Tuna trip, Westport, 16 September 2025. This would be my third, and final, tuna trip of the season. The trips on Sunday had been cancelled, but the conditions had improved enough that we could head out with Chance as captain and Victor as deckhand. The other three anglers were experienced albacore anglers and it promised to be a good day. We were off the dock shortly after 6AM
and headed southwest at top speed. We passed several humpbacks on the way out. A 2.5 hours, Chance put the twin 250hp Honda engines in neutral. We had travelled 53 nautical miles and were off the Astoria Canyon west of the mouth of the Columbia River.
When we arrived, the long period swell was about 5’ but it dropped to less than 4’ by noon - pleasant.
On the other hand, the winds that had been about 5 knots when we first arrived climbed steadily to 12 knots in the afternoon.
We soon had our trolling set-up in place and began the search for hungry tuna. The two anglers in the seats against the cabin held their rods out perpendicular to the boat and with their flies placed farther behind the boat. The other two anglers held their rods over the outboards and had their lines out shorter. This arrangement keeps the trolled lines from tangling when the captain turns the boat.
We trolled for perhaps 20 minutes before I felt a tap on my fly and then @SilverFly sang out “fish on”. Chance put the boat into neutral and Victor threw out a handful to anchovies to keep the school interested. We didn’t hook up on the slide and so the three of us started making short casts while Victor kept a light rain of anchovies around the boat. Soon @Tallguy and Abigail (a friend of @adamcu280 ) reported that they had fish on too - a triple to start the day.
After a typical tenacious battle, Victor gaffed @SilverFly's albacore.
And then I felt a sharp tug as I stripped my fly in – fish on for me. When hooked while casting it doesn’t seem that the tuna makes same initial blistering run as a troll-hooked fish. Instead, they will make multiple shorter, but intense, runs. Still, I’ve had some experience with fighting albacore recently and it was soon within range of the gaff.
If I remember correctly, we picked up five fish on that stop and everyone was on the board. That was the start of a morning of near continuous action. We often had only just started back on the troll before we had another strike and the start of a bait stop.
We would either see tuna busting the surface close to the boat or we spotted Bonaparte’s gulls hovering over a tuna school. We had several doubles and triples. While other folks were having success with black and purple squid flies, I stayed with my baitfish pattern and did about as well. The other anglers spotted a tight school of small (1-2”) baitfish (probably sauries) by the side of the boat. With headstrong tuna to deal with, there was often a complex “maypole” dance going on in the stern. At one point, Abigail’s tuna and my tuna managed to wrap our fly lines together with three turns – potentially disaster. Chance was able to unravel the wraps and we landed both fish.
While we were busy fighting tuna on fly rods,
Chance, Victor, or @Tallguy were dropping jigs or bait to add to our totals.
Our longer stops attracted multiple blue sharks. They are annoying at several levels.
1) They will scarf up the anchovies that Victor throws around the boat to attract albacore (if the juvenile gulls don’t the anchovies first).
2) Twice blue sharks grabbed my fly while I was stripping the fly back after a roll cast. Their initial run can be a bit deceptive, like an albacore, but then you are just towing them back to the boat while they loll at the surface. And in both cases, I lost my fly before we could bring the shark in close enough to even attempt to retrieve the fly.
3) They definitely spook the albacore when you are trying to bring the albacore within gaff range. When a curious blue shark wanders near your tuna, the tuna will sound and you’re back trying to bring it back up from the depths.
4) And most bizarrely, they can damage hydraulic lines. At one point, @Tallguy foul-hooked a large blue shark on its pectoral fin. He brought it around to the stern and flipped it up on the swim step in the hope of recovering his fly. But the blue shark bit one of the hydraulic lines that control the engines. It wouldn’t let go its grip for quite a while. The end result is that the teeth penetrated the line and there was a minor leak of hydraulic fluid. Chance “McGyvered” a patch of c-clamps and electric tape that stemmed the flow, at least for today.
By 11:30AM, we had 22 tuna on ice below deck. And then, it went dead, dead, dead. @Tallguy landed a single “peanut” albacore, but we trolled for over two hours with no strikes.
All the while, the winds were picking up and building a messy wind chop. The 2+-hour trip back to Westport was miserable. We smashed into waves repeatedly.
