RV Fun Trips --- Our Crab Fishing Adventure -- 1998 ---

Our Crab Fishing Adventure
September 1998
Page 3

Monday 9-14

Arrrgh, the day started too early. I was up a 6AM so I could take a shower before getting on the road. The campground at our destination has no water or sewer hookups and there is no dump station. So this was to be our last chance for a shower until the conclusion of our trip.

Part of my preparation for leaving was to connect the boat trailer back up to our motorhome. All I had to do was pull the motorhome forward to the end of the pad. The boat and trailer are so light that I was able to roll the trailer up to the back of our motorhome and connect it to the trailer hitch. It looked as if I had backed the trailer in to the campsite the night before. All I had to do was just pull out to leave the campground.

On the road again in Oregon

Our caravan of five motorhomes was underway shortly before 8 o’clock. We would become a group of only four rigs later in the day. We headed for Grants Pass on I-5 following the Rogue River. Our route took us through some very scenic country. We drove over one mountain pass after another, each of which opened up a view of beautiful valleys and communities with tree covered mountains as a backdrop. We made a short stop at a roadside rest area where we had to park our motorhomes in a single line. I jumped out to take a picture of all the motorhomes in our caravan. It is a bit unusual for all five of our rigs to be in one row.

Five rigs, soon to be four

Along the way, there was the usual chatter on the CB radio. At one point Harry alerted us to a small group of wild turkeys in a field along the highway.

We finally entered the Willamette Valley and started looking for the highway that would take us to the coast. When we arrived in Eugene, we said "Goodbye," on our CB radios, to Dick and Dorisdean. They were going to continue on to their home farther north in Oregon. It was really nice to have them with us for a couple of days.

We found the junction of Highway 126 and took the exit from I-5 that would take us west to Highway 101 on the coast. After leaving Eugene, we followed a winding road through the mountains and came upon the Siuslaw River. The surrounding countryside was the usual tree covered mountains that are so common in this part of the state.

Up and down the river we could see a lot of watercraft in the form of fishing boats. People were out trying to catch salmon heading upstream. We had an opportunity to watch some of the activities when we had to stop for road construction. The roadway was reduced to one lane and we had to wait for the opposing traffic to clear before we could proceed. As it turned out there were several people in the boats talking on the same CB channel we were using. So we listened to how the fishing was going. Apparently the fishing wasn’t very good yet.

After following the river for awhile, we could see the fog peeking over the coastal mountains ahead of us. The air was getting noticeably cooler as we got closer to the ocean. We made our way along the river and all of a sudden we saw the Pacific Ocean as we entered Florence, Oregon. We turned our motorhomes north on highway 101, now we were on the last leg of our trip to the coast-side campground.

Driving north on the coast highway

The drive along the coast highway reminded me of a similar drive in Northern California. When our motorhome arrived in Waldport, we were treated to a view of a very attractive bridge over the Alsea Bay formed at the mouth of the Alsea River.

Campground entrance in Waldport, Oregon

We drove into our campground around 1 o’clock in the afternoon. We arranged our motorhomes in a makeshift circle to ward of the cool breeze coming off the bay. The light wind was just a little cold at times. Our wagon circle allowed all of us to arrange our motorhomes in such a way that the coach doors all opened to the middle of the circle. There we put two picnic tables together to form a focal point in the circle. Not far from one end of one of the tables was a campfire ring.

Getting the boat ready to launch

Tom didn’t want to waste any time, so he and I launched the boat and made preparations to get out on the water. The man in the motorhome next to our campsite showed us two buckets full of crabs he had caught earlier in the day. They were really nice large crabs. Harry and Wally put together Harry's inflatable boat while the women made plans for the evening meal. Once Harry’s boat was in the water we took off in our boats to try our luck at crab fishing. Tom and I were a team using the boat I had towed from California. Wally and Harry worked together in Harry’s boat.

Heading out to the bay

As Tom drove the boat out into the bay, he instructed me as to how we would carry out our crab fishing efforts. Tom would drive the boat, while I would set and retrieve our crab traps. We started with two traps per boat. Tom and I used crab-pot type traps while Harry and Wally used ring net type crab traps.

The Alsea Bay Bridge

Tom and I took up a position on the harbor side of the bridge. (The bridge carries U.S. Highway 101 traffic and it is a very interesting bridge to see.) We caught about 20 crabs, all of which had to be returned to the water. We had two crabs that were close but still too small. One was only 1/4 inch too small while our largest crab was only 1/8 inch undersize; back it went in the water.

Are they keepers?

We decided to try our luck on the outer bay, on the ocean side of the bridge. After a while on the water, Tom and I noticed that Harry and Wally were no longer in sight. After a short period of time, we saw their boat coming out from the harbor. After talking to them, we found out that they took a break to go get some ice cream. That is one thing about crab fishing, you have some time on your hands while you wait to retrieve your traps.

Shortly before we finished fishing, Harry pulled up his anchor to find it had snagged an old crab trap. The trap was one more thing that was not a keeper. We gave up and returned to port at about 5:30. Tom and I had to shorten the ropes on our crab traps as they were too long for the depth of water in the bay.

After making the adjustment and modifications to the crab pots, it was time for our evening meal. We ate outdoors in the chilly air in the middle of our circle of wagons. Tom said we would have to get out on the water early in the morning to get the best timing with the tide for crab fishing.