Non-Fly Any very recent tuna reports?

Matt B · Sep 7, 2023

I got an invite for a private boat trip going out of Westport this Saturday. (YES!) This is a mixed gear trip running bait, iron, swimbaits, and maybe even flies. We will troll too, if that works, but the last trip this skipper ran he said they got all their fish on bait, iron or swimbaits. They go nothing on troll (clones and cedar plugs), all run and gun, "trolled holes in the ocean for at least six hours," but eventually boated 27 big tuna. So, I am curious--is trolling flies still the ticket, or one of the tickets, to success? Small flies? Normal 3.5" - 4" flies? Forgo trolling and just look for fish and throw stuff at 'em? Anyone got any recent intel? @Nick Clayton thx

Evan B · Sep 7, 2023

The fish are still keyed-in on the sauries so on the "look for jumpers and try to get a bonus troll fish in the process" program.

Fish have not been thick up North. If he has the range, I'd head as far south as you can go. I know Nick has been down at the 46 / 125, which is like a 70mi run SW from Westport. I'll be in that area tomorrow running from Ilwaco.

Matt B · Sep 7, 2023

Sounds like maybe we won’t have to go quite that far south and that looking for fish and throwing stuff at them will probably be the program.

Nick Clayton · Sep 8, 2023

Glad you texted me, I haven't been on the forum in a handful of days.

You'll find em west, zero doubt in my mind.

After what I saw the last two days, from south to north, finding fish isn't likely to be an issue. Catching them hasn't been quite as easy. Haven't seen them this ultra focused on saurie in several years at least. Today I saw some of the coolest, aggressive, saurie destroying albacore I've ever seen. It was pretty rad. They'd gladly eat a live anchovy if we could stop on em, but we had just a single troll bite each of the last two days and both happened within 5 minutes of putting lines in each morning, and both on my trusty black and purple cedar out the back, for whatever that's worth.

They've been on semi bait rations out of Westport this season, giving small charters no more than 2 scoops a day. Most of the time 2 scoops is plenty to get it done, but I have thought several times this year that it would be fun to take 4 or 5 scoops like we did in years past and really have a lot of bait to work with. I'd love to have been able to brail heavy on some fish today and see if we could really get em to take interest in us. We had great, consistent bait fishing, but it took a lot of smaller bait stops to pile on the numbers as we just couldn't get em to stick with us for more than 4-8 fish in any stop. With that much natural bait out there it can take a lot to keep those fish's attention and with only 2 scoops you can't get too aggressive with your chum or risk not having enough to last the day. Fine line.
I didn't get any sense of skittish, boat shy behavior lately, but rather I think there's just so much saurie all over the damn place that the fish are just zipping around crushing quickly through schools of saurie and then immediately zipping off towards the next. While most know I'm not a huge fan of jigging in general, the ability to quickly throw jigs a long distance can go a long way towards capitalizing on those scenarios, doubly so if you're not packing live bait.

Youll find fish no doubt. Hope you can put the hurt to em. As for flies, I'd start in the 4" range, or just whatever strikes your fancy, and work my down, especially if you have multiple opportunities to cast over fish while stopped. The saurie I saw in stomachs while cutting fish today were mostly in the 2-3" range

Matt B · Sep 8, 2023

Nick Clayton said:
Glad you texted me, I haven't been on the forum in a handful of days.

You'll find em west, zero doubt in my mind.

After what I saw the last two days, from south to north, finding fish isn't likely to be an issue. Catching them hasn't been quite as easy. Haven't seen them this ultra focused on saurie in several years at least. Today I saw some of the coolest, aggressive, saurie destroying albacore I've ever seen. It was pretty rad. They'd gladly eat a live anchovy if we could stop on em, but we had just a single troll bite each of the last two days and both happened within 5 minutes of putting lines in each morning, and both on my trusty black and purple cedar out the back, for whatever that's worth.

They've been on semi bait rations out of Westport this season, giving small charters no more than 2 scoops a day. Most of the time 2 scoops is plenty to get it done, but I have thought several times this year that it would be fun to take 4 or 5 scoops like we did in years past and really have a lot of bait to work with. I'd love to have been able to brail heavy on some fish today and see if we could really get em to take interest in us. We had great, consistent bait fishing, but it took a lot of smaller bait stops to pile on the numbers as we just couldn't get em to stick with us for more than 4-8 fish in any stop. With that much natural bait out there it can take a lot to keep those fish's attention and with only 2 scoops you can't get too aggressive with your chum or risk not having enough to last the day. Fine line.
I didn't get any sense of skittish, boat shy behavior lately, but rather I think there's just so much saurie all over the damn place that the fish are just zipping around crushing quickly through schools of saurie and then immediately zipping off towards the next. While most know I'm not a huge fan of jigging in general, the ability to quickly throw jigs a long distance can go a long way towards capitalizing on those scenarios, doubly so if you're not packing live bait.

Youll find fish no doubt. Hope you can put the hurt to em. As for flies, I'd start in the 4" range, or just whatever strikes your fancy, and work my down, especially if you have multiple opportunities to cast over fish while stopped. The saurie I saw in stomachs while cutting fish today were mostly in the 2-3" range

Did you see activity that you would toss a floating fly over?

Cabezon · Sep 8, 2023

Nick Clayton said:
Glad you texted me, I haven't been on the forum in a handful of days.

You'll find em west, zero doubt in my mind.

After what I saw the last two days, from south to north, finding fish isn't likely to be an issue. Catching them hasn't been quite as easy. Haven't seen them this ultra focused on saurie in several years at least. Today I saw some of the coolest, aggressive, saurie destroying albacore I've ever seen. It was pretty rad. They'd gladly eat a live anchovy if we could stop on em, but we had just a single troll bite each of the last two days and both happened within 5 minutes of putting lines in each morning, and both on my trusty black and purple cedar out the back, for whatever that's worth.

