2016 Tuna Adventures
- Thread starter Sculpin
- Start date
getbent
Well-Known Member
Pm sent
the fog ducker
Well-Known Member
could o went 100 miles yesterday out there , living room calm
white meat for the winter all done
great wknd......
fd
white meat for the winter all done
great wknd......
fd
Slivo
Active Member
They did go 100.......3 tuna only...lost 1could o went 100 miles yesterday out there , living room calm
white meat for the winter all done
great wknd......
fd
J-GLOBAL
Well-Known Member
Went out for Salmon yesterday in the morning then switched over to Hali. Sitting on the pond flat water looking west thinking how far to run... Coulda done 40 knots in any direction had me thinking. But didn't go for it.
Thinking this might the Tuna season that wasn't. Unfortunately the busy season starting up, even if the warm water moves in, and the wind/waves cooperate might not be able to make it.
DAMN!
My daughter is already fretting the absence of hot-smoked tuna bellies over the winter.
Thinking this might the Tuna season that wasn't. Unfortunately the busy season starting up, even if the warm water moves in, and the wind/waves cooperate might not be able to make it.
DAMN!
My daughter is already fretting the absence of hot-smoked tuna bellies over the winter.
Old Blue
Well-Known Member
What's your recipe? I snagged 35 bellies and trimmed them up all nice from my trip to Westport, gonna use some for sushi but plan on doing a batch or 2 in the smoker.
why knot
Active Member
He guys it is a bad luck,
We left Bam Friday 4:30 morning and headed sout. The First worm water we got is around 75 miles from Bill.
I liked the Water temp (60:0) and the color and decided to drop 6 lines with multi colors clones.
We got the first hit in half hour with a double. One mid 20 and the second around 15 pounds.
It looked as an exiting starting , we did couple of circle hoping we get more but nothing.
So I kept trolling in warmer water. An hour later we had another hit around 15 pound.
We were trolling all day and nothing, we decided to stay on the water over night and continued fishing next morning.
We deployed at 6 am and got the first hit an hour later. Unfortunately we lost it .
We were trolling couple of hours and the water temp dropped to to 58,5 and I told the guys that we are leving.
We were heading to wards home and hoping we find the warmer water and try our luck again.
The water temp was mid 58 everywhere so we kept going to the edge of the nitnat canyon.
Finally we have seen some life , lots of birds and dolphins and also lot of commis.
We dropped the lines fished another hour and nothing.
Time to go home. We had a niece ride home .
We did some videos and pictures that I will post later.
That was it this time , hopfully better luck in the shootout .
We left Bam Friday 4:30 morning and headed sout. The First worm water we got is around 75 miles from Bill.
I liked the Water temp (60:0) and the color and decided to drop 6 lines with multi colors clones.
We got the first hit in half hour with a double. One mid 20 and the second around 15 pounds.
It looked as an exiting starting , we did couple of circle hoping we get more but nothing.
So I kept trolling in warmer water. An hour later we had another hit around 15 pound.
We were trolling all day and nothing, we decided to stay on the water over night and continued fishing next morning.
We deployed at 6 am and got the first hit an hour later. Unfortunately we lost it .
We were trolling couple of hours and the water temp dropped to to 58,5 and I told the guys that we are leving.
We were heading to wards home and hoping we find the warmer water and try our luck again.
The water temp was mid 58 everywhere so we kept going to the edge of the nitnat canyon.
Finally we have seen some life , lots of birds and dolphins and also lot of commis.
We dropped the lines fished another hour and nothing.
Time to go home. We had a niece ride home .
We did some videos and pictures that I will post later.
That was it this time , hopfully better luck in the shootout .
Sculpin
Well-Known Member
As I start to type this adventure I would like to echo the fellow (Fishtofino) that got me into this mess in the first place "Go to where the fish are, not where you want them to be".
After a summer of very different tuna conditions and a lot of frustration of hoping to go for tuna out of Salmon Beach again, we bit the bullet and headed up to the best looking water on the West Coast of the Island. I had been looking at that patch off Winter Harbour on Terrafin for well over a week and to top it off I get a call from Tidal Chaos at 3 p.m. on Thursday afternoon with some solid intel that the fishing was good up there. One quick call to firelight and a plan started to unfold quite quickly! (Unfortunately my son just recently had his leg operated on and would not be joining us).
