1st tuna trip

MintBrite · 01-24-2003, 09:33 AM

With the day off and reading all the hpye over tuna fishing I thought I would share my 1st and only trip so far. It was Sept. of 98" the last good el-nino yr. I booked a 20hr. trip on the 63 ft. Misty out of Newport. I was with my best fishing partner my Dad, and a co-worker who had owned a tackle shop in Coos bay and had a fair ammount of fishing experence himself. We left the dock at Newport promptly at 12:00 a.m. were floating in the bay, the capt. gave saftey instructions plus fishing techniques to the 13 paying customers. The funny thing is in the middle of the night theres an inflatable boat, about 22ft. like the coast's use with 3 people all in Dry suits? Well the capt. gets done with his talk goes in to start the run, 60 miles so we ask the people in the inflatable how they were doing? Their great and going to follow us out and fish along with us! We weren't going to start fishing until we were 60 miles out! Well we cross the bar and everyone crashes out until about 5:00 a.m. The deck hand was starting to set lines with just a hint of light in the eastern sky. Off our Port was the little boat setting lines as well, I saw a couple of people back with the deckhand starting to bring in fish! Now we were new this whole thing and let the 2 deck hands set up everything. The boat ran 2 outriggers with 3 lines on each outrigger, 4 top water handlines off the transom plus 3 with divers. We started to fish at 60 miles out .Teams of 3 would work the outriggers because of what needed to be done when a fish was on. The 3 of us worked the port side rigger for the first couple of hrs. bringing in 20 or so fish. Let me get this in real quick, when a fish was on you yelled out FISH-ON that told the capt. that we were into fish. When a fish was brought on the boat you'd bleed it over a box and drop it in then yell FISH-IN THE BOX. This alerted a paying customer a nice older lady to mark on a tally sheet to keep track of how many fish were on the boat(she only wanted to keep track of the fish, Loved the boat ride and Tuna but didn't care for the bloody work) Well as the morning progressed the people working the back of the boat started to burnout and we made our way back to the transom where most of the fish were coming from. I started to notice that the fish were hitting before the lines were all the way out, especially the divers. I would let out about 30 ft. or so and hold on, WHAM!! fish on! all I could do was laugh! I even got the deck hand to hold a line, it took 5 sec. he smiled brought his fish in and calmly yelled up, "were into em capt." Heres where it gets good, we were suppose to pick-up and start heading back at 4:00 but were real close to setting a record for the boat so the capt. let us fish because he really wanted to beat the old one. the record was 320 fish in a 24 hr trip. By 5:00 we seemed to still be short and the deck hands started pulling the outriggers and packing fish in the hole with ice. The hand lines off the the transom were left out, my Dad and co-worker stayed back there, with the help of a couple other guys they started bringing in more fish. I had gone up to the cockpit and the capt. had a mic setup so he could hear what was going on in the stern area. I stayed up there for awhile, we kept hearing FISH-ON then FISH IN THE BOX. Well after awhile I said that I better go see whats going on because they were really coming in fast. I look at the tally sheet and the guy who was suppose to be marking wasn't! It's almost 6:00 were 40 miles out, all the lines get pulled and we head back with 318 fish on tally sheet. Remember the little boat? I asked the capt. about them," they had their 75 tuna at 10:30a.m. and were back in Newport" Well what was suppose to be a 20 hr. trip turned into 22 hrs. and when the deckhands pulled all the fish out, layed them on the dock and counted, 323! a new boat record. The 3 of us took 75 tuna & 100lbs of ice home, drug the tail pipe on our caravan, among other things. I hope to experince more of the fishery this year with the salty Dogs here. :smile:

id. painter · 01-24-2003, 09:49 AM

Good story Mintbrite. Im a virgin tuna person.Stories like yours are going to make me loose it,(virginity). id. p.

Mr. Fisherman · 01-24-2003, 10:05 AM

[img]graemlins/applause.gif[/img] :grin:

OceanBlue · 01-24-2003, 10:12 AM

Ahhh... music to my ears... "FISH ON! Double! No, strike that TRIPLE... Ah h***! Get back here and help me pull 'em in."

Steering with one hand, reeling with the other and knocking fish off hooks with my feet...

