2014 Tuna Adventures
- Thread starter Sculpin
- Start date
Keep the level wind well greased and the drag fairly light for the initial strike. You can tighten it up after the boat is slowed down a bit. We've landed maybe 50 tuna in the past couple of years and most of those were on Penn 320 or 330GT reels. Haven't had one "blow up" yet. The only problems I've had with those reels is when I'm hali fishing and stick the bottom. If I'm too aggressive and put a lot of pressure on the line with the reel, I'll damage the level wind. Now for those situations, I give myself some slack and cleat the line off on the boat. Other than that, the reels have been trouble free for both tuna and hali. One reason why some like reels with a bit more beef to them for albacore is that you can winch the fish in without dropping the speed. E.g. you can remain on the troll and bring in fish with a big reel, a large amount of drag and a big handle on the reel. There's not enough drag on a Penn 320 or 330 GT to do that, you have to slow the boat down.
Dogbreath
Well-Known Member
You can easily upgrade the drags with replacement washers from here not expensive either.
http://www.smoothdrag.com/
http://www.smoothdrag.com/
Olde School
Well-Known Member
With Penn 330s, if you play a tuna at troll speed, you have to be Popeye - or will be soon!
Well - you can upgrade the handle to get more leverage but you can't get enough drag on regardless to bring in a tuna at troll speed. Still if you slow down to idle, it's no problem. I find I often get hits on other lines when I slow down to reel in a fish anyway. I usually troll for a few seconds after the first hit to see if the other rods will get hit. With a lot of line on the reel, you can do this without getting spooled.
Birdsnest
Well-Known Member
The 330's have more winch power than the 320's. I like the 330's. My rods have 80lb braid on them. Most of the time someone wares gloves and hand lines the fish in for the guy on the rod and he just takes up the slack. Lazy? Ya but after reeling in 3 or 4 of those I dont want to do it anymore.lol id rather pull it in by hand. But you need just the right rubber grips on the gloves to do this. gloves with sticky rubber to grip that tiny line.
Aces
Well-Known Member
Yeah i slow down as well after a bit once we get hooked up. I try and make it a little like sportfishing once we get hooked up instead of just a meat hunt.
tykkyt e blue
Well-Known Member
So...I didn't get my fill of tuna at the Shootout. But it did seem the time to pack up camp and bring my boat home.
I will be going to Westport on Oct 2 for a live bait trip with one of the Allrivers boats.
Hopefully there will be a chance to try some swimbaits and jig some shiny metal. I am very curious to see how that will compare to livies since we have no access to live bait.
report to follow
I will be going to Westport on Oct 2 for a live bait trip with one of the Allrivers boats.
Hopefully there will be a chance to try some swimbaits and jig some shiny metal. I am very curious to see how that will compare to livies since we have no access to live bait.
report to follow
Sculpin
Well-Known Member
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tykkyt e blue
Well-Known Member
Just like the car ads - " your actual mileage may vary"
Our trip yesterday resulted in 11 fish for the boat. The good results from a few days before seemed to be tampering off ( at least in the location that AllRivers and Saltwater Charters had been going to )
So 3 of the Allrivers boats and two other charter boats tried a spot further SW than they had been fishing. Maybe wasn't the place to go?, Or maybe the big water from previous days mixed things up?
We would get a troll fish, stop and toss bait, get one more fish on bait, then nada. That was the routine all day for all 5 boats. It was like the fish were in small packs of 4-7 fish scattered over 20 sq miles. It didn't matter where we went or what else besides bait we used - everyone got ones and twos, but never an open bite.
The water color was very clear blue. Most of the temps were 62.5 - 63.8 range. There never was a real break line so that may have been the cause of small pockets of fish.
I learned a lot by watching how the different boats went searching for fish.
I learned a bit by listening to the radio chatter about theories.
And it was a beauty day and I played a few fish
Our trip yesterday resulted in 11 fish for the boat. The good results from a few days before seemed to be tampering off ( at least in the location that AllRivers and Saltwater Charters had been going to )
So 3 of the Allrivers boats and two other charter boats tried a spot further SW than they had been fishing. Maybe wasn't the place to go?, Or maybe the big water from previous days mixed things up?