First thing was a place to stay. Firelight called Dick and our cabin was available. Check.
I spent the evening getting the boat ready and loaded for bear. Check.
Talked to Smiley via text and talked him and his crew into going up as one of the buddy boats. Check.
I went to work on Friday morning and got some last minute things taken care of while firelight did the grocery shopping. Food. Check.
We left Nanaimo and cruised up Island without incident and stopped at Cove Fisheries in Port Hardy to see Peter. Salt ice up to the ying yang. Check.
We launched out of Coal Harbour again and headed on our adventure. The weather was absolutely incredible.
Looking up Holberg Inlet.
The ride out was good and the weather just kept getting better and better the closer we got to the coast.
Kains Island dead ahead again.
Looking down towards Brooks before heading into Winter Harbor and settling in at the cabin. It's such a beautiful area.
To be continued.....
.After a summer of very different tuna conditions and a lot of frustration of hoping to go for tuna out of Salmon Beach again, we bit the bullet and headed up to the best looking water on the West Coast of the Island. I had been looking at that patch off Winter Harbour on Terrafin for well over a week and to top it off I get a call from Tidal Chaos at 3 p.m. on Thursday afternoon with some solid intel that the fishing was good up there. One quick call to firelight and a plan started to unfold quite quickly! (Unfortunately my son just recently had his leg operated on and would not be joining us
).First thing was a place to stay. Firelight called Dick and our cabin was available. Check.
I spent the evening getting the boat ready and loaded for bear. Check.
Talked to Smiley via text and talked him and his crew into going up as one of the buddy boats. Check.
I went to work on Friday morning and got some last minute things taken care of while firelight did the grocery shopping. Food. Check.
We left Nanaimo and cruised up Island without incident and stopped at Cove Fisheries in Port Hardy to see Peter. Salt ice up to the ying yang. Check.
We launched out of Coal Harbour again and headed on our adventure. The weather was absolutely incredible.
Looking up Holberg Inlet.
The ride out was good and the weather just kept getting better and better the closer we got to the coast.
Kains Island dead ahead again.
Looking down towards Brooks before heading into Winter Harbor and settling in at the cabin. It's such a beautiful area.
To be continued.....
Last edited:
Sculpin
Well-Known Member
After settling in we went over to meet After Hours, his family, and his friend and forum member Dbastock. It was great to meet them and it was awesome how stoked they were to get out on the tuna grounds. A plan was finalized and we hit the sack to be ready in the morning.
We left the dock at 4:30 a.m.
After Hours met us at the mouth of the Harbor and followed us out in the dark. One last check of Terrafin out by Kains and we punched in a coordinate to start at. We were basically just North of the Haida Ridge on the 1000 fathom line.
After Hours got a text from Smiley saying they had just launched in Port Alice and would meet us out there. Awesome.
Stopping to take in the sun rise and have a pee break lol.
The ride out was a little sporty and I don't think the swell had spaced out as much as buoy weather had anticipated. It took a little longer then we had hoped for to reach our destination. It was 42 miles from Kains. Shorter than what we are used to.
We came across a lot of bird activity and a nice 3 degree spike in temp. There was a huge mass of porpoises out there. Hundreds and hundreds of them. I suggested that After Hours start fishing here and we would go out a little ways more and do some prospecting. We got the gear in the water and had one on the hand line in the first couple of minutes before all the rods were set. We lost that one right at the boat. We got everything set and another one hit on the hand line and we landed it. On the radio right away with our coordinates and After Hours and Smiley joined us. We stayed spread out a bit and we continued to pick away at them.
Firelight with the first one in the boat.
Getting the slush tote going after a couple in the boat.
The biggest of the day at around 25 lbs. The fish were a nice grade for sure.
To be continued....
We left the dock at 4:30 a.m.
