Tuna charter

I was with Dabell on the tuna trip last week with www.oceansportfishingcharters.com ....unbelievable fishing down there right now. I have done both the fast troll WCVI and the live bait.....not even close, the live bait option is so much more fun. You troll until you get a hit, then quickly get the live bait out, fish until no more bites, then troll some more. We only had 2 bait stops, as the 2nd one lasted more than 8 hours....and not once in that 8 hours would there not be at least one person playing a fish, sometimes up to 5 on at once.

They bit right up and into dark. Once we realized we were heading back that night and not fishing the morning, the deckhands starting chumming with the leftover live bait and it got super crazy....bite in 5 seconds guaranteed. (note to self: bring head lamp next year)

I have also done one trip on All Rivers "express" charter -- 12 hours all-in. Great option for getting out there quick, not having to spend night on the boat, but only problem is if you don't find the tuna quick, you use up valuable fishing time hunting around. That is the nice thing about the multiday trip...you fish dawn to dusk, so a very high probability you'll get into them thick, even if slow for part of the day. For the extra $150, totally worth it just to get this extra time on the water. Especially if you're going to end up staying in a hotel in Westport the night before/after anyway, may as well put the hotel $ into the charter. However, the All Rivers guys are great too....they work hard to get you into the fish. Actually both are great....man o man do tuna deckhands work hard....they move as fast as the tuna.
 
If you have any interest in this and there are spots open - call, give a credit card and make the drive down. The trip was excellent (ok, to be honest the first night heading out was large "try to stay in the bunk" swells) - but other than that was a trip of a lifetime. That being said - I will be planning on repeating the trip of a lifetime next year and bringing my son.
 
Not to put a damper on this thread but in talking to a couple of people in casual conversation the last few weeks a topic has come up. Each had friends who have been feeling off lately and who after numerous trips to the doctor ended up getting tested for heavy metal levels in their body. These people ate lots of seafood, sushi and tuna was often consumed. They had high levels of mercury, cadmium, zinc and others. Heavy metals. Don't want to be an alarmist....but something to watch for. Not sure where Albacore fall into the risk factor....maybe just longer living and larger tuna.
 
profisher said:
Not to put a damper on this thread but in talking to a couple of people in casual conversation the last few weeks a topic has come up. Each had friends who have been feeling off lately and who after numerous trips to the doctor ended up getting tested for heavy metal levels in their body. These people ate lots of seafood, sushi and tuna was often consumed. They had high levels of mercury, cadmium, zinc and others. Heavy metals. Don't want to be an alarmist....but something to watch for. Not sure where Albacore fall into the risk factor....maybe just longer living and larger tuna.
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Albacore are one of the healthier choices in this regard due to their relatively small size (compared to yellow fin, blue fin or big eye). Heavy metals tend to accumulate to higher levels in larger, longer lived fish. Also, albacore caught off our coast are lower in mercury than most other tuna in the world. See - http://www.rodalenews.com/healthy-fish - for more info.
 
there is a good article in the oct 2014 consumers report magazine on mercury in fish, symtoms how much to eat etc. quite interesting. it says fresh albacore tuna is quite bad for mercury, skipjack they say is the only tuna it says is pretty much mercury free. ( i assume these small albacore may fall sort of into that category). as far as the canned tuna, albacore is by far the worst and the chart shows a 200# person can only safely eat about 6 oz. per week, hard to believe. all this data is obtained by consumer report magazine from the fda and epa. I am not makin this stuff off so don't go off on me, lol. something to think about. would be interesting to see one of these fish sent in for testing. personally I eat a ton of tuna sahimi and just out of curiosity am going to request a blood test next time I see my doc.
 
profisher said:
Not to put a damper on this thread but in talking to a couple of people in casual conversation the last few weeks a topic has come up. Each had friends who have been feeling off lately and who after numerous trips to the doctor ended up getting tested for heavy metal levels in their body. These people ate lots of seafood, sushi and tuna was often consumed. They had high levels of mercury, cadmium, zinc and others. Heavy metals. Don't want to be an alarmist....but something to watch for. Not sure where Albacore fall into the risk factor....maybe just longer living and larger tuna.
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Not to dampen fishing in BC, but between sewage, industrial waste, regular old pollution oh and radiation. Would you not think the eating bottom feeders and migrating fish could be just as harmful to ones health?

Lets keep this on topic.... I can't wait to leave for my live bait for tuna charter on Monday. Got me a Westport charter and will be celebrating my 40th birthday Tuesday which happens to be our first day of fishing. Can't think of a better way to spend my birthday :)
 
Fish Assassin said:
Not to dampen fishing in BC, but between sewage, industrial waste, regular old pollution oh and radiation. Would you not think the eating bottom feeders and migrating fish could be just as harmful to ones health?

Lets keep this on topic.... I can't wait to leave for my live bait for tuna charter on Monday. Got me a Westport charter and will be celebrating my 40th birthday Tuesday which happens to be our first day of fishing. Can't think of a better way to spend my birthday :)
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Amen to that!! Enjoy your trip because you only come this way once and the stars might not align this way again. Good Luck!!!
 
Yes - good luck and an early happy birthday to you too! If I didn't have to teach on Tuesdays and Thursdays and have so much other work to do right now, I'd have sent you a PM to see if you still had space. But it's not in the cards for me during the workweek. I'll be down in Westport this weekend to pull my boat out of moorage and might sneak in a tuna trip on my boat while I'm there.
 
Fish Assassin said:
Not to dampen fishing in BC, but between sewage, industrial waste, regular old pollution oh and radiation. Would you not think the eating bottom feeders and migrating fish could be just as harmful to ones health?

Lets keep this on topic.... I can't wait to leave for my live bait for tuna charter on Monday. Got me a Westport charter and will be celebrating my 40th birthday Tuesday which happens to be our first day of fishing. Can't think of a better way to spend my birthday :)
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Well, happy birthday and i hope you have a great experience. Sculpin and i had a great time last year (except for the jerkoff captain) and will probably try and go again in the future on a different boat.
 
Fishtofino said:
Well, happy birthday and i hope you have a great experience. Sculpin and i had a great time last year (except for the jerkoff captain) and will probably try and go again in the future on a different boat.
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Who you go with Shawn? I want to know who to avoid when down in Westport.
 
Dennis.t said:
I don't remember what I had for supper last night. I was asking Shawn a question, not you.
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Hey Dennis

Sorry i missed out on this thread but i was out of town. The boat we went on was in that other thread, we fished out of Ilwaco....will try Westport next time, probably on the Rampage or Gold Coast as it's a lot shorter drive from here. Looking forward to FA's report.......hoping the weather cooperates for them. It's getting late in the season.

I'm thinking of a full boat group of 10 for next year in early September............a Canuck invasion of 8 plus Ted and Jeremy from the BD site. I'm pretty sure i could talk my buddies Sculpin and Firelight into it, ha ha!! ;)
 
If I was going to go out of Westport, I'd go with either the Ms. Magoo (a fairly large boat) or with All Rivers Charters (smaller, faster Defiance boats). I've heard Rampage may not have the most friendly crew and that the captain is not only on the Rampage but is sometimes on a rampage with his customers. I hope you have a great time though.
 
FA - BTW I will be down there Sat. and Sun and plan on fishing tuna on Sun. The water looks like it will be in good shape by then and hopefully this past week's southerly winds have pushed more warm water up and in close.
 
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