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Part 1

I arrived at Shelton with plenty of time to relax and play with Nuke & Rad and visit with my mom and dad.

On the road from Shelton to Aberdeen, I wonder where all the people are going at this hour; I guess, like me, they won't let the weather spoil a good clam tide.

Joe and I made short order of a couple limits of razor clams at the sandy beaches of Ocean City, Washington.  We were even lucky enough to get some nice big mossbacks.   The rain isn't too annoying when you're surf digging razor clams; but, I was happy I shook the dust off of my eastern Washington rain gear and brought it along.
Later that afternoon, we took our dogs for a workout at the fields along the south side of Grays Harbor.  The marsh fields have tall grasses and dikes and ditches that are perfect for retriever training.  Nuke is an old hat at this; but, Rad has been sorely neglected and needs lots of work.  What a scare on the ride home when Nuke flew through the back tailgate and onto the busy highway with the returning beach traffic.   I retrieved my retriever, none worse for the wear.
We retired after a full day with a full belly of breaded, fried razor clams. 

Early spring jetty fishing is my favorite;  The rocks, when wet, are especially treacherous this time of year due to the fresh algae.  The fishing and weather conditions were terrible.  I fished through the hottest time, low slack, and caught only a couple of red rock crabs.  I bagged it early for the day.

Later that day, Joe and I worked the dogs at my alma mater, Grays Harbor Community College.  Rad surprised me by completing a full length dummy launch retrieve.

The high point of the trip was to watch a pair of Harlequin ducks.  This was the first time I had ever seen harlequins on the bay.

I packed my gear and returned to Shelton where the weather was nice.

I drove to my Aunt Julie's in Puyallup, Washington for my brother Doug's wedding dinner.  I came back from the dinner to find that Rad had learned how to untie Knots.  My Aunt lived next to a pond that had resident honkers and I'm sure he just needed to check them out.  I've heard that the neighbor has never since seen her cat.  A little duct tape on the knots and Rad's boys scout days were over.

I caught 2 black rockfish, 1 rasp head rockfish, and 5 greenlings.  I had a exciting time with a ling cod on a live greenling on the end of my line.  I had the ling cod on three times before I broke the line off.  I guess I was just too anxious to get that ling.
As usual, Greg out fished me.  Greg caught 5 black rockfish and 2 ling cod, 3 and 7 lbs.  Greg's big secret, keep your hands on your pole and keep your line in the water.

Went fishing on the Westport Jetty again.  I have to land a ling cod.  The fish went on the bite at ~3 hours into the low tide.

This is getting frustrating; fishing the rocks for lings is much easier with a partner.  I lost a 7-8 # ling right at the net; pulled the hooks out.  I broke another off trying to turn him around on his initial run to bury his head in the rocks.   I need to settle down.  Seems like I've lost the touch.

I didn't land a ling today; but, I got to marvel on hookups, ducks, and geese. Got to get a ling.

I latched into a strong 12 # ling at low slack.  What a fight.  I had terrible trouble landing the fish alone on the rocks.  The fish took the live greenling head first into its humungous mouth.  When the fish let go of the greenling at the last minute, I launched off of the rocks after the stunned fish in an adrenaline rush.  I missed him, and caught the rocks with my knuckles.  The pain of shearing the skin from my knuckles woke me from my ling induced coma.  I then realized I was knee deep in water and bleeding severely from my knuckles.  What happened to the big waves.  What are the odds of jumping off the jetty and landing on a flat rock?  I beat the odds but lost the fish.  The fish had won again.

I stayed in Aberdeen the night for an early ocean charter trip in the morning.

We fished with Herring, Rockfish, and Lings as bait.  The Ling action was hot;   the report was that over 100 Lings were caught on the 2 boats.  Our boat limited.  I caught an 18 # Ling, 2 smaller lings, and 4 rockfish.  The rockfish were beauts.Bill boated a trophy 30# Ling that day.  At long last, the Lings had lost.