Fishing Trip Trade?

[Dan in Alaska]

I have never been tuna fishing, but it is up near the top on my list of things to do. I would like to know more about the tuna fishing you folks enjoy down there. What kind of tuna do you catch? What time of year is best? What's the average size, daily limit, and so on?

Does anyone want to "trade" fishing trips? I would be happy to take some people out fishing with me, and then I could fly down there and go along on a tuna trip or two.

Certainly there are a multitude of details to be considered and discussed, but I am hoping to get some dialog started.

[love2fish]

Wow Dan, what an offer. I wish I had the knowledge and equipment to take you up on your offer. I'm sure someone here be happy to make that trade.

love2fish

[Popeye]

Dan...Tell me more :grin:

[Dan in Alaska]

Tell you more? Okay, here goes. I am not a charter captain, nor am I a commercial fisherman. And, I certainly do not claim know everything there is to know about Alaskan fishing. I spent my first two summers in Alaska fishing from a relative's boat and as many charter trips as my pocketbook could accommodate.

As a high school teacher, my time in the summer is available to chase the fish pretty steadily (Yes, I have my wife to thank for this as well). Last July, I bought a boat of my own - a 22' Hewescraft Sea Runner with a hardtop. I appropriately named the boat "Summer School".

The halibut fishing is easiest in May, June and July because the fish are in relatively shallow water (80-120'). You can catch them later in the summer, but you need to get down deeper (200-300') to find them consistently. Of course some weekends are better than others for catching halibut because of the tides. Again, this is an "ease of fishing" issue. During extreme tides, we sometimes resort to using 5-pound weights to keep the bait on the bottom. This wears you out in a hurry.

We catch most of our halibut in Cook inlet, and launch the boat from Homer, Anchor Point, or Deep Creek. We usually catch our limit (2 each) and throw a bunch back in the process. On a good day, you can catch fish until your arms ache and end up with a huge bruise on your thigh from the butt of the rod. We haven't caught any huge halibut yet, but we have caught a bunch in the 50-80 pound range.

We catch ling cod & rockfish out of Seward & Whittier. The boat ride is much longer to get to the fishing grounds from these ports, but the scenery is worth it. The Ling cod season doesn't open until July 1st. We have caught many ling cod over 50 pounds and many rock fish over 15 pounds. We haven't had great luck catching halibut out of Seward or Whittier yet, but I have some tips from the local Coast Guard instructors (I am currently taking the Boating Safety & Seamanship class). I hope to get better halibut results this year. We are also going to try shrimping in Prince William Sound (Whittier) this year.

Salmon fishing is pretty steady throughout the summer. In May and early June, you can catch kings (chinooks) in the salt. Mid-June and the end of July bring large runs of reds (sockeyes) into the Kenai & Russian rivers. Starting about mid-July, and continuing all through August, the silvers (cohos) are very plentiful in the salt. The silvers are my favorites to catch, because they are the most aggressive biters. Of course there are big runs of pink salmon and chum salmon each year, but few people fish for them.

In addition to the almost never-ending daylight, this gives you a pretty good run down of the what an Alaskan summer offers. Now, tell me about those tuna of yours.

[Popeye]

Dan...see my post in other thread (know your skipper)

[Tacklebuster]

Dan,
Do you teach at Diamond High by chance? I have inlaws in Anchorage and we are planning a trip for this summer. I lived in Anchorage for four years and have fished many times out of Deep Creek and Homer. We used to fish Jewel Creek and I caught a lot of nice fish out of there. Jewel creek ran almost through my back yard. Ship creek was another of my favorites for big Kings. I can't help you out on the Tuna thing but if you come down this summer, I can put you on some estuary keeper sturgeon.

[PeterMac]

I have often wondered what Heaven was like.... :smile:

PeterMac

[Pilar]

Ok Dan .. about TUNA! First let me say that my name is John and that I am a tunaholic.

The fish are juvenile Albacore and they range in size from 4 to 40 lbs. Very few over 35 and not many under 10 are caught by the sport guys. These fish come within 20 miles of our coast most years and several times have been caught less than 10 miles out. Mixed in with the schools of Albacore are Big eye and Bluefin. From what I have read the Big eye is almost never caught on hook and line and only a few bluefin have been landed. Albacore feed all night near the surface and can be found there at 1st and last light and for short times during the day. There is some research on telemetrically tagged fish that show an all night feeding behavior near the surface and a diving and rising behavior believed to be sleep during the day. The fish rise to within 30 meters of the surface and then glide back to depths approaching 300 meters before rising back up again.

The mostly albacore fishery might change this year as we have some new Salty dogs who have done the Big eye and Bluefin on the East coast. The technique they use back east is deep water jigging and bait at night.

What we do here is mostly trolling during daylight hours. Handlines and rod/reel with feather jigs, cedar plugs and also some casting plastic swimbaits with light tackle. The wolf pack is made up of boats of various sizes from the small (19') but tough 'Pilar' to the luxurious 'Julie Rose III' at 47' and all sizes and types in between. We hunt in groups and use this website to hook up for trips all summer on most any day of the week. Weather conditions and the infrared satellite photos on Terrafin determine the best days to fish. Trips start in early July and go through September and sometimes even into October. Many believe that the fish arrive before then and stay till after the effort ceases.

A typical trip lasts 12 hours. We leave before 1st light (0500) and run out 30 plus miles to seamounts and other known locations near the continental slope and look for blue, clear water at 60 degrees or better. 62 is about ideal. Fish can be found near sudden temperature changes called 'breaks', near floating debris and I believe they habituate bottom structure like pinnacles and seamounts even hundreds of feet down. Trips end due to the boat overloaded with fish, the ice all used up or fuel use or weather changing for the worse.

