SilverFly
Legend
If it helps, I may have lost count on busted 12wts. Last years victim was a tip snap on the river when when trying negotiate a squirrely coho through a slippery boulder garden (without going for a swim in class III whitewater).
Tuna 2024
- Thread starter SilverFly
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Hey, I don’t judge
I was admiring that foregrip. Now a little less so. And now that I think about it, I’ve been on more trips with broken rods than not.
look on the bright side. Now you have four 12 weights.
Kamanu…rainbow runner, good sashimi…
It's my favorite sashimi
At least from that one picture's coloration, head shape, mouth relative to eye, tail... all look like a yellowtail/hamachi (Seriola lalandi) . Rainbow runners have slender bodies, more pointy head, more furcated tail and alternated blue and yellow lines on the side. @Evan B do you have another picture? Irrespective of the fish ID, all delicious fish and looks like great day out there!
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SilverFly
Legend
Iron grabs are incredible, but there's something about a fly grab that's tough to describe. There are other aspects of FF for albacore that I thoroughly enjoy, but the grab is what makes me a fanatic. I think it has to do with the sense of connection you get retrieving the fly line by hand.
Almost like the line becomes an extension of your hand. No reels, rod handles, weights, or other crap between your hand and the fly. When the line finally comes tight, you strike back, feeling the hook sink in. Followed an instant later by those first head shakes, knowing all hell is about to break loose.
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The problem with this saltwater fly fishing thing is it's kind of addictive. Three years ago Cabezon had a posting looking for a fill in on a tuna trip. Thought I'd give it a try, never done any salt fly fishing. Didn't have anything for that sort of fishing so used Nick's boat gear.
Fast forward a couple years and I have two 12w and two 10wt setups. Went out 3 days ago and starting to jones on wanting to get out again. This is starting to look like it might become a problem....
Fast forward a couple years and I have two 12w and two 10wt setups. Went out 3 days ago and starting to jones on wanting to get out again. This is starting to look like it might become a problem....
Well, in addition to both being delicious fish, rainbow runner and yellowtail are in the same Jack family (Carangidae), so they have some similarities, I still think it is a yellowtail (Seriola lalandi).
See plates below from Grant's Guide to Fishes and FAO. Among other differences (like body shape, coloration, tail relative to body), rainbow runners mouths do not reach the eye and have two detached finlets (one dorsal, one ventral just ahead of the tail.
From Grant's Guide to Fishes
From FAO
In contrast, yellowtail's maxilla bone (jaw bone) reaches the eye and it has not detached finlets.
From Grant's Guide to Fishes
In addition to the other differences pointed before (body shape, color), the maxilla bone of Evan's fish extends to the eye and there are no visible detached finlets (ventral is obscured by hand but dorsal should be visible if there). So it still looks like a yellowtail to me. I don't have a bone to pick about the fish ID, maxilla bone or otherwise
, although I wish I were picking bones of any of those beauties you guys are catching lately 
! Congrats and enjoy!
See plates below from Grant's Guide to Fishes and FAO. Among other differences (like body shape, coloration, tail relative to body), rainbow runners mouths do not reach the eye and have two detached finlets (one dorsal, one ventral just ahead of the tail.
From Grant's Guide to Fishes
From FAO
In contrast, yellowtail's maxilla bone (jaw bone) reaches the eye and it has not detached finlets.
From Grant's Guide to Fishes
In addition to the other differences pointed before (body shape, color), the maxilla bone of Evan's fish extends to the eye and there are no visible detached finlets (ventral is obscured by hand but dorsal should be visible if there). So it still looks like a yellowtail to me. I don't have a bone to pick about the fish ID, maxilla bone or otherwise
, although I wish I were picking bones of any of those beauties you guys are catching lately ! Congrats and enjoy!
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I don’t disagree with any of this and I love fly fishing for albacore, but I also find bait fishing them to be ridiculously fun. I don’t know why I like it so much. Is there something wrong with me?
