Was, but I have tickets for Dwight Yoakam on the following day in Bend.
Tuna 2024
- Thread starter SilverFly
- Start date
- Status
JayB
Life of the Party
Oh man. Was close to pulling the trigger but took a look a the calendar and there are just way too many moving pieces. Dang.
Broke in a new to me tuna rod today.
It works very well.
It works very well.
HAHAHA that bloody fly is awesome.
SilverFly
Legend
I saw it in action. Nick was VERY pleased with the new rod!
That’s not the same mangled squid you fished the other day, is it?
SilverFly
Legend
Looking forward to @Cabezon's post. In the meantime, here are a few pics and deets from Thursday and Saturday.
Thursday was not ideal conditions to say the least. In fact, this was the first time I recall Nick stopping on the way out to ask if we wanted to turn around. This was regarding our comfort level, not that seas were pushing the safe operation of the boat. Fortunately, we agreed as a crew. So myself, @SteelHeadDave, @Bagman, and @Cabezon, continued out for one of the bumpiest tuna days I can remember. I think we all saw it as a challenge to prove ourselves as fly fishermen on the tuna grounds in less than ideal conditions. Which we did, somehow managing to put 12 in the boat, in addition to losing several. IIRC, we were about 50/50 on troll vs, slide and retrieve. Pretty good considering it was difficult just standing up without bracing against something.
A very wet run out Thurs for @Cabezon and @Bagman.
The ocean improved quite a bit later in the afternoon, but still bumpy enough that I didn't get many pics.
A note for anyone staying at Twin Harbors State Park. Nice campground, but my Verizon coverage was almost non existent. Oddly enough, I could get a few bars at the top of the dune. The view alone was worth the inconvenience to check in at home.
Dead calm in the marina Saturday morning...
... this was not indicative of what we found on the ocean.
Even so, it was a major improvement from the washing machine we fished on Thursday. Enough that Nick and I both caught fish casting from the bow (think @Cabezon got some action shots). As we all know, trolling is part of the game, and how we find the schools. For some weird reason I have been getting blanked trolling the last few trips (including last year). Normally I'd be fine with that but it had been so long, I was actually jonesing to feel a troll grab. Finally broke my troll curse with a single late in the day.
This was also the first year I only fished one rod, the 14wt with the Tibor.
Not the greatest casting outfit, but it gets the job done, and puts fish in the boat (relatively) quickly. At least the ones that stay buttoned.
NOTES: I batted 500 both days, 2 for 4 on Thurs, and 5 for 10 Sat. Not "keeping score" so much as taking notes for future reference as to what I did wrong, or need to do better. And maybe for someone else to learn from my mistakes. At least half of those lost fish were due to poor hooksets. I don't remember trout setting but maybe I did without realizing? I know a couple grabbed while running towards me, which is mostly a matter of luck if they still have the fly in a good spot when the line does come tight. I lost one due to stepping on a line loop when hooked up. Another, heavy fish on Thursday I lost at the rail by simply putting too much pressure on the fish and pulling the fly free. A similar heavy fish was lost Sat when I didn't loosen my drag from troll setting (very tight) to "normal tight". @Buzzy was standing next to me watching this fish peel line at mach 2, sounding straight down, thinking my drag was in near free spool. Nope. It broke off just as I was touching the drag.
Anyway all this happened about 50 (?) miles due West. Took this GPS shot a short while into the run home.
I was pretty hungry by the time we hit the dock, so suggested getting fish 'n' chips. Then Al suggested ceviche, which sounded way better. I stopped to pick up some limes, cilantro and green onions on the way to camp. Also mixed in a bit of Sambal chili paste after trying a few test bites. Turns out Albacore ceviche is a thing. Also couldn't resist slicing up some sashimi. Very simple - just shoyu, nori, and wasabi. Not exactly @Evan B grade work, but we polished this all off.
