Dory Stories
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Last Updated 07/01/05
Not a Dory Story (but has a dory twist)
Posted 12/28/04
Many years ago my family used to spend a
lot of time in the Terra Del Mar area just north of Pacific City.
We used to go to Haystack rock to play on the dunes, ride
dunebuggies, watch the dories and I even tried surfing there
once. One year when I was 15 my dad decided to go salmon fishing
and launch from Pacific City dory site.
The year was about 1968 or so and dad had hauled our 16 foot Glasstron Ski boat to the beach. The boat was on a tilt trailer so we figured, good to go! So one morning my dad, my cousin and I decided to go launch the boat in the surf and do some fishing. Dad backed the Ford station wagon onto the beach and dumped the boat in the shallow surf and went and parked. Everything was going great, so far.
Steve, my cousin, and I held the boat and
started getting it positioned toward the ocean. When dad got
back we got the boat floating and facing the sea. I stayed in the
water and held the boat while Steve and dad got in the boat and
my dad got the engine going. Dad yelled, "Ready", and
hit the throttle while I more or less jumped head first into the
boat. Not being surfers we timed it exactly right and found
ourselves facing the biggest set of waves in the series. I didn't
know this at the time because I was still trying to get an
advantage over gravity and exceleration and get back on my feet.
So, there I was rolling around on the bottom of the boat while dad yelled, "Hold on!" and the next thing I knew was the boat was several feet below me and I was suspended in mid air with the loose fishing gear around me flying back down to the boat bottom, crash, but we made it!
Luckily the waves that day had been fairly
mellow and the big one we flew over was maybe three feet on the
face, but dad cleared it on the fly with the throttle open. Now,
we were outside and ready to fish on a beautiful sunny day!
We had a good day of fishing and had a pair of pilot whales swimming around us all day long. We only caught one fish and my cousin Steve was the lucky pole. It was exciting, though, because Steve managed to land a 35 pound salmon.
We finally called it a day, late that afternoon and chased a wave to the beach and loaded the boat on the trailer. To this day when I think about it, it still amazes me that we managed to launch the boat and pull it out with the 1965 Ford station wagon and not get stuck!
I am now 52 years old and still have never
been in a dory, even though, I have been in lots of other boats
in the ocean and in lakes. That's about to change, because I am
currently building a 23 foot Vee Dory (it's flat bottomed with
bit of V in the bow instead of running the flat bottom to the
prow) and expect to have it in the water next year in May of
2005.
Chas Kies
Posted 10/13/01
The memories of this event are colored by
the fear and panic of a 14 year old and the passage of 20 years
so for those who gathered around and watched the fight, pardon my
retelling. I was pulling for my dad, Sangerdi Terry Learned, my
14th summer. We were dragging a rip south of Haystack Rock
at Pacific City on a bright sunny summer day when the deep began
to drag WAY back. Felt like we'd snagged the bottom!
Frantically when began pulling the other deep and the floats to
keep from getting tangled, all the while wondering what we could
have hung up on. Maybe a derelict crab pot?.... We almost
had it all in and were turning to pull the stern line when a HUGE
shark leapt out of the water about 30 feet to the stern, carrying
our cannonball with it! It was inside of the stern line, so
with much finesse, dad managed to get that one in without getting
it fouled, too. But that still left us ATTACHED to a 15
foot long thresher shark. The davit (welded out of 3 inch
pipe) slowly bent over and stuck into the splash rail. Dad
had the wire cutters around the cable several times as this
monster dragged us all over the ocean AGAINST the pull of our
inboard/outboard engine! Of course, being a 14 year old
girl, I was hopping around the bow of the boat screeching
"CUT IT! CUT IT!" but we all know it would have been a
financial hit to lose a whole deep line worth of tackle. At
one point, I looked up and there were about 10 to 20 boats in a
huge circle around us. What a comfort to know that if something
bad were to happen; help was just a call away. Inch by inch, we
winched it in and retrieved our gear until the shark was about 6
feet under the boat. It wove back and forth under us; I
looked over the side and into an eye bigger than my fist!
