Tuna Skunking

Tinman · 08-25-2001, 07:22 PM

Trolled for tuna 20 miles directly west of Tillamook around the 100 fathom line. Though the water out there was 61.8, I had no strikes. Trolled Zuker tuna feathers and diving Rapalas. There was plenty of life out there -- birds, ocean sunfish, seals and sharks. Anybody have any luck with Tuna out of Tillamook?

Gregotis98 · 08-25-2001, 08:16 PM

That was going to be my plan for Sun. but it doesn't sound like I should expect much. I plan on chinook fishing also, so I'm wondering if you tried for the pink meat also? I've been watching the sea surface temp. on the web and it's just amazing how much it changes even from hour to hour, and from what your temp report said the therm. images appear to be right on. I've never caught albacore before but would love to, I'm willing to go out about twenty to twenty five miles and from your report I might be wasting my time. Also have you ever caught a blue shark on purpose just for fun,because I wouldn't mind fighting something that's different for a change of pace. P.S. how was the ocean?

Tinman · 08-30-2001, 10:25 AM

The ocean conditions were pretty good, a four foot swell plus a moderate wind chop. The wind never got above 10 knots or so. It wasn't glassy, but it wasn't bad or scary either.

Blue sharks? They fight poorly for their size. Other shark species fight much better. Keep a 10 foot single-strand wire leader aboard, and be ready to toss a bait to any shark you spot offshore.

Regarding the water temp charts, I agree, they seem to be right on

Threemuch · 08-30-2001, 10:47 AM

Blue sharks have a tendency to roll on the line and get all tangled up. They are easy to target. Head out to blue water and if you chum for an hour or so with bits of chopped tuna carcasses or salmon carcasses, the sharks will come. Then you can flyline chunks to hook up. Blue sharks are beautiful animals, but pretty much a nuisance fish.

Occasionally you will hook up Thresher sharks trolling for albies with plugs, like a CD 18 Rapala, or marauders and these fight great, and make great table fare too. The biggest we have ever managed to land was only 4' body, so 8' overall, about 60 pounds. They get to be much much bigger than that. Like 10 times that size, although 200 pounds is about the biggest I have heard of landed.

Tinman · 08-30-2001, 03:58 PM

Pilar:

The water was a decent blue, but certainly not the classic cobalt blue that I was hoping for. I'm running a 16 foot skiff (Bayrunner), so I can never get out as far as I want. Even 20 miles is a stretch.

I did not spot any tuna boils or bird works, though there were plenty of single birds prowling around. I trolled through some loose congregations of birds, but to no avail. I also made it a point to troll past the few planks and kelp fronds I found out there. Surprisingly, I found no current breaks at all, even though the water temperature jumped sharply a half a degree in several places.

Trolling speed averaged 7 nautical miles per hour, though I varied between 5 and 10. During the course of the day I trolled Zuker tuna feathers in black/green, red/white, and blue/white. I also tried Bonito feathers (also known as Japanese feathers...chrome head, red glass eyes, fixed hook) in pure wihte and green/yellow. Some lures were trolled 50 feet back, and some up to 150 feet back. I fiddled with trolling speed and distance all day.

I tried trolling deeper for a while with 5 inch Mag Rapalas and similar lures made by Yo-Zuri in blue mackeral and green mackeral patterns. These I trolled over 200 feet back, which from previous experience means they were working about 40 feet deep.

For the sake of keeping track of my wherabouts, I trolled 270 degrees most of the day with few turns except to check out birds. That made it easy to remember 090 as my return course. GPS is great but I still like to keep a mental DR track.

Pilar, If I were in a bigger boat, I would have run farther offshore looking for better water. On the other hand, I've whacked a few tuna in close in years past, and a couple of tuna on a 16 foot open skiff makes for a very good day. I hope to upgrade to larger hull soon. Email me anytime.

Pilar · 08-30-2001, 11:55 PM

Tinman, that's why they call it fishing not catching. Some questions for you.

What color was the water?

Did you spot any Tuna jumping or thrashing on the surface?

How fast were you trolling?

What color and how many jigs did you drag?

Do you turn alot when you troll?

A lot of questions, just trying to learn something. We picked up only a few fish 25 miles west of Depoe last Sunday. The hot bite happened when we got about 1/2 mile from the commercial trollers 35 miles out.

Good report, thanks.