to clean the saltwater and seaweed out of the boat.

On the way through town, Tom pulled out into traffic on Highway 101. An old guy, in a Cadillac, decided he didn’t like the way Tom was turning onto the highway. So, the old man slowed down in front of us so Tom was unable to easily get out of the way of on-coming traffic. The guy shouted something at Tom and Tom returned with a blistering string of words. I would not want to be on the other end of Tom’s wrath.

We did get to the car wash a few minutes later where Tom blasted the green crud and crab bait residue off the boat using the car-wash power sprayer. It took almost as much time to prepare the boat for washing as it did to actually wash the boat. It took less than 10 minutes to get the boat and traps cleaned and ready for travel.

After returning to camp with the boat, we all sat around visiting and reflecting on the week’s activities. We prepared for our evening meal by setting up two barbecues and getting a fire going in each. Most of the meat to be grilled was pork chops with the exception of two chicken breasts for Kay and me. Tom and Nora would not be eating with us tonight because they went to visit Tom's aunt in Lincoln City. They were going to take her out to eat at an Indian Casino in Lincoln City. The rest of our group ate dinner outdoors in our motorhome circle.


Harry doing his thing

When we finished with dinner, our usual campfire was started to provide warmth from the evening chill as well as to toast marshmallows. It was a replay of previous evenings when Harry toasted three marshmallows at a time.

A man, from the campsite next door, brought over some nice oak logs to add to our supply of firewood. I put a couple of the logs on the fire, which turned out to be a mistake. The logs burned so slowly that we were all ready to go to bed before the fire had died out. So I dowsed the burning logs with Cathie's dish water. My world briefly disappeared as a big cloud of smoke and steam surrounded me. Now I felt it was safe to go to bed.


[ SUMMARY ] [ PREV ] [ NEXT ] [ RV FUN TRIPS ]

If you have comments or suggestions, please contact the .
Copyright 1999, RVFunTrips.com. All rights reserved.