They've been on semi bait rations out of Westport this season, giving small charters no more than 2 scoops a day. Most of the time 2 scoops is plenty to get it done, but I have thought several times this year that it would be fun to take 4 or 5 scoops like we did in years past and really have a lot of bait to work with. I'd love to have been able to brail heavy on some fish today and see if we could really get em to take interest in us. We had great, consistent bait fishing, but it took a lot of smaller bait stops to pile on the numbers as we just couldn't get em to stick with us for more than 4-8 fish in any stop. With that much natural bait out there it can take a lot to keep those fish's attention and with only 2 scoops you can't get too aggressive with your chum or risk not having enough to last the day. Fine line.
I didn't get any sense of skittish, boat shy behavior lately, but rather I think there's just so much saurie all over the damn place that the fish are just zipping around crushing quickly through schools of saurie and then immediately zipping off towards the next. While most know I'm not a huge fan of jigging in general, the ability to quickly throw jigs a long distance can go a long way towards capitalizing on those scenarios, doubly so if you're not packing live bait.

Youll find fish no doubt. Hope you can put the hurt to em. As for flies, I'd start in the 4" range, or just whatever strikes your fancy, and work my down, especially if you have multiple opportunities to cast over fish while stopped. The saurie I saw in stomachs while cutting fish today were mostly in the 2-3" range

I had the same impression of lots of dine-n-dash feeding from our trip several weeks ago.
In the dusty recesses of my brain, I have a vague memory of a saltwater pattern (maybe by Bob Popovics) in which he tied two small silverside patterns on a single hook. I believe that the first body was tied in at the hook eye while the second was tied in at the bottom of the keel. Thus, the overall profile was bigger (more attractive) while the individual patterns were a better match to the naturals. Am I hallucinating?
Steve.

Evan B · Sep 8, 2023

Today out of CR -

Hit one jumbo size tuna at the 124.50 as I was letting the first troll rod out. Ate the spreader bar when my thumb was on the spool letting line out.

And that was it until we got one on the hand line around noon. Just dead out there as far as tuna.

Saw probably hundreds of whales. Just everywhere. Breaching, coming up with mouths open... All the National Geographic stuff. Super fun to see.

Bob N · Sep 9, 2023

Cabezon said:
I had the same impression of lots of dine-n-dash feeding from our trip several weeks ago.
In the dusty recesses of my brain, I have a vague memory of a saltwater pattern (maybe by Bob Popovics) in which he tied two small silverside patterns on a single hook. I believe that the first body was tied in at the hook eye while the second was tied in at the bottom of the keel. Thus, the overall profile was bigger (more attractive) while the individual patterns were a better match to the naturals. Am I hallucinating?
Steve.

Schoolie was the name of the fly that Popovics created

Nick Clayton · Sep 9, 2023

Matt B said:
Did you see activity that you would toss a floating fly over?

Oh yes absolutely. Personally I'll fish a popper at any point, and no longer just wait for what I feel is the ideal "topwater scenario". That said, I was wishing I wasn't working when I was out there this week and had the chance to throw some poppers. I have a strong feeling it would have been effective.

Nick Clayton · Sep 9, 2023

Cabezon said:
I had the same impression of lots of dine-n-dash feeding from our trip several weeks ago.
In the dusty recesses of my brain, I have a vague memory of a saltwater pattern (maybe by Bob Popovics) in which he tied two small silverside patterns on a single hook. I believe that the first body was tied in at the hook eye while the second was tied in at the bottom of the keel. Thus, the overall profile was bigger (more attractive) while the individual patterns were a better match to the naturals. Am I hallucinating?
Steve.

Ya I know the fly you're referring to. You're not crazy! Lol.

That wouldn't be a bad thing to try. I've never seen albacore eating lone saurie swimming around. Rather they're always crushing through schools of them, so maybe a fly that mimics multiple small baitfish could be enticing

Cabezon · Sep 9, 2023

Nick Clayton said:
Ya I know the fly you're referring to. You're not crazy! Lol.

That wouldn't be a bad thing to try. I've never seen albacore eating lone saurie swimming around. Rather they're always crushing through schools of them, so maybe a fly that mimics multiple small baitfish could be enticing

I have ordered a few and will have them along for my next two trips.
Steve

JayB · Sep 9, 2023

Visual Aid:

Schoolie Tied by William Lovelace and presented by Salmonfly.Net

salmonfly.net,salmon flies,steelhead flies,pacific salmon flies,atlantic salmon flies,cutthroat flies,fly tying,fly

www.angelfire.com

Had the same thought about this fly when I saw all of the tiny saurie on the cleaning table.

Matt B · Sep 9, 2023

We boated 14, all on bait. I hooked and lost one on a swim bait, tossing it at a group of birds. Working birds was super key for us today for getting the bites we got. We had a couple good stops going at times; I think the best stop we boated 6 tuna and had all four of us hooked up simultaneously. I did throw (and troll) the fly a bit and we dropped iron down too but no love on those. Even strung up a top water fly setup but never busted it out. We trolled very little, and it was mostly to have hooks in the water while looking for birds or fish to work, and we caught zero on troll. Talked to two other boats at the ramp; one had gotten three and another blanked.

It was a great day on the ocean!

Matt B · Sep 9, 2023

Oh, I’m tired AF and forgot, but we caught fish with digested anchovies in them. We caught some donkeys for WA albacore—three were 20 lbs or more, and only one was a 10 lb or less “peanut.” And, the blue water had moved way offshore. The skies were clear as could be so there should be some great satellite imagery to work with.