2012 TUNA trips
- Thread starter Sculpin
- Start date
Nice story Terry. I know how you feel when you get those first few fish. I got my first three just last year. First it was a bit scary just to go that far off shore (now it's no big deal). Second I was only doing what I had read about - I had never been out with anyone who was tuna fishing so it was all my best guess if I was doing things "right". So those first few fish were a big surprise and a confirmation that I at least knew SOMETHING about tuna fishing. I didn't make my own gear so I didn't get that level of satisfaction - good on you for that!
I made about 5 trips out this year. One with 6 fish, one with 13 fish, one I called off early with zero fish (nasty water), one with 1 fish (again nasty water) and one with 11 fish. So that's 5 times as much experience as last year. The learning curve for me has been huge and I feel like this year I transitioned from complete amateur to almost mediocre. Last year, when I caught fish, I kept trolling and let the single almost spool the reel on the hopes that one of the others would hook up. This year, I stopped shortly after the first hookup and worked hard to quickly get the fish to the boat. I haven't yet gotten things to where I can develop a good bait stop but I'm working on that. However I have found that my doubles (a few) and my quadruple (one) all hit very soon after the first fish - in less than 10-15s. I also noticed that if I quickly landed a single and got all lines back out and moving again, I was more likely to get hooked up again than if I let thee single nearly spool me and then had to take a long time to land the fish. So while I don't have a lot of experience, I think it's not so useful to keep trolling very long after that first hit and better to focus on either bringing it in close to the boat quickly and jigging/bait fishing while it dangles or horse it in quickly leaving as many