Albacore on Offshore Adventures

[Pitch Pocket]

If you can catch it, watch Offshore Adventures current show on ESPN2. They have an albacore bite that is pretty hot. They talk about techniques using live bait. They explain the "horn bite"! It's very exciting to a tuna fishing wannabe like me.
:shocked:

[Albacore Tuna Captain]

I saw that segment and I love it! I grew up in SC where we went after the Albies and many times got into a bite like that. But be careful, this happens only once out of every 6 to8 trips. Most of the time, the fishing is like it is off Oregon. In fact, I really don't see where it is any different except for the fact they use live bait and that is hard to come by for us. Washington has live bait and they don't do any better than we do. I once caught 450 tuna in 3 hours and it was just like that show. If you noticed the fish they were bringing aboard, they were mostly schoolies. Albacore will swim in schools until they are about 3 years old when they get larger and then swim in much smaller groups or alone. So anytime you get into a school, you will have a lot of action.

I'm going to try a new method this year with a lure I found that can be worked with a very slow troll. It will require the boat moving just enough to allow the lure to be dropped back and then worked forward and each angler will be responsible for what he catches. :smile:

Capt Mike

[Mr. Fisherman]

That sure sounds fun to me :grin:

[Pitch Pocket]

They cast live bait to the fish after the "horn bite". The horn bite was a hand line dragging a lure hooked to an air horn that sounded when the fish took the lure. As soon as the horn sounded, they stopped and cast live bait and hooked them right at the boat. Even used the stiff pole and yarded them in like I've seen on the old commercial tuna videos.

Offshore Adventures had a few weeks in SE Alaska where I fished in the 70's, Elfin Cove, Pelican and Deer Harbor. Sure brought back some good memories. It rates high in my book for fishing shows.