We would get a troll fish, stop and toss bait, get one more fish on bait, then nada. That was the routine all day for all 5 boats. It was like the fish were in small packs of 4-7 fish scattered over 20 sq miles. It didn't matter where we went or what else besides bait we used - everyone got ones and twos, but never an open bite.
The water color was very clear blue. Most of the temps were 62.5 - 63.8 range. There never was a real break line so that may have been the cause of small pockets of fish.
I learned a lot by watching how the different boats went searching for fish.
I learned a bit by listening to the radio chatter about theories.
And it was a beauty day and I played a few fish
Fish Assassin
Crew Member
So interesting to see how other people were doing. Our captain kept telling us what other operators had on board. Seems he was not lying. He'd say that boat has 3 and that boat has 10. He tell us that we had good numbers compared to others but we still had to fish harder. I thought it was just to make us feel better. We got 59 in one day devided 5 way. 4 guys got 12 fish each and one guy got 11.
Ill be booking on the Rampage next year. Bigger boat 55', bigger roomier deck, huge fish hold chilling your catch down to 24 degrees.
Ill be booking on the Rampage next year. Bigger boat 55', bigger roomier deck, huge fish hold chilling your catch down to 24 degrees.
So how was the captain's personality? I've heard varying reports ranging from "a little gruff" to "downright disrespectful of clients". I'm pretty thick skinned and can follow directions.
Fish Assassin
Crew Member
I can't judge, as we did tell him to let lose and not worry about us. There was lots of bickering back a forth through out the day. We were all a bit hard on each other. All done in fun and cheap humour. I'll book again and will likely do it with a group of friends, and charter the entire boat.
Charter Tofino
Well-Known Member
Thinking about making one last run out of Tofino with a buddy on Wed. The weather looks great. Anyone hear anything or interested in teaming up?
tykkyt e blue
Well-Known Member
I have been in contact with TunaDon about weds or thurs - His boat, so you'd need to check with him. We'd be leaving out of Bamfield
Sculpin
Well-Known Member
The weather does look great. The shots up there look good as well. Close in. No good chloro shots lately but could change by tonight with an update. I would love to tow the rig up and join you guys but I'm in full blown paying for the summer mode now lol. Shawn or Jay are probably up on whether or not anyones been out lately. Good luck.
Cheers,
John
Birdsnest
Well-Known Member
I dont think there has been any boats out of tofino since the first big turn in the weather. The last two weekends both had a fishable day each with good water according to the shots. I have one of the smallest boats doing this kind of fishing so when it comes to fishing later in the season I am a bit shy to hammer out there where the weather is less stable. I sure was watching it tho but after a tough season where I really only had one hot day (filled the boat by 11 am) I have lost interest in doing the work/research. Ill be out there in early July next year.
I totally feel it is worth a go tho out here. The ocean is still very warm. Woke up the other morning to foggy damp 18C the other day. The ocean is keeping us very comfortable still here in tofino.
I totally feel it is worth a go tho out here. The ocean is still very warm. Woke up the other morning to foggy damp 18C the other day. The ocean is keeping us very comfortable still here in tofino.
Charter Tofino
Well-Known Member
Where are you guys thinking if you head out? Some nice water 50 miles straight south of beal in the states.
Louden and Clayoquot don't look that warm or hard edged...
Thanks Birdsnest not surprising, last report I heard was last weekend with Trophy Hunter and Maxxfish. Said decent numbers of fish showing but scratchy fishing.
Sculpin
Well-Known Member
Which shots are you looking at? (I might get my pee pee slapped for this but here it goes.....)
I'm looking at 149 over 127.50. That's hard enough. Better than down South for sure. Way closer in as well. I nailed it on the Sunday first weekend of the shoot out. Getting better at reading these things this year man.
I'm ready to pull the rig and give her man. You got me pumped up. Need a deck hand though.
Talk to you tomorrow.
Cheers,
Sculpin
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