First salt water trip in the new boat.
Posted: Sun Aug 22, 2010 11:52 pm
I spent a week in Brookings for my maiden salt adventure in my new Wooldridge pilot house. I am thrilled in the performance of this boat I cannot compare it to other boats this size because this is my biggest boat I have owned. I have fished the Brookings area in a 20' trophy and my last boat was a 21' Seahawk. This new boat can't be compared to those other crafts.
The first day we went out we had 6-7' swells @ 7 seconds with some wind chop on top. I ran the boat out going into it at about 10 knots we could have gone faster but not without some back pain. We ran in that day with the swells @ about 14-18 knots it was a little smoother not as square as the morning run out.
We fished rock fish @ Mac Arch a little over 15 miles from port. We limited on blacks and blues and released a small keeper ling that day. We also caught a nice Vermillion rock fish but we had left the reg book on shore and I was not sure if we could keep it so it went back unharmed. I fish in close around the rocks in shallow water 50' or less most of the time. This is the first Vermillion I have caught in that shallow of water.
Lucky for us the conditions improved each day and the last day we fished it was pretty flat so my 2 1/2 year old Grandson Jacob got to come along. Jacob caught his first rock fish on the boat and it was a hoot he really liked it, he got to help reel in a lot of fish it was a great memory for grandpa. We ran out about 30 knots and had a great day limited by noon and headed in.
All together we kept 3 lings a couple small ones 4-7 Lbs and one bruiser 35 Lbs. I normally release the big ones but we decided to keep this one.
The boat performed great and is a joy to fish out of I have burned a total of 100 gallons so far in 26.5 hours of use. I have made 2 river runs testing it and the rest of the time 20 hours running in the salt if I had to guess I would say I have ran a total of 150 to 180 miles plus some idling around while drift fishing.
I was pretty disappointed in the performance of my last boat when I got it eventually repairs made it better but I never considered it a big water boat. This boat is very impressive to me I took a friend of mine out while in Brookings he is a commercial fisherman and has fished the area since he was a kid he is a 3rd generation commercial fisherman. He complimented on how well the boat handled so that made me feel really good.
Sorry for no pictures my daughter in-law has the pictures on her camera and I have not got any yet I will make another post when I have some pictures.
The first day we went out we had 6-7' swells @ 7 seconds with some wind chop on top. I ran the boat out going into it at about 10 knots we could have gone faster but not without some back pain. We ran in that day with the swells @ about 14-18 knots it was a little smoother not as square as the morning run out.
We fished rock fish @ Mac Arch a little over 15 miles from port. We limited on blacks and blues and released a small keeper ling that day. We also caught a nice Vermillion rock fish but we had left the reg book on shore and I was not sure if we could keep it so it went back unharmed. I fish in close around the rocks in shallow water 50' or less most of the time. This is the first Vermillion I have caught in that shallow of water.
Lucky for us the conditions improved each day and the last day we fished it was pretty flat so my 2 1/2 year old Grandson Jacob got to come along. Jacob caught his first rock fish on the boat and it was a hoot he really liked it, he got to help reel in a lot of fish it was a great memory for grandpa. We ran out about 30 knots and had a great day limited by noon and headed in.
All together we kept 3 lings a couple small ones 4-7 Lbs and one bruiser 35 Lbs. I normally release the big ones but we decided to keep this one.
The boat performed great and is a joy to fish out of I have burned a total of 100 gallons so far in 26.5 hours of use. I have made 2 river runs testing it and the rest of the time 20 hours running in the salt if I had to guess I would say I have ran a total of 150 to 180 miles plus some idling around while drift fishing.
I was pretty disappointed in the performance of my last boat when I got it eventually repairs made it better but I never considered it a big water boat. This boat is very impressive to me I took a friend of mine out while in Brookings he is a commercial fisherman and has fished the area since he was a kid he is a 3rd generation commercial fisherman. He complimented on how well the boat handled so that made me feel really good.
Sorry for no pictures my daughter in-law has the pictures on her camera and I have not got any yet I will make another post when I have some pictures.
