SilverFly
Legend
Nick says he's convinced the fly doesn't matter. I'm starting to believe. Casting next to him on the bow, watching him hook 3X as many fish, I'm convinced he could cast a cigarette butt and still catch tuna.
Tuna 2024
- Thread starter SilverFly
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Nick says he's convinced the fly doesn't matter. I'm starting to believe. Casting next to him on the bow, watching him hook 3X as many fish, I'm convinced he could cast a cigarette butt and still catch tuna.
he seems to be a fishy fella....
Here you go @Evan BWaiting on @Tuna Ball to show how it's REALLY done
Last night we had some surf and surf and surf and turf thanks to Saturday's bounty. BFT poke, Jack mackerel grilled (surprisingly good and not fishy for those who haven't tried them), Coho baked and venison grilled. Threw in som Mac n cheese to redneck it up a little. The venison wasn't done before I couldn't take it any longer and dove in.
Chopsticks and a steak knife.
BFT = bluefin tuna? Damn. Bet that is good.Last night we had some surf and surf and surf and turf thanks to Saturday's bounty. BFT poke, Jack mackerel grilled (surprisingly good and not fishy for those who haven't tried them), Coho baked and venison grilled. Threw in som Mac n cheese to redneck it up a little. The venison wasn't done before I couldn't take it any longer and dove in.
Chopsticks and a steak knife.
I heard Gordy got a little BFT the other day.
I don't think this thread has been informed of you and the crew's surprise catch SaturdayHere you go @Evan B
Last night we had some surf and surf and surf and turf thanks to Saturday's bounty. BFT poke, Jack mackerel grilled (surprisingly good and not fishy for those who haven't tried them), Coho baked and venison grilled. Threw in som Mac n cheese to redneck it up a little. The venison wasn't done before I couldn't take it any longer and dove in.
Chopsticks and a steak knife.
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View attachment 127125
I haven't gotten any jack macks this year yet. Hoping I get one more trip out so I can survey some tide rips. Those things are so, so good on the grill.
I don't think this thread has been informed of you and the crew's surprise catch Saturday
I haven't gotten any jack macks this year yet. Hoping I get one more trip out so I can survey some tide rips. Those things are so, so good on the grill.
Late report 9/14:
Ran out of Garibaldi with no recent reports after the blow. Headed NW to some traditionally productive water. Scratch fishing only hitting the way back cedar plug rod, could not convert to iron. Had an extremely rare event for me, with no tuna hooked on iron. Landed 8 tuna but one was a respectable sized bluefin. Weight after gutted was over 15lbs. That was the highlight followed closely behind by our run in after salmon.
We ran back towards the twins and saw no life in 280'. Kept running in and stopped on rips at 180'. Saw meter marks and bait. Dropped some iron expecting salmon but had a great bite from mackerel. I find it odd that the Pacific and jack mackerel always seem to school together when we find them. Sorry, I didn't take any pics to show the difference. We kept some jack macs and threw back most of the pacifics. One was diced to fill out spinfish which worked fantastic. We found a pile, like thousands of birds inside and ran to deploy our salmon gear. Made a quick limit of coho in about 30mins. Here we were running in through the birds. No wonder there were not that many offshore, they were ALL here.
Great day providing a wonderful bounty.
Yeah it's so strange the Jacks and Pacific Mackerel school together. Like we've said ad nauseum on here before, the Jacks aren't actually mackerel, so they're not even "related" fish. They're just roughly the same size and like the same food.Late report 9/14:
Ran out of Garibaldi with no recent reports after the blow. Headed NW to some traditionally productive water. Scratch fishing only hitting the way back cedar plug rod, could not convert to iron. Had an extremely rare event for me, with no tuna hooked on iron. Landed 8 tuna but one was a respectable sized bluefin. Weight after gutted was over 15lbs. That was the highlight followed closely behind by our run in after salmon.
We ran back towards the twins and saw no life in 280'. Kept running in and stopped on rips at 180'. Saw meter marks and bait. Dropped some iron expecting salmon but had a great bite from mackerel. I find it odd that the Pacific and jack mackerel always seem to school together when we find them. Sorry, I didn't take any pics to show the difference. We kept some jack macs and threw back most of the pacifics. One was diced to fill out spinfish which worked fantastic. We found a pile, like thousands of birds inside and ran to deploy our salmon gear. Made a quick limit of coho in about 30mins. Here we were running in through the birds. No wonder there were not that many offshore, they were ALL here.
Great day providing a wonderful bounty.
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Based on the data we've gathered the last couple years on them, I feel like I have a feel for how to prospect for them a bit without them breaking the surface to give themselves away. Hopefully we can turn that in to something we can get more regularly.