After Hours met us at the mouth of the Harbor and followed us out in the dark. One last check of Terrafin out by Kains and we punched in a coordinate to start at. We were basically just North of the Haida Ridge on the 1000 fathom line.
After Hours got a text from Smiley saying they had just launched in Port Alice and would meet us out there. Awesome.
Stopping to take in the sun rise and have a pee break lol.
The ride out was a little sporty and I don't think the swell had spaced out as much as buoy weather had anticipated. It took a little longer then we had hoped for to reach our destination. It was 42 miles from Kains. Shorter than what we are used to.
We came across a lot of bird activity and a nice 3 degree spike in temp. There was a huge mass of porpoises out there. Hundreds and hundreds of them. I suggested that After Hours start fishing here and we would go out a little ways more and do some prospecting. We got the gear in the water and had one on the hand line in the first couple of minutes before all the rods were set. We lost that one right at the boat. We got everything set and another one hit on the hand line and we landed it. On the radio right away with our coordinates and After Hours and Smiley joined us. We stayed spread out a bit and we continued to pick away at them.
Firelight with the first one in the boat.
Getting the slush tote going after a couple in the boat.
The biggest of the day at around 25 lbs. The fish were a nice grade for sure.
To be continued....
Last edited:
Sculpin
Well-Known Member
Smiley started to get into them as well but After Hours and his crew were having a tough go for the first 4 hours. We kept giving them some suggestions to try like dropping a couple on the down riggers (most of our fish were on the dive boards) to get some under water. Didn't help. Changing speed and lure set back etc. We finally told them that we like to run all the same colour and they switched everything to green and bingo it worked!!! After Hours put his mic up to the thundering tuna on his deck and we all cheered for them . That literally made our day. We were so stoked that they lost their tuna virginity .
Virgins no more. After Hours and crew.
We ended the day with 10 nice grade tuna. We quit early due to the unexpected change of hours at the gas bar in Winter Harbour. I can't recall Smiley's final count but it was at least 10 or more as they stuck it out longer than us. After Hours crew got 7 after they got their groove on. Congrats guys!!!
Back at the dock we had a beer and "chinwag" with After Hours and his crew. They are naturals at carking tuna. Great folks that love fishing.
After Hours and his son high fivin'.
Congrats again guys. It was a pleasure fishing with you and we hope to do it again next year.
To be continued....
. That literally made our day. We were so stoked that they lost their tuna virginity .Virgins no more. After Hours and crew.
We ended the day with 10 nice grade tuna. We quit early due to the unexpected change of hours at the gas bar in Winter Harbour. I can't recall Smiley's final count but it was at least 10 or more as they stuck it out longer than us. After Hours crew got 7 after they got their groove on. Congrats guys!!!
Back at the dock we had a beer and "chinwag" with After Hours and his crew. They are naturals at carking tuna. Great folks that love fishing.
After Hours and his son high fivin'.
Congrats again guys. It was a pleasure fishing with you and we hope to do it again next year
.To be continued....
Last edited:
Sculpin
Well-Known Member
Before we went over to congrat the boyz, we ran into Mike (aka Fishin Magician of Winter Harbor) at the gas bar. He came down to see how we did and was trying to put a crew together to head out on Sunday. A plan was hatched and we knew Smiley was game to head out again. Later that evening Mike came over to our dock and said he had his crew and would meet us at 4:30 a.m. We were pretty stoked to be heading out with him because of his knowledge of the area and his legendary fishing ability.
In the morning we were sore but we got a good nights sleep and we were ready to give it another whirl. Mike showed up and we followed his big Boston Whaler out to Kains. One last check of Terrafin and Buoyweather and we were on our way. This time we picked a spot right on the North end of the Haida Ridge, so a little bit South of the spot the day before. The chloro looked good and the temp was great.
The ride out was way smoother than Saturday and we got out there in no time flat. Absolutely beautiful weather conditions.
Another awesome sun rise.
Lots of birds on the way out.
We hit our spot and started fishing. Mike kept going a few more miles and was into some fish pretty quick. We joined him and radio'd Smiley the coordinates. We had a hard go for the first few hours and the skunk was getting to be concerning.