There’s all these other layers of anticipation and excitement. Scoop some bait, don’t get too many, but get a good lively one. Of course the good lively ones are trickier to handle. Get the hook in them real nice (I like through the gill collar) so they can swim strong. And when you get that strong swimmer that goes straight down, you know line will probably be flying off your reel real fast, real soon. And then when it does, you get to giggle as you wait 5 seconds to engage the drag, come tight and see whatever the hell it is that this fish decide to do.
SilverFly
Legend
A different kind of fun. So much so, it feels like it should be illegal. Almost like dapping dries in a creek. Just replace the dink trout hiding under a log with a 30 mph cruise missile shooting out from under the boat.
Ok more on my day now:
Head a beautifully smooth ride out from the Columbia. The one hiccup was a very dense fog bank that lasted for about 15mi or so. Thankfully my radar worked beautifully and kept me going safely in the right direction until we hit the glorious break back in to the sun.
We found the 59-61deg temp break well inside of my destination, and I knew it was there before going but had initially talked myself out of fishing it.. Well, there were a ton of birds around so we dropped lines in for about 20min to prospect with nothing to show for it. Picked back up and went a few more miles west.
Trolled about 10min before we got our first troll eat on a cedar plug. I also hooked up on my first jig cast as well as my buddy Tom getting hooked up on the jig at the same time. We lost the troll fish on the side of the boat and landed my jig fish. After my fish hit the floor I saw the fish circling the boat and eating our chum, so I grabbed the 12wt that was in the rod holder (it was trolling) and made some casts. I got one good swipe at it, then a series of refusals. Friend hooked up on a jig and lost that fish which sounded the school, so we moved on.
We covered some ground, going a ways NW until we ran in to a massive pod of dolphins in some kind of frenzy. We watched that for a bit then picked up the gear to turn around and head south a mile or two to give them some space. After setting gear in the troll spread, I see a very large floating object. I get close to inspect and see it's a massive tree stump covered in barnacles and plant life. I'd say about the size of a big crew cab truck. Obviously had been in the water for some time.
I trolled up close to have a look when we spot a boil next to the log. We stop the boat and immediately see a school of yellowtail. It was multiple groups of 10-20 fish just milling around. Some came right up to the boat and just kind of circled around doing their thing. Tom casted his jig, which was the one I had set up with a really small baitfish jig. He immediately hooked up on one. Other buddy Nick got in the bow with the fly rod and started casting the 12wt. He got follows almost every cast but never a commitment. My coltsniper jig didn't get touched. I put a swimbait out as well but nada on that too.
We got the fish to the boat and I proceed to botch about 10 gaff attempts. It's such a different shape than an albacore that I was really struggling to get purchase. I'd pull on the gaff the way I always do, and it would just bounce off or the fish would flip over. Got really frustrating. I was about to reach for the net when the line snapped right at the side of the boat. Tom yells GAFF IT! and I take one last swipe at it which finally found the mark and got it in the boat. One of my proudest moments ever
We stayed on the school for another 20mins or so and hooked and lost two more on Tom's magic jig. As you're probably noticing, this was a developing theme for the day. I NEVER lose fish out there. I don't know what was going on yesterday, but we lost fish on jigs, every type of troll lure, flies, etc. I swapped to brand new hooks on a troll lure that lost 3 in a row only to have that brand new hook break on the next hookup. It was just a fight we couldn't win. So anyways, lose two more yellowtail, which was heartbreaking. But still felt extremely fortunate to have the one we got.
The rest of the day was a display of Sea World type action with dolphins, pilot whales, close up grays, and tunafish. We got on an area with lots of jumper tuna and stayed on them for a while, doing some fun run n gun action with the jigs and fly. The fly rod unfortunately snapped the tip on its first fish while we were getting it to the side of the boat
so it didn't get to see any more action.
One thing of note: I was trolling a fly in my prop wash on a conventional setup with a Shimano Trevala rod and Avet reel. I put a long Airflo CCT 470 (basically T-28) on it so that it could emulate the fly rod presentation in the troll spread, but on a rod more suited for it. That was by far our hottest troll rod. It went off almost every time we got troll eats.
