7/11 Saturday Tuna report

[Pilar]

Better late than never.....

We went out of Depoe Bay or tried to anyway. Several things went wrong out of the gate and the boat would not start. The aux tank would not give fuel and the throttle linkage rod broke as I shook the throttle in an attempt to coax a start out of the iron duke.

This throttle rod is not a replacement item. The closest parts would be a boat junk yard or Oregon outboard salvage. Neither one was doable at 5 am Saturday morning. I pulled the part off the boat and went looking for Gary the Depoe Bay harbormaster.

Gary was over across the parking lot opening the bathrooms and cleaning station. We went to the shop and used Gary's welder on the part and made it like new. At about 0630 we got underway and headed west into reasonable but not perfect conditions.

I saw the S. wind and wondered about the last forecast I had heard that called for SW winds. We kept at it and made the fishing grounds by 0800.

By now the waves were building to a nasty short chop and the wind had shifted to the SSE.

The dogs were on the fish when we showed up and we boated a few nice ones on 'Pilar'. I really enjoyed my friend Tom as he yanked on the standup fish and loved every minute of it.

By now several boats were heading in and I noticed that we were trolling north and down wind most of the time. My mate swung around and tried to run South right into it. It got really rough and it was almost impossible to fish standing up.

We decided to quit at 10 or so and began trolling in. Popeye had already left and many of the boats all headed in together. By noon or so we were really getting a beating and had 9 fish on board. It was impossible to get to the ice under the bow and we hauled our lines and began to run hard in the ever increasing chop.

It was then that several waves came right over the canopy and soaked the pilot and all of the inside of the boat. The radio channel selector on the mike quit working and soon the unit would not transmit either. We were all alone as everyone had run faster than us and gotten far ahead.

We finally made the Depoe Bay cut about 14:30 after 4 hours of getting pounded. Since I was completely soaked, we pulled out and I went straight to camp for a hot shower and some dry clothes.

Not a nice day by any means.

The fish got cleaned later at Newport, thanks for the assist, Blubeast.

On Sunday we canned all the fish and processed the frozen, vacuum sealed stuff too. Teamwork made the boat cleanup, fish processing and breaking camp happen simultaneously. 'Puffin's Crew' is a workhorse and totally understands the concept of teamwork. Thanks Tom and sorry for the lapse in judgement Saturday. We had no business taking the beating we did.