Tuna! Tuna! Tuna!

[Hook-up]

We a very tight schedule this trip to the beach (friend had to be back at the dock by 2:30pm), so we got out early for our only hali day this trip (Friday). Got our limit of 4 butts by 7:40 am (biggest was a nice 53"er). Then began the debate. We did a quick lap by the computer before we left late Thursday and discovered some of the phantom tuna posts (kind of disappointing). So there we were thinking should we go for it or not. We decided well... what the heck, why not? Okay now that we decided to go for it, which direction should we go? One post mentioned Pilar went north around 35 miles from the ranch. Well if Pilar misses them there is a very good chance they ain't to be had. So we set sail due west to a spot we caught tuna after a hali trip last year. Did I mention it was flat, what a great ocean. Always seems to happen when a first timer goes along and you have shared thousands of stories about how rough it is to go hali fishing (beat and banged up). Of course he is looking at us and saying stuff like if you guys think this is rough you should see my kids wading pool, sometimes it gets really big ripples in it from the bugs landing in it. Okay back to the due west thing. We end up about 44 miles due west from shore (about 12 miles west of the ranch) and finally get some solid 60 degree water. In goes the tuna stuff and off we troll. 20 minutes or so later, tuna! A nice 15lb albie on the hand line with the diver (zuchini (sp?) color). We are all thrilled as we had not heard of any confirmed reports of others with tuna yet and we had never caught any before July (in Oregon). Well the next one was about an hour later and was a nice 20 lb albie, way back on a black/purple with a bird in front. So much for a pattern so far. Finally had to head back. We did not see any good rips, temp changes, birds or anything else. On the way back we found a big slick with a sea lion, some birds and a bunch of stuff floating around with a good temp. break. Stopped for about 10 minutes as we were really pressing my fishing buddy who absolutely needed to get back (it was his idea to stop). I was holding a spinning rod in my hand after just putting out a fish trap and bang another nice 15lb albie. Lets see: One on a zuchini/short/handline/diver, black/purple/long/bird, and finally a fish trap. Yep a clear winner, not! Anyway friend made it to his appointment on time and we had our first 3 albies and 4 nice flatties.

[Skipper]

Hook-up, Congrats on the big fish and tuna too. It is amazing you did all that 44 mile out and back by 2:30. Wow!!!

Cheerio'
Skipper

[Marty]

Hook-up......congrats on the double hitter!! Were you fishing with Terry and the "Serious Fun"?? Tell him I said hi and that we need to schedule some tuna time together. It seems our times to fish never jive.....hopefully later this season it will. The fishtrap on the spinning gear must have been fun!!!

Marty

[Robalo Bill]

Hook-up...that's outstanding...for June. Will head out of Garibaldi this thurs for a kick at the albis. One question though...fish trap?..what and how are these fished. I've fished hopkins crank lures on the slide, nice heavy lure casts a mile on 20lb line.

Bill

[Hook-up]

Marty: Yes I was fishing with my fishing buddy Terry on the Serious Fun. I passed on your message to him. Congrats on the tuna yourself.

[Hook-up]

Thanks Skipper. It was such a flat day we were able to run around at 20-25 knots everywhere we went and we got off the dock at "O" dark thirty to start the day. What a great day, whales, dolphin, hali, tuna, ect...

[Hook-up]

Robalo Bill: Sorry I did not answer you sooner. I am only able to get to the computer a few times a week, so I miss a lot of stuff here on ifish (but I love catching up when I do have time).
Anyway, I noticed one post on Fish Traps and one on Swim Baits in the past few days. Both had some great tips. You can also use the search function and type in "Fish Trap" (or maybe "swim bait"). I did it just before posting this to see what came up and there were around 20 posts. You may have to sift through them a bit. In one of them I have a rather long post about some of our experiences with the fish traps.
I have used 60-300 pound leaders and had luck with them all. At first I thought the higher pound leaders would be good for being able to lift our tuna in without having to gaff them like we do with our jigs. However I forgot that we are using lighter hooks in the jig heads and almost lost a tuna from a straightened hook. On the bigger fish traps 5-6 inch you can use the 4-6 oz standard bottom fishing bullet shaped lead head jigs. These keep it from skipping out of the water when trolled. Be sure as others mentioned to get the ones with the barb on them to help keep them from sliding around or off. For casting or with the smaller (4 inch) ones the 1.5-2 oz ones work good. It is a balance between being able to cast well, but the lighter ones sink slower thus offer a longer strike time while falling.
Hope this helps. Let us know if you need anymore assistance or learn anything yourself to share with the rest of us, as that is one of the things I love about this site. Sharing what we know and learn with each other.
Good luck.

[Marty]

Just a reminder about your fish traps or swim baits........after you have caught a number of fish, the traps will get beat up and torn. You can wait til you get home or do an emergency operation on them. Take a large bent paper clip and hold the end of it over a candle. After it gets hot, insert it into the tear of the fish trap and the plastic will start melting. Take the paper clip out and hold the trap together for 5 or 10 seconds OR dip in water and the tear should be repaired. It may take 2 or 3 insertions on big tears, but you can re-fish the swim baits for many more fish. I never throw mine away, as I may even combine two beat up ones to create a new 'unique' trap. I had a black one with an orange tail that was a killer until I lost it on a bigger fish.

Lets hope for a nicer ocean next week.

Marty

[DriftR]

Robalo Bill,
Hey, you owe us a story. Bout time you joined in on some fun. Tell us all about your Canadian fishing stories and why you moved down here?