2012 TUNA trips

You guys are fishing some heavy gear out there. All I run is good quality lever drag reels with about 300yrds of 40# or 50# mono in high vis. Green. These are like 15-35 pound fish no need for 200# leaders and super heavy rods/reels. I like a 15-30# stand up rod. Unless you just keep drivig away from the fish you will never go though 300 yrds. Running 80# flouro leaders is a really good idea .

I agree Mike. I use 20-40 lb rods with 80 braid and 60 leader to minimize breakoffs of pricey gear. I like your idea of fluorocarbon leader material.

Those great temp breaks/chloro has moved out quickly!! 65 mile run now?
 
Yeah and I saw this guy out there on Saturday lol. Gotta pack that extra fuel with you:D.

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Ya but its only a half hour run for him. I bet he has some zink oxide for his but!!
 
we ran very heavy tackle last year. Osama had recommended we gear up heavy, as he told us a story from last year when something alot bigger than a albacore hooked up. His guess was a big blue fin tuna. Stripped him of 300 yards and almost pulled him out the back of the boat. The downrigger was the only thing that stopped him from going over! With that story in mind, we geared up in a way that if we hooked up with a big runner like that, we would have a chance to bring him in.
 
You guys are fishing some heavy gear out there. All I run is good quality lever drag reels with about 300yrds of 40# or 50# mono in high vis. Green. These are like 15-35 pound fish no need for 200# leaders and super heavy rods/reels. I like a 15-30# stand up rod. Unless you just keep drivig away from the fish you will never go though 300 yrds. Running 80# flouro leaders is a really good idea .

I use 80# braid on the rods with 60 or 80# mono leaders. You have to keep checking your leaders after catching a fish or two. Those tuna trash'em with there teeth. One of the problems with braid is when trolling for long periods of time the portion of line at the top eye gets wear from rubbing on that top eye. There may be less abrasion with mono. I didn't use the gaff the other day either which was nice for there was no bloody mess to clean up, but i was using hand lines only with 150 and 200# leaders.

I would like to try fluorocarbon.
 
we ran very heavy tackle last year. Osama had recommended we gear up heavy, as he told us a story from last year when something alot bigger than a albacore hooked up. His guess was a big blue fin tuna. Stripped him of 300 yards and almost pulled him out the back of the boat. The downrigger was the only thing that stopped him from going over! With that story in mind, we geared up in a way that if we hooked up with a big runner like that, we would have a chance to bring him in.

A couple of years ago I had a hand line go bang. All I heard was a loud bang and the hand line was gone. We were not turning or anything out of the ordinary. It opened up one of those heavy long teardrop shaped snaps. I sure would like to know what it was.

PS by the way I did catch a juvinile blue fin here last year!
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A couple of years ago I had a hand line go bang. All I heard was a loud bang and the hand line was gone. We were not turning or anything out of the ordinary. It opened up one of those heavy long teardrop shaped snaps. I sure would like to know what it was.

PS by the way I did catch a juvinile blue fin here last year!
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Sounds like a US Submarine! :)
 
misspost sorry
 
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They are fishing albacores 35 miles out front of Kyuquot anddoing well. I ran up from Essperanza to find the fleet blown in.Hali and coho were good. Boat is in Tahsis awaiting the next attempt!! Looking forward to experiencing albacore for the first time.
 
They are fishing albacores 35 miles out front of Kyuquot anddoing well. I ran up from Essperanza to find the fleet blown in.Hali and coho were good. Boat is in Tahsis awaiting the next attempt!! Looking forward to experiencing albacore for the first time.

When I was up there last year in about the third week of August.....they were all of about 15 miles out.
 
