Depoe Bay Tuna 10/02

10-03-2002, 01:47 PM

Has anyone tried using their downrigers to hit the deeper holding tuna?

Miss B Haven · 10-03-2002, 02:16 PM

Keta - My 12 lb balls would be water skiing at 6-7 knots even if the rigger brake held the stress. The planar boards work well. Maybe if you got one of the torpedo or flat finned weights, but I don't know. I've heard of trolling for bills with a downrigger down for deeper running fish too (like Wahoo - and Wahoo like a really fast bait). Never seen it done though. :whazzup:

Threemuch · 10-03-2002, 02:34 PM

If you can mark fish deep, but can't get them to come up with plugs or z wings, you can mooch live or dead bait or fish fishtraps deep. I usually mark tuna much deeper than 60', more like 150-250, lots of big arches and then Zzzzzzzzzzzzz FISH ON!

Deepslayer · 10-03-2002, 02:50 PM

That's okay Popeye. Mahi Mahi are in the tuna family too! I am sure they will help the addiction along with the sunshine.
,Ed

Pilar · 10-03-2002, 04:03 PM

Kurt you are all over it. They seem to hang down between 100 and 200 ft. Then the boat goes overhead with the big shiny wake and they come up to what they think is a school of baitfish. Muh ha ha ha what they get is dragged by the face until bonked! :grin:

I have noticed the lockjaw in cool water below 58. Could you tease them up with noisemakers and teasers?

The thing that made a difference on 'Pilar' in sub standard temperatures is pitching handfuls of chopped herring into the wake when you do a driveby on sitting birds. This always produces a strike anyway. Also pitching herring on a strike usually makes for a full house as the rest of the gear goes off.

If you can get them up to the top, they should feed as usual. Running the gear way back seems to help also. Last trip out when 'Bill' stole the yellow pole we were hitting fish on the wayback pole at 5 to 6 hundred feet back.

What is the deal when the water is down around 54? I have never fished in less than 60 on purpose until this last summer. At 65 it's a party and anything goes. Hope we see some of that next year.

[ 10-03-2002, 05:04 PM: Message edited by: Pilar ]

Miss B Haven · 10-03-2002, 05:22 PM

Popeye - If you've got room, take a 2 piece heavy action Salmon rod, large Ambassador or such spooled with 35 lb tough line. Live baiting Dorado (oops - wrong country - I mean Mahi Mahi) with salmon gear is a HOOT !
Maybe the Islands are different, but the Mexican charters think 80 lb gear is small stuff for those little flat noses.
Not sure I've ever had so much fun as seeing those Dorado clear the water by 15 feet or so. Unlike the Tuna, they don't sound and play tug of war, light gear is the only way to play. Tuna= B52 Dorado=F15 :grin:

[ 10-03-2002, 06:33 PM: Message edited by: Miss B Haven ]

Sailfish · 10-03-2002, 06:31 PM

You can most definitely do the high speed trolling thing with down riggers. I have fished with a few folks that were strictly high speed trollers and they would fish a seven bait spread with out riggers using the two short lines on down riggers. The practice was to use one 20# ball and one 12# ball and fish them at about 50 and 20 feet respectively to avoid crossover when making your turns. I would think you could do this with a five bait spread and position the two other short baits back about 150-200 feet back and run a shotgun bait down the middle way back. I've seen this set-up pulled at at least 8 knots and it is deadly on the tuna as well as wahoo and dorado. Have any of you Ifishers thought of running spreader bars or dredges with multiple baits behind the boat for teasers? I know this is a pretty common practice in some other parts of the country/world for the tunas, bills and whatnot. I've seen them used with fake ballyhoo and it looks like a ******* shool of fish chasin' your boat, and it seemed to work pretty good at raising fish. I have a 15 bait spreader bar on order and can't wait to give it a shot up here next season, (if Gregotis is kind enough to give me another ride or two). I figure that anything that might up the odds on a 60+ mile boat ride is worth giving a shot. Something to ponder in these long, dark, tunalesss months.

Miss B Haven · 10-03-2002, 06:56 PM

Sailfish - Were those cannon balls on a regular downrigger/200lb cable or are they on a fixed dropper line like some of the Charters run up here.
What kind of line angle do you get with 12 lbs at 8 knots ? I've had close to 45 degrees running 2 knots Salmon fishing with some wind and current meesing with me.
I haven't actually tried it but I'm not sure my Scotties and 200 lb wire would take the stress. Maybe I should just shake the chicken off and try it. :grin:

Marty · 10-03-2002, 11:31 PM

With the advancing stages of such a debilitating desease as "Tuna Fever", I knew I had to take drastic action. I called the crew together for a short-notice-run to the Hospital of Big Blue and a possible cure. We plowed thru the opening at Depoe and the Ocean Gods were smiling as we were met with gentle 4 foot swells and maybe 2 foot chop and a mild breeze. We headed west at 25 mph and stopped at the first good temp break @ 24 miles. Trolled for awhile, but not much sign so we moved deeper into the unknown until we saw a few jumpers. Water was 56.3 (the warmest we found) and we put out the jigs again but with no results. Continueing west until we got past the 125/45 spot only to find the water was getting colder (54.2). Headed north for awhile and then back inside to see working birds for the first time with boils and jumpers under them. Dropped the jigs back in and got a double. First fish was plus 30 lb. and his brother spit the fishtrap at the gaff. But we had blood on the boat and I could feel the cure starting to take hold. The school went down, the birds flew away, but we boxed the area for another hour with no takers. We metered quite a few fish at 40 to 60 feet, but couldn't get them to come up. We continued looking, but never got another strike. Went inside and landed a fat chinook and called it a day. Good company, Great Water and most of all a temporary fix for the tuna disease.

