Astoria Canyon?

[olybirds]

I was just surfing my charts and came across the Astoria Canyon thats about 20 miles out in front of the big C. Is shows depths to about 2000 feet. Is this generally where the temperature break is out there to find tuna? I would think that this would be a pretty good starting point.

Oh, Im a albacore virgin, so any Info would be great

[Something Good]

That would be nice but they are usually out a little further. Seemed like about 40 miles was the norm last year.

[CATCH AND EAT]

Last yeat we found the fish usually at 124.45 X 46.12 as a general rule. But really we found fish all over the place last year and in temps as cool as 56.5 degree water which we got some to go on livebait. Don't overrun them that is for sure. If you see them set your gear and give them a try.

Hope that helps a little. See ya out there this summer.

[Pilar]

I remember from my experiences last fall on CR that anywhere the water dropped off beyond 100 fathoms on the canyon walls could hold fish. We saw jumpers at several locations like this. Also a temp break and color change was visible at these locations.

Two posts from last fall. Here's a link to the first.

http://www.ifish.net/board/showthrea...highlight=oink

and a highlight from the other.

The water slowly warmed as we went west and the blue water line was at about W124 42 by N46 06. About 10:30 or so we got to the spot just to the west of the line and started fishing at 57 degrees near some killer whales and major bird activity and 'Triumph' reported jumpers and fish on at W124 55 by N46 02 which was our initial destination. They were some 8 NM west and south of us. We prowled the killer whale area and got no action and continued west. The area was loaded with kelp but we saw no jumpers. Before moving on the main engine died again and we had to work on the problem for a second time.

The bait tank full of water and anchovies made lifting the hatch too hard so the guys pumped it down and stacked it on buckets to access the hatch. We stopped and reset the breaker and I realized what our real problem was. The deep cycle battery had been run down too far over night and was pulling too high a current. This when combined with Radar, radios and everything else exceeded the rating on the breaker and tripped it. We shifted over to the #1 starting battery and continued on. The #2 was charged by the kicker whenever we ran it and eventually got to about 30% by the end of the day. But we stopped trying to charge the totally dead deep cycle battery with the alternator on the main engine. It is clear to me that live bait kept over night will require a generator, shore power or a temporary battery used just for this purpose.

We finally saw some jumpers and tried to get one on several times. Trolling fishtraps, casting into the boils, stopping with live bait .. nothing seemed to work. Every time, even with all electronics shut-off and a quiet approach, the fish would go down and away when we got anywhere near them. Other boats like 'San Anita' and 'Triumph' were getting a few.

At about 13:15 we found a boil and finally hooked a fish on live bait. This turned into a three hour melee and we pulled 20 nice fat Albacore and expended our bait. Several fish were hooked on iron and a couple on fishtraps. This is what we had come for. Non-stop action with light tackle and big fish. Triple and even quad on. 30 minute battles and dancing unwinding the circling fish and tangling crossed lines, laughing the whole time. Most of the fish were pushing 25 to 30 pounds. Weighting the bait and going deep seemed to produce. We used the twist on sinkers in 1 and 1-1/4 ounce. When those ran out we also used egg type sliding sinkers. The bait was sent down 50 to 100 feet. And some were caught on free swimmers right at the boat. Dead baits caught sharks and live ones caught TUNA!.

Live bait TUNA! is pretty fun stuff

[Zodiac-Fisherman]

Originally Posted by Pilar

Live bait TUNA! is pretty fun stuff

Livebait for Tuna Rocks, especially using other tuner's as bait