Team Pilsbury

[Bait O' Eggs]

Team Pilsbury also known as "the doughboys" got together, 3 of us who have never tuna fished teamed up to go give tuna fishing a chance. Team consisted of EdSr, Northriver Dave and Bait O' eggs.

We meet up Friday night and head south on 5 to Newport to spend the night. Right off the bat Dave is calling us on the cell phone telling us he is having some problems. Notice the missing rubber on the left front



This is not the way to start a tuna trip, along side of I5 with a tire problem. Once repaired we were back on the road again.

We stayed at a cabin in Newport for the night, and were up until 1am rigging handlines, and tying up some leaders. Now mind you, not a one of us have ever caught or seen a tuna fish caught, and we have a few thousand dollars in gear layed out on the table. Now how is that perfect loop tied again ???



Even though we were up at 4am, we were a little slow to the ramp, and not the fastest boat to the hunting grounds. We kept listening to everybody talk about 61 and all the fish they were stacking up while we ran out, of course none of us really knew where 61 was, but we were looking. Finally Salmonator gave us some rough numbers of where he was fishing, and after letting a plastic jesus do some math for us, we were about 8 miles due north. We decided to drop some gear in the water and troll that direction. I cant explain how we ended up going NW rather than south, other than the compass direction means little when you are pulling fish into the boat. Before all the lines are set, I look out the back of the boat there is something big and black on one of the hand lines skipping along on the water, I point at it and say, "what is that?" After careful observation we decide it is a tuna and almost get it in the boat. Dave yards it to the boat and is holding it out of the water over the side of the boat trying to decide what we are going to do with it, when it drops off the hook and back in the water. Rule #1, get the fish in the boat, and we learned it the hard way. In no time we are double up, and tripled up and yarding fish into the boat. Here is Dave with another one coming over the side of the boat.



EdSr didnt want to be out done and here is he is with another one over the side of the boat.



When all was said and done, we ran out of room at 23 fish and quit fishing. Tuna can really fill an ice chest quicker than I would have thought. A little bloodier than I would have guessed also After doing the brain spike, we slashed the first few fish like Jack the Ripper trying to find that vein that needed cut behind the long fin. We cut this way, we cut that way, we almost had the first few fish filleted before we had it figured out. At the end we were making precesion cuts about 1/4 long, 1/4 inch deep and finding red gold.



A big thank you to Skein who was bumming around the dock at Depot when we came in, and offered to help us cark tuna. The fish station was backed up a hundered or so tuna and we drove to Newport to find an open cleaning station.

And a thank you to Ed for letting me drive his boat some thru out the day. His Dory is a lot of fun and will be bloody for years to come.

We hunted alone during the day, and ended up having a great time. Met a non ifisher and helped him into some tuna. If he only knew he was getting advice from a salty pup rather than a salty dog he might not have been so incline to listen to us. His boat name was Badger, and I think he may be registering soon.

The ocean forecast of 4 and 4, revised to 4 and 3 the day before was WRONG, there was no wind waves and about a 1 or 2 foot swell. We ran a falt bottom dory in at about 26 mph.

One of my home made plugs was hotter than the rest. It accounted for about 1/3 of the fish, Will definately be trying to duplicate it.

I think I will be back tuna fishing again soon.

[ 07-20-2003, 12:08 PM: Message edited by: Bait O' Eggs ]

[Taylor's viewpoint]

Good job guys and great pictures. I guess I'm going to get the gear and head out. The pics did me in.
TV

[Salmonator]

This blind squirrel found the acorn bigtime. We stopped at 20 because the last three had to ride on the deck on the way home and we were running out of cold fish to rotate. Almost all doubles and we landed a triple. Thanks to Gregotis for the tips and Willierower for the borrowed handlines. Fish were loving feathers and clones in greens/yellows also hammered the blue/white clone many times. The kid landed a 5' blue which we are going to try tonight, but I doubt I let him kill another by the way it smelled when it hit the deck [img]graemlins/berry.gif[/img] Hit 'em good at 20 and 25 miles on a line to the 61 spot.

[Fishplay]

I always fish the wrong days. ARGH!!!!!!


Great job guy's.

Roy I'll trade you a whole box full of cedar plugs for that HOT one that caught all the fish.

[crabbait]

Great first effort for Roy and the D'Oh Boys! That is a great picture of Dave slinging tuna over the gunwale! Looks like some serious fun!

Did you catch any on rods or all on the handlines?

[Smily]

Way to go guys.

You Guys Rock!!!! :grin:

:smile: Smily :smile:

[WaterDog]

Way to go Roy and crew! [img]graemlins/applause.gif[/img]

[skein]

"Okay, Ed, next time we take less ice, fewer coolers, and come back sooner...."



[img]graemlins/1zhelp.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/1zhelp.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/1zhelp.gif[/img]

Skein

[Snapshot]

Way to go Roy and crew, you guys killed em and with little to no experience. I guess that proves that tuna fishing is not sport fishing
[img]graemlins/icon_argue.gif[/img] Just teasing of course.

I am envious and will someday get out there too and will no doubt become a tuna-holic too. What do you do with all those fish? Man cannot live by tuna alone.