Six .22 hollow-points finally ended the fight and we had about
2000 lbs of dead-weight hanging on one side of our 22 foot
boat. As we worked to salvage the last of our gear, we had
to remove the cable that had notched itself into the sharks fins
during the struggle. We only ended up losing 1 flasher and
2 hoochies! As we watched it drop out of sight into the depths,
the adrenaline was still running high and all we wanted was
SHORE!! After making our daily stop at the Fish Co., we
found out they would have bought it from us for around $2 a
pound! It would have been impossible to haul that thing in
through the surf, butthat was about the biggest one-day payload I
had everheard of! We lived to tell the tale; and I still
get the shakes
remembering that big ol' eye peering up at me from the green
water. I thank God for watching over us and for
giving me a dad who will always be the "Captain of the
Fleet" to me.
Janean Douglass of Amity, OR
Posted 4/16/00
The Rockpile, Haven't heard that place for
over 25 years now. I remember my first trip out to
it. Boy, what a day. Put almost $3,000 of fish in the
Dory and almost sank it that night. The short story was:
Wind Picked up that day, so I put out the Pole stays so I could
fish longer. Kept catching and catching. Had to put
fish everwhere. The water was getting rough but, I was
catching so many fish, I didn't care until a boat, about 80 foot
hailed me and asked If I was listening to the radio. Told
him, no, why. Well, he said then I better get my posterior
in gear and get that little boat off this ocean ASAP. He
said a large storm was brewing. So I pulled my gear and
headed in after him. I had so much weight in the boat,
could not get it up on a plane. All I could do was plow a
little faster than my troll. Well the 80 footer disapeared
off into the distance towards shore. We left the pile at
about 5:00 pm. About 7:00 the wind started to blow .
It was like a wall of wind came accross the water and it began to
blow real hard. As I recall, dusk fell at about 8:30.
I was still unable to see shore, but I felt confident I was
heading straight to the jetty. I had all three bilge pumps
working clearing the bilge from the spray that kept coming over
the bow. Just about dark, I established a conversation with
a guy in Newport. He was concerned I was still out there as
it was double flags on the beach. He had an RDF and
attempted to locate me. At about 11:00 I told him I could
see the lights on the shore, but was unable to distinguish where
I was, other than I guessed I was north of Newport. At
about 12:00, the guy on shore suggested I drop the heavy and
count the line slices coming up(As I did not have a dept
finder). I did so. I radioed back, I was in 36 feet
of water and there were waves between me and shore and also waves
out to sea. We figured, I had traveled between the wash
rocks up by Agate beach and was just outside the breakers.
Well, I turned and slowly picked my way out to sea from the
beach, and kept checking the depth. Boy those wash rocks
look eiry at night with just the moon light. I was
able to get outside and started to head south(ish) as the wind
was blowing so bad, I had to zigzag. No straight lines.
Well about 1:00, the engine started to stutter and I asked my
radio friend to call the Coast Guard. He told me he had
called them a couple of hours ago, and they were already out
trying to find me since about 11:00. He hadn't told me as
he did not want to scare me anymore than I was already
Well, they did find me at about 2:00 am, about a mile north
of the jetty. Once I saw them, I told my friend, I could
see them and thanks for all the help. He then asked if I
had any fish. I told him, the boat was chocked full.
He called Lamanuzi's and they opened up just for me. I was high
boat that day, or so they told me. A nice delivery, a
horrible ride. Was I glad the coast guard did not fine
me. Well, I bought a fathometer and a compass the next
day. I also bought a couple of 5 gal gas cans to carry in
the boat.
I learned a lot that night. On the ocean, Fear is a luxury,
and stupidity can kill you. If God had not been on my side,
I would have never made it.
I never found out the name of that man with the RDF who saved my
life that night. All I know, it that it was the summer of
1975 and he lived somewhere south of Agate beach. And I'd
like to thank Calkins Craft for building a dory strong enough to
endure that night. It is too bad, the guy who bought it
from me, sank it in the Yaquina Bay. The Gusto Queen was a
great dory and she brought me many great days fishing and many
"happy" memories.
Paul Merrill
Clovis, CA
Posted 4/14/00
It all started in the summer of 1993.