I would love to catch one of those bluefin! I run a mix of tld 20's, avet hx's and a shimano tiagra 16. All of the tld's are straight 50#, about 300 yds. the Avets have 300yrds of 80 braid topshotted with 100 yrds of 40# mono. The one heavier setup I run is a tiagra 16 loaded with 550 yrds of 65# braid and 100 yrds of 50# mono on a calstar 20-40# rod. I almost always run the heavy rod as the long rod down the middle with a purple cedar plug. Its a bit of a toss up..........do you fish heavy gear all the time for that bluefin tuna and just bomb in the albies or do you have a litle fun with the small tuna and take your chances with the big guys..? On the right gear these are spuper fun fish, also I find that the 80-120 flouro leader is way stiffer and tougher than the equivelent mono. I have been using ANDE flouro crimped on both ends as it sucks to tie knots in the heavier stuff.

On the subjet of poppers charbait has some nice yellowfin coffin nail poppers on the bottom of the page http://www.charkbait.com/cs/CharkBait-Topwater.htm , anything that is blue or puple should work well. I was just casting ahead of the school and reeling back quicky to the boat. You are going to need a good quality spinning reel and some 50# braid for this. A baitcaster just doesnt give you the speed of retrieve that you need for these things to work well. No matter what happens DON'T STOP REELING.....when you have a fish chasing just KEEP GOING.....maybe even faster. I have found if you slow down they will loose interest. We should all get together this winter and share our ideas on this fishery as it is always good to get other anglers opinions on what works.
 
I would love to catch one of those bluefin! I run a mix of tld 20's, avet hx's and a shimano tiagra 16. All of the tld's are straight 50#, about 300 yds. the Avets have 300yrds of 80 braid topshotted with 100 yrds of 40# mono. The one heavier setup I run is a tiagra 16 loaded with 550 yrds of 65# braid and 100 yrds of 50# mono on a calstar 20-40# rod. I almost always run the heavy rod as the long rod down the middle with a purple cedar plug. Its a bit of a toss up..........do you fish heavy gear all the time for that bluefin tuna and just bomb in the albies or do you have a litle fun with the small tuna and take your chances with the big guys..? On the right gear these are spuper fun fish, also I find that the 80-120 flouro leader is way stiffer and tougher than the equivelent mono. I have been using ANDE flouro crimped on both ends as it sucks to tie knots in the heavier stuff.

On the subjet of poppers charbait has some nice yellowfin coffin nail poppers on the bottom of the page http://www.charkbait.com/cs/CharkBait-Topwater.htm , anything that is blue or puple should work well. I was just casting ahead of the school and reeling back quicky to the boat. You are going to need a good quality spinning reel and some 50# braid for this. A baitcaster just doesnt give you the speed of retrieve that you need for these things to work well. No matter what happens DON'T STOP REELING.....when you have a fish chasing just KEEP GOING.....maybe even faster. I have found if you slow down they will loose interest. We should all get together this winter and share our ideas on this fishery as it is always good to get other anglers opinions on what works.

Great info Mike. I really like the popper stuff. Sounds really cool. Thanks.
 
They are fishing albacores 35 miles out front of Kyuquot anddoing well. I ran up from Essperanza to find the fleet blown in.Hali and coho were good. Boat is in Tahsis awaiting the next attempt!! Looking forward to experiencing albacore for the first time.

My commercial buddy was slaying them (200+ a day) off Esperanza the last time i talked to him
 
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FYI, the Washington state Striped Marlin record is 134lb caught in 2005 out of Westport. Tuna fishing opens up all kinds of possibilities if we put the time in.
 
We were still catching on troll last year late Oct as are commericial guys. I did not get my swimbaits soon enough to try bait stop last year. Reason why I am running heavy line and lots of it is I dont slow down trolling below 6 mph. Just going by what i heard at tuna seminar at seattle boat show. Say get multiple hook up on troll to kick motors out and starting casting. They have their live bait down there but said swim baits work as well. The line shy thing I have trouble believing but i figure when i go that far I want as much gear and every chance of landing them as I can. Still have dream of getting in school of them that was supposedly recorded by air of 16 mile big. 16 mile school may be just urban myth like bigfoot.
 
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