2025 Tuna and Exotics

Matt B said:
That bluefin looks just right for a 12 weight. I’m awfully curious about your program that caught it, and if there’s any way a fly could’ve also worked out there…for BFT.
Very very rad and cool catch!
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I can elaborate more later. Have a way busy day ahead.

As for my previous statement on the dorado and yellowtail I've also checked off: the dorado wasn't on my boat. @Tuna Ball and I were riding with someone else. So I would like to get that technicality taken care of.
 
OK @Matt B I have a moment here. But I'm typing from my phone which I'm notoriously terrible at for word choice since I hate doing it.

On the way out we hit some really interesting looking 57f green water. Immediately saw lots of bird activity, then boiling bait. Slowed the boat down and put troll gear out. Saw a group of happy birds we went towards and saw tuna breaking the surface but not jumping right in the middle of them.

Slowed down and tossed a few jigs to no avail so continued the troll. About thirty seconds later troll rod goes off. Had my friend get on that while I started jigging. Immediately hooked one and fought for ten secs and lost. Saw fish underneath and dropped straight down, and had one shoot from under the bait and smash it. Same result though, a few secs and gone.

Got good looks at the fish under me and they were also lacking long fins.
 
Evan B said:
Got good looks at the fish under me and they were also lacking long fins.
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Thanks!
Gosh, the poor things. We need to do the normal ones a favor and get those deformed ones out of the water.

Purple clone?
 
Matt B said:
Thanks!
Gosh, the poor things. We need to do the normal ones a favor and get those deformed ones out of the water.

Purple clone?
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Purple and black cedar plug.

All our troll fish came on purple and black cedar plugs and/or zukers of the same color. The old standby Mexican Flag colors got zero love.
 
Evan B said:
I've been in contact with @Nick Clayton who has been doing salmon trips, where he'll be for another week or so before getting to switch to tuna.

He's been getting into some interesting catches that I hope he has a chance to drop by and share. I hope I find some similar bycatches tomorrow.
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Hey all! Sorry I haven't been around in some time. Life happens and things have been pretty crazy for me.

As Evan mentioned, I've been in salmon purgatory but that's all set to end come Friday when I finally get to switch over and head offshore.

Although salmon charters are far from my favorite, the coho have made things damned fun this last week or so. Chinook fishing has been absurdly good, but then the coho arrived and oh boy things have gotten silly. The numbers, and size of the coho for this time of year are insane. I threw a 6 wt onboard and have been having a ball catching them on the fly when I'm not too busy dealing with downriggers. Today we spent close to two hours just floating while casting spinners and flies at them. It was a hoot. Even Cal managed to hook and land one casting from the bow. His first on a fly rod

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The other unexpected benefit of salmon fishing lately is that I finally got around to keeping, and eating a jack mackerel. We got into them pretty good the other day, but I didn't keep one. I caught a handful casting flies, and those things are hoot! They fight like mini albacore, and some of the ones I caught were probably close to 6 lbs. So much friggen fun.

That night I mentioned to Cal how Evan had posted about them in the past and they we should keep one to eat. He was dubious, but agreed. The next day we kept one, and took it back for lunch. Cal pan seared half of it with some sea salt, and we ate that first and holy cow was that good! Absolutely blew me away. The second half we cut thin and ate it raw with some soy and wasabi, and that was even better. It was easily the best raw fish I've ever eaten. The meat was so clean and perfect, and the texture was incredible. I liked it much more than yellowtail. Just amazing.

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I caught one yesterday and Cal and I are set to devour that here very shortly. I will never release one of those things again. I wish I could figure out a way to consistently target them!


Anyway, albacore has been off to a great start out here. I can't wait to get after them Friday. Mark caught bluefin number two today, though it sounds like albacore was a bit slower than the last few days.

Looking forward to seeing and catching up with many of you on the boat here in the very near future.
 
Nick Clayton said:
Hey all! Sorry I haven't been around in some time. Life happens and things have been pretty crazy for me.

As Evan mentioned, I've been in salmon purgatory but that's all set to end come Friday when I finally get to switch over and head offshore.

Although salmon charters are far from my favorite, the coho have made things damned fun this last week or so. Chinook fishing has been absurdly good, but then the coho arrived and oh boy things have gotten silly. The numbers, and size of the coho for this time of year are insane. I threw a 6 wt onboard and have been having a ball catching them on the fly when I'm not too busy dealing with downriggers. Today we spent close to two hours just floating while casting spinners and flies at them. It was a hoot. Even Cal managed to hook and land one casting from the bow. His first on a fly rod

View attachment 161061

The other unexpected benefit of salmon fishing lately is that I finally got around to keeping, and eating a jack mackerel. We got into them pretty good the other day, but I didn't keep one. I caught a handful casting flies, and those things are hoot! They fight like mini albacore, and some of the ones I caught were probably close to 6 lbs. So much friggen fun.

That night I mentioned to Cal how Evan had posted about them in the past and they we should keep one to eat. He was dubious, but agreed. The next day we kept one, and took it back for lunch. Cal pan seared half of it with some sea salt, and we ate that first and holy cow was that good! Absolutely blew me away. The second half we cut thin and ate it raw with some soy and wasabi, and that was even better. It was easily the best raw fish I've ever eaten. The meat was so clean and perfect, and the texture was incredible. I liked it much more than yellowtail. Just amazing.

