Tracker and Minaki UPDATE!

[Mr. Fisherman]

50-60 fish on Minaki and 30 ish fish on tracker. All but 2 on live bait! Not sure how far out but stay tuned for details.
Nice job guys

[fishboys]

Nice :lurk:

[Zodiac-Fisherman]

Amazing sea's, it was literally flat all day. Majority of fish were caught on live bait.
Final count 29. Released a few blues at nite.

[Deepslayer]

Sounds fantastic! Who said it was all over??

[bait boy]

Nice job gentlemen!! :-)

[sandman]

Are they out of depoe or newport??

[ron m]

I think live bait implies they are out of Westport or the CR at least.

[Zodiac-Fisherman]

Deepslayer,

The #'s are from the minaki yesterday. Left ilwaco early sat morn, and returned this afternoon. We ran out of bait and ice.

Lesson learned. 2 scoops(10lbs) of bait is not enough!

[Cliff]

illwaco i believe

EDIT ah dylan beat me to it

[kamloops]

Ray

Not even, wish it were true.
1 large kill bag, 2 full 170qt I.T. coolers.
All fish on live bait. Big fish, real pigs.
20-30lb F.C. leader to hook. Regular mono line would not get bit.
Found out tuna are not fond of 30lb HI-Vis green mono.
ALSO,
I spent tons of time tieing leaders from 4-5 rod hookups and ensueing tuna merry go round tangles. We would usually only land 3 at the most, out of 5 fish hook-ups.
We landed perhaps 60% of fish hooked.

When tuna are skittish like yesterday, you need to sneak up on them, motors and all electronics turned off.
We would coast upwind of the area with the boats momentum and engines shut down. Kind of tough on the turbochargers. Any blood in the water would drum up the blue sharks.
Lot's of fun.

[Pete]

Sounds like a bunch of fun, Tom. I'm envious!

A friend that used to tuna fish years ago tells me that pink mono is the key to tuna. I've always poo-poo'd the idea of pink mono, but it might be worth giving a shot in the string of experiments.

[CATCH AND EAT]

I don't know how many fish we ended up with but it was a nice haul. Probably the most fun I have had yet to date tuna fishing. Learned a lot of new stuff from Captain Tom about tuna fishing out there including needing to finally figure out how the heck to tie a blood knot. Pretty sad when you have a boat full of accomplished fisherman and only the captain can tie on. I promise Tom I will learn! :grin:

Got into some real fun bites out there. One triple we had on provided quit the challenge though. Ever handline in 3 tuna at the same time doing the merry-go-round dance all on 20 to 30lb mono. WE had three rods do this and I got the honor of trying to handline them in gently while watching them do the dance 30 feet below. HeY we got two of the three with the third one breaking off at the boat. MIssed out on the reward that Tom offered If I got all three. Darn! Learned another lesson that you can never have to much ice. but we managed the fish pretty we and got them all cold.

Saw some nice Orcas out there that killed our tuna bite but they were sure pretty and ton's and ton's of sun fish. Have never seen so many of then out there and in big schools too. What a fantastic trip and it is one that I will always remember. Great lessons from a gracious captain and as always a pleasure to fish once again on Minaki.

Great time with fishing buddies, Troy, Terry, Rich and Bobbie as well.

[KeyWest]

I've never fished on the Minaki for Tuna - only Halibut. What a sweet ride. One of these days it will work out (like on an overnight trip). I wanted to join you on Sat - but my regular crew was calling to make a trip (or two)...

[wdlfbio]

We've fished 20-30# Ande for many years on TUNA! trips down south. Caught lots on the 20#, but took good technique to keep from busting them off or pulling the hook. Defintely not able to horse them in like the 80-150# trolling lines many use. 5-10 minute battles weren't common on 20-30# albiies. But, if they hit the 20#, next cast was 30#. If they got eaten, 40 or 50# was next.