The pack arrives on the fishing grounds at 0800 or so and the hunt begins. Usually scattered over many square miles until the deal goes down. Once fish are located the radio starts squawking and we converge on the location. Nothing can adequately describe the chaos of a full on TUNA! bite but many fishers here on this website and others have made good tries at describing it.

I typically drive at cruise speed until I see birds sitting or working bait, cobalt blue 62 degree water or a temperature break of a 1/2 degree or more. Sometimes you will see airborne albacore, 'jumpers' in cooler water and getting them to bite can be a real challenge.

When the location is fishy enough we deploy our gear and troll at a fairly high rate of 6 to 10 mph. Most boats use a combination of handlines, divers and rod/reel aka standup gear. Some use all of one or the other. Standup gear is a 4/0 sized reel with four or five hundred yards of 80# spectra line and a 30 to 50 lb rod, typical. Many other combinations are used but that is pretty common. A handline or meatline is a line tied to the boat with a bungee shock absorber on the boat end. Most handlines are made of Ashaway 200# TUNA! cord which is about 1/8" and bright blue when new. Handlines come in various lengths from 30 to 100 feet and have a heavy duty swivel on the end for easy rig changeout. A diver is an orange surfboard like contraption about 10 inches long (Yo-Zuri 9.0) that runs on a short length of TUNA! cord and dives down 10 or 15 feet below the boat. The big line does not seem to bother the fish and albacore are in my experience not the least bit leader shy.

I use 200#, 7 foot mono leaders on all my feather jigs so that they can be used on handline or standup gear. Cedar plugs are on 7 foot, 100# or 150# mono leaders. I only use cedar plugs on standup gear because the fish will break the leader on the handline.

Whatever you fish you deploy in either a mass at the same (50' or so) distance from the boat or in a vee pattern with the lines at the corners of the boat farther out than the middle. I use diver boards, handlines and standup gear all together and deploy 5 to 8 lines total. And I use the vee setup with the corners at 150' for standup gear, 100 feet for the corner handlines, 30 feet for the corner diver boards and 50 feet for the middle handline. Some guys on the larger boats also use outriggers for standup gear.

Ok, so you are fishing now and there is no need to watch the standup rods at all. Just set the drag pretty loose and the clicker on. There will be no doubt at all when you get slammed. Handlines need to be watched at all times because they make little or no noise. Divers pop up in your wake and thrash around so a bite there is pretty easy to spot. In any case multiples are common and there have been days when everything gets slammed at once. 8 lines and three fishers quickly turns into a one legged man at an *** kicking festival.

These fish are nuclear powered and can swim at speeds approaching 40 mph. Nothing sounds like a 4/0 with 30 lbs of albacore peeling the line off of it. They do not tire very quickly and often sound in water that is over 1500 feet deep. Once we start getting slammed, the trick is to keep the boat moving and haul fish to the boat. I often throw handfulls of chunked herring into the wake and pump the blood over with the bilge pump on a strike to encourage more strikes.

TUNA! bleed like crazy and if not handled properly can trash around in the boat at blinding speeds, flinging blood and scales everywhere.

It is a very primal experience and will bring out the cave man in you in short order.

Sound like fun?

But wait there is more .... you quit at 14:00 and run in, bloody and sore armed. The boat looks like a tuna suicide bomber exploded inside the cockpit. You get back to Dopey bay at 16:00 or even 17:00. It is pretty hard not to have a huge S.E.G. painted on your face and you then spend 4 to 6 hours cleaning your 20 plus fish at the cleaning station. Much story telling, consumption of cactus juice and gear swapping goes on all evening. Someone fires up the barbq and the wasabi makes an appearance. Crews drag boats off for a refuel and ice stop. Some go home and some come back to the parking lot to spend the night.

About midnight you find a shower and a place to sleep. Some of you will overcome your common sense and fatigue and go again the very next morning.

My name is John and I am a tunaholic. I admit I am helpless with my addiction and there are only 120 or so days to go before the rodeo begins again.

[Birdnest]

[Dan in Alaska]

Hey John, THANKS for the description. I am REALLY interested in tuna fishing now! Sounds like a hoot!

Silver fishing can be that active up here. Last year we went out of Valdez and caught loads of silver salmon. We kept 66 that weekend. We smoked some, but canned most of them. On the last day, we went out "just one more time" and promised our wives we would be gone no more than an hour. At the end of that hour, we released our 14 fish! What a great time.

If I am able to come down this year, it looks like August would be the time, but I'd have to check the calander again. I know July is out; I have guests at the house every single day in July. Move to Alaska, buy a boat, and NOW the relatives want to visit.

Tacklebuster, sturgeon fishing is another item on my list of things to do. Tell me more about it. Before you come up this summer, shoot me an e-mail and we'll compare plans. If I'm not entertaining other guests, we'll hook up and chase some fish. BTW, I live in the Dimond district, but I teach at East.

Birdnest, you coming up?

[Muddy Water]

Oh my God, nice story. I know where I'm taking my new boat this summer. Somewhere west of Depoe Bay.

[Dan in Alaska]

I should have offered this earlier, but please feel free to contact me directly at dvretz@alaska.com .

[ 03-17-2004, 12:38 PM: Message edited by: Dan in Alaska ]

[Puffin]

Dan great butt fishing at Montague island out of Seward about 75 miles one way need good weather and seas. don't know your range or if your experience permits such a trip but many large fish are caught there. I don't have any plans to be up north but if you head down this way i'm sure Pilar or I would love to take you tuna fishing as we generally fish together and love to see a tuna virgin/addict broken in

[StinkyH]

Very cool write-up!

StinkyH