Westport Tuna, Saturday, September 14th. What a difference two days makes. @Bagman, @SilverFly, @SteelHeadDave, and I had gone out on Thursday under very challenging conditions. And now @Bagman, @SilverFly, and I were at it again, with @Buzzy substituting for @SteelHeadDave. But today was a Saturday with a reasonable offshore weather forecast. We would have lots of company offshore. I felt the increased energy in the parking lot when I arrived just after 5AM for our 6AM departure. On Thursday, I managed a nice catnap in my truck before my alarm went off at 5:30AM to dress and haul my stuff to the dock. But at 5AM, the parking lot at Westport was already busy and noisy. Any hopes of a quick catnap evaporated.
That anticipatory energy was even greater in the harbor. Our team of intrepid anglers met up at the top of the walkway to the dock. It was great to meet @Buzzy for the first time.
When we pushed off from the dock shortly after 6AM, there were already several other sport charters milling around waiting for their turn to pick up live anchovies. @Nick Clayton and Cal had anticipated this bottleneck and had pre-loaded the live bait before we arrived. As we motored along the breakwater, we passed several other recreational boats heading offshore too. The only boat faster than us was the 42’ All Rivers boat Integrity with its triple 250hp Honda engines. From my outside seat, I could see other fast boats radiating offshore both north and south of us.
The data from the Westport Outer weather buoy indicated that the offshore winds had dropped substantially into the 2-6mph range overnight.
As a result, the wave heights had dropped as well into the 3’ range.
Once clear of the danger of encountering crab pots, Nick put the hammer down to blast west.
From my position on the starboard outside stern seat (with my buddy @Bagman on the port stern seat per usual), it seemed that we were flying, perhaps just under flat out, into the income swell. Still, the ride out was much more comfortable and much drier than Thursday. But it still took forever. After hours of motoring, we zipped past the Westport Outer weather buoy. Two boats were trolling here; they must have departed even earlier than we did. As you can see from the temperature profile above, the surface waters here were in the right temperature profile for albacore (or yellowtail…).
But we continued further west. We passed the Integrity as they started their slow troll in a heavy rain squall and motored even farther west past the rain.
We were 50 miles west of Westport when Nick dropped down to troll speed and we set out our lines.
With four anglers, the two anglers sitting in the seats against the cabin fish off to the side of the boat (@Bagman and I to start). These outside lines should be extended almost the full length of the fly line. The other two anglers (@Buzzy and @SilverFly to start) lean against the bait tank. Their lines exit the boat over the outboards. These lines are kept shorter than the outside lines. This arrangement keeps the lines from tangling when Nick turns the boat while on the troll.
We started the morning troll with everyone bundled up on this cloudy, cool morning. [Contrast this with the group photo at the end of the day.].
The winds were higher this far offshore than they had been in Westport and the seas messier with waves building. I was having flashbacks to Thursday… Fortunately, the wind speeds and wave heights dropped by the late morning, the sun came out, and overall conditions improved dramatically.
I typically favor tube flies for albacore, especially the Shock-and-Awe, but I had lost several of the dark-backed color versions I prefer to albacore / blue sharks on my September 3rd trip.
Before this trip, I made a stop to Puget Sound Fly Shop to restock, but I had to settle for some light gray-topped Shock-and-Awes. When it was time to select a fly to fish for Thursday, I reviewed the too many flies that I have available before selecting a fly with a fish skull baitfish head. @Doublebluff had gifted me a selection of flies to share with other albacore anglers. Many thanks.
This style of fly has been VERY effective for other albacore anglers in previous years and I thought that I would give it a try. Thursday’s conditions were not a fair test of its effectiveness; it did as well as any other pattern under the conditions. So, I kept with the same fly on Saturday. Well, it proved itself and more, especially on the troll (less so while cast at a stop). If I remember correctly, I picked up the first three troll fish on that fly.
@Bagman was soon on the board as well.
While @SilverFly ’s offerings might not have been the hot fly on the troll this day, he more than made up for it with hookups at stops whether casting from the stern or the bow.
And with his 14-weight rod, he was able to put the hammer to these powerful fish during the fight and bring them into gaffing range much faster than we could with our 12 wts.
Finally, it was @Buzzy ’s turn to feel the raw power of that initial run of a tuna on the troll. He was having a ball trying to figure out how to tame this beast. There really is no quit in an albacore tuna. You think that you have control as you finally have started to reel your sinking tip onto your reel. But then the fish makes another burst (keep your knuckles clear of the reel handle!!!) as the fish pulls off most of your fly line back off the reel. Back to square one. At this point, the fish decides that it prefers the other side of the boat. You have to follow it around the twin outboards with the other anglers making room and doing “over” or “unders” with their own fly lines / rods as appropriate to keep out of your way. After a battle, @Buzzy was able to bring his fish into gaff range
and Cal lifted the fish into the boat. @Buzzy ’s first albacore deserved a hero shot and a close-up.
