2014 Tuna Adventures

[Fish Assassin]

Nice work, bet that crew was smiling

 

[seadna]

Excellent reports guys. I didn't make a run this weekend as I had a new guy out who wanted to fish for salmon and unsure of his skills in general, I didn't want to run out deep and potentially spend my time babysitting/"pseudo-guiding" on a tuna trip. After fishing salmon with him, I know I made the right choice. I hope to make a run next weekend, weather permitting.

 

[Sculpin]

Nicely done fellas. I was dying inside a little as I was looking out at the conditions while working up at da beach. The texts from Birdie didn't help either lol .

 

[Fish on John]

Great reports!! Can not wait until the TUNA move further up Island & closer to the beach. Good going GUYS!!

 

[Birdsnest]

I learned a few things on this last trip:

First, I now believe the term "tune someone" Comes from tuna fishing. When bonking tuna it seems like your tuning them. They may be laying still on the first hit but after the first hit they will flutter very hard so you hit them again and the lighten up a bit on the fluttering. BUt its not enough so you hit them again and they start fluttering even harder so you hit them again and when you've hit them just right, just enough then they will be still enough to pick up and move where you want them. This is completely random process. I laughed all day about this. I also noticed that you really want to get them above the eyes and not further back like on salmon.

Secondly, if you take the guts out right away you do not get a bile stain on the belly. ( for those belly lovers) I am hot smoking mine right now. They will be like smoked fish butter sticks when they are done.

Its a big help to have some items to handle ice. Space is an issue on my boat and it is always a challenge to handle ice to pack fish after slushing them. Having a mt container of any kind to move ice into is a bit help to properly pack any space with fish. Since I have space challenges(in my boat that is spacious) I think I will now bring a mt rubbermaid tote to hold ice while I pack fish on the bottom of the cooler this with the extra 3 5 gallon pails I always carry should help a lot. This last trip I used a rubbermaid grey garbage pail with holes drilled on the bottom placed on the swim grid to bleed fish it. This was perfect. The fish stay vertical and the pail holds about 7 fish and never has to be drained. I was using 5 gallon pails and getting some bruising from the top rim on the fish but I still use one to help keep the fish in order of being boated. And having a small pail for shovelling ice is a bonus. I strongly feel that slushing is very important for fast even cooling but also it is so easy to push the fish into when they are ready for it. Packing fish in ice is time consuming especially if they are going to be re-packed sometime during the day.

Great reports!! Can not wait until the TUNA move further up Island & closer to the beach. Good going GUYS!!

I see no reason why there wouldn't be tuna up there within reach . If i was a adventurous guy up there I would start fishing around 49 30 , 127 30. Its only 27 miles off the beach. What are you waiting for???? other than good weather.

 

[seadna]

I learned a few things on this last trip:

First, I now believe the term "tune someone" Comes from tuna fishing. When bonking tuna it seems like your tuning them. They may be laying still on the first hit but after the first hit they will flutter very hard so you hit them again and the lighten up a bit on the fluttering. BUt its not enough so you hit them again and they start fluttering even harder so you hit them again and when you've hit them just right, just enough then they will be still enough to pick up and move where you want them. This is completely random process. I laughed all day about this. I also noticed that you really want to get them above the eyes and not further back like on salmon.

Secondly, if you take the guts out right away you do not get a bile stain on the belly. ( for those belly lovers) I am hot smoking mine right now. They will be like smoked fish butter sticks when they are done.

Its a big help to have some items to handle ice. Space is an issue on my boat and it is always a challenge to handle ice to pack fish after slushing them. Having a mt container of any kind to move ice into is a bit help to properly pack any space with fish. Since I have space challenges(in my boat that is spacious) I think I will now bring a mt rubbermaid tote to hold ice while I pack fish on the bottom of the cooler this with the extra 3 5 gallon pails I always carry should help a lot. This last trip I used a rubbermaid grey garbage pail with holes drilled on the bottom placed on the swim grid to bleed fish it. This was perfect. The fish stay vertical and the pail holds about 7 fish and never has to be drained. I was using 5 gallon pails and getting some bruising from the top rim on the fish but I still use one to help keep the fish in order of being boated. And having a small pail for shovelling ice is a bonus. I strongly feel that slushing is very important for fast even cooling but also it is so easy to push the fish into when they are ready for it. Packing fish in ice is time consuming especially if they are going to be re-packed sometime during the day.




I see no reason why there wouldn't be tuna up there within reach . If i was a adventurous guy up there I would start fishing around 49 30 , 127 30. Its only 27 miles off the beach. What are you waiting for???? other than good weather.

I never bonk my tuna but rather brain spike them. I use either a stainless steel ice pick or an awl. The awl is sturdier but needs to be cleaned and oiled. We spike the fish as soon as they come in by pushing the awl in a little above the eyes and at a slight angle. Then you twist it around a bit. A few seconds of that and the fish is done - the tail stops moving, the gills flare out and the fish shudders for a second or two.

The taking the guts out immediately is a good tip - I'll do that from now on. For moving ice, I went to a restaurant supply store and bought one of those large aluminum hand scoops you see in ice machines. It moves the ice pretty quickly and it's strong enough you can bang on ice that's frozen in a clump to break it up. My swim grid isn't as large as yours so my bleed bucket is a sturdy rectangular kitchen trash can. Since I hope to be able to figure out how to get tuna on jigs while chumming with IQF anchovies, I didn't want the bleed bucket to be open to the outside - e.g. on a stop, you don't want a lot of blood in the water to attract sharks. So I drilled a hole near the bottom and installed a PVC valve that I can open when I want to empty it (on the troll) and close when I want to keep the blood in the bucket (on a stop).