Thursday was not ideal conditions to say the least. In fact, this was the first time I recall Nick stopping on the way out to ask if we wanted to turn around. This was regarding our comfort level, not that seas were pushing the safe operation of the boat. Fortunately, we agreed as a crew. So myself, @SteelHeadDave, @Bagman, and @Cabezon, continued out for one of the bumpiest tuna days I can remember. I think we all saw it as a challenge to prove ourselves as fly fishermen on the tuna grounds in less than ideal conditions. Which we did, somehow managing to put 12 in the boat, in addition to losing several. IIRC, we were about 50/50 on troll vs, slide and retrieve. Pretty good considering it was difficult just standing up without bracing against something.
A very wet run out Thurs for @Cabezon and @Bagman.
The ocean improved quite a bit later in the afternoon, but still bumpy enough that I didn't get many pics.
A note for anyone staying at Twin Harbors State Park. Nice campground, but my Verizon coverage was almost non existent. Oddly enough, I could get a few bars at the top of the dune. The view alone was worth the inconvenience to check in at home.
Dead calm in the marina Saturday morning...
... this was not indicative of what we found on the ocean.
Even so, it was a major improvement from the washing machine we fished on Thursday. Enough that Nick and I both caught fish casting from the bow (think @Cabezon got some action shots). As we all know, trolling is part of the game, and how we find the schools. For some weird reason I have been getting blanked trolling the last few trips (including last year). Normally I'd be fine with that but it had been so long, I was actually jonesing to feel a troll grab. Finally broke my troll curse with a single late in the day.
This was also the first year I only fished one rod, the 14wt with the Tibor.
Not the greatest casting outfit, but it gets the job done, and puts fish in the boat (relatively) quickly. At least the ones that stay buttoned.
NOTES: I batted 500 both days, 2 for 4 on Thurs, and 5 for 10 Sat. Not "keeping score" so much as taking notes for future reference as to what I did wrong, or need to do better. And maybe for someone else to learn from my mistakes. At least half of those lost fish were due to poor hooksets. I don't remember trout setting but maybe I did without realizing? I know a couple grabbed while running towards me, which is mostly a matter of luck if they still have the fly in a good spot when the line does come tight. I lost one due to stepping on a line loop when hooked up. Another, heavy fish on Thursday I lost at the rail by simply putting too much pressure on the fish and pulling the fly free. A similar heavy fish was lost Sat when I didn't loosen my drag from troll setting (very tight) to "normal tight". @Buzzy was standing next to me watching this fish peel line at mach 2, sounding straight down, thinking my drag was in near free spool. Nope. It broke off just as I was touching the drag.
Anyway all this happened about 50 (?) miles due West. Took this GPS shot a short while into the run home.
I was pretty hungry by the time we hit the dock, so suggested getting fish 'n' chips. Then Al suggested ceviche, which sounded way better. I stopped to pick up some limes, cilantro and green onions on the way to camp. Also mixed in a bit of Sambal chili paste after trying a few test bites. Turns out Albacore ceviche is a thing. Also couldn't resist slicing up some sashimi. Very simple - just shoyu, nori, and wasabi. Not exactly @Evan B grade work, but we polished this all off.
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Tuna trip, 2024 September 12. This was going to be a trip dominated by the weather. I had been checking NOAA’s offshore forecast for the previous week. Most forecasts had the wind around 10 knots and the seas around 5 feet. Merry at All Rivers had texted me two days earlier indicating that the trip was a go and we would meet at 6AM. The last forecast from the night before had the waves at 5-6 ft. So none of us were under any delusions that it would be a gentle trip out. From the parking lot, I could hear the waves crashing on the beach outside Westport and there was a stiff wind blowing. The four of us: Al, Guy, Dave, and myself met at the top of the dock a few minutes early and spent a few minutes catching up.
Right at 6AM, we walked down the docks to Nick’s boat. @Nick Clayton and his deckhand, Cal, helped stow our gear in the bow storage area. We signed the releases [One of these days, I need to get a copy of this release and see what I’m signing…] and we're given life jackets. Nick provided the safety briefing and we were ready to leave the dock in the dark. Cal loaded two scoops of anchovies into the live-bait tank and Nick passed over a tip to the worker. In the last preparation, Cal dropped the canvas screen over the front quarter of the open stern deck. In theory, this screen would keep @Bagman and I who were sitting in the outside seats against the cabin wall, drier than it if it wasn’t there. Better in theory than in practice on a rough day.