While the ride back sucked (helicopter fishing in the future to avoid /shorten the ride to/from…), it was a great day with fun anglers and crew. Till next year.
Steve
and headed southwest at top speed. We passed several humpbacks on the way out. A 2.5 hours, Chance put the twin 250hp Honda engines in neutral. We had travelled 53 nautical miles and were off the Astoria Canyon west of the mouth of the Columbia River.
When we arrived, the long period swell was about 5’ but it dropped to less than 4’ by noon - pleasant.
On the other hand, the winds that had been about 5 knots when we first arrived climbed steadily to 12 knots in the afternoon.
We soon had our trolling set-up in place and began the search for hungry tuna. The two anglers in the seats against the cabin held their rods out perpendicular to the boat and with their flies placed farther behind the boat. The other two anglers held their rods over the outboards and had their lines out shorter. This arrangement keeps the trolled lines from tangling when the captain turns the boat.
We trolled for perhaps 20 minutes before I felt a tap on my fly and then @SilverFly sang out “fish on”. Chance put the boat into neutral and Victor threw out a handful to anchovies to keep the school interested. We didn’t hook up on the slide and so the three of us started making short casts while Victor kept a light rain of anchovies around the boat. Soon @Tallguy and Abigail (a friend of @adamcu280 ) reported that they had fish on too - a triple to start the day.
After a typical tenacious battle, Victor gaffed @SilverFly's albacore.
And then I felt a sharp tug as I stripped my fly in – fish on for me. When hooked while casting it doesn’t seem that the tuna makes same initial blistering run as a troll-hooked fish. Instead, they will make multiple shorter, but intense, runs. Still, I’ve had some experience with fighting albacore recently and it was soon within range of the gaff.
If I remember correctly, we picked up five fish on that stop and everyone was on the board. That was the start of a morning of near continuous action. We often had only just started back on the troll before we had another strike and the start of a bait stop.
We would either see tuna busting the surface close to the boat or we spotted Bonaparte’s gulls hovering over a tuna school. We had several doubles and triples. While other folks were having success with black and purple squid flies, I stayed with my baitfish pattern and did about as well. The other anglers spotted a tight school of small (1-2”) baitfish (probably sauries) by the side of the boat. With headstrong tuna to deal with, there was often a complex “maypole” dance going on in the stern. At one point, Abigail’s tuna and my tuna managed to wrap our fly lines together with three turns – potentially disaster. Chance was able to unravel the wraps and we landed both fish.
While we were busy fighting tuna on fly rods,
Chance, Victor, or @Tallguy were dropping jigs or bait to add to our totals.
Our longer stops attracted multiple blue sharks. They are annoying at several levels.
1) They will scarf up the anchovies that Victor throws around the boat to attract albacore (if the juvenile gulls don’t the anchovies first).
2) Twice blue sharks grabbed my fly while I was stripping the fly back after a roll cast. Their initial run can be a bit deceptive, like an albacore, but then you are just towing them back to the boat while they loll at the surface. And in both cases, I lost my fly before we could bring the shark in close enough to even attempt to retrieve the fly.
3) They definitely spook the albacore when you are trying to bring the albacore within gaff range. When a curious blue shark wanders near your tuna, the tuna will sound and you’re back trying to bring it back up from the depths.
4) And most bizarrely, they can damage hydraulic lines. At one point, @Tallguy foul-hooked a large blue shark on its pectoral fin. He brought it around to the stern and flipped it up on the swim step in the hope of recovering his fly. But the blue shark bit one of the hydraulic lines that control the engines. It wouldn’t let go its grip for quite a while. The end result is that the teeth penetrated the line and there was a minor leak of hydraulic fluid. Chance “McGyvered” a patch of c-clamps and electric tape that stemmed the flow, at least for today.
By 11:30AM, we had 22 tuna on ice below deck. And then, it went dead, dead, dead. @Tallguy landed a single “peanut” albacore, but we trolled for over two hours with no strikes.
All the while, the winds were picking up and building a messy wind chop. The 2+-hour trip back to Westport was miserable. We smashed into waves repeatedly.
While the ride back sucked (helicopter fishing in the future to avoid /shorten the ride to/from…), it was a great day with fun anglers and crew. Till next year.
Steve
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