With everyone on the board, we settled into the task of repeating the process. When it is quiet, the troll can be zen-like with the deep thrum of the outboards as the dominant sound and everyone focused on that electric jolt of a troll strike.
The fishing wasn’t red hot, but it was consistent. We plowed the ocean on the troll, spiced by Nick’s turns to run with the swell, across the swell, and into the swell. The chaos would begin when someone hooked up a fish on the troll. We might have another strike on the “slide”. While one or more anglers were battling albacore that had now run far away from the boat, the other anglers would cast their flies however they could off the stern or off the bow for the more sure-footed. The likelihood of hooking an albacore on a stop dropped off dramatically the longer we were stopped. Often Nick could see fish on the electronics or we could glimpse fish far under the boat. If Cal threw out a crippled anchovy, an albacore would slam the fish at the surface, but after their initial excitement, the albacore just ignored flies while still striking bait. They would even get cautious attacking anchovies; several times we watch an albacore would rush up to inhale a surface anchovy but then abort the attack. Typically, another fish with lower standards would finish the job (or a juvenile gull if it was in the vicinity). Once any hooked fish were brought on board,
we would resume the troll. Sometimes, we would not have trolled very long before the action of the flies elicited a strike and the circus would start again.
Other wildlife sightings. We had a substantial blue shark investigate the boat at one stop, but it did not stick around. At another stop, a 3’ish mola mola lolling around at the surface perhaps 15-20’ off the side and slightly behind the boat.
We had good views of the typical offshore birds, such as shearwaters, storm petrels, Sabine’s gulls, juveniles of a larger gull, and even an albatross or two.
Eventually, the clock ran down and it was time to head the 50ish miles back east. But not without the mandatory shot of a team of happy flyfishers.
And some of the 23 tuna that had been landed by the boat.
As we powered our way home, Cal, assisted by @Bagman and myself, carked each fish into loins and a belly section.
I videotaped Cal in action and he took a little over one minute to go from whole fish to processed carcass – very impressive.
The trip back to Westport was long but pretty uneventful. A few times the boat powered over a swell and surfed down its face to smash into the next swell – throwing spray over the cabin and jolting the boat. But the ride home is always smoother than the ride out. Another great trip to end my tuna season.
Steve
Postscript: This was my 4th tuna trip in less than a month. In January, I had booked that many trips anticipating that several days would be scrubbed by poor weather. But the weather has mostly been amenable this summer. And the fishing has been quite good many days. Friends, family, and colleagues have been gifted with loins and bellies. My freezers and fridge are overflowing with vacuum-packed tuna loins and bellies. On Sunday as my wife and I trimmed the loins and bellies from Saturday and vacuum-packed them, she suggested that I cut down to three days next summer… We’ll see. Maybe we just need a bigger freezer.
That anticipatory energy was even greater in the harbor. Our team of intrepid anglers met up at the top of the walkway to the dock. It was great to meet @Buzzy for the first time.
When we pushed off from the dock shortly after 6AM, there were already several other sport charters milling around waiting for their turn to pick up live anchovies. @Nick Clayton and Cal had anticipated this bottleneck and had pre-loaded the live bait before we arrived. As we motored along the breakwater, we passed several other recreational boats heading offshore too. The only boat faster than us was the 42’ All Rivers boat Integrity with its triple 250hp Honda engines. From my outside seat, I could see other fast boats radiating offshore both north and south of us.
The data from the Westport Outer weather buoy indicated that the offshore winds had dropped substantially into the 2-6mph range overnight.
As a result, the wave heights had dropped as well into the 3’ range.
Once clear of the danger of encountering crab pots, Nick put the hammer down to blast west.
From my position on the starboard outside stern seat (with my buddy @Bagman on the port stern seat per usual), it seemed that we were flying, perhaps just under flat out, into the income swell. Still, the ride out was much more comfortable and much drier than Thursday. But it still took forever. After hours of motoring, we zipped past the Westport Outer weather buoy. Two boats were trolling here; they must have departed even earlier than we did. As you can see from the temperature profile above, the surface waters here were in the right temperature profile for albacore (or yellowtail…).
But we continued further west. We passed the Integrity as they started their slow troll in a heavy rain squall and motored even farther west past the rain.