We turned the corner of the harbor and headed out to the bar. And that’s when it started to get bumpy. It wasn’t that we were slamming into incoming waves, though there was some of that. But the seas were so irregular that Nick couldn’t really put the pedal down.
And we still had spray sneaking around the cabin onto @Bagman and me sitting in the back. Water from oncoming waves rushed over the cabin, down the canvas screen and onto us when the screen flexed. It was going to be an uncomfortable trip out.
It sucked, but you just have to endure. After about an hour, Nick put the boat into neutral and we had a minor conference. A true first, he asked us to consider if we wanted to head back in light of how awful the conditions were and that it would take two more hours of this before we would start fishing. He didn’t feel that conditions were unsafe, just uncomfortable (and we agreed with his assessment). We thought about it, but we were already this far out and we figured that we could adapt. And so the punishment went on for two more hours.
Part of the reason that it took us so long to start fishing is that Nick had to keep our speed down in these seas. When I got home. I pulled up the data from the NOAA buoy, Westport Offshore (left-hand yellow diamond) south of Grays Canyon.
This was actually quite close to where we ended up fishing today.
The winds were in the 12-14knot range for most of the time that we were out there, though they dropped a bit in the later afternoon.
That kicked up a messy local sea with waves maxing out at over 8 feet.
But because it was all generated locally, the waves hadn’t sorted themselves out yet and there were irregular smaller waves mixed in and interacting with the larger swells. It was a mess – washing machine conditions.
Finally, we passed a few commercial tuna trollers and we knew that we were close. Then we could see other All Rivers boats. We were there. And where was there? 48.5 miles directly west of Westport, well down the continental slope (in at least 3000’ of water).
Why go so far? I think that the reason can be illustrated by a map that includes sea surface temperature and surface currents. When I went on my two earlier tuna trips in late August and very early September, the winds had been primarily from the south. Due to the Coriolis effect these winds from the south cause downwelling where warm offshore water is pushed onshore. But recently the winds had shifted to the north and that causes upwelling where warm nearshore waters are pushed offshore and cooler, nutrient-rich water is drawn up to fill the gap. You can see the cooler water along the north coast of Washington and even a finger of cooler water extending west off Westport/Aberdeen.
The key for finding albacore tuna is reaching water that is at least 60oF.
And we saw signs of this upwelling as we trolled in the warm waters of the tuna grounds. We encountered patches of floating intertidal (Fucus and Macrocystis) and subtidal (Nereocystis) that had been carried offshore by upwelling. I hadn’t seen any drifting coastal algae floating by where I had fished in the two earlier trips in late August and after Labor Day during downwelling. Interestingly, there were several large jellyfish (>8” diameter), including lion’s mane jellyfish (Cyanea capillata) and a whitish translucent saucer-shaped jellyfish that might be a moon jelly (Aurelia labiata), carried in the same water mass as the concentrated floating kelp. We didn’t hook anything but algae as we trolled through this water; Nick was hoping that there might be something interesting in here, but no dice.
So, it was time to get to work. Soon enough we had four fly lines out and were trolling. Everyone was extra careful maneuvering around the boat. [It looks like the camera is tilted in this picture, but the birds are horizontal. That is a big wave that is about to lift up the boat.]
The day started with overcast skies and everyone was bundled up. [The sun broke through in the late morning and soon everyone was shedding clothes.]
It took a while before @Bagman hooked the first fish on the troll. As Nick put the engines in neutral and the boat slowed, Cal threw out some live anchovies and we began to strip on our fly lines on the “slide”. @Bagman used his experience to quickly bring the albacore to the side of the boat and Cal made a solid gaff and lifted the boat into the deck. The boat was drifting quite quickly due to the winds and the waves. We quickly drifted off the tuna school and we were back on the troll.
I believe that @SteelHeadDave picked up the next troll fish and I picked up the one after. @SilverFly was feeling a bit left out. But at the next stop and with his entire fly line trailing off the quickly-drifting boat, his squid fly was grabbed by a hot albacore.
