2012 TUNA trips

hell of a report Terry. This Sept/Oct has been incredible for weather. Very cool to take in that exprience!
 
Awsome report. I'd like to know more about that defiance 290 also. It would have to be on my list of boats to trial when it comes time to move up.
 
tykkyt e blue said:
Since I missed out on the Bamfield show, I started to search for alternatives before the warm water was gone for this year. I came across an old post on Bloodydecks about a charter out of Westport Wash. that WASN'T an overnite trip on a 50+ footer. ( http://allriversguideservice.com )
Turns out last Thursday he had a spot for a single and away I went...
We managed to boat 24 fish!!! AND only 5 fish came on the troll. Live bait stops are a BLAST!!!!!!
6 guests on the boat, as soon as a fish hits on the troll, the boat is stopped immediately ( no trying for multi hookups on the troll ) and except for the guest reeling in the troll fish, everyone else gets a live anchovy on a #1 hook w about 3/4 oz of pencil lead and 6' of 30lb. fluoro leader. On the slide, first guy baited, drops in the anch. and freespools his reel ( no casting! ), next rod steps ahead and does same until 5 lines are fanned out and the boat is drifting downwind. The take on live bait is NOTHING like a troll hit. It's like a very slow river drift thru a deep pool. You gently thumb the freespooled reel as the boat moves 2-3 mph down-wind, there's hardly even a bump, except the reel goes from 3, to 5, to 10, to 20+mph before you can jam your thumb down and lever on some drag.
We had several stops that produced multiple hook ups. Once the bite died, we would reset the troll gear and circle around until another troll fish would hit.
I don't know if the other guests were being considerate? or feared for an elbow in the ear? BUT they seemed more interested in the bait fishing, so I picked up 3 of the 5 troll fish (and still got 8 on bait!) Being a river fisher is a definite plus - the take is very subtle ( we all got bait stripped at least a few times)
The water warmed from 55 to 58 over about 35 miles, then rose to 59.5 about 45 miles out. I expected us to stop, but we kept going out until 60.2 degrees and 49 miles out of Westport. In the end, we got 57 miles out and the water stayed between 60.4 and 60.8
Left the dock at 630am, two hours of run time, 7 hours of fishing and 2.5 hours to run back in. ( BTW - Grays Harbour bar crossing is def something to RESPECT! )
For early season next year, I think its a trip worth considering
Click to expand...


Great report! Thanks for sharing. It would sure be nice if we could try the live bait program up here.
 
I've never seen anchovies in our area to net up and that's what they use down there.

Might have to go down there to try it out sometime
 
The trip I went on was a mixed party of singles - all nice guys, but I would love to organize a group of 6 that were experienced rods. A good group that could focus on more than just their own rod would make for some excellent fishing. Just a touch of teamwork would have put even more fish in the boat.
I'd go again next year for sure... ( now I need to figure out a bait tank sys over the winter on top of a bigger fuel tank, adding insulation to the fish box and fabbing a shallow cooler to fit under the transom extension )

The 29' Defiance is a very capable boat - nice ride ( a bit 'wetter' on the cabin than I expected )- great fish holds, long deck to fish from and the center table/live tank gives everyone easy access to the bait.
The troll fish hit on 'purple albino' xrap, pink/white clone, and trolled 'big hammer' swimbait. Using a swimbait for trolling was a surprise to me. A plus was being able to leave the swimbait 30' out on the outriggers during a bait stop. One ( maybe two? ) were picked up off the swimbaits while the boat drifted during the bait stops.
 
Interesting that fish were only tentatively taking live bait-my experience out of Westport was just the opposite- they grabbed it going away.

We put over 40 fish on deck before the bite died the captain said we'd probably caught every fish in the school!
 
Nice report Terry. Did they throw out chum during bait stop? Did you ask if they run out or don't have live bait what they use?
 
A few of the local boys are out there right now, will update!

They tried to get me on board, but we start slaughtering our pigs this afternoon!! I wish I was out there...
 
About the chumming - Luis ( deckhand ) would scoop 10-12 anchovy from the tank, fold the net flat against the tabletop and give the net bag a light slap or two with his free hand to stun the live bait slightly - they got tossed 3-5 at a time at the beginniing of every stop. After a few minutes of this, he would stop chumming since the drifting baited lines would be getting farther away from the boat than you could throw the stunned 'chummers'.

Cast swimbaits, metal jigs ( dungeness stingers ) or dead bait, 'nose hooked' were the other things that I saw used - they all worked at least once, but I stuck to the live bait since that's what I was hoping to learn more about. ( the 'livies' were collar hooked just behind the top of the gill flap )
Very neat to be able to see the anch. swimming 10' down and 40' feet away... then it would vanish - I never did see the tuna until later as it got reeled in.

Mark (guide) did some sight casting from the top of the cabin station ( except once was a blue shark that promptly swam away with 1 foot of leader sticking out of it's mouth - lol )

From what I was able to learn, I think small herring would work just as well up here, if you jigged up some?
 
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