we went on a Westport adventure.
Tuesday drive down - set up rv at Westport Inn and rv - nice lil campground 100yds from dock and close enough to the breakwater you can hear the swells wash up.
Tall tote of ice from Westport Seafoods was only a block away...a bit pricy at $75 usd but thats the price for local ice.
Then stop at the marina office for moorage - not bad price $20 a night. The slips are all assigned here. my suggestion is to ask for dock 10, 12 or 14 - they are closest to the campground and right beside the bait seller.
Bait opens at 5am... $35 per scoop - we took 1 1/2 scoops in my homemade 45 gal barrel bait tank - 2 scoops would have probably been ok. Since we didnt find any tuna on day 1, we had about a scoop of bait left - they all survived quite well overnight and we didnt get more the 2nd day. Nice big anch 5- 6.5 inch
The wx had been poor for several days prior to weds. Without any local boats having fished there was not much Intel to be had - so I took my best guess where to fish based solely on the SST / Chloro shots
we ran 37 miles SW to 'guides canyon?' the one just north of astoria canyon. Blue blue water - 64.5 temp on our machine - 1.5 degree temp break...Yay tuna water!! lets catch !.... and wait, and wait and troll around searching... nada
45 miles out we come across a 25' ball of kelp - Ooooh - gotta pass by that.... 100' past the kelp we hook up! Out comes a Yellowtail ! My Kootenay Lake cousin cant quite figure out why I'm so excited and hooting! Gee, its only 10 -12lbs - whats the big deal? ha
Any way - we circle around this kelp 4x while i throw half a scoop of live chum at the general area - nothing else - oh well - still way cool.
Trolled around some more to finish the day, but that was it.
Once we were in cell range coming in, I msgd Mark Coleman ( All rivers and saltwater charters ) I had been out as a guest with him 2x the last few years.
Shameless plug for him here - He runs 3 - 29' Defiance - 6 -pack boats thru the whole tuna season - I highly recommend him if you want to see what a riot the live bait fishery can be!
He congrats us on the yellow and shares his numbers from that day, they had done well! - They had been 25 miles north in Grays Canyon
A huge thank you to Mark!
We refuelled and iced the boat weds nite. BTW - the marina fuel guy is an butt - buy your fuel from the local chevron land station if you can trailer your boat.
he is filling a local boat when we pull up at 530 - Whaddya want? he says - we close at 5! I say 'gas please' and make a gesture to the boat he is fuelling at that very moment ( local guide boat so maybe an arrangement there? )
He says 'its $50 dollar late charge" - we close at 5! I dont know if thats true? or he saw our BC reg numbers??? and deiced to profit grab?
I sez " really???" and make a questioning gesture to the boat he is literally hanging the pump up for ??? thinking maybe he is trying to be funny?
Yes REALLY is his reply... no humour!
so we turn away and decide to pull boat and fuel at the land chevron ( My ice tote was back at campground anyway so much easier to bucket ice into boat to boot )
$.50 a gallon cheaper too.
Thurs am -off dock at gray light and 49.8 mile run to the numbers Mark shared.
We soon hear radio chatter from other boats 30 min ahead of us that they have hooked up already ! YAY
It took us a couple hrs to troll up our own fish. A single - my cousin had never caught a tuna before so We slowed to land the fish but did not bait stop.
An hour later another single but 5 miles from 1st fish - I dont feel like we have hit a decent school yet compared to the radio chatter so we troll some more. I have seen the live bait stop twice as a guest but its another thing to decide to try it yourself for the 1st time when there is only two of you.
The guided boats typically have a capt, deckhand and 6 anglers - To start a bait stop, 1 guest gets troll fish, capt tosses chum as boat drifts to a stop, deckhand reels in remaining troll lines while the capt pins on live anch for 5 other guests. Done right, it takes less than a minute to have 5 livies in the water plus 10-15 chum swimmers AND a troll fish hanging under the boat doing the death spiral.
So we keep trolling again, 30 min later we hit another troll fish but now we are within sight of 5 other guide boats that are on their own bait stops.
I go into my best imitation of amateur guide ha - toss live chum, reel in troll lines, my cousin on the troll fish, boat swinging in the wind... more chum - hurry hurry terry, i know fast is a key to keep the school nearby.
I hook up a livie and drift it away...set rod in holder w no drag just clicker. more chum... gaff the troll fish. blood explosion on floor!
shout instructions to Doug - get a livie hooked up! wash floor LATER!
Toss more chum and see boils and a tuna pass right under the boat - COOL !
I look over to Doug and hear the zing of braided line peeling thru rod guides? he hooked up 15' behind the boat - ARE YOU HOOKED UP ALREADY???
Holy Faaaaa - is his reply as braided line burns under his thumb from the freepooling reel. ( no setting drag until tuna has swum away with bait well down its throat! )
I know that w 30lb test leader he will be awhile so I pick up my rod and feed more line out...20sec later I hook up too! Wheeee 2 man double on live bait.
30 mins later we have both fish on deck and a 3 fish splatter of blood, troll lines, lures and swquashed anchovies to deal with - WHAT FUN!
After a quick clean up we get back on the troll - hook up a troll fish by circling back to our chum line and do it all over again!
the next 2 live bait fish are PIGS - later - one scaled at 36 and the other at 35 lbs but I know they are big the instant they hit the floor
I'm just about jumping over the gunnel I'm bouncing so much hahaha
Back on the troll - we hook up in 5mins - 3rd bait stop...1 live bait fish for me , doug lands the troll fish and gets his own live one going when a drifting swimbait rod lights up! Our blood trail now equals a blue shark show for Doug.
I leave my fish hanging under the boat w light drag while we deal w a 4.5' blue shark ( my fav swimbait is hanging outside his mouth and I WANT IT BACK )
Sharky goes plop - I offer my hanging fish to Doug while I start to bait one more rod...And the rod on the roof holder goes off! Screeeeeee! my smallest reel w only a bit of drag set.
As I lever on more drag to the strike position the line peeling off actually speeds up! like the fish hit another gear. At first I'm wondering if its even a tuna? spool is getting skinny!
20min later it gets gaffed - another piggie - scales at 31 lbs
The hanging fish that Doug took over was right beside at 30lbs.
Its now 330pm - 60 miles from port and we're done.
only 9 fish total but close to the best fun ive had in years
moose meat ain't cheap, get ole Derby in on it while you are at it.
