Tun~a~lert UPDATE

Mr. Fisherman · 07-07-2002, 08:33 PM

Well my good buddy Pilar and his mate struck Pacific Gold!

26 miles due West of Depoe Bay the rods and hand lines started singing a tune the reverence of which no great composer could capture. BAM, ZZingggg fish on! Up to 5 lines at a time :shocked: kept the dynamic duo [img]graemlins/hearton.gif[/img] busy as a Chinese fire drill. "Pass the gaff,” he said with a laugh as the next victim anointed Johnboy with fresh hair gel :tongue: .

If your mate isn't worth his/her weight in tuna leave them on the dock cause there isn't enough room for fish little on dead weight. An extra passenger could cost you portage for 8 to 10 fish

. Can you imagine having to stop fishing because there is no room on the boat for another fish? Well don't just imagine it, GET OUT THERE!

Pilar only burned about 30 gallons of fuel on a beautiful ocean covering about 100 miles total. Remember, your results WILL vary. Know your boats limits before you go.

Purple/Black and green were the hot jig colors, as the weather was clear to cloudy throughout the day. The water temp was 64 degrees F at 7 miles out. Pilar took 36 fish and Puffin scored 25. They were full of Candlefish. The big fish was estimated to be 33# and the peanut was about 4# with the average guessed to be 20#.

61 fish for 2 boats. The work has begun and carc-o-matic shall commence. Pilar's mate is BBQ'n fish and handing it out to whoever will come by. I wish I was there with Tuna gel in my hair and a sore hand from filletin', till then I 'll just grin and know that "Next" is what I am saying... Me that is, when do we leave?

Marty · 07-08-2002, 07:50 AM

Right ON!!!!!!!

I heard from a commercial boat that the fish had moved in closer and that it was a good bite for larger than average fish (for this time of year). Great report with all info needed. I have another friend that went out today and if he doesn't post a report I will. Sounds like the weather is coming up a bit for the next 3 or 4 days, but maybe clearing a little for next weekend. Way to lead the charge!!!!

Marty

Threemuch · 07-08-2002, 07:52 AM

Awesome. You guys rock.

BUGLEMAN · 07-08-2002, 10:48 AM

Kurt.......How is that boat? :smile: ????????????

RJ · 07-08-2002, 01:46 PM

umm Wak ,MR.F's post...it's killin me...we need to get busy

RJ

OceanBlue · 07-08-2002, 06:03 PM

Whew! Sore, tired, battle-scarred, but OH-SO-HAPPY! What a day yesterday on Big Blue was!

With just a few hours of sleep before the big trip, we headed out of Depoe at around 5:30am, fighting the hundreds of coho fishers for our spot in line at the ramp. After crossing the bar (what bar?) we hit the flat, beautiful ocean. The skyscape was awesome with layers of different clouds. The ocean, at times, was a texture I've never experienced... like liquid silver or highly polished magnitite. It literally brought tears to my eyes. About 15 miles out, the water temp was about 60 and we got into a pod of porpoise heading east. What a sight! Hundreds of them bounding across the water. I was driving while John rigged lines. A porpoise decided to play co-pilot and stayed alongside the boat for quite awhile, passing under the boat and jumping right next to me often. I am almost certain they heard my delight back on shore.

It wasn't long after we left the porpoise that we saw the tuna jumping all around us. We threw lines out, but nothing happened right away. We soon got into a flock of working birds and got hit. All 5 lines going down at once. What a kick! It was all we could do to yard them in fast enough and get the lines back in the water. As the day went on, we had fewer strikes all at once, many times just one line at a time, but the fishing was fast and furious much of the time.

We took a break to eat lunch, untangle gear and wait for the "Puffin" to catch up to our score. There were a few sharks about. The water temp was definitely high... The air temp was about right to make the water feel like we wanted to take a dip. What an awesome trip!

After re-adjusting our "balast" and taking a quick count we decided that 36 was about all we could handle on the "Pilar"... she was sitting mighty low in the water, but a happier boat you've never seen.

It seems the whole town of Depoe Bay showed up to watch the carcing of the fish as word got out. What a delight to watch the faces of onlookers as we unloaded fish after fish from the boat at the cleaning station.... But wait! There's more! It seemed the fish never stopped coming out of boxes and coolers.

One of the very best parts for me was BBQ'ing some fresh tuna and sharing it with some visitors. A man and his 8-year-old daughter stopped to chat with us. The little girl could not get enough of that fresh-caught fresh-cooked fish. The grin on her face when her dad asked her if she wanted to go tuna fishing someday was priceless!

Thanks for posting for us Mr. Fisherman!

Most of all, thanks to John AKA Pilar for the most memorable experience of my life!

[ 07-08-2002, 07:07 PM: Message edited by: Pilar's Mate ]

Pilar · 07-08-2002, 06:50 PM

Often as not, success is the ability to snatch that little hint of opportunity before it disappears.