I had just bought a brand new boat, now
called the Makera II. I heard of a boat catching tuna about
thirty miles off shore,
out on the Chicken Ranch, so I got the boat rigged up for some
tuna fishing. I left
the dock at about two in the morning, and headed off shore at
about thirty knots.
Being one who would never share secrets, i fished by my
self.
I arrived on the ranch at about three in the morning, surrounded
by tuna tubs of huge
size, and waited.
About three hours later, the sun started to rise. I tossed
out the gear, and to my
supprise, i immedently began hooking fish. I got the first
round in and tossed out
the gear again, and hooked up again. This went on for two
hours. I filled up the boat
and started running in to shore. I was back home withing
four hours later. I repeted this
again the next day. Those were the best fishing days i've
ever had.
By Scott Hype
Posted 12/14/99:
It is really difficult to isolate one event when so many pop in my mind. Perhaps the trip I most treasure in my memory started when my son asked me to come to help him. He had been experiencing some tremendous fishing days, some of it in extremely rough water. He was fishing the 'Rockpile' offshore about 15 miles. King Salmon were starting to really feed there. We found the ocean mild, and after dropping the gear down, nothing happened. My son (the webmaster of this page) assured me we had to wait for the tide change. At the tide change, it was a free for all. Kings were hitting the gear, the springs were active, the bells attached to the springs were ringing.As is usual with Kings, not every fish hit the deck, but there was constant action. The wind picked up to perhaps twenty knots, but the ocean had little swell, and we simply enjoyed the sun, the wind, the spray, and with every fish caught, a new college textbook was bought for him. At the end of the day, we turned in our King salmon at the cannery, and the catch resulted in well over $1,000. It wasn't the most money the boat brought to him, and it wasn't the most fish caught, but it was a glorious day of fishing out of Newport, Oregon. It was more than the fishing, the money, the beautiful day. I felt that day the luckiest man in the world. It was wonderful to see my son develop into a hardworking man with great goals to become a teacher (he did, and is). There is no greater feeling for a father to know his child is going to make it in this world.
by Bruce Evers
A few miles offshore of Florence, Oregon
(Siuslaw River, 1988.
Due to an ebb tide and a breaking bar, boats were forced to wait
until the tide change to come in. Therefore, I kept fishing in
30kt+ NW winds. The Chinooks were biting big time, but it was
almost impossible to land the fish and manuever the boat at the
same time. A neat adventure though!
-------------------
We decided to 'take a look' at the ocean, although we knew that
the bar at Newport was exceptionally rough with a strong ebb tide
meeting a particularly knarly ocean driven by strong winds. As we
cautiously idled down the jetty lines, intending to turn around,
a large Catamaran passed by us, cutting off our turn. I couldn't
turn the other way as I was blocked by the Jetty. The ebb tide
was pulling us to the bar so quickly that I realized there was no
choice but to cross. The Catamaran hit the bar first, and for the
life of me, I thought it was going to pitch-pole. The image of it
lifting to perhaps a 45 degree angle, settling back, then diving
bow-first at the same angle will stay with me forever. We braced
for the impact, and it happened, it was like an amusement park
ride. We split a series of large breakers coming in every few
seconds, and I recall spinning the wheel and accelerating to
maintain what control I had. As we cleared the bar we were met by
squalls with winds perhaps 50 knots. It would have been totally
impossible to come in until the tide changed, so we went out past
the ground swells, and tried to keep bow-first into the mess. The
winds seem to shift direction with every squall. We tried to make
light of the situation, but we both knew we had to stay alert.
Occasionally an exceptionally large wave would break around us.
After an hour or so, the squalls eased, and the conditions
changed to a sustained wind from the Northwest at about 30 knots
-- nasty, but not dangerous. The bar was still breaking all the
way across, so we decided to try to fish. We could only drop the
cannonballs off the davits and fish a few spreads, but fish were
coming aboard quickly. It is amazing how attitudes change when
the boat is making money! Finally the tide changed, the bar
improved, and in we went. It really was a textbook case of
stupidity on my part, and it could easily been a tragic err in
judgement.