View attachment 161062

I caught one yesterday and Cal and I are set to devour that here very shortly. I will never release one of those things again. I wish I could figure out a way to consistently target them!


Anyway, albacore has been off to a great start out here. I can't wait to get after them Friday. Mark caught bluefin number two today, though it sounds like albacore was a bit slower than the last few days.

Looking forward to seeing and catching up with many of you on the boat here in the very near future.
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You running stinger hooks on the coho flies? I've hooked about a half dozen the past couple trips on flies and all of them didn't stick. Realized I didn't have stinger hooks.

They definitely are sticking to my spinners with stinger hooks though 😂
 
Evan B said:
You running stinger hooks on the coho flies? I've hooked about a half dozen the past couple trips on flies and all of them didn't stick. Realized I didn't have stinger hooks.

They definitely are sticking to my spinners with stinger hooks though 😂
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So I've been fishing a stinger clouser simply because I had one tied on the rod from the last time I fished it, which was summer 2023 lol. The fly is mangled and the hook is pretty beat up, so I've missed/lost quite a few, but it's getting the job done.

But honestly for ocean coho I much prefer a clouser tied on a standard hook, I just didn't have much prepared as I really wasn't anticipating doing much, if any, salmon fly fishing



FYI we just got Mark to try the jack. He was hesitant, but grabbed a small piece, dipped in wasabi and soy, and down the hatch. Then his face lit up and he just started chowing down on more. Now he's sitting here telling us to load up on them, and he's raving about how damn good and clean it is lol
 
Preparations underway for a return trip to the tuna grounds this weekend. My August is filling up with other responsibilities, so need to jump on it again here before I potentially am out of the game for a few weeks.

I'd like to add: This trip is going to involve some fly polin
 
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Matt B said:
I mean, that’s part of why I asked. It’s kinda fun working Guy into a froth and he’s been too busy working on his new place or something and hasn’t given us the goods yet this year. 😉
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Not too much going on. Built a bunch of raised garden beds, fenced the backyard, had 2 large fir trees dropped, and (80 hand mixed bags later) just finished deck footings. Deck framing pkg arrives tomorrow. Once the deck is done, only have to put up a 24x20 garage, build a pump house... and collapse, just in time for tuna.

Plus side is I've lost almost 30#, even though I've put on 10-15# of muscle. So, if lightening does strike (again?), I might actually have a chance against that 50-100# BFT.
 
SilverFly said:
Im never tossing one of those back again! Think I'll be packing my 6 piece travel 8wt this year.
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Damn things are fun as all hell on an 8 wt. If I could figure out how to specifically find and target them consistently, I would be all about doing fly trips for them. First day I ran into them I was casting an 8 wt for the coho, feeling over gunned. But even the smaller jacks would cork that 8 and I really couldn't get their head. They made coho seem like sissies....(Which of course they kinda are). Any fish that pulls that hard, tastes that good, and will eat flies is A OK in my book
 
Nick Clayton said:
Damn things are fun as all hell on an 8 wt. If I could figure out how to specifically find and target them consistently, I would be all about doing fly trips for them. First day I ran into them I was casting an 8 wt for the coho, feeling over gunned. But even the smaller jacks would cork that 8 and I really couldn't get their head. They made coho seem like sissies....(Which of course they kinda are). Any fish that pulls that hard, tastes that good, and will eat flies is A OK in my book
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Unpopular opinion in the fly community for some reason: Coho are the sissiest fighters, pound-for-pound, that we have in our saltwater fisheries.
 
Nick Clayton said:
Yep, agreed. I love fishing for them, but not because of their amazing fight.
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When I troll for them in the ocean, I've gone to a technique where I lose almost none (and losing coho is just a thing that happens because of their stupid shake, rattle, and roll fight technique): I leave the rod in the rod holder and crank them close before taking the rod out to net them :ROFLMAO:

This next trip, though, we're going to be doing some fly casting, spinner casting and jigging for them as well, though. So there will be some more sporty things happening.
 
Evan B said:
When I troll for them in the ocean, I've gone to a technique where I lose almost none (and losing coho is just a thing that happens because of their stupid shake, rattle, and roll fight technique): I leave the rod in the rod holder and crank them close before taking the rod out to net them :ROFLMAO:

This next trip, though, we're going to be doing some fly casting, spinner casting and jigging for them as well, though. So there will be some more sporty things happening.
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If I went the rest of my life without trolling for coho again I would be just fine with that lol

Honestly had a ball fishing for them the last few days when we started casting at them. Yesterday they were kinda reluctant to come up to more than 20' for some reason, but we discovered dropping a black/chartreuse twitching jig down to their level right off the side of the boat was friggen deadly. Stupid things have been swarming the black/chartreuse Scotty DR clips so much lately my deckhand decided a Scotty Jig would be just the ticket lol. It definitely was. Spinners with an inline weight above got a few, and I got a couple casting flies, but that damn twitching jig fished straight down was just plain diirrrrtttyyyy
 
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