Opportunities like a phone call from Seasquid, "Hey man there's a boat at Newport unloading Tuna caught 40 miles out."

What ever I was thinking about at that moment, uh what was I thinking about right then anyway? Yeah, so I called big Jon and gave the report. He said ... 'when are we going down?'.

Krystalflash and James signed on and we were off to the rodeo. Dock was going to be Newport but we switched to Depoe so we would have a shorter run and more fuel for high speed trolling. About 0545 I finally got untangled from the beach and a balky aux fuel tank connection and beelined it West.

We pretty much assumed a 46 mile commute to Tuna town, the place to be. The last SST I saw showed 59 - 60 water about 30 miles out. Not 15 miles out we were surprised by a huge collection of Dahl Porpoise flashing black and white in the sun. My mate was blown away by the fun and carefree porpoises. We play with them whenever possible and they will follow your boat for miles, orbiting you in circles underwater and jumping the wake. The water temp was 60, only 15 miles out.

At 22 mph it does not take long to cover water. We saw a large collection of the brown, wave skimmer birds that we often see far offshore. I don't know what they are called. They were for the most part too packed full of candlefish to fly but some were still working the surface. When I looked a little closer at some shiny splashes near the birds the radio crackled to life and the chase was on.

"Hey man we got jumpers everywhere and we're going in ..." Puffin's report was what we needed. I gained on Puffin a little and dropped down to 10 and threw out the gear. Slowed to 7 and turned and Whack! a standup rod racheted the Fishon pole holder flat and the rod against the gunnel. WWWWHHHHHEEEEE! went the 4/0 and the battle was on. In short order the rest of the gear went off. Both handlines and the other 2 rods.

'Puffin hey you got jumpers and I got peelers, 5 on baby!'

He comes back with "What are you using?, how far back are you dragging?, how fast?"

'No time, brotha, got something on the other line'

My mate abandoned her post at the helm and grabbed a rod. I tried the left handline. Yeah right! That fish had it buried and wasn't giving me an inch. Then I cranked on a standup rod. We caught all 5 in 15 minutes or so.

Puffin was relentless on the radio. "Hey you out there man? What's the deal?"

After the carnage asada, my mate burst out laughing and had much trouble stopping. Heeya get the boat going and Shheeeeyat, here we go again, 4 on this time.

Much of the rest of day is a blur. We hit the dock with more fish than I ever remember seeing. It was pretty cool at the carking station in Depoe. Beer, tequila, sharp knives and piles of ice cold tuna. Try fileting 36 fish sometime, oh yeah .... We bribed the harbor master with a fresh bullet and he left the cleaning station open so we could do the deed. Not long after he left people started showing up and congratulating. "You guys are the first group, this year to get Tuna" and so on. Pretty hard to take that, eh?

Look for more on technique, location and plans for a slaughter on the water next weekend. We could all run together and get some.

Tuna are here and only 25 miles out. Catch them if you can.

This waypoint is called 61 degrees. I marked it last year when I noticed some porpoise and a Killer Whale lurking there on the way to Tuna Town. Yesterday, we noticed that we were near there about 20 fish into the school. BTW the water got up to 64 and stayed that warm to about 7 miles out on the way in.

N44 54.968'
W124 39.342'

This is about 30 miles out. Just turn to 265 degrees magnetic and run till you see the birds working the candlefish.

Tuna feeding on candlefish and flying through the air to do it.

If this was a better known deal, you would be able to go to disneyland and do it there, it is that fun.

[ 07-10-2002, 08:48 AM: Message edited by: Pilar ]

BUGLEMAN · 07-08-2002, 09:26 PM

:grin: Haaaaaaa I am sated for now. Pilar and crew.....nice work on the water and on the 'puter.

Threemuch · 07-08-2002, 11:42 PM

Boat's ready, trailer is still sheit. Shoulda fixed it this weekend instead of sorelipping a buncha unclipped coho.

We could do Garibaldi albies if we had a running partner out of there. Otherwise, I have trailer work to do first.

Kurt

will_e_fish · 07-08-2002, 11:43 PM

Yeehaa Charlie Tuna Look Out!

Ok I admit I got tuna fever. I am hearing the tuna stories and getting tuna-envy. I think there is only one cure. I gotta see it and feel them for my self. I want to go so bad I am looking around the garage for things to sell so I can afford the charter $400 trip. Anyone know of a cheaper ticket to Charlie Tuna?
Please let me know.
Thanks will_e_fish

corrirod · 07-08-2002, 11:52 PM

Threemuch, I'd be very interested in joining you either out of Garibaldi, or pretty much anywhere. I've got Tues.-Thurs. to spend on the water. I've never been out for tuna so I'd like to have someone who knows what their doing out with me. Let me know. I'll be here most of the day but gone from 5:00-8:00pm tonight. If I don't hear from you I'll probably be at Garibaldi slaying some coho tomorrow and on to Newport for the next couple days.