Newbie and Tuna charter
I've been a lurker for quite awhile and finally joined ifish. I've already learned a bunch about fishing in the salt and look forward to learning more from the dogs. I apologize in advance for the long post.
I'll begin with how my addiction started… I saw a program on OPB about tuna and it talked about what perfect swimming machines they are. I ran a search on the net about fishing for them and found ifish. After reading a few enthusiastic posts about carking I decided to book a charter (Rich from Pacific Pioneer Charters).
To say the seas were rough the day we went out would be putting it mildly. I don’t know what they were but the 36’ boat we were on was being tossed around like a cork. We cruised out about 50 miles and started to troll. By then we were all feeling ill including one chummer. I was popping Dramamine like it was candy and began to see pink (symptom of overdose?). After a short nap, the chummer decided he was well enough to do some bird watching. He lasted about 2 minutes standing on the deck looking through binoculars before resuming his duties at the rail. After a couple hours of trolling the lines became tangled and the deckhand came to the rescue. They were beyond recovery and he decided to cut the lines and start over. With filet knife in hand, he proceeded to stagger around the deck like he was returning from a long night at the tavern. Without a scratch (amazingly) he got the lines back into the water and we were soon hunting again. After trolling awhile with no luck, we pulled the lines in and headed south. We quickly decide to retreat into the cabin to avoid the drenching waves.
At this point, I was feeling well enough to eat something and pulled out a yellow herb that I will not mention by name (some of you might think they are fruit). My buddy who had fished on a commercial boat in Alaska said “what the #$&@ are you doing with those?!?!”. My ignorant reply “these? I love them and usually eat one every day.” He proceeded to fill me in and I decided to toss them overboard before Captain Rich did. We arrived at our second location and trolled awhile with no takers. The chummer crawled out of his bunk for a quick look through his binos with similar results as the previous attempt. Captain Rich decided it just wasn’t a tuna day and we headed in to catch some salmon. We ended the day I’ll never forget with a 30# nookie and tuna we bought from a commercial boat on the docks.
I went tuna chasing a second time with Fishmstr and his father and we landed 11 of the first tuna to return to Depoe this season. Of course that was all it took for the addiction to begin and now I’m searching for a fix. Captain Rich said he would take us out again but I’m becoming concerned it is getting too late in the season.
Are any other six-pack charters catching tuna on rods? We are down to 3 or 4 (the chummer decided against another trip) and would like to keep the group as small as possible. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated and I hope to meet some of you soon. Cheers – Russell
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Every now and then a man’s mind is stretched by a new idea or sensation, and it never shrinks back to its former dimensions – Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
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