-------------------
1976, July, Barren Islands Alaska. 32 ft. St. Piere, 20 hp albion
diesel. Boat built by Mark White in Kodiak. Sudden squall,
continuing gale force for 48 hours. Sucked into rip off bar, seas
over 20 ft. Had to go to tiller steering but actually no big
problem. Was not afraid till we pulled into Port Chatam and saw
what the storm did to the beach.Mark builds a helluva boat.
-------------------
Well up to this point it was going to Maui from Molokai. July
29th 00 I had been Out fishing the couple days prior it was
blowing 20knots 12 ft seas and the Tuna were biting they were in
close about 40fathoms and I was catching a few so the weekend
came along and I decided to go to Maui saturday Morning early
well we got a late start and got out of the harbor around 9:30 it
was rougher than the day before. but I didnt think much of it
because it was still out going tide we got about a moile off sure
and I noticed a big swell Humm ( no big deal its not coming over
the sides or anything is what I was thinking looking at the 18ft
faces ) we kept going and got out in the middle of the channel I
had been watching this squal that was moving along the Maui side
of the channel when it started heading right for us. I told my
wife Susan that we were going to get really wet and just hang on
a little tighter the Squal just at us up it was rainning so hard
and blowing I had to take my Sunglasses of when I did that I
couldnt keep my eyes open from the blowing rain so squinting with
one eye open (the one down wind) I cut back on the throttle and
heaved to. In the sqaul the Ocean was huge ! about 24 ft plus and
we were nearing the current line of Maui (a Nasty spot) the Squal
past us and we were left with the swells chop and now the
confused sea a mile from paradise it took me 47 minutes to go
that last mile to the Leward side of Maui. I could see people
walking on the beach Paragliding and just plain laying around We
were out there with a Huge following sea at this point. ( would
rather head into it anyday ) but as in the past staying calm and
weathering the storm in the Boat worked again and before we knew
it we were in Paradise to. The leward side was like glass and it
was great. I turned on the weather channel on the VHZ and the
report said wind s 25 to 35 knts seas 18 to 28ft in the channels
between the Islands. No Kiding is what I was thinking.
-------------------
24 ft Hunky dory I built from Glen -l Marine plans.Check it out
on the Glen -l website Peter Gierga Kaunakakai Hi. Well up to
this point it was going to Maui from Molokai. July 29th 00 I had
been Out fishing the couple days prior it was blowing 20knots 12
ft seas and the Tuna were biting they were in close about
40fathoms and I was catching a few so the weekend came along and
I decided to go to Maui saturday Morning early well we got a late
start and got out of the harbor around 9:30 it was rougher than
the day before. but I didnt think much of it because it was still
out going tide we got about a moile off sure and I noticed a big
swell Humm ( no big deal its not coming over the sides or
anything is what I was thinking looking at the 18ft faces ) we
kept going and got out in the middle of the channel I had been
watching this squal that was moving along the Maui side of the
channel when it started heading right for us. I told my wife
Susan that we were going to get really wet and just hang on a
little tighter the Squal just at us up it was rainning so hard
and blowing I had to take my Sunglasses of when I did that I
couldnt keep my eyes open from the blowing rain so squinting with
one eye open (the one down wind) I cut back on the throttle and
heaved to. In the sqaul the Ocean was huge ! about 24 ft plus and
we were nearing the current line of Maui (a Nasty spot) the Squal
past us and we were left with the swells chop and now the
confused sea a mile from paradise it took me 47 minutes to go
that last mile to the Leward side of Maui. I could see people
walking on the beach Paragliding and just plain laying around We
were out there with a Huge following sea at this point. ( would
rather head into it anyday ) but as in the past staying calm and
weathering the storm in the Boat worked again and before we knew
it we were in Paradise to. The leward side was like glass and it
was great. I turned on the weather channel on the VHZ and the
report said wind s 25 to 35 knts seas 18 to 28ft in the channels
between the Islands. No Kiding is what I was thinking.