We were 50 miles west of Westport when Nick dropped down to troll speed and we set out our lines.
With four anglers, the two anglers sitting in the seats against the cabin fish off to the side of the boat (@Bagman and I to start). These outside lines should be extended almost the full length of the fly line. The other two anglers (@Buzzy and @SilverFly to start) lean against the bait tank. Their lines exit the boat over the outboards. These lines are kept shorter than the outside lines. This arrangement keeps the lines from tangling when Nick turns the boat while on the troll.
We started the morning troll with everyone bundled up on this cloudy, cool morning. [Contrast this with the group photo at the end of the day.].
The winds were higher this far offshore than they had been in Westport and the seas messier with waves building. I was having flashbacks to Thursday… Fortunately, the wind speeds and wave heights dropped by the late morning, the sun came out, and overall conditions improved dramatically.
I typically favor tube flies for albacore, especially the Shock-and-Awe, but I had lost several of the dark-backed color versions I prefer to albacore / blue sharks on my September 3rd trip.
Before this trip, I made a stop to Puget Sound Fly Shop to restock, but I had to settle for some light gray-topped Shock-and-Awes. When it was time to select a fly to fish for Thursday, I reviewed the too many flies that I have available before selecting a fly with a fish skull baitfish head. @Doublebluff had gifted me a selection of flies to share with other albacore anglers. Many thanks.
This style of fly has been VERY effective for other albacore anglers in previous years and I thought that I would give it a try. Thursday’s conditions were not a fair test of its effectiveness; it did as well as any other pattern under the conditions. So, I kept with the same fly on Saturday. Well, it proved itself and more, especially on the troll (less so while cast at a stop). If I remember correctly, I picked up the first three troll fish on that fly.
@Bagman was soon on the board as well.
While @SilverFly ’s offerings might not have been the hot fly on the troll this day, he more than made up for it with hookups at stops whether casting from the stern or the bow.
And with his 14-weight rod, he was able to put the hammer to these powerful fish during the fight and bring them into gaffing range much faster than we could with our 12 wts.
Finally, it was @Buzzy ’s turn to feel the raw power of that initial run of a tuna on the troll. He was having a ball trying to figure out how to tame this beast. There really is no quit in an albacore tuna. You think that you have control as you finally have started to reel your sinking tip onto your reel. But then the fish makes another burst (keep your knuckles clear of the reel handle!!!) as the fish pulls off most of your fly line back off the reel. Back to square one. At this point, the fish decides that it prefers the other side of the boat. You have to follow it around the twin outboards with the other anglers making room and doing “over” or “unders” with their own fly lines / rods as appropriate to keep out of your way. After a battle, @Buzzy was able to bring his fish into gaff range
and Cal lifted the fish into the boat. @Buzzy ’s first albacore deserved a hero shot and a close-up.
With everyone on the board, we settled into the task of repeating the process. When it is quiet, the troll can be zen-like with the deep thrum of the outboards as the dominant sound and everyone focused on that electric jolt of a troll strike.The fishing wasn’t red hot, but it was consistent. We plowed the ocean on the troll, spiced by Nick’s turns to run with the swell, across the swell, and into the swell. The chaos would begin when someone hooked up a fish on the troll. We might have another strike on the “slide”. While one or more anglers were battling albacore that had now run far away from the boat, the other anglers would cast their flies however they could off the stern or off the bow for the more sure-footed. The likelihood of hooking an albacore on a stop dropped off dramatically the longer we were stopped. Often Nick could see fish on the electronics or we could glimpse fish far under the boat. If Cal threw out a crippled anchovy, an albacore would slam the fish at the surface, but after their initial excitement, the albacore just ignored flies while still striking bait. They would even get cautious attacking anchovies; several times we watch an albacore would rush up to inhale a surface anchovy but then abort the attack. Typically, another fish with lower standards would finish the job (or a juvenile gull if it was in the vicinity). Once any hooked fish were brought on board,
we would resume the troll. Sometimes, we would not have trolled very long before the action of the flies elicited a strike and the circus would start again.
Other wildlife sightings. We had a substantial blue shark investigate the boat at one stop, but it did not stick around. At another stop, a 3’ish mola mola lolling around at the surface perhaps 15-20’ off the side and slightly behind the boat.
We had good views of the typical offshore birds, such as shearwaters, storm petrels, Sabine’s gulls, juveniles of a larger gull, and even an albatross or two.
Eventually, the clock ran down and it was time to head the 50ish miles back east. But not without the mandatory shot of a team of happy flyfishers.
And some of the 23 tuna that had been landed by the boat.
As we powered our way home, Cal, assisted by @Bagman and myself, carked each fish into loins and a belly section.
