Non-Fly Tuna 8/10 - 8/11
- Thread starter Evan B
- Start date
Space Gunner
Freshly Spawned
Good luck Evan. Nice to see the Pacific Posse here.
We ended up down there later in the day yesterday. The best reports we heard were a bit south into the 45 block but there was definitely fish to be had. Unfortunately we worked our way down there so didn't have a lot of time to hang out once we got in the zone. Bit of a journey from WP.
Mark got into really good a bit outside of there, closer to the 05.
A fair amount a few yellowtail encountered the last two days including a couple around that area yesterday. We were definitely keeping a sharp eye out for any logs of kelp paddies
Also heard of a couple bluefin yesterday as well.
Cool stuff out there
Mark got into really good a bit outside of there, closer to the 05.
A fair amount a few yellowtail encountered the last two days including a couple around that area yesterday. We were definitely keeping a sharp eye out for any logs of kelp paddies
Also heard of a couple bluefin yesterday as well.
Cool stuff out there
Yeah I ran out as far as the .10 last time, so can definitely do it. I think Friday is going to be mirror-glass smooth, too. So if I can run out at 30mph, I'll get to the 124.55 early enough and will troll as far west as I need to until I find em.
I always have something ready to cast at the floating debris. Yellowtail tops my list of exotics I want badly. I'd take one yellowtail vs ten dorado (which happened for me last fall already), personally.
Would figure the year I'm limited to 2 trips, would be the year BFT and other "exotics" show up in fishable numbers. Gonna be tough sitting on the sidelines until late September. Any size to the BF? Or just more peanuts? Putting in my order now for a 40-60# bluefin. Just one, that's not too much to ask?
If I do hook in to a BF, I really, really hope it's a peanut. I don't have anything I think would handle one over 60-80lb or so.Would figure the year I'm limited to 2 trips, would be the year BFT and other "exotics" show up in fishable numbers. Gonna be tough sitting on the sidelines until late September. Any size to the BF? Or just more peanuts? Putting in my order now for a 40-60# bluefin. Just one, that's not too much to ask?
Kinda hope you get do spooled. Not saying that to be a dick. The "WTF did I hook?" factor completely changed my outlook about offshore fishing.
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Yeah, but braid is expensive
You and I also don't have the same "sickness" for oversized fish
..... yetYeah, but braid is expensive
You and I also don't have the same "sickness" for oversized fish
No, "used to" is a better way to put it. Couple big fish and I decided they're something I'd rather other people enjoy for me...... yet
'Bout fucking time.Getting some word that they may be closer in than originally thought. Plus, Friday's forecast is really shaping up nicely. I think I'm gonna have a lot of fun tomorrow
Looking forward to a report that will make me insanely jealous.
I really need redemption after my trip 2wks ago where I came in with a career low of 3 fish.'Bout fucking time.
Alrighty, been trying to figure out how to give this report. Now that the wind is blowing again, it's going to be a very different landscape out there once it settles down again. Hopefully this long north blow doesn't push the fish back out. I NEED my September tuna fishing!
So in short: Another day where there were fish to be had, but not where I spent most the day. Got word from a few who were out and did really, really well.
While I was hooking my boat trailer up to go gas and ice up on Thursday, @Tuna Ball called me with an invite to fish on the most awesome tuna boat I'd ever been on (fished on it a few years earlier). His buddy has a perfect, 33' tuna machine, and it's hard to turn down an opportunity to fish on it when the opportunity arises. They had room (well, more like needed a few more bodies) for my crew of 2, so all three of us changed course and left my boat in its parking spot.
So, caveat here: This is a bit of a monologue about my obsessive need to have a plan and stick to it. So I have a bit of a struggle when going from having my plan I'd spent days making, then going to someone else's program. But obviously, the person whose program we were switching to is far better equipped and more experienced than me, but it doesn't put my obsessiveness at ease. So this will mostly be about MY problem, and not any ill will on those who were kind enough to have me. I remain grateful and would jump at any opportunity in the future.
So my plan was to fish "inside," which in this area, typically means closer than the 125 line. I had it on good authority the fish had moved in to the 124.50-124.55, and seemed to be aimed at the edge/chloro break there. So my plan was to get out there, about 35mi off the Columbia bar, and troll north/south along those lines. Typically, my strategy is to mark all fish I hit on my chart plotter, and stay in their area. Doing figure 8s and circles in the areas it seems like they're milling around. - in hindsight on the day, I feel like I still like my plan and would be curious how results would've compared.
