Tuna Report - Labor Day

Uglygreen · 09-02-2002, 08:08 PM

Wow, first thanks to Craig for giving me a ride on his boat today, had a lot of fun!

Participants: Craigotis989, Seasquid, Corrirod, Uglygreen.

Ocean conditions: choppy and foggy on the way out, flat calm and sunny / high overcast with little or no wind after 10 AM and the rest of the day, lazy 3-4' swell.

Water conditions: temprature - 59 at 25 miles, 60 plus at 30 -35 miles. clear and blue, oh sooo blue.

Fish: Many tuna finning along the surface with not a care in the world, more jumpers than I have seen at any other time this year. Tuna all over the stinkin place at approx 32 miles.

A PERFECT DAY????

NOT -- the silly fish wouldnt bite, for 5-6 hours of trolling our boat had 3 hits resulting in one fish. I believe Seasquid had 4-5 bites resulting in 2 fish, and Corrirod, I think, got a small blue shark and went chasing the Salmon, dont know how that turned out.

I believe all the 3 tuna were on a Poe's purple cedar plug.

The fish are there, and in easy range, temps and water look good, I hope they are in a mood to bite the next trip. (I'm thinkin Thurs/Fri?).

Theory: Barometer dropping all day with front approaching shut the bite off. (Would appriciate any opinions on this)

Night all... thanks again Craig

UG.

PS: someone else will have to post the coordinates for the fish, I was just a rider today. (I thinnk we were max about 15 miles west and a little north of Pliars 61 degree spot).

corrirod · 09-02-2002, 10:41 PM

We ended up with 2 tuna, 1 shark, and 2 chinook.

We had a great day though. What a beautiful ocean! We got some good videocam footage of dolphins riding the bow and humpback whales showing their tails, sunfish all over the place, as well as watching several schools of pilot whales pass by.

Tuna were about 16 lbs and 20 lbs.
Shark was between 4 and 5 ft.
Chinook were 8 lbs. and 14 lbs., and released one coho.

Need sleep, must go, Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

OceanBlue · 09-02-2002, 11:46 PM

Any bananas on board today? Ooops! sorry!

Strange that they weren't biting. Calm waters, temp where it should be, fish visible and all. What were you all using for lures? Hand lines? How far back? Did you bait at all?

enquiring minds want to know!

Hope it was just a fluke. But it sounds like a terrific time anyway. Can't wait to see video clips of the porpoise. Did you get shots of the whales & sunfish, too?

Hamachi · 09-03-2002, 03:10 AM

You needed live bait.

Threemuch · 09-03-2002, 06:56 AM

Did you guys try dragging any plugs? CD-14 and CD 18 Rapalas, maurauders, or cedar plugs? Often, picky fish that turn their noses up at jigs will still hit a plug.

Also lengthen your lines, get the lures as far back from the boat as conditions will allow, 100 yards, even more.

If none of that works, I would also try to figure out the direction the fish are going, and set up a drift in front of them, motors off. When they get there, cast fishtraps or iron to them on light gear.

With no one selling live bait, it's a moot point to even consider it. For a small boat, you would need a couple scoops at least. No one sells it, so you would have to spend half the day before making it, and then somehow keep it alive until the next day. I am guessing that most boats up here aren't equipped to do this. It's very hard to effectively fish live bait from a small boat.

There is a decent article about this in this months Saltwater Sportsman by the Cuanang brothers, who are pretty legendary in the SF bay area. Here's the link:

http://www.saltwatersportsman.com/sa...346260,00.html

I have never seen a correlation between barometer and tuna. Moon phase, you bet, it sounds like you guys were out on a full moon day, except it wasn't a full moon.

wak'm&stak'm · 09-03-2002, 07:08 AM

I have a question as well....the cedar plugs that caught the fish were they on a diver? and at what length?

The other day we caught our fish on black and purple , and Zoochers....but only way back.
Probably 200 plus yards, when we hooked up they about spooled us.

I am off to buy some plugs....

seasquid · 09-03-2002, 07:18 AM

I threw everything I had at them -- stopped and threw swim baits, different colored worms, chummed with herring, trolled swim baits, cedar plugs, jigs, apples, potato chips, donuts, etc...

I had two take downs on purple cedar plugs 200 yards back, one hit a diver with a purple/pink jig, and one on a diver with a mexican flag jig...

I don't know what else we could have done, and we were spread out all over the place -- I know I was 15 miles W-NW of 61 degrees at one time -- jumpers everywhere. I ran into Gregotis out of blind luck when I came out of the fog, but saw Corrirod just once all day -- although I talked to him a bunch.

It was one of those days when you weren't really disgusted with them not biting -- it was so perfect, I took down my top and enjoyed the zero wind and sun -- plus all the other wildlife around -- awesome! I wouldn't have rather been any place else.

I talked with another guy who was out Sunday and went 60 miles -- he had two.

Weather permitting, I'll be out one day this weekend, probably Saturday....I hope they are a little less finicky.

Oh, by the way, the "two of everything" came in handy for me yesterday -- my power steering belt broke 30 miles out -- luckily, well not really, I planned for it to happen eventually, I had an extra -- and 10 minutes later we were on the fly again.

ss

Uglygreen · 09-03-2002, 07:38 AM

Yes we tried plugs - purple/black cedar plug was the onlything that worked.

Yes we ran lines way back - not sure about 200 yds, but way the hell behind the boat. Didn't work.

Yes we tried rapallas, also purple/black not sure plug number but the 6 inch long saltwater trolling ones. One hit/miss.

