I was on Sales Call all day, here is my report (OTC Hammond)

[HugeDuckFan]

Soaked in sweat and blood, I turned to view the cockpit. The evidence was clear, overwhelmingly clear. Something terrible had just happened here. Life was running in slow motion, colors faded into black, white and red. Sound of screaming reels and the buzzing of blood soaked tuna tails against the fiberglass was replaced by the pop of Coors Light and water slapping the hull.

Dien Bien Phu, no. Mogadishu, no. Iwo or Normandy no. This was akin to Antietam, and it’s blood soaked hayfield and thickets. The savagery of the Batan death march. The sheer insanity of charging Omaha. The savagery of mankind was evident everywhere, we had pilaged the ocean for 90 minutes on a testesterone high. The beauty and savagery of what had just happended is a true paradigm in this day of processed food and sound bites. We had just stocked our shelves with enough tuna for the season, but also put 50# of meat into someone elses belly. These fish must perish, so that others may live. That's our place in the food chain, enjoy it while you can!

OK, enough of that. Friday morning, we departed Garibaldi at 6 AM with Seelicious, Tuna Time and Chase N Tail. I had a crew of 4 plus myself, bound for Hammond. A flat bar, and fantastic seas, with sunshine most of the day. We ran NW toward the 45 50 x 125 10 intending to work north with the bottom structure. 61° water just inside the 125. Heard reports of people landing good fish to the south of us (White Cloud and a couple others), but we were heading North and scouting out the waters for OTC. Bud and Dick ran a more southerly heading and then turned north inside of us and we in the fish. We successfully pulled up a single fish with a 168 nm of water under the keel. We ran as far as the 125 20, birds, kelp, temp breaks, lots of fishy water but no fish. Dick called us inside, but Captain Dumbo here didn't move fast enough. We had scouted 45-50 to 46-10 and 125 10 - 125 20. About 200 square nautical miles of tunaless water. At least we had a fish, and another newbie (Tanya, my office manager) had popped her first tuna. We moved inside faster now, and with the help of Shake and Bake (Colbachlaw) we had some live bait, but we werem't rigged for them. We trolled until we hooked up, but we couldn't keep the fish on after the strike. 3 hooks ups and no fish. We hooked another and had it at the boat, another tuna rookie (Tanya's father), a 70 year old salmon fisherman fought and fought, but in the end lost the fish about 10 feet from the boat (I told him NOT to pump the fish like a salmon). Live bait didn't help us that day, we just weren't totally prepared for it. We ran back to the barn looking for fuel, but lo and behold, West Basin fuel docks closed early and Ilwaco was about to close. We had made the decision to bring the trailer to Hammond, and a lucky choice it was...we loaded Sales Call up and took her to Freddies for 180 gallons of Saudi gold. Then, I ate a big batch of crow served up by Seelicous and Tuna Time...my single boastful sentence on the commute northbound had come back to haunt me. Never again, never again shall I taunt these golden boys of Albacore lore.

Saturday proved to be my personal redemption. We were lucky to get some livebait on Friday night and kept it alive long enough to bludgeon them on the ride out to the 125 Saturday morning. As the flare goes up, we power up and get moving...5 minutes of pounding and we're moving away from the pack, feeling good about the waves giving my heavy 33' an early start to the fishing...never again shall I taunt the seas either. Mother Nature threw a fatty at me with no back. The clank and clatter of stainless steel shards raining down on my cockpit deck was NOT a pleasant sound. My life raft had shredded a stainless clevis on the hydrostatic release cable. I climb onto the roof and rode the Striper like a rodeo bull. I tell you that's a sporty ride up there, a 300# man straddling a 180# life raft on top of his boat. I lashed it down with a couple spare 1/2" dock lines and 20 minutes later we're back in the hunt. No boats around now, but after an hour we catch up with several boats and radio reports we're ahead of many still, making 20-22 knots quite comfortably. Then, my port side motor bogs down...stop the run and pull my motors to check what's fouled my prop, a 5' blue shark had found its way into my skeg and lost the front of it's face. It wiped out my skeg zinc in the process too. No prop damage and we're back under way.

