<I>RON MALAST photo</I><BR>Erika Carberg, left, caught this 50-pound halibut while fishing on the Big Dipper Sunday. Holding the fish is Kyle Comings. Both are from Helena , Mont.

The 2004 halibut season officially opened on May 1, and the fishermen were not disappointed.

As pictured here, the fish ranged from 50 to 30 pounds amid a calm day and a mild 4-foot swell. On Sunday, after a cautious bar crossing the same sea conditions prevailed. Three charter boats carrying 29 passengers produced 19 halibut. This tasty flatfish is being taken by charter boat fishermen about 20 miles offshore.

Open Letter to Harold Roth of Ocean Park:

Dear Harold,

In response to your letter to the editor, “Capt. Malast and the Darwin Awards,” I must respond with all due respect, to certain aspects of this fishery that you are obviously not aware.

A recent change in fishing regulations (by both Washington and Oregon commissioners) states it is unlawful for fishers to totally remove from the water any wild Chinook or wild steelhead. Anglers fishing from vessels of 30 feet or longer, as listed on either their state or Coast Guard registration are exempt. This creates a very hazardous situation for fishermen operating out of small boats in light of the tremendous seal and sea lion population.

You ask do these people have catch nets or gaffs?

It is against game regulations to use gaffs on salmon or steelhead. In one of the incidents written about in the last article, the fisherman had netted the fish and was trying to release the fish while in the net and in the water, and the sea lion broke the man’s wrist between the net and the side of the boat. In the other mentioned incident, the fishermen netted the fish, the sea lion grabbed the fish in the net (the man’s watch became entangled in the net) and virtually pulled the man over the side, if it were not for two other fishermen who grabbed the man by the legs to keep him in the boat, he would have been pulled overboard.

Murphy’s Law applies when at sea: if something can go wrong, it will. Your thoughts may well be directed toward the state fish commissioners who may well qualify as bozos.

Shorts

Spring salmon closed in the mainstream Columbia River; fishing remains open in the tributaries.

Clam digs on the Long Beach Peninsula are suspended because the local quota has been reached.

Sturgeon fishery closed May 1 until May 15; when it reopens the new limit sizes will be in effect.

Nautical OriginsCastaway – A shipwrecked sailor. Not, as often used, a sailor marooned or put ashore as punishment. To cast away was to commit a deliberate act to cause a ship to sink, to be lost or to make it necessary to abandon her.

Cup of Joe – Navy lore: Josephus Daniels was appointed Secretary of the Navy by President Woodrow Wilson in 1913. Among his reforms of the Navy were inaugurating the practice of making 100 sailors from the fleet eligible for entrance into the Naval Academy, the introduction of women into the service, and the abolishment of the officers’ wine mess. From that time on, the strongest drink aboard Navy ships could only be coffee. Over the years, a cup of coffee became known as a “cup of joe.”

Ron Malast is owner/ operator of the charter boat Big Dipper working out of Pacific Salmon Charters in Ilwaco.