I videotaped Cal in action and he took a little over one minute to go from whole fish to processed carcass – very impressive.The trip back to Westport was long but pretty uneventful. A few times the boat powered over a swell and surfed down its face to smash into the next swell – throwing spray over the cabin and jolting the boat. But the ride home is always smoother than the ride out. Another great trip to end my tuna season.
Steve
Postscript: This was my 4th tuna trip in less than a month. In January, I had booked that many trips anticipating that several days would be scrubbed by poor weather. But the weather has mostly been amenable this summer. And the fishing has been quite good many days. Friends, family, and colleagues have been gifted with loins and bellies. My freezers and fridge are overflowing with vacuum-packed tuna loins and bellies. On Sunday as my wife and I trimmed the loins and bellies from Saturday and vacuum-packed them, she suggested that I cut down to three days next summer… We’ll see. Maybe we just need a bigger freezer.
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mr.badexample
Smolt
you are my very best friend....
SilverFly
Legend
How far back were you running the cedar? Inquiring minds want to know!Late report 9/14:
Ran out of Garibaldi with no recent reports after the blow. Headed NW to some traditionally productive water. Scratch fishing only hitting the way back cedar plug rod, could not convert to iron. Had an extremely rare event for me, with no tuna hooked on iron. Landed 8 tuna but one was a respectable sized bluefin. Weight after gutted was over 15lbs. That was the highlight followed closely behind by our run in after salmon.
We ran back towards the twins and saw no life in 280'. Kept running in and stopped on rips at 180'. Saw meter marks and bait. Dropped some iron expecting salmon but had a great bite from mackerel. I find it odd that the Pacific and jack mackerel always seem to school together when we find them. Sorry, I didn't take any pics to show the difference. We kept some jack macs and threw back most of the pacifics. One was diced to fill out spinfish which worked fantastic. We found a pile, like thousands of birds inside and ran to deploy our salmon gear. Made a quick limit of coho in about 30mins. Here we were running in through the birds. No wonder there were not that many offshore, they were ALL here.
Great day providing a wonderful bounty.
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SilverFly
Legend
I'll be honest, the thought did cross my mind. Don't get me wrong, albacore on live bait is insanely fun, but I'm too far down the FF rabbit hole now to cave in a situation like that. Anyway, a convincing floater anchovy pattern sounds like a fun winter tying project. I'll need to add whatever that silicone skin material gummy minnows are "tied" with to my next online order.
SilverFly
Legend
It was great to finally meet Pat and see him get a proper introduction to this incredible fishery. Pretty sure he's hooked for next year.
At least 200', maybe more.
[This is a work on progress, but I thought I might try to share some video from Saturday's tuna trip. Not to be confused with the BBC's Natural History Unit or National Geographic - more like family videos... ]
While on a stop, Nick's deckhand, Cal, will throw out anchovies to keep the school of albacore focused on the boat. At one stop, the fish were not interested in hitting flies but they would still strike anchovies at the surface, often quite close to the boat. I took some video of this from the surface with my TG5
Albacore hitting anchovies at the surface
and from underwater with my GoPro.
Albacore striking anchovies from underwater
Later, I took a video of Cal converting an albacore into a belly and 4 loins in smidge over a minute.
Cal "carking" an albacore on the dash back to Westport
Steve
While on a stop, Nick's deckhand, Cal, will throw out anchovies to keep the school of albacore focused on the boat. At one stop, the fish were not interested in hitting flies but they would still strike anchovies at the surface, often quite close to the boat. I took some video of this from the surface with my TG5
Albacore hitting anchovies at the surface
and from underwater with my GoPro.
Albacore striking anchovies from underwater
Later, I took a video of Cal converting an albacore into a belly and 4 loins in smidge over a minute.
Cal "carking" an albacore on the dash back to Westport
Steve
What a treat these videos are! Thanks for sharing these, Steve!
Maybe. Some of those crippled or dead anchovies in Cabezon's video look a whole lot like a crease fly. Which people must have tried? But Cap'n Nick strives for a perfectly sliding slider, even though I'm not quite sure what the exact motion he's looking for is.
From Steve's underwater video, that situation makes me wonder about a jigged pattern (although finding the right hook for a true jig might be tough) fished under an indicator. Think about it, it's a couple feet below the surface just sitting there, you can twitch it and keep it in the zone nearly indefinitely. Maybe even twitched into place right next to a piece of real bait, just sittin' there all nom-nom-nommy.
With the right hook a spawn head could be used for a balanced jig.
This man’s inching right up to proposing indicator fishing for tuna. Mods, you gotta ban him before the madness spreads.
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