I had aimed at the 46 10 x 125 05. We dropped lines at the 46 13 x 124 57. 61° water, nice blue/green color and good temp break. The fog finally began to lift. We're hearing radio reports of fish for an hour before we land our first fish. Trolled 7 lines, 2 hand lines on divers and 2 handlines on top of and inside the divers. Started with purple and black, and some green and gold (of course!). We pick up a couple more singles, but are unable to covert any into multiple hook ups.

We get back up to troll and are at the 46 06 over 125 00 at 10 AM, trolling 6-7 knots and having switched our gear to blue/green/silver daisy chains with Eat Me jetheads. The bellys of all the fish we caught were full of those colors, so we matched 'em up. We had trouble hooking up the next few fish, got hit several times...but they wouldn't stick.

Finally, we hit and stick a fish at 10 AM. Radio is full of fish being caught. Good ol BrookE was on the radio all morning...hooked up, got a quad on, just landed another triple. We pitch some chum, cast some butterfly jigs and hit another one. We get the livey's hooked up and into the water..hooked up. That's when it all broke loose. Fish were boiling around the boat. Everything that went into the water was getting hit. We spent the next 90 minutes fighting fish. We ignored a couple of radio calls, as we were landing fish and returning the gear to the water. After about 15 minutes, I key up the mike...Sales Call is wide open. I knew HiTekRedNeck was in the neighborhood and was preparing to leave, I told him to stick around. I'm still being hailed, but am tripping over fish, handling the net for an hour before I reel up a fish myself. My buddy Joe, a worldwide adventure freak and tuna rookie, is having rods stuffed into his hands as soon as he lands a fish, he has another handed off to him. We're breaking things, leaders, a reel, a big birds nest and tossing hardware into the helm. We grab the next rod and rig it for live bait. Our live bait supply is now running very low and the fish are still all over the place. As it's slowing down I hailed a couple other boats I knew were nearby, and tried to call them over to slide in on our action, but no one answered. I answered Tuna Time's hail and gave out my position, we're almost spent. 19 fish landed, 4 broken off, 1 lost while we tried to handline another line that was severed by another spectra line crossing it (a nice big fish on a 30# leader by hand, that was fun to watch). Sharks were everywhere now, as the decks were oozing thick, coagulated tuna blood into the sea. On the radio, I'm hassled to give out the numbers again and again...I had just given them out. I reluctantly repeat the numbers one last time to an unfamiliar voice with no hailing name (next time ask a little nicer please and ID yourself). We reset the gear and begin a troll toward Hammond, no less than 15 seconds with our first rod in the water, it's hit again. We're hit again after landing that fish. We land a few more on a slow troll back to the ranch.

This was my first day ever fishing live bait. Oh my lord, that was amazing. 4 grown men completely wiped out by these fish. We roll up our gear at 1315 and head to the barn at 30 knots. No landmark fish, just about every fish was 20#, we totaled 105# on our top 5. We stopped at 28 fish, that was more than enough. 102 nm miles on Saturday's track, and about 150 gallons of fuel. Worth every penny for that experience.

Thanks for ChasNtail for the use of the Penn Torque 300's and the live bait riggings, those things are a blast. Bud and Dick, thanks for all the advice and Chad for the help with livebait on Friday night.

Oh, with 3 NICE GLoomis rods and a Daiwa Saltist reel (that matches my other 8) in the raffle prizes...I'm net ahead in this tourney. Hey Del, the new Saltist 40 exploded on me Saturday. Did it come with a warranty?