(Heavy sigh)

Is it June yet?

Mark Mc · 01-24-2003, 10:33 AM

Hey Mintbrite, good story. I wanna hear the last chapter though. You imply that you took the fish home whole....so tell us, how long did it take you to process them, how many neighbors did you beg to take fish off your hands...did the garbage man refuse to take your garbage...how many tuna meals did you have the next week...inquiring minds want to know!

will_e_fish · 01-24-2003, 10:40 AM

MintBrite great TUNA story!
id.painter wait until you taste fresh tuna
Pilars Mate how many days 'til Tuna Town?

MintBrite · 01-24-2003, 10:48 AM

Mark- We got home at 3:00 a.m. crashed out till 8:00 then carked until 2:00p.m. I have a good size garden so a couple 20ft. trenches produced some great vegetables the next yr. Tuna taco's-BBQ-Smoked-Grilled & canned. I never did understand why everyone wanted to have lunch with me the next couple of weeks

bait boy · 01-24-2003, 12:04 PM

Rod have you seen the black rocket out on the hali grounds yet? KJ and his crew are old pro's at this racket, and routinely loadup on the fish of choice. full mustang suits and the tuna flag flying....

fish assassin · 01-24-2003, 12:32 PM

Bait Boy:

Those are actually dry suits they are wearing and there is a *reason*
they need to wear dry suits!! Talk about a WET boat! It does go FAST,
though. It also sucks up a lot of fuel.

I think Kim sold his original Black Rocket to a guy guy the name of Terry
up at Pacific City this winter. He built another one that is 30ish feet long.

I've talked to several of the folks that have fished with him. Plusses and
minuses like any other boat. Goes *real* fast, is very stable, is almost
indestructable, but, is wet, fairly uncomfortable and a fuel hog.

-assAssin-

Mark Mc · 01-24-2003, 01:27 PM

Yea I saw them with a group at the chicken ranch once, with gals on board, and I had to wonder what the women do when they have to go potty. Or does the safety speech at the beginning of the trip include tips on how to hold your bladder for 6 hours.

[ 01-24-2003, 02:27 PM: Message edited by: Mark Mc ]

Mr. Fisherman · 01-24-2003, 03:00 PM

That black boat, the Black Rocket would be the infamous KJ and crew. As hard core as they come and they are always out there first and back to the beach first.

Miss B Haven · 01-24-2003, 04:30 PM

Great story! I got 4 on my first trip :depressed: . You're making it difficult to be able to make it until July (nope PM - I'm not counting on June. We'll see if El nino brings us some Early TUNA) :grin:

OceanBlue · 01-24-2003, 11:00 PM

By my careful CARK-ulations, 148 days left to TUUUUNA...

corrirod · 01-24-2003, 11:32 PM

Holy crap, what I want to know is how the "little" boat stored 75 fish! That's atleast 1500 lbs. of fish which would put my little 21' boat over capacity even before I added the passengers and equipment! :shocked:

Stabiman · 01-24-2003, 11:58 PM

WOW!!! Great Story MintBrite

I'm another Tuna virgin here that can't wait to join you all this summer!! Really looking forward to a blood bath in the new Stabi-Craft. I'm thinking she'll be able to hold 1500lbs no problem... with a 3 man crew and all the other gear onboard! Well, I sure hope to find out what the capacity is anyway.

Welcome aboard and cheers

OceanBlue · 01-27-2003, 06:42 AM

145 days left, Mel... mark my words

:shocked: :shocked: :shocked:

[ 01-27-2003, 08:15 AM: Message edited by: Pilar's Mate ]

Booja 1 · 01-29-2003, 06:30 PM

Now that's a serious albacore trip Mintbrite..must of had a red deck the whole time fishing....

Your right Assassin,,,, Kims new one is a 30 footer with twin Merc 225 's on the back..looks like the other,,,just bigger and twins for power. He owns USIA who among other things makes dry suits.. He has USIA Adventure Charters on this boat..He offers not only fishing but sightseeing as well as dive trips..He just made a little 8 min promo video showing what he has to offer..I think it may be a freebie....the video that is......1 800 247-8070 if anybody needs to know..............