No live bait in Oregon that I know of. (If H. wants to deliver some from westport he could make a few bucks)

Seasquid tried casting to the jumpers/finners, dont think he had any luck.

We didnt run anything on a diver, Apparently no one in portland carries YoZuri K-90's and I havnt made it to Englunds yet. (Every time I go we leave before they open - return after they close) Question - any other diver options? the salmon divers I use look too flimsy, how bout a Luhr Jensen Jet Diver?

Wak, you still planning a thursday shot? the weather looks nice!

UG.

FASTWATER · 09-03-2002, 09:07 AM

Last week we fished north of the columbia and green and white plastic jigs was the go to color one of the hot set ups was actually running 20oz. cannonball leads on the lines about 15ft. ahead of the jigs 6.2 knots and staying off the fish always circling around them we actually worked over three different schools getting hooked up on one school then going over too a different school after. I agree with running the gear way way back when the fish are spooky! It also seemed to be a afternoon bite lately for some reason. The morning we only had five fish but mid to late afternoon we hooked over sixty with multiple hook ups on the same fish we could not get to bite in the morning!!!

corrirod · 09-03-2002, 02:13 PM

We tried everything also. I brought about 30lbs of vacuum packed smelt and some herring that we chummed with around the jumpers both moving and not, lines way back, lines close, casting bait, using jigs, etc.. We only had 2 bites but landed both. One on a handline 100 ft. back with a blue cedar plug, the other on a pole with Pilars magic Zuker--Green/Yellow that was only 150ft. behind the boat and right down the middle of the motor trail bubbles.

Seasquid was right about the day though, it was just awesome. Hard to explain to most people. Miles from anyone, no land in sight, fog on every horizon, sun over your head, water completely glassed over like a lake, and every so often getting a glimpse at a sea creature from the deep. When I get home nobody understands how I can get so excited but I know that anyone who travels out to that deep blue part of the ocean knows what I'm talking about.

Glad to share the water with you Gregotis, Uglygreen, and Seasquid!

avid · 09-03-2002, 02:54 PM

I mentioned this article in the "Live Bait for Tuna" thread but now it's posted here and it's called:

Outsmart an Albie

Not that it has anything you guys don't know but just in case.

pkg40 · 09-03-2002, 05:38 PM

We fished Seneca out of the Columbia Saturday and got 3 fish. First one blind in the AM and the second 2 on jigs way back from the boat working the jumpers in the afternoon.

Obviously we need another trick or two in our bag. Some possibilities I am thinking about:

1. I don't think I'll troll that long without at least trying the downriggers.

2. Tiny jigs might have helped. The fish we saw were chasing small bait.

3. Anyone with a secret formula for making bait (live)? Maybe one could intercept a commercial bait fisherman on the water and procure a batch before they were euthanized.

Gregotis98 · 09-03-2002, 08:54 PM

It was kind of disappointing to catch only one fish for trying so damn hard, but like Corrirod wrote it was an awsome day. It's amazing how much the ocean can change in a few hours, pretty sloppy on the run out but simply beautiful by noon. Solid fog in the morning and then Seasquid told us about some warmer water in his area about three miles away from us, and as soon as we hit the temp break, there was about one mile of visability and just a whole new feeling on the day. I agree with Corrirod, when I tell friends and people I work with about being "out there" they just can't understand it, and I don't think I want them to either. It was nice to meet Uglygreen and get some more saltwater knowledge. Going out with multiple boats makes for a much more enjoyable day, being able to relay info about fishing and sights or just talking crap for awhile.

Let's keep it going untill their gone.

Uglygreen · 09-03-2002, 11:04 PM

Thats the second time I have heard that, the Enterprise (a charter out of Depoe Bay) had a day that was slooow in the am and then the bite turned on and when it did they gor a lot of fish..... interesting.

UG

corrirod · 09-03-2002, 11:22 PM

I forgot to tell you about our return entry in to Depoe Bay on Monday! :shocked:

Pilar said it best last week when he said, "You haven't lived until you've crossed the Depoe Bay bar in the fog." Boy he wasn't kidding!

We didn't get off the water till 8pm so it was not only completely fogged in, but getting pretty dark as well! I had to have both my crew hanging off the sides of the boat spotting while I franticly scanned the Radar and tried to follow my last GPS trail. It wasn't until we were about 30 yds. outside the bar that we could see the lights on the channel marker thru the fog! Then at about 20 yds. we could start to see all the rocks.

Of course after we finished cleaning the fish and were headed home, the fog had lifted and you could see for miles off the bridge! Just mother nature keeping us humble I guess. :smile:

jcarufo · 09-03-2002, 11:46 PM

An option you might want to consider instead of or in place of the Yo-Zuri diver is a model 500 Z-wing. It's made to replace the downrigger ball but in Mexico we use a length of seine twine (30 or 40 feet) to a cleet. Add an Aftco roller flat line release clip and you're in business. You drop your line back, put it in the clip, throw the Z-wing over and your fishing in the bigger fish and biters at 30 feet. It works well on the bluefin too. They're designed to troll at better than 6 knots with no trouble. We sometimes use an offshore downrigger release on a longline clip part way up the seine twine as a stacker. Just a thought.

Jean

By the way Hamachi, we've caught Chinook on both chrome and scrambled egg 6x jrs and the Coho like the small candy bar. Tried the 'Iron' out of despiration one day in rolling fish and found it works. Slow crank though.

Hamachi · 09-04-2002, 03:01 AM

Cool, jcarufo! Thanks for the info. I'll have to dig them out of the garage and try them.