Thanks to the OTC staff for putting together a great event, with a fantastic purpose. Del, Mike, Roger, Weddy, Dean and everyone else, GREAT JOB!!! As always, the comraderie and fellowship of the before and after party was fantastic. It is a pleasure to meet so many new people and learn from them. Pleased to see so many fellas helping out Chromo when he fragged his outdrive. I look forward to Charleston and then Garibaldi. Will the CR people step up and take it to the Little Italy crowd in their home waters, or will they again be the anchovies of the OTC season? Congrats to the 3 Little Italy boats for an amazing performance and the whole pile of Teams whom yarded up lots of big fish. Loved seeing a tin boat take it all home too...so much for the big Grady and Striper boats taking it all home...we were schooled by a tinner. OK, let's be honest, it was just me schooled by a tinner. Until then, be safe and have a great time out there fellas.

Interesting observation...moorage, $16 per night with power and water. Dry camping in the parking lot (no dock, no water, no power) $27.50. Seems a bit backwards if you ask me. I guess that's the rate structure that works with the Buoy 10 season of trailer boats.

[SecondSeason]

don't forget it was Ha-monde where your were camping.

nice work and nice post -- you had me going with the battle refs. but before those were epic battles were lowered to just a male infusion you cut to the chase.

great to see you out there and glad you didn't loose your suitcase on your roof rack

[Teton]

Well written Dan.

Not only do I enjoy reading good prose on ifish, but when it is laced with tuna blood, it gets me going like a live bait strike. Too bad you weren't geared up on Friday. The fish were hungry, as we can attest. Nice boat, by the way.

I heard your "wide open" hail on the radio on Saturday and smiled, a little begrudgingly, because we were on our 4th stop, and couldn't keep the fish up for more than 5 or 6 fish at a time.

I remember my first day fishing live bait a couple of years ago. It was like I'd died and gone to tuna heaven. Nothing wrong with the reels screaming, but seeing a tuna flash at 30 mph 10 feet away and run toward the bottom with my little squiggly offering is top of the line! 1...2....3....bait-to strike on the drag....bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Colbach said it something like this on Friday, after his 3rd or 4th hookup. "I can't believe how much harder they rock you on bait. They have all this energy at the strike rather than getting tired when hooked up on the troll."

I wanted to cast a fly into the boil, just for kicks. Maybe this Saturday I will.

[djchaser]

Lots of barley pop cans in the pictue,hope they were when you got back

[Seelicious]

Good stuff, Dan!

When it comes to Tuna Time, all you did was awaken a sleeping giant! (or however that quote goes)

[Bait O' Eggs]

Nice story big guy

I busted the new hailing speaker off the top of my cabin on the way out, what was I thinking bolting plastic mounting brackets to my boat , busted antenna replaced this afternoon, awaiting he new trailer dust cap coming 2 day freight. Fish em hard, fix em on the off days

[fishbait]

Great Great post.......

Gotta love it

[deckhand1]

Huskeys are going down on August 30th. Have you heard that? We should have a tuna feast Friday and Sat. I will bring the bbq, the apple for smokin it, the cigars and some tuna. Sound good? (We are planning on getting there on the 29th aroud noon...) If you want to go out tuna catchin right before the game you better let me know. I might be able to escape from Central Oregon and help you out.

Great story and I am sure we will share more around a dog roast on the 29th & 30th of August!

GODUCKS!!!
Dave
Redmond, Oregon Tuna Man!

[Foreel]

Nice story,I like you writting style..

[Fish Killer]

Nice Post,

Go Ducks!

[HugeDuckFan]

Originally Posted by Seelicious

Good stuff, Dan!

When it comes to Tuna Time, all you did was awaken a sleeping giant! (or however that quote goes)

"We have awoken a giant and fillled him with a terrible resolve" - Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, December 7 1941.

I am still living the high, loving the afterglow of finishing in the lower half of the fleet but having one helluva great time in the process.

[Bluefinn]

Awesome Post Dan.

[Chromaflage]

Nice story Dan. And yes, the afterglow burns bright for days following the carnage. Thanks again for the use of your scales....now we KNOW! Good times!!

[lurking_out_loud]

Best post I've seen in a long time.

Go Ducks!

-lol

[HugeDuckFan]

finally...Saturday pics...

[HugeDuckFan]

and a few more...

[Teton]

Great pics.

I love to see smiles and bent rods!!