Captain set a waypoint quite a ways south and west of where I had in mind. On our way to the destination, we got to the area I was jonesing for, and we saw a very active group of jumpers. We chased them for a bit, and actually managed to get a few on jigs. All 25lb-range donkeys. Excellent start to the day!
(my two original crewmates from my planned trip - includes Jarrod, one of the co-owners of Rajeff Sports)
We decided to get on the troll. Once going, we kept heading SW to the destination point. Things got pretty quiet for the most part as we headed west. But we did actually get a few more on the way with jigs. There would occasionally be jumpers or marks on the sounder that we'd drop in on. The troll bite seemed to be pretty nonexistent.
We eventually switched it up on the troll spread and put a spreader bar out at the expert advice of @Tuna Ball - not long after, and his intuition paid off with a screaming drag. Rinse and repeat a couple more times - spreader bars were the ONLY thing that worked on the troll this day. After one of the hookups, we managed to put the troll fish in the boat, plus four fish on the jigs. This happened as we were heading back east and were closer to where I was chomping at the bit for.
Somewhere in here, I can't place the timeline completely correctly anymore, but we had another jumper pod we chased with a few hookups. I haven't got a chance to mention: I hooked three fish on jigs myself, and lost all three (including losing my favorite jig I've been using for three seasons straight). Was NOT my day to say the least. But I tried to make up for my lack of bringing fish to the boat with some excellent net jobs and janitor work. If I can't be useful getting meat, may as well do the dirty work
Around this mid/late afternoon time, we actually saw a pair of orcas while we were trolling. First time I've seen that out there. My previous trip out, we saw an elephant seal. So no matter how many times I go, it seems there are always new critters to see
We proceeded to troll north and mostly east, getting out of the tuna blue water after our last good stop. Spent more time in there than I would have, but that boundary green water can produce some much bigger surprises. So it's still a worthwhile endeavor... this just goes back to me having a hard time disconnecting from what I had planned.
We ended the day with 14 donkeys (donkey = big ol tuna). The grade of fish made up for any lack of numbers. We still ended up with a lot of meat, and truth be told, we probably couldn't have taken many more because our ice situation turned out to be less than ideal.
Always a pleasure fishing on this boat, even if I have my own shortcomings
Jarrod and I cut up our fish this morning, and @Josh of all people joined us while he was in town visiting family.
Not a bad haul for only being 4 fish for the two of us. Like I said, the size was pretty incredible. So it was still a great yield.
(and there's a side to tuna fishing they don't want you to know about)
So in short: Another day where there were fish to be had, but not where I spent most the day. Got word from a few who were out and did really, really well.
While I was hooking my boat trailer up to go gas and ice up on Thursday, @Tuna Ball called me with an invite to fish on the most awesome tuna boat I'd ever been on (fished on it a few years earlier). His buddy has a perfect, 33' tuna machine, and it's hard to turn down an opportunity to fish on it when the opportunity arises. They had room (well, more like needed a few more bodies) for my crew of 2, so all three of us changed course and left my boat in its parking spot.
So, caveat here: This is a bit of a monologue about my obsessive need to have a plan and stick to it. So I have a bit of a struggle when going from having my plan I'd spent days making, then going to someone else's program. But obviously, the person whose program we were switching to is far better equipped and more experienced than me, but it doesn't put my obsessiveness at ease. So this will mostly be about MY problem, and not any ill will on those who were kind enough to have me. I remain grateful and would jump at any opportunity in the future.
So my plan was to fish "inside," which in this area, typically means closer than the 125 line. I had it on good authority the fish had moved in to the 124.50-124.55, and seemed to be aimed at the edge/chloro break there. So my plan was to get out there, about 35mi off the Columbia bar, and troll north/south along those lines. Typically, my strategy is to mark all fish I hit on my chart plotter, and stay in their area. Doing figure 8s and circles in the areas it seems like they're milling around. - in hindsight on the day, I feel like I still like my plan and would be curious how results would've compared.
Captain set a waypoint quite a ways south and west of where I had in mind. On our way to the destination, we got to the area I was jonesing for, and we saw a very active group of jumpers. We chased them for a bit, and actually managed to get a few on jigs. All 25lb-range donkeys. Excellent start to the day!