He repeated that success in another stop later in the day. In general, our stops were not very productive. I wonder if the wide-spread whitecaps inhibited the albacore from coming to the surface. I did have a strange encounter at one stop. I had a fish grab my fly and I strip-set the hook. I was expecting the fish to just blast off after the hookset; however, it just held its position. I even managed to reel in quite my fly line well into the sinking head without much of a reaction by the fish. I could see the silvery flash of its body straight down in the water. I was wondering if it might be something other than an albacore (exotic dreaming…). And then it got off.
We did have one decent bait stop where we had four fish on simultaneously: a troll fish, a slide fish, and two fish hooked on the stop. On a rough day, it was quite a dance to keep everyone’s line cleared as the fish had designs on flyline macramé. But with the right “unders” and “overs” we managed to foil their plans and bring all four miscreants into the boat.
We did have one “incident”. We were just returning to the troll when a line that had been cast out on the stop was swept into one of the 250hp Honda engines. Normally, the anglers and crew try to communicate that the lines are clear before resuming trolling, but mistakes were made… Nick spent at least 20 minutes hanging almost upside down of the back of a pitching boat trying initially to recover the line before the operation switched to just clearing the line from the prop shaft. It was a mess. The line actually fused to itself and all that remained after the surgery was a pile of green-colored spaghetti on the deck. @SilverFly actually hooked and landed an albacore while Nick was performing his fly line surgery.
I love the wildlife that you see so far offshore. We had flyby’s by albatross (unknown species) and sooty shearwaters. Sabine’s gulls hovered over the boat’s wake. They may have been attracted by the sight of our flies tracking through the clear water. Juvenile gulls snapped up any stray anchovies that were struggling at the surface. An 8-9” thresher shark (6ish’ body, 3ish’ tail) gave the boat an inspection; it made three passes along the stern deck before disappearing.
In spite of the challenges, we (@Bagman, @SilverFly, and @SteelHeadDave and I, with @Nick Clayton's help) put 12 albacore in the boat (and lost a half-dozen more for a variety of reasons).
[And you can see that conditions had improved by mid-afternoon.]
Finally, with a very long run in still to come, our fishing time ran out and we had to head back to the barn.
Steve
Right at 6AM, we walked down the docks to Nick’s boat. @Nick Clayton and his deckhand, Cal, helped stow our gear in the bow storage area. We signed the releases [One of these days, I need to get a copy of this release and see what I’m signing…] and we're given life jackets. Nick provided the safety briefing and we were ready to leave the dock in the dark. Cal loaded two scoops of anchovies into the live-bait tank and Nick passed over a tip to the worker. In the last preparation, Cal dropped the canvas screen over the front quarter of the open stern deck. In theory, this screen would keep @Bagman and I who were sitting in the outside seats against the cabin wall, drier than it if it wasn’t there. Better in theory than in practice on a rough day.
We turned the corner of the harbor and headed out to the bar. And that’s when it started to get bumpy. It wasn’t that we were slamming into incoming waves, though there was some of that. But the seas were so irregular that Nick couldn’t really put the pedal down.
And we still had spray sneaking around the cabin onto @Bagman and me sitting in the back. Water from oncoming waves rushed over the cabin, down the canvas screen and onto us when the screen flexed. It was going to be an uncomfortable trip out.
It sucked, but you just have to endure. After about an hour, Nick put the boat into neutral and we had a minor conference. A true first, he asked us to consider if we wanted to head back in light of how awful the conditions were and that it would take two more hours of this before we would start fishing. He didn’t feel that conditions were unsafe, just uncomfortable (and we agreed with his assessment). We thought about it, but we were already this far out and we figured that we could adapt. And so the punishment went on for two more hours.
Part of the reason that it took us so long to start fishing is that Nick had to keep our speed down in these seas. When I got home. I pulled up the data from the NOAA buoy, Westport Offshore (left-hand yellow diamond) south of Grays Canyon.
This was actually quite close to where we ended up fishing today.
The winds were in the 12-14knot range for most of the time that we were out there, though they dropped a bit in the later afternoon.
That kicked up a messy local sea with waves maxing out at over 8 feet.
But because it was all generated locally, the waves hadn’t sorted themselves out yet and there were irregular smaller waves mixed in and interacting with the larger swells. It was a mess – washing machine conditions.