 

[Tidal Chaos]

We brain spike ours as well; I just took an old screw driver and ground the tip down to a point; look for the soft spot on the top of the head and drive it in on a slight angle; they do a small spasm and that is the end of it; no bouncing around in the bucket and no bruising or trying to hit something that is going nuts on the deck. Unless you really like cleaning up blood from helm to stern; looks good but sucks at the end of the day when you are running back in trying to figure out how blood got all over the inside and outside of your windshield.

 

[eriks]

So gutting a tuna doesn't affect the quality of the loins by exposing them to water? Why not remove the head at the same time?

 

[harper44]

So gutting a tuna doesn't affect the quality of the loins by exposing them to water? Why not remove the head at the same time?

I know a few guys around here that remove the heads and pull out the gut sack then pack the cavity with ice. Seems like a good method to save some room. I believe that's the way the non-freezer commies do it

 

[getbent]

I guess it comes down to how frantic the bite is and the size of the crew??? lots of time to do this when in a search pattern or on the way back to the beach except once they are on ice they are on ice....???

 

[harper44]

I guess it comes down to how frantic the bite is and the size of the crew??? lots of time to do this when in a search pattern or on the way back to the beach except once they are on ice they are on ice....???

Yeah but really how long does it take to do this between the slush box and the ice box. I don't know cuz I've never tried it but I'm sure it could be done without too much trouble

 

[Birdsnest]

So gutting a tuna doesn't affect the quality of the loins by exposing them to water? Why not remove the head at the same time?

The head comes off as well but the gill plates stay on the fish to cover the loins. The only flesh that is exposed it just behind the head and it comes off when you take the gill plates off when carking/removing loins.

Sounds like Im getting a spike instead of clubbing.

Yeah but really how long does it take to do this between the slush box and the ice box. I don't know cuz I've never tried it but I'm sure it could be done without too much trouble

You have to make the time but its like taking a **** or a nap, the fish seem to start biting when you are doing this. Then all the sudden you are landing, braining, bleeding, heading, gutting and packing in ice. Busy busy busy all the while keeping the fish in order. I was saying to my crew the other day that the fishing was so good that we didn't really have time to sit back and enjoy the day. It was heads down and busy for the whole 4 hours we fished. After we were ready to run home we ran the boat at 6 kn sat down and ate lunch for none of us ate are drank anything all morning.

Once the fish are are on ice they are on ice. I try to give them enough time in slush so that they can be packed as dense as posable and covered in ice. They should be good for a couple of days in most coolers like this. I drain the water off them over night but I place the bung back in for the night. All my fish are at -.6C the next day.

 

[tykkyt e blue]

couple yrs ago in Lapush, a local guy showed me how to gill and gut without cutting whole head off or cutting thru any loin - I haven't done it since, but this is general idea; ( maybe a you tube video to see? )
My boat is obviously short on space and my infloor fish box only holds about 4 tuna at a time, so he was explaining how the gut n gill system would cool fish faster so I could transfer them out of the slush quicker.

Cut thru top of each gill arch and around 'c' collar to underside of 'chin', then cut across narrow vee where bottom of gills meet lower jaw. Then make slit in anal vent and cut the intestinal 'tube'
Now grab each set of gill rakers thru gill flap and twist about 50-60 degress w your hand - when both break free from tissue on the upper roof of mouth and the cut across lower jaw opens up, the gills and guts can be pulled and come out as whole. You end up with a cone shaped cavity where the guts came out but it still has the membrane intact to keep loins from being contaminated

dunno if that description makes enuf sense? I only saw it done on two fish and I did it once on the last fish. Took him 40-50 secs - me a fair bit longer.

 

[getbent]

Hey Birdsnest,

Tried to send you a PM as I am curious about smoking some tuna and was curious about your brine recipe and temp/time for smoking but your inbox is full.
Had some at the captains meeting for the tuna shootout from the boys from QCove and it was delish, super rich but very good...

Cheers

 

[seadna]

Getbent - take a look at this thread.

 

[Birdsnest]

My inbox is MT now.

 

[tykkyt e blue]

I managed to find a pic of a fish where you can see the 'chin' cut where gills and guts pull out thru the opening - not the greatest example

 

[Birdsnest]

Temps-check, chloro-check, weather....not so much....

 

[Draht vom Hoko]

Onboard Hndling of sashimi-grade tuna

coming late to this thread, but delighted to see the first tuna reports coming in for our northern brothers!
Hoping for good weather this weekend out of LaPush for our first run of the year.
On handling techniques, I thought I'd share a great guide a dive buddy game me a couple years back.
Excellent pointers for the handling of any game....quality being all about how you handle it in the field.
http://www.spc.int/coastfish/en/com...4-onboard-handling-of-sashimi-grade-tuna.html

There's another variant from the Hull Truth - scroll down @ 1/2 way to jarracuda's post: http://www.thehulltruth.com/sportfishing-charters-forum/189937-about-bleeding-out-tuna.html#b

Cheers!

 

[Sculpin]

Temps-check, chloro-check, weather....not so much....

Roger that. Looks like a possible window on Saturday. We are ready to roll if it settles down a bit more. Won't know until Friday evening. I'll give you a call soon .