(my two original crewmates from my planned trip - includes Jarrod, one of the co-owners of Rajeff Sports)
We decided to get on the troll. Once going, we kept heading SW to the destination point. Things got pretty quiet for the most part as we headed west. But we did actually get a few more on the way with jigs. There would occasionally be jumpers or marks on the sounder that we'd drop in on. The troll bite seemed to be pretty nonexistent.
We eventually switched it up on the troll spread and put a spreader bar out at the expert advice of @Tuna Ball - not long after, and his intuition paid off with a screaming drag. Rinse and repeat a couple more times - spreader bars were the ONLY thing that worked on the troll this day. After one of the hookups, we managed to put the troll fish in the boat, plus four fish on the jigs. This happened as we were heading back east and were closer to where I was chomping at the bit for.
Somewhere in here, I can't place the timeline completely correctly anymore, but we had another jumper pod we chased with a few hookups. I haven't got a chance to mention: I hooked three fish on jigs myself, and lost all three (including losing my favorite jig I've been using for three seasons straight). Was NOT my day to say the least. But I tried to make up for my lack of bringing fish to the boat with some excellent net jobs and janitor work. If I can't be useful getting meat, may as well do the dirty work
Around this mid/late afternoon time, we actually saw a pair of orcas while we were trolling. First time I've seen that out there. My previous trip out, we saw an elephant seal. So no matter how many times I go, it seems there are always new critters to see
We proceeded to troll north and mostly east, getting out of the tuna blue water after our last good stop. Spent more time in there than I would have, but that boundary green water can produce some much bigger surprises. So it's still a worthwhile endeavor... this just goes back to me having a hard time disconnecting from what I had planned.
We ended the day with 14 donkeys (donkey = big ol tuna). The grade of fish made up for any lack of numbers. We still ended up with a lot of meat, and truth be told, we probably couldn't have taken many more because our ice situation turned out to be less than ideal.
Always a pleasure fishing on this boat, even if I have my own shortcomings
Jarrod and I cut up our fish this morning, and @Josh of all people joined us while he was in town visiting family.
Not a bad haul for only being 4 fish for the two of us. Like I said, the size was pretty incredible. So it was still a great yield.
(and there's a side to tuna fishing they don't want you to know about)
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Hah, it sure is. He makes a solid crewmate. Always jumping in to help with the dirty work. Plus, he was the hot rod of the day, especially on jigs. First timer's luck... gotta be
Solid work and great/honest write-up. Good call on the spreader bar. Going smaller/multiple troll lures almost sounds like matching-the-hatch thinking. But this is the dirt bag forum, so that's all I have to say about that.
Donkeys indeed. My heart skipped a beat seeing that first pic with the short looking pec fin (seen end on.)
Donkeys indeed. My heart skipped a beat seeing that first pic with the short looking pec fin (seen end on.)
I agree with you about some of the strategies not being as productive as they could have been. We spent too long on the jig stops after they stopped biting (coming from the guy who brought six jig rods). Leaving the first batch of fish was tough too. We had jumpers all around us at first. They were not staying put though, so they were hard to target. I think we could have made it work if we stuck around there longer, maybe all day. I didn't want to start a mutiny so I didn't say a whole lot about that. Besides, there could have been greener pastures outside for all we knew at the time. I had to be a little insistent about the spreader bar when trolling was not working.
Duy was quick to learn how to fish the jig. In fact I learned more about the flat fall watching him. He was also good at processing the fish for the fish box. The ice situation was unfortunate, which is why he usually gets it blown in. It melted so much due to the 69deg water in the uninsulated fish boxes. Especially since we needed to purchase it the night before.
Regardless, it was a good trip with a great crew. I especially enjoyed that 2/3 of the fish came on jigs and we're all large. We had opportunity for more since we lost at least five and missed at least as many bites. I hope the fish are still in striking distance after this blow passes.
Duy was quick to learn how to fish the jig. In fact I learned more about the flat fall watching him. He was also good at processing the fish for the fish box. The ice situation was unfortunate, which is why he usually gets it blown in. It melted so much due to the 69deg water in the uninsulated fish boxes. Especially since we needed to purchase it the night before.
Regardless, it was a good trip with a great crew. I especially enjoyed that 2/3 of the fish came on jigs and we're all large. We had opportunity for more since we lost at least five and missed at least as many bites. I hope the fish are still in striking distance after this blow passes.
I was being diplomatic as I could as to not sound ungrateful for the invite and hospitality
but yeah.. I felt we kept running away from the fish all day and it was getting harder to hide my frustration. Still had a great time but man... I feel we could have done so much better if we stopped our westward journey.
