Babtism by tuna...

Mello-Yello · 08-08-2003, 11:00 PM

No more sleepless nights pondering what it would be like to catch your first tuna. "We have all the pieces to the puzzle, now can we put them all together?"

The puzzle is complete and Mello-Yello and Diamondback are now impure.

After limiting on BFBs, they headed west...and kept heading west...and yes, continued to head west until "ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ", FISH ON!

We stumbled and bumbled, but managed to bring in 10 tuna on our maiden "bullet" voyage. We ended up about 37 miles due west of Bandon. Once we hit 61.5 deg water, everything just fell into place. The irony...Our first ever tunas were caught on a double, both on stand-up poles...Could it be any better? From there we were catching them on handlines as well (wow, isn't that faster and easier?) Rootbeer seemed to be the color, though black and Purple worked well too. Our last fish pushed into the low 30s. Most were mid 20s, all in excellent shape.

We are now ruined.

Thanks to all the Salty Dogs for their invaluable assistance in turning two ordinary guys into blood-soaked, incredibly smelly tunaholics. We could not have done it without you!

fishwhenican · 08-09-2003, 02:34 AM

YEAAAAA!

Nofish · 08-09-2003, 04:27 AM

M-Y,
Congratulations on your epic trip. I can relate to the stumbling and bumbling on the first trip, it does get better as you come up with a "system". Did you see Friday's SST's? - the good water is about 10 nm off Port Orford and about 13 nm west of Gold Beach. We may try Gold Beach in a day or two.

WildHawg · 08-09-2003, 04:58 AM

Congrats Mello...but what were you thinking?
You were a salmon away from the SLAM :shocked:

!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Not only could you have deflowered yourself--YOU COULDA BEEN SOMEBODY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Halibut, salmon and tuna=the GRAND SLAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!
Great job though

Charlie

skein · 08-09-2003, 07:46 AM

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

It sounds so easy - just troll west until you hit fish. Piece o' cake. :grin:

Two guys, two tuna, two rods. That would have been a dance worth seeing!

WhooooBoyyyyy!!!

Skein

Orca · 08-10-2003, 06:59 PM

Way to get after them MY. Sounds like you have a great future as a Tuna Hunter. I need to do the same myself.

[ 08-10-2003, 08:00 PM: Message edited by: Orca ]

Mello-Yello · 08-10-2003, 08:06 PM

I dunno...we hit it real hard today and ended up with a grand total of...one tuna!

My buddy had never caught a tuna, so of course, I gave him the honor. In the blink of an eye I've gone from student to teacher. Well, in a small way.

Charlie, we contemplated the grand slam. Had our salmon gear, bottom fishing gear...oh, and had three crab pots in the bay. But we were on a mission...catch tuna! We left the ramp at 6am, returned at 630pm. We were marking salmon all the way in, but there was a competion going on, who would run out of gas first, us or the boat! Besides, we didn't want to draw attention to ourselves. We're just a couple of humble,,,, raging,,,,, tuna killers!

By the way, I really, really appreciate all the advice on 'not canning tuna in the house'. How can something that tastes so good, smell so bad? And where did all these cats come from?

M-Y