Firelight watching the spread in anticipation.
Smiley had joined us and was in the same boat as us for quite a while before he started scratching a couple out.
Smiley and crew hooked up.
Mike had kept scratching away at them but was loosing a lot of fish. Quite a few were hitting on a certain plug he had out there. I think he had 3 or 4 in the boat and had lost like 9!!! At one point we saw him stop for quite a while and we finally radio'd him and he said he had a 10' shark on!!!
Some how in the packing of the boat I forgot a tackle bag that had my plugs in it!!!. We decided to switch up colours to Zuccini broom Zukers and we finally got the skunk off. It was a relief big time. We put a couple of singles in the boat then we had a triple that we landed all three on. We were now back in the game.
To be continued.....
In the morning we were sore but we got a good nights sleep and we were ready to give it another whirl. Mike showed up and we followed his big Boston Whaler out to Kains. One last check of Terrafin and Buoyweather and we were on our way. This time we picked a spot right on the North end of the Haida Ridge, so a little bit South of the spot the day before. The chloro looked good and the temp was great.
The ride out was way smoother than Saturday and we got out there in no time flat. Absolutely beautiful weather conditions.
Another awesome sun rise.
Lots of birds on the way out.
We hit our spot and started fishing. Mike kept going a few more miles and was into some fish pretty quick. We joined him and radio'd Smiley the coordinates. We had a hard go for the first few hours and the skunk was getting to be concerning
.Firelight watching the spread in anticipation.
Smiley had joined us and was in the same boat as us for quite a while before he started scratching a couple out.
Smiley and crew hooked up.
Mike had kept scratching away at them but was loosing a lot of fish. Quite a few were hitting on a certain plug he had out there. I think he had 3 or 4 in the boat and had lost like 9!!! At one point we saw him stop for quite a while and we finally radio'd him and he said he had a 10' shark on!!!
Some how in the packing of the boat I forgot a tackle bag that had my plugs in it!!!
. We decided to switch up colours to Zuccini broom Zukers and we finally got the skunk off. It was a relief big time. We put a couple of singles in the boat then we had a triple that we landed all three on. We were now back in the game.To be continued.....
Last edited:
Sculpin
Well-Known Member
Well I think we picked the right spot because in total from what we saw there was at least 15 commercial boats and 6 sports fishing boats out there. It was incredible water conditions (water colour and temp wise) and the weather was awesome.
We were having a tough go this day but we scratched out 8 in the end. All nice grade fish again too. Most of the fish this day were caught on rods.
Firelight playing a freight train.
A couple of fish from our triple.
The fishing was not lights out for most of us but Mike was starting to become known as "Magic Mike" through out the day lol. They had a 5 banger on and landed all 5. They kept scratching away at fish and ended up with 12 for the day with about 15 lost. They had the right spread and lures out there for sure. I think if we changed up a few things earlier we could have possibly put some more fish in the boat but it's not about the numbers for us.
We started to troll towards the beach away from the pack and picked up a double near a patch of kelp. One on a hand line and the other on a rod.
Yours truly with those two at the end of the day.
To be continued.....
We were having a tough go this day but we scratched out 8 in the end. All nice grade fish again too. Most of the fish this day were caught on rods.
Firelight playing a freight train.
A couple of fish from our triple.
The fishing was not lights out for most of us but Mike was starting to become known as "Magic Mike" through out the day lol. They had a 5 banger on and landed all 5. They kept scratching away at fish and ended up with 12 for the day with about 15 lost. They had the right spread and lures out there for sure. I think if we changed up a few things earlier we could have possibly put some more fish in the boat but it's not about the numbers for us.
We started to troll towards the beach away from the pack and picked up a double near a patch of kelp. One on a hand line and the other on a rod.
Yours truly with those two at the end of the day.
To be continued.....
Last edited:
Sculpin
Well-Known Member
The ride in was ultra plush for most of the way. It got tight and stacked as we come up onto the shelf though and was pretty choppy by the lighthouse.
Kains Island on the way in.
We went back to the cabin and I started dinner while firelight tidied up the boat. We were having venison roast with some of Tidal Chaos's favourite beer.