Finally, we passed a few commercial tuna trollers and we knew that we were close. Then we could see other All Rivers boats. We were there. And where was there? 48.5 miles directly west of Westport, well down the continental slope (in at least 3000’ of water).
Why go so far? I think that the reason can be illustrated by a map that includes sea surface temperature and surface currents. When I went on my two earlier tuna trips in late August and very early September, the winds had been primarily from the south. Due to the Coriolis effect these winds from the south cause downwelling where warm offshore water is pushed onshore. But recently the winds had shifted to the north and that causes upwelling where warm nearshore waters are pushed offshore and cooler, nutrient-rich water is drawn up to fill the gap. You can see the cooler water along the north coast of Washington and even a finger of cooler water extending west off Westport/Aberdeen.
The key for finding albacore tuna is reaching water that is at least 60oF.
And we saw signs of this upwelling as we trolled in the warm waters of the tuna grounds. We encountered patches of floating intertidal (Fucus and Macrocystis) and subtidal (Nereocystis) that had been carried offshore by upwelling. I hadn’t seen any drifting coastal algae floating by where I had fished in the two earlier trips in late August and after Labor Day during downwelling. Interestingly, there were several large jellyfish (>8” diameter), including lion’s mane jellyfish (Cyanea capillata) and a whitish translucent saucer-shaped jellyfish that might be a moon jelly (Aurelia labiata), carried in the same water mass as the concentrated floating kelp. We didn’t hook anything but algae as we trolled through this water; Nick was hoping that there might be something interesting in here, but no dice.
So, it was time to get to work. Soon enough we had four fly lines out and were trolling. Everyone was extra careful maneuvering around the boat. [It looks like the camera is tilted in this picture, but the birds are horizontal. That is a big wave that is about to lift up the boat.]
The day started with overcast skies and everyone was bundled up. [The sun broke through in the late morning and soon everyone was shedding clothes.]
It took a while before @Bagman hooked the first fish on the troll. As Nick put the engines in neutral and the boat slowed, Cal threw out some live anchovies and we began to strip on our fly lines on the “slide”. @Bagman used his experience to quickly bring the albacore to the side of the boat and Cal made a solid gaff and lifted the boat into the deck. The boat was drifting quite quickly due to the winds and the waves. We quickly drifted off the tuna school and we were back on the troll.
I believe that @SteelHeadDave picked up the next troll fish and I picked up the one after. @SilverFly was feeling a bit left out. But at the next stop and with his entire fly line trailing off the quickly-drifting boat, his squid fly was grabbed by a hot albacore.He repeated that success in another stop later in the day. In general, our stops were not very productive. I wonder if the wide-spread whitecaps inhibited the albacore from coming to the surface. I did have a strange encounter at one stop. I had a fish grab my fly and I strip-set the hook. I was expecting the fish to just blast off after the hookset; however, it just held its position. I even managed to reel in quite my fly line well into the sinking head without much of a reaction by the fish. I could see the silvery flash of its body straight down in the water. I was wondering if it might be something other than an albacore (exotic dreaming…). And then it got off.
We did have one decent bait stop where we had four fish on simultaneously: a troll fish, a slide fish, and two fish hooked on the stop. On a rough day, it was quite a dance to keep everyone’s line cleared as the fish had designs on flyline macramé. But with the right “unders” and “overs” we managed to foil their plans and bring all four miscreants into the boat.
We did have one “incident”. We were just returning to the troll when a line that had been cast out on the stop was swept into one of the 250hp Honda engines. Normally, the anglers and crew try to communicate that the lines are clear before resuming trolling, but mistakes were made… Nick spent at least 20 minutes hanging almost upside down of the back of a pitching boat trying initially to recover the line before the operation switched to just clearing the line from the prop shaft. It was a mess. The line actually fused to itself and all that remained after the surgery was a pile of green-colored spaghetti on the deck. @SilverFly actually hooked and landed an albacore while Nick was performing his fly line surgery.