Mixed grade of fish. Biggest of the day was this one here. Not huge, but still awesome.
Ran in on this ocean at about 30-33mph. Perfect end to an incredible day.
Head a beautifully smooth ride out from the Columbia. The one hiccup was a very dense fog bank that lasted for about 15mi or so. Thankfully my radar worked beautifully and kept me going safely in the right direction until we hit the glorious break back in to the sun.
We found the 59-61deg temp break well inside of my destination, and I knew it was there before going but had initially talked myself out of fishing it.. Well, there were a ton of birds around so we dropped lines in for about 20min to prospect with nothing to show for it. Picked back up and went a few more miles west.
Trolled about 10min before we got our first troll eat on a cedar plug. I also hooked up on my first jig cast as well as my buddy Tom getting hooked up on the jig at the same time. We lost the troll fish on the side of the boat and landed my jig fish. After my fish hit the floor I saw the fish circling the boat and eating our chum, so I grabbed the 12wt that was in the rod holder (it was trolling) and made some casts. I got one good swipe at it, then a series of refusals. Friend hooked up on a jig and lost that fish which sounded the school, so we moved on.
We covered some ground, going a ways NW until we ran in to a massive pod of dolphins in some kind of frenzy. We watched that for a bit then picked up the gear to turn around and head south a mile or two to give them some space. After setting gear in the troll spread, I see a very large floating object. I get close to inspect and see it's a massive tree stump covered in barnacles and plant life. I'd say about the size of a big crew cab truck. Obviously had been in the water for some time.
I trolled up close to have a look when we spot a boil next to the log. We stop the boat and immediately see a school of yellowtail. It was multiple groups of 10-20 fish just milling around. Some came right up to the boat and just kind of circled around doing their thing. Tom casted his jig, which was the one I had set up with a really small baitfish jig. He immediately hooked up on one. Other buddy Nick got in the bow with the fly rod and started casting the 12wt. He got follows almost every cast but never a commitment. My coltsniper jig didn't get touched. I put a swimbait out as well but nada on that too.
We got the fish to the boat and I proceed to botch about 10 gaff attempts. It's such a different shape than an albacore that I was really struggling to get purchase. I'd pull on the gaff the way I always do, and it would just bounce off or the fish would flip over. Got really frustrating. I was about to reach for the net when the line snapped right at the side of the boat. Tom yells GAFF IT! and I take one last swipe at it which finally found the mark and got it in the boat. One of my proudest moments ever
We stayed on the school for another 20mins or so and hooked and lost two more on Tom's magic jig. As you're probably noticing, this was a developing theme for the day. I NEVER lose fish out there. I don't know what was going on yesterday, but we lost fish on jigs, every type of troll lure, flies, etc. I swapped to brand new hooks on a troll lure that lost 3 in a row only to have that brand new hook break on the next hookup. It was just a fight we couldn't win. So anyways, lose two more yellowtail, which was heartbreaking. But still felt extremely fortunate to have the one we got.
The rest of the day was a display of Sea World type action with dolphins, pilot whales, close up grays, and tunafish. We got on an area with lots of jumper tuna and stayed on them for a while, doing some fun run n gun action with the jigs and fly. The fly rod unfortunately snapped the tip on its first fish while we were getting it to the side of the boat
so it didn't get to see any more action.One thing of note: I was trolling a fly in my prop wash on a conventional setup with a Shimano Trevala rod and Avet reel. I put a long Airflo CCT 470 (basically T-28) on it so that it could emulate the fly rod presentation in the troll spread, but on a rod more suited for it. That was by far our hottest troll rod. It went off almost every time we got troll eats.
Mixed grade of fish. Biggest of the day was this one here. Not huge, but still awesome.
Ran in on this ocean at about 30-33mph. Perfect end to an incredible day.
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My buddies may have taken some, I'll see. Thing with those is they never turn out as good as you want them to with a phone camera.
Exactly like that
Here's the big pod of
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