Smiley and crew showed up and we invited them in for dinner and drinks. It was a nice bs session and good company. Thanks for the stories guys. They stayed on the boat at our dock and took off for home in the morning. We slept in a bit, cleaned up the cabin, and loaded up the boat. If the weather held up it would be really hard to leave ha ha. But alas, we had to return to work to help pay for the next adventure.
Leaving Kains Island behind us.
Back on the hard at Coal Harbour.
It was a good trip and we met some really nice folks. We got to fish with some new tuna fishers and be part of their excitement of trying this awesome fishery out. We went home with some nice grade tuna and some great memories. Thanks to everyone that made this trip so cool. Till next time.....
Cheers,
Sculpin
Kains Island on the way in.
We went back to the cabin and I started dinner while firelight tidied up the boat. We were having venison roast with some of Tidal Chaos's favourite beer.
Smiley and crew showed up and we invited them in for dinner and drinks. It was a nice bs session and good company. Thanks for the stories guys. They stayed on the boat at our dock and took off for home in the morning. We slept in a bit, cleaned up the cabin, and loaded up the boat. If the weather held up it would be really hard to leave ha ha. But alas, we had to return to work to help pay for the next adventure.
Leaving Kains Island behind us.
Back on the hard at Coal Harbour.
It was a good trip and we met some really nice folks. We got to fish with some new tuna fishers and be part of their excitement of trying this awesome fishery out. We went home with some nice grade tuna and some great memories. Thanks to everyone that made this trip so cool. Till next time.....
Cheers,
Sculpin
Last edited:
Olde School
Well-Known Member
Yours is the best reporting on SFBC, Sulpin!
Gave me goosebumps.
Bummed that I missed the trip with Smiley but family comes first...
Gave me goosebumps.
Bummed that I missed the trip with Smiley but family comes first...
Albacore out of Ilwaco - Yes I know it's a bit far south for this board, but in mid August, I moved my boat from Neah Bay south to Ilwaco. I did one live bait guided trip out of there earlier in the year and it was a bust - 5 fish total for a 10 person crew. My buddy did another trip on the same boat with the exact same results - 5 fish for 10 people. So when he, I, my wife and his girlfriend headed out on Sunday with only troll gear, his hopes were not set too high. However, this Sunday was definitely the day to be out tuna fishing. We crossed the Columbia river bar early in the AM having pushed off the dock at about 5. The bar was restricted to 20' and under but that appeared to be based on the reports from the previous day's last daylight report. The ebb was just getting started and bar conditions when we crossed were pretty much as I expected - a little lumpy but nothing too bad. Given that it was pitch dark, we motored out at 8-12 kts until we were well clear. The lumpiness remained until about 10-15 miles out as the ebb was building but a couple of hours after the sun came up, we were far enough out that the waters started to calm and the rest of the day was very pleasant - 2-3 foot swells at 14s with a 5-10kt wind from the north.
Reports from the previous day indicated that there was good fishing about 40 miles out and off the opening to Willapa bay. My plan was to run out on the N. edge of Astoria Canyon and then if we didnt' see signs of life, motor N until we did or until we were at the previous day's report location. We ran out to about 32 miles and didn't see any life. We turned north but with the tide still ebbing and a bit more of a N wind (it layed down later in the day), we couldn't go much faster than about 10-12kts without beating ourselves up. So after 20-30 mins, I decided that since we couldn't go too much faster than trolling speed (6-8kts), we might was well put lines in the water.
We ran a spread of 8 rods. 4 purple/black/silver tuna clones on rods off the stern - one on each corner, two inside of that. Those were out at 50-75' (alternating length). From two rod holders on the cabin hand rails, I ran some Mexican flag clones at about 125' back and then from two rods on the roof, we ran swim baits at about 150-175' back. We got our first bites at 10:30AM and put two nice size (~22#) albies in the boat. A circle or two around those hits produced nothing so we wandered further N. Around 11:30 we got 4 more but these were smaller 8-12# fish. We started tacking NE towards coordinates that were called out earlier on the radio but before we ever got to those, we started hooking multiple fish.