I love the wildlife that you see so far offshore. We had flyby’s by albatross (unknown species) and sooty shearwaters. Sabine’s gulls hovered over the boat’s wake. They may have been attracted by the sight of our flies tracking through the clear water. Juvenile gulls snapped up any stray anchovies that were struggling at the surface. An 8-9” thresher shark (6ish’ body, 3ish’ tail) gave the boat an inspection; it made three passes along the stern deck before disappearing.
In spite of the challenges, we (@Bagman, @SilverFly, and @SteelHeadDave and I, with @Nick Clayton's help) put 12 albacore in the boat (and lost a half-dozen more for a variety of reasons).
[And you can see that conditions had improved by mid-afternoon.]
Finally, with a very long run in still to come, our fishing time ran out and we had to head back to the barn.
Steve
So what is it?
No offense to @Matt B but I’m camping with you guys next time.
Historically that’s what I’ve done is glommed on to them. This time it was you and then @Kfish and @Vandelay Industries got taken advantage of I mean were kind enough to tolerate me.
In spite of how I appear I’m no dummy.
The key to making this work best is to show up the day after they fished, for the second trip after their rest day, so they’re all rested and cheerful and not as smelly as usual. Plus, that’s also when they’ll already have some tuna!
In all seriousness I am grateful to people letting me use their extra spaces whether it was planned or impromptu.
SilverFly
Legend
Well, not sure who's glomming who, but let's try for next year. Hopefully no stupid burn ban like this year after the torrential downpours we had. I was looking forward to grilling oysters over camp coals.
As @SilverFly mentioned, I was standing next to him when he had a troll hit; I thought he had the drag backed off to strip line off the reel and get line out into the water. Nope! Guy - your line was going out faster than Mach-2. I didn't know a reel's drag knob could be invisible, it was. Guy had me pull line to feel the drag; it was TIGHT. We saw some brutes brought into the boat, I'm guessing Guy lost a brute.
Hat's off to @Nick Clayton and his deck hand Cal for a great outing. Silverfly, @Cabezon and @Bagman were great to be with on the boat with. I was impressed with their skills, how they were able to handle fish, the boat, and keep smiling and laughing; I think they're like little kids in a candy store!
I thought I knew what a strong and fast fish felt like. Other than a sturgeon outing, I've never, ever, not at all, felt such raw power and speed. An albcore makes any salmon or steelhead I've hooked feel less impressive than I remember. My right arm is sore from the constant pressure of a fish that just doesn't quit pulling. This isn't a question: Damn, are they fast! (And strong, and powerful).
Thanks for having a Newbie on your trip!
Oooh
Yeah, it was great hanging out, even if you make questionable dietary choices. Any time!
There are too many things to say but man, what an incredible experience. It was the second tuna trip for me and I definitely learned a few things this time around. Broke off my first fish as it was on a dive underneath the boat. Reel handle got jammed in my rain jacket sleeve and POP, off it goes. On another fish I got a lesson by @Nick Clayton as he gave me the “you see how that fish is diving in that direction? You’re need to move over here to fight it” or something like that. I basically responded “aye aye captain” and felt like a dumbass because he explained that before we even launched. It was a great lesson for me in how to fight these fish and maintain order when numerous people are hooked up.
I missed the thresher shark that supposedly was on the right side of the boat as I was fighting a fish on the left side. All I heard was “wow, it’s so big, look at it!” as I’m stressing about my tuna getting chomped in half. What made up for it was seeing a shark (I have no idea what kind) jump vertically, completely out of the water, belly facing me on the ride back in. I’m pretty sure I was the only one to see it. Probably a hundred yards away or so. That image is burned in my brain. It’s not every day you get to see something like that.
Fishing with @Cabezon, @SilverFly and @Bagman was a pleasure. Great guys and super knowledgeable. I feel lucky to have had the opportunity to get on the same boat with them. Steve is the man for putting all of these trips together. Obviously getting the chance to be on a boat with Captain Nick Clayton was an experience in itself and he clearly takes his job very seriously. Deckhand Cal was great and carks a tuna like nobody’s business.
I only regret not taking more pictures, not booking two trips, and holding my fly rod in front of Steve’s face in our group photo
I can’t wait for next year.