But the real question you have to ask yourself...... with this south push (happening now) will we get some more fish to move in?? Could we have hit it big if we had zigged vs zagged or had a fleet of Ifishers working together??? Could we have dredged the metered fish up by going deep (downriggers, heavier weights)?? Would they have bit if we had some fresh chum to get them up???? OR......is this the last tuna of the year???

I will ponder the above questions this evening while dining on fresh sushi and grilled albie with a good bottle of wine.

Marty

Crashin' Bait · 10-03-2002, 11:33 PM

While web surf fishing, I came across this interesting article that might pertain to this discussion:

Get a jig strike here.

Popeye · 10-03-2002, 11:50 PM

Marty.....you Dawg. just as I'm packing to leave for a week. If you guys get into them next week, try to keep them around until I get back.....maybe pull shifts as sentinels hand feeding them around the clock....yea that's the ticket! Oh well, I guess I'll just have to settle for a little Mahi-Mahi fish'n :grin:

Pilar · 10-04-2002, 09:08 AM

Great info, thanks for the fix!

Threemuch · 10-04-2002, 10:08 AM

If you want to downrig at speed, no lead is required. What you need is a z-wing. They sell em at charkbait.

http://www.charkbait.com/cs/csd3.htm

Not cheap tho.

KB

Miss B Haven · 10-04-2002, 01:02 PM

Threemuch - thanks. I knew there had to be something better than trying to get 12 or 20 lbs of lead up to escape velocity. Ever since my crew left a 12 lb ball hanging on the end of a rigger and didn't notice until all the cable had spooled (and broke when it hit the stop at the end), I've had this fear of cannon balls penetrating my hull (imagine what the Spanish Armada musta felt like when they got t-boned and broad sided :shocked: .)
Now I just have to sell a car or something to buy some of these. :depressed:
By the way- those brakes on the riggers don't work when the balls up and you're crossing wakes at 17 knots or so. [img]graemlins/stupid.gif[/img]

Hamachi · 10-05-2002, 03:23 AM

Threemuch, from my experience in So. Cal., Z-Wings tend to snap downrigger cables. I have one and have no problems, (seldom use it).... but several of my friends used to snap them off all the time. The company used to be good about replacements, but that was 5 years ago.

Miss B Haven · 10-05-2002, 08:47 AM

Bigger cable, we gotta get bigger cable. How about some 1/8" SS aircraft stuff. You only need what, 100ft max on the spool. Might not fit through the guides, pulleys and so forth though.

I'm thinking to heck with the rigger anyway. Just a fixed cable and a z-wing dropped off the corners. If they run pretty straight down they should stay out of the way of the other lines. You sure wouldn't want to back down on anything, big cable in a prop out there would ruin your whole day. Could be a problem if Bill shows up! :shocked: :shocked: Never mind, this sounds really bad now that I think about it out loud. [img]graemlins/stupid.gif[/img]

10-05-2002, 08:54 AM

How much force can the downriger arms take?
My brother said that he would make me a small tuna tower and outriggers and we talked about a small set of stabilizers. Now we might add heavy pulleys a few feet past the stabilizers to run divers.

Miss B Haven · 10-05-2002, 09:03 AM

Keta - not sure how much the rigger can take. I think I'll play with running one up to 6-7 knots next time I got out. I know my Scotty's won't handle a 20 lb ball (not sure I can either).
The advantage of the outriggers is that you can run a rope back up from the rigger (1/3 of the way up or so) and tie off to the tower, bridge, or whatever. The rope takes all the weight, stress and strain and had some give/stretch to it. The base of the outrigger can just act as the mount/pivot point. You don't want to have all the weight on it. :grin:

fish assassin · 10-07-2002, 04:44 AM

Miss B Haven,

You need to put some *real* downriggers on your boat!
Something in the class of two inch galvanized pipe,
big pullies (from Kolstrand), hydrolic gurdies and
then add some 1/4" troll wire! Forty-five lb. cannon
ball on the end and you're set!!

Of Course, even with a 45 lb. cannon ball your wire
will drag back there quite a ways ... like off the
back corner of your boat at 7-8 knots. And you gotta be careful in the turns so the wire doesn't rub
the side of the boat. Hate to see all that nice glass
all marked up!!

:tongue:

-assAssin-

fish assassin · 10-07-2002, 05:21 AM

Correction ... in my last post, 1/4" wire should
read 1/16" or 5/64" wire ... sorry about that!
Both can be ordered through Seattle Marine on the
Web.

-assAssin-