We wound up about 32 miles offshore about 1/2 way up the Long Beach peninsula. We stopped at 2PM with 18 albacore on board. The largest was a little over 30#. That one was fun as it bit on a swim bait that I cast out, let out about 50' of line and gave a few hard tugs. Feeling the bite with the rod in your hands is super fun. The swim bait was on a relatively stiff salmon rod but that fish nearly bent it in half. It took 10+ minutes to land it.
Every rod and every type of gear I had out landed fish but the best producers were the swim baits and the Mexican flag clones. The 8 rod spread only got tangled a few times - once when a shark took gear across several lines before chewing through the leader and a few times due to some "interesting" work at the helm by a party who will remain un-named here. From the radio reports, it sounds like everyone was having a good day. Many of the guys with live bait plugged their boats before noon and headed home. So Monday I took the time to install my live bait tank for the next tuna adventure.
Sorry for the lack of photos. I took the camera but was generally too busy reeling to deal with photos and when I wasn't reeling, I was tired. But I did take one photo of the new bait tank that I installed on Monday.
Reports from the previous day indicated that there was good fishing about 40 miles out and off the opening to Willapa bay. My plan was to run out on the N. edge of Astoria Canyon and then if we didnt' see signs of life, motor N until we did or until we were at the previous day's report location. We ran out to about 32 miles and didn't see any life. We turned north but with the tide still ebbing and a bit more of a N wind (it layed down later in the day), we couldn't go much faster than about 10-12kts without beating ourselves up. So after 20-30 mins, I decided that since we couldn't go too much faster than trolling speed (6-8kts), we might was well put lines in the water.
We ran a spread of 8 rods. 4 purple/black/silver tuna clones on rods off the stern - one on each corner, two inside of that. Those were out at 50-75' (alternating length). From two rod holders on the cabin hand rails, I ran some Mexican flag clones at about 125' back and then from two rods on the roof, we ran swim baits at about 150-175' back. We got our first bites at 10:30AM and put two nice size (~22#) albies in the boat. A circle or two around those hits produced nothing so we wandered further N. Around 11:30 we got 4 more but these were smaller 8-12# fish. We started tacking NE towards coordinates that were called out earlier on the radio but before we ever got to those, we started hooking multiple fish.
We wound up about 32 miles offshore about 1/2 way up the Long Beach peninsula. We stopped at 2PM with 18 albacore on board. The largest was a little over 30#. That one was fun as it bit on a swim bait that I cast out, let out about 50' of line and gave a few hard tugs. Feeling the bite with the rod in your hands is super fun. The swim bait was on a relatively stiff salmon rod but that fish nearly bent it in half. It took 10+ minutes to land it.
Every rod and every type of gear I had out landed fish but the best producers were the swim baits and the Mexican flag clones. The 8 rod spread only got tangled a few times - once when a shark took gear across several lines before chewing through the leader and a few times due to some "interesting" work at the helm by a party who will remain un-named here. From the radio reports, it sounds like everyone was having a good day. Many of the guys with live bait plugged their boats before noon and headed home. So Monday I took the time to install my live bait tank for the next tuna adventure.
Sorry for the lack of photos. I took the camera but was generally too busy reeling to deal with photos and when I wasn't reeling, I was tired. But I did take one photo of the new bait tank that I installed on Monday.
Last edited:
Oceanmaster
Active Member
Great post Sculpin! Glad u got your tuna fix in. Looks like great water gotta love that Carribean blue.
I've used a few different ones but so far I've had the best luck with the blue sandeel baits from Savage Gear - http://www.savagegear-usa.com/product/view/lures/sandeels/sandeel. I buy the 6" 1.5 oz ones. I tied 40# leader onto them and troll at about 6kts. The best thing about swim baits is that they continue to fish while you're drifting and reeling in other fish. They are also good for casting when there are fish around the boat. The others I've used are a bit smaller (3-4") and dark purple. We mount those on the standard triangle shaped swim bait heads. I don't know who sells that kind of gear up north but down by the Columbia, there are a ton of shops with swim baits in stock.
