Canon Beach - Day 3

[Latimeria]

I thought I would never get to this.  I'm spread too thin these days like butter on a hot English muffin.

So, family time was spent prior to bed and I was already thinking about my plans on where I was going to fish in the morning.  I wanted to try a new area, but it was hard not to hit the spot that I found all of those fish yesterday.

Morning came and I was out the door 30 minutes earlier and was greeted by this before I went straight down to the spot. 



I caught a palm sized perch fairly early when I see a Dungeness Crab walking by my feet in the surf.  Then I'm on while I'm watching this crab, only to realize I have a crab at the end of my line!  Immediately, the other crab came over to fight the crab I was reeling in!  I grabbed him and the hook popped free from his joint.



Then I reach in the water and grab the other one at my feet!  I was trying to figure out how to get a picture of both until I felt the pincher of the other one and now only had one to get a picture of.  LOL



I watched the one that I dropped literally wiggle and totally disappear out of view at my feet.  I threw the smaller one in and reached into the sand and about 5 inches down, there he was!  I didn't know these type of crabs did that!

Well, onto looking for the bigger perch... I found a general bigger overall size of them, but no monsters.  Then the little guys showed up.  LOL



I was literally catching a perch every cast and it was unbelievable.  It was switching from small redtail to Silvers...









Then I get another Speckled Sand Dab! (I ended up with 2 this morning)



I moved down closer to Haystack Rock to get in on a little reef action, but the birders didn't like it so I kept my space in the name of peace and quiet.



Well, I found the bigger ones.  Most were in the 11" range which was pretty cool to have constant action on!



The sun started poking through and I realized I had 3 new species of perch to add to my life list.



Some lady was watching me catch perch after perch and asked if I wanted a picture with my phone instead of long arming it.  I obliged and she said her boyfriend was out fishing yesterday and caught one little, tiny perch.  I realized it was the fly guy from yesterday and he was stoked with that one perch for sure!  I laughed when she said she's not going to tell her man how many were being caught as not to put him in a bad mood.  I concurred and got a couple of sweet pictures out of it. 



I kept trying to leave to try on the otherside of Haystack and said if I go two casts without a fish, I'm packing it in... well, it wasn't happening.









I saw a few more Puffins fly off of the Haystack and it made my morning.





I decided to head to the other side of the rock and it was packed on the other side.  I didn't see a reason to fish what looked like the same beach on a more packed side, so I took a picture and went back. 



I then catch one that had a longer snout.  As I took the picture I didn't notice anything other than a longer than usual mouth, but when I saw the picture, I was like... SNOOK?



I'm guessing there was either a water droplet on my waterproof case or it gulped as I was taking the picture making it look weirder than it was.  In any case, it was a deformity.

Well, I caught probably 70 if not more this morning and I burnt through a ton of Gulp sandworms.  Time to head back for breakfast/lunch and then celebrate Hannah's birthday since it was actually her birthday today.

On the way back I tagged my spot



as well as stop by and take a picture with the Wayfarer



We skipped the breakfast and went straight to lunch.  Stopped at the Pelican Brewing Company for burgers and beer.  I went with the Tsunami burger with a big old fat piece of pineapple on it.



Hannah wanted to see the forest so we headed out to Ecola.  What a sweet ass place!  Unlike the dust of Arizona as Koga can second.











Found a creepy witch looking area that I had to convince the girls to take a picture by.  They acted like there was a ghost there.



We walked down to the creek and got some pictures.  You should have seen all the salmon fry in the water!  That and some nice sized trout swimming around, but I didn't have my rod with me. 



Instead we made our way back to continue Hannah's big day.



We got back and explored the beach community a bit.  I saw what looked like a cement block in front of bushes with a handrail.  I went over to investigate.



What in the world?



Hannah was scared to see what was living down there, but when she saw my smile, she got brave.  LOL



I know where it could only lead to, but what a cool find!



Hannah took the lead when it all started opening up.



Way too cool!

By now we headed out for dinner in town.  We went to a BBQ joint this time for her birthday and like everything else, it was a long wait to be seated. (But well worth the wait)

Cool town.





Ran across a lady who makes mustard out of Sasquatches.  Good thing Steve wasn't here.



Hannah got her birthday cake...



and we had some drinks on the way back to the room.



Well, we had a bonfire on the beach and called it the night.  The next morning before we left, we stopped at a little boutique breakfast joint that had 4.8 stars for thousands of reviews.  Once again, a long ass wait, but we were finally seated.  I looked up and was like, HOLY HELL, KISS ate here.  LOL



Food was good, but not what I was expecting.

In any case, it was a lot packed into 4 days and took the drive back to Portland to catch our flight.

My review of Cannon Beach...  Awesome!  A little too packed for me, but the overall grade from the family and myself was an A+.

[mdcesq]

Amazing trip, Tom! Looks like a blast.