SilverFly
Legend
Yes, I think harpoon is SOP to secure. Getting it onboard..
Tuna 2024
- Thread starter SilverFly
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One traditional method for marlin that I read about in a trip report was/is to tie the fish to the side of the boat and row for shore. Then it’s just a race between you and the sharks.
Well, then I'm prepared! I already have a harpoon on board I use for halibut. Would love to stuff it in to a bft one day. Just not one that's too big. Like @SilverFly , I find there to be a point where the fish is no longer fun when they get to a certain size and power.
Let me guess.
The report was second-hand, and for a fishing report, it was long. For a book, it was not long. For a book, it was short. It was a short book that talked about bad times, and also good times.
There were bad times that involved a boat. A boat called Pilar. That was not the good time.
This summer was a different good time. Where the horizon was blue and the birds and fish were there. Fishing for Tuna. From a different boat. Fishing the great Pacific. As far as you could get from expatriots, bullfighters and partisans. Sometimes there were sardines. The gaff hook was big and covered in blood.....
Indeed. Hemingway—good author, shame about the man.
SilverFly
Legend
Time, conditions, and some indication of possible success permitting, I'm willing to waste time and gas on wild goose chases next year. Just say'n.
I’m in, if you’ll have me. There’s a reason I bought a 17 weight rod.
SilverFly
Legend
Good to know I'm not the only one suffering from BFT fever. I'm just a boat bum myself but also in if we can find a ride.
I hear you. 11 years, 10 months, and 4 days from now I will be driving my own customized bluewater boat with whomever I can find as the other parts of the troll spread. Until then I have to ride whatever, whenever, and wherever I can.
Bluefin tuna on the fly off the Washington coast isn’t a question of if but when. I plan to spend a large part of my retirement trying.
Edit: Speling am hard
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. Been a friend for years, have the same sense of humor.
Good question. I daydream about these scenarios often.
Personally on a charter I'm not truly set up for handling something big. I've carried a harpoon in years past but after never having an excuse to use one, it eventually got eliminated from the program just because having extra junk on the boat seven days a week gets to be a nuisance.
Personally I think with a 100 lb or larger bluefin, my best bet would be sticking a gaff in it first, getting it's head, then depending on how it reacted, a tail rope. I have a feeling that trying to get a tail wrap immediately could end badly for us with no practical experience with tuna that size. I would confidently gaff fish up to a hundred pounds or so, after that it might get interesting but I still feel my best shot is a gaff and immediate head lift, but that's just my own gaffing confidence speaking, which tends to be focused on smaller fish lol
A harpoon and buoy is likely the best scenario I suppose. I don't know how a large tuna would react in that scenario but I am guessing that cleating it off to the boat isn't the best plan. It I was legitimately going to spend time targeting them I'd definitely have a harpoon on board. But considering the odds of it happening on an albacore charter, I'm ok just figuring it out if it ever happened.
A striped Marlin is the one I think of the most often. Mainly because while a bluefin would be much larger, at least it's a tuna and I have a lot of experience dealing with tuna. I have zero experience dealing with a Marlin of any size lol.
SilverFly
Legend
Yup, we need to talk. Still think there's a reasonable chance I connected with one in 2015. Probably just a toad albacore but I landed 5 that day that were pushing 30. None of those took even half the line that whatever it was I broke off. I just wrote it off as an abnormal albie until I found out somebody landed at 50-ish pound BF very close to us the same day. Not to mention other reported ass-handings, and weird stuff like being surrounded by hundreds of dolphin on the way out and back in.
I've been over this an unhealthy number of times but think there's 2 ways to do it with fly gear - even if not "proper" fly fishing.
Obviously lucking onto busting fish would be the dream scenario. Barring that: (1) Trolling something bigger waaaaaaay back. Or (2), soaking a fly deep (relatively speaking) and far from the boat on the drift (that's what happened to me in 2015). With option 2, I suspect chunking brined IQF or other chum to create a deep chum trail would be a good idea. Sharks would obviously be an issue, but this wouldn't be a typical albacore bait stop where fish would be fought to the boat. Any BFT of size on fly gear would be a chase.
Anyway, if nothing else this is fun stuff to think about over the next 9 months or so
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JayB
Life of the Party
No one asked for it, but here it is anyway: The pnwflyfishing.com Tuna 2024 Thread Summary Podcast. Interesting to listen and see which subjects & contributions/contributors our AI overlords select for special emphasis.
Tuna 2024 - The Podcast
Tuna 2024 - The Podcast
SilverFly
Legend
That was the first AI podcast I've listened to and gotta say that was downright creepy. Mostly because there were a few actual useful takeaways (be observant and adaptable).
I don't really have social media, and there are no TV shows that hold my interest, but at least a couple of times a month I watch the video on the Fly Fishing part of the Fishing TV app on the AppleTV of the French guys fly fishing for, and catching bluefin. Atlantic Ocean, and different water for sure, but I swear its possible around here. 50 years ago the idea of 200lb tarpon on a fly rod was laughed at, 30 years ago we'd have been labeled nuts for chasing albacore with bug rods, and in 12 years or less I hope to be writing something similar about bluefin tuna in the PNW. The fact that outfits like Mark's don't do it is because very few people are willing to pay for a day that might simply be a very long and uneventful drive.
I have thought about things similarly to your ideas (thought the idea of a deep chum trail I hadn't considered) and I have also been thinking about employing my "stupid-but-stupidly-effective" fly rod salmon trolling technique of clipping the butt of my leader into a downrigger and sending it deep.
Two observations: they are programmed to say “like” a whole lot, and I learned that @SilverFly is a “social media guru” who should not always be replied upon!
SilverFly
Legend
The "not to be relied upon" part falls under artificial intelligence. The "social media (or any kind of) guru" observation proves there is still artificial stupidity.
Interesting listen. Existentially horrifying, but interesting.
What I'd really like AI to do is digest all the terra (peta?) bytes of NOAA chlorophyl/sst/etc data and the catch/encounter data from bluefin fisheries around the world, and spit out trends and patterns it finds. We have the technology, and I'd pay good money to have it do that instead of making my students look like mannequins on TikTok and Snapchat.
I tried to set up a 2 day trip out or San Diego for 6 fly fisher men to hunt for blue fins with no takers. I even had Steve Able on board.
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