-------------------
24 ft Hunky dory I built from Glen -l Marine plans.Check it out
on the Glen -l website Peter Gierga Kaunakakai Hi. Well up to
this point it was going to Maui from Molokai. July 29th 00 I had
been Out fishing the couple days prior it was blowing 20knots 12
ft seas and the Tuna were biting they were in close about
40fathoms and I was catching a few so the weekend came along and
I decided to go to Maui saturday Morning early well we got a late
start and got out of the harbor around 9:30 it was rougher than
the day before. but I didnt think much of it because it was still
out going tide we got about a moile off sure and I noticed a big
swell Humm ( no big deal its not coming over the sides or
anything is what I was thinking looking at the 18ft faces ) we
kept going and got out in the middle of the channel I had been
watching this squal that was moving along the Maui side of the
channel when it started heading right for us. I told my wife
Susan that we were going to get really wet and just hang on a
little tighter the Squal just at us up it was rainning so hard
and blowing I had to take my Sunglasses of when I did that I
couldnt keep my eyes open from the blowing rain so squinting with
one eye open (the one down wind) I cut back on the throttle and
heaved to. In the sqaul the Ocean was huge ! about 24 ft plus and
we were nearing the current line of Maui (a Nasty spot) the Squal
past us and we were left with the swells chop and now the
confused sea a mile from paradise it took me 47 minutes to go
that last mile to the Leward side of Maui. I could see people
walking on the beach Paragliding and just plain laying around We
were out there with a Huge following sea at this point. ( would
rather head into it anyday ) but as in the past staying calm and
weathering the storm in the Boat worked again and before we knew
it we were in Paradise to. The leward side was like glass and it
was great. I turned on the weather channel on the VHZ and the
report said wind s 25 to 35 knts seas 18 to 28ft in the channels
between the Islands. No Kiding is what I was thinking.
-------------------
Going out over the bar from Nehalem Bay Oregon.We went air
born.The ochean just disappeared out fron under us.I thought the
dory would split wide open.We must have droped a good 10 feet
.But,the old Huerth took it like a true sea wench.As soon as we
got out it was glass.
-------------------
The year was 1952. I heard about the great salmon fishing at
Westport, a small fishing community on the Washington coast. A
friend and I drove to Westport, rented a l8' kicker boat with a
10 horse Johnson outboard motor and headed out over the bar. The
sea was calm with a gentle swell. Little did we know what lay
ahead. We caught a couple coho salmon, using frozen herring for
bait. Around 10:00 A.M. the ocean started getting nasty, so we
decided we'd better head back inside, to calmer water. When we
got to the bar I could'nt believe my eyes. Nobody had told us not
to try to cross the bar when the incoming tide meets the outgoing
river current. Here were huge swells, I would guess 12' to 15'
high and they were capping over with white water. Being low on
gas we had no choice but to make a run for it. Our boat would
labor up the slope of one swell and then tear down the other
side. Over and over again for what seemed an eternity. Finally,
we reached the jetty and we could see that we were making slow
progress. When we reached the dock I took off the cap on the gas
tank. Maybe 1/3 gallon remained. I still shudder to think what
might have happened if we had have run out of gas on that
pitching bar.
-------------------
I was commercial fishing in my dory "Hook-N-Eye" out of Pacific City w/ my high school buddy, the late Bob Kimber, the summer of 1974. We saw a HUGE fin waving out of the water off to our port side. At first I thought it was a tail of a thresher shark as it was at least 10' high. As we neared it I could see that it was a mola-mola or otherwise known as a giant ocean sunfish. Being brave/foolish 17 year olds we hatched a plan to bring it ashore to impress the tourists and maybe get a couple of bikini clad phone #'s. Bob was going to stick a striker gaff in it and I was going to shoot it full of .22 bullets. Then we would tie the gaff to a rope and drag it to shore. We pulled all the trolling gear and cruised along side the leviathan. I was at the helm and as we came by it, Bob had his gaffing arm raised high. Bob started backing across the deck and almost fell out the starboard side. I called him a "chicken" and asked him why he didn't gaff it. He replied, " Okay, ! I'll steer the boat and YOU gaff it!" We changed places and as we came along side I was looking into a eye the size of a dinner plate and a body that you could have parked a small car on. Needless to say, the mola-mola is still out there daring other foolish high school kids to stick a gaff in it :-)