Bonus marina coho on a spinner the evening before the trip. I wasn’t expecting anything since I’ve never fished there before and I hardly ever gear fish. Supposedly it was the first adult fish anyone had seen in the marina this year. Lucky me
I missed the thresher shark that supposedly was on the right side of the boat as I was fighting a fish on the left side. All I heard was “wow, it’s so big, look at it!” as I’m stressing about my tuna getting chomped in half. What made up for it was seeing a shark (I have no idea what kind) jump vertically, completely out of the water, belly facing me on the ride back in. I’m pretty sure I was the only one to see it. Probably a hundred yards away or so. That image is burned in my brain. It’s not every day you get to see something like that.
Fishing with @Cabezon, @SilverFly and @Bagman was a pleasure. Great guys and super knowledgeable. I feel lucky to have had the opportunity to get on the same boat with them. Steve is the man for putting all of these trips together. Obviously getting the chance to be on a boat with Captain Nick Clayton was an experience in itself and he clearly takes his job very seriously. Deckhand Cal was great and carks a tuna like nobody’s business.
I only regret not taking more pictures, not booking two trips, and holding my fly rod in front of Steve’s face in our group photo
I can’t wait for next year.
Bonus marina coho on a spinner the evening before the trip. I wasn’t expecting anything since I’ve never fished there before and I hardly ever gear fish. Supposedly it was the first adult fish anyone had seen in the marina this year. Lucky me
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Nice work everyone! As someone who has little tolerance level for sporty seas, I can appreciate what you all went through.
I did a last minute plug-pull on my Saturday trip. Just too many things stacking up against us. After talking with a few who had similar plans as far as where to prospect, sounds like I made the right call for the most part.
Still really hoping to squeeze in one more late season trip. Long term forecast isn't cooperating though.
I did a last minute plug-pull on my Saturday trip. Just too many things stacking up against us. After talking with a few who had similar plans as far as where to prospect, sounds like I made the right call for the most part.
Still really hoping to squeeze in one more late season trip. Long term forecast isn't cooperating though.
Like you, I was lucky enough to book a trip and fish with Steve, Guy, Al, Captain Nick and Deckhand Cal. And much luckier for me, the seas were no where as mean as your day out there (they were still rough enough). That's a great picture of Cal processing one of the albies! Guy and I were in the cabin on the ride out and back in; I shot a short video of Cal cleaning fish. It wasn't until I got home and watched it last night that I realized he had an earbud in and was rockin' out.There are too many things to say but man, what an incredible experience. It was the second tuna trip for me and I definitely learned a few things this time around. Broke off my first fish as it was on a dive underneath the boat. Reel handle got jammed in my rain jacket sleeve and POP, off it goes. On another fish I got a lesson by @Nick Clayton as he gave me the “you see how that fish is diving in that direction? You’re need to move over here to fight it” or something like that. I basically responded “aye aye captain” and felt like a dumbass because he explained that before we even launched. It was a great lesson for me in how to fight these fish and maintain order when numerous people are hooked up.
I missed the thresher shark that supposedly was on the right side of the boat as I was fighting a fish on the left side. All I heard was “wow, it’s so big, look at it!” as I’m stressing about my tuna getting chomped in half. What made up for it was seeing a shark (I have no idea what kind) jump vertically, completely out of the water, belly facing me on the ride back in. I’m pretty sure I was the only one to see it. Probably a hundred yards away or so. That image is burned in my brain. It’s not every day you get to see something like that.
Fishing with @Cabezon, @SilverFly and @Bagman was a pleasure. Great guys and super knowledgeable. I feel lucky to have had the opportunity to get on the same boat with them. Steve is the man for putting all of these trips together. Obviously getting the chance to be on a boat with Captain Nick Clayton was an experience in itself and he clearly takes his job very seriously. Deckhand Cal was great and carks a tuna like nobody’s business.
I only regret not taking more pictures, not booking two trips, and holding my fly rod in front of Steve’s face in our group photo
I can’t wait for next year.
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Bonus marina coho on a spinner the evening before the trip. I wasn’t expecting anything since I’ve never fished there before and I hardly ever gear fish. Supposedly it was the first adult fish anyone had seen in the marina this year. Lucky me
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Nice coho!
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