*Fish only bite wet hooks*

[elkn]

we fished out of newport on sat. and ran 23.5 miles,hit 63.8 on a fllllllat ocean. do not know #s for the spot we fished, but lots tuna. most came on hand lines, what fun that is.also got limits of nooks and hoe's for 3 guys. just a great day on the salt. and that was my 1'st tuna trip....

[WP]

Congratulations on a spetacular maiden voyage! You will now be uncurable...but that ain't a bad thing!
WP

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

[Sea Jypzee]

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

Congrats to you all on a nice first trip out. Tuna fishing is very addictive, and no matter how many you may get, it's never enough.

[Deepslayer]

Great story! Sounds like the first time I went out with sturgn & friend. All we had were the desire and our print outs from Ifish with Pilar's advice. We managed to get back in with no gas and nineteen bullets! :shocked:
,Ed

[CATCH AND EAT]

Good job Roy. Time to mass produce that plug of yours.

[PeterMac]

Great story Roy! [img]graemlins/applause.gif[/img]

PeterMac

[Birdnest]

Great post, I love the action pics of those bullets being yarded into the boat. Congrats, go Team Salty Pup. [img]graemlins/applause.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/applause.gif[/img]

[Pilar]

Team D'oh boy! Hey man way to go. You can take a salty pup to the fishing grounds and if it's already in his blood, the blood will spill.

You guys have no idea how cool it is to read your post, feel the excitement and adrenaline and love every minute of your success.

Roy your understated report makes it even better, who taught you how to write?

I know you'll be back ... Who's your daddy?


:grin:

[seasquid]

Amen Pilar.

I always like to take newbies to the albies.

Nice talking with you on the radio B.O.E. -- I could sense your excitement and satisfaction with an awesome day.

ss

[Beer Waggin]

Now I see why this Tuna thing is so addictive! Flat tire or not, I was going fishing!

First off, let me say thank you to everyone who has ever posted their knowledge about specific fishing techniques. Cumulatively, we have to be the best fisherman on the planet.
Thank you to Ed for the boat ride and the fun! We put it to the test on this trip. Ed said seeing the first fish come over the side made all his hard work building his boat worth it. I'm sure he's a proud, proud man right now and he should be!
Thank you to Roy for the Wonder Plug Feather, but hold off on the phone calls to Zurker and Lure Jensen. As well as the Wonder Plug Feather fished on Saturday, it pulled in a big zero on Sunday. You still have to give it up to a guy who creates a lure in his garage and watches as it proceeds to out fish everything in the boat.
Thank you to Pilar, who is not only concerned with our safety, but also concerned that we have fun. He has put together a very special thing with the “Dogs”.

On to the fishing… What a day we had for three guys that had never caught a Tuna. That just shows you the power of the “Dog” thing. Weather was perfect and I’ve never had a better day on the ocean!
23 fish makes for a knife dull and I know that’s no where near anyone’s record and some of you may even feel 23 is an average day at best, but we were all smiles and tickled pink. A huge thanks goes out to Skein! He was bouncing around from ramp to ramp looking for guys that had too many fish. We saw him at Depot, offered him a fish, he said “no”. Then when I’m pulling away, I see him smiling as he’s taking a fish from Gregotis. When we get to the cleaning station at South Beach, he’s cleaning his free catch and we persuaded him to help us. Something about three guys with knives vs. him and only one knife. He was more than happy, or so he looked, to oblige us. Thanks again Skein!

The ocean came up a bit for us on Sunday, but the wind was a no show until about 2:00 and then it still didn’t blow like predicted. Baitboy showed us a few other things that really pulled in the fish. If you don’t use the big surf board divers, you should. We had half of our 12 fish on Sunday come in from a dived broom.

We just finished up a Tuna lunch here at the shop. All I can say is WOW! Hands down the best fish I’ve ever had. I told everyone that I’d bring a bunch more for tomorrows lunch. Of course everyone was ecstatic. One of the gals said she’d bring something to go along with the tuna, she asked me “What goes good with tuna?” I responded “MORE TUNA!!”

Now it’s off to do the canning process. 11 hours of sleep the entire weekend is not doing me any justice right now, but I figure I’ll get 100 minutes, wake up, get a 100 more, etc, etc.

[ 07-21-2003, 03:53 PM: Message edited by: NorRivDave ]

[willierower]

Right on guys! One of theses days I will get out after them, Oh wait, Im going out with Capt Kujo on the 8th of August. I cant wait.

Salmonator, Im glad those handlines worked. I owe Randy at Harry's bait and taqckle a big thanks for hooking me up.
Oh yeah, the tuna you gave is all gone. We ate every last bit. Now that Ive tatsed the reward, Im more than ready to get at them
.

[Pilar]

Dave, I got your message on the Cell phone. Good job man and thanks for validating what I knew to be the right thing to do.

The ocean is huge and if we accept our role as trainees we can fish it safely. As Popeye says, "there are no experts on the ocean". Amen Brother.

The dog thing is all about getting the curious out on the water with a minimum of risk. If they are hungry and want more after that then all of us experienced fishers should feed them all they can take. Knowledge minimizes risk and the knowledge that is shared here is a constant source of amazement to me.

Dave is right we are some of the most awesome and well informed fishers on the rock.

Good job you guys and I'm quite sure that any other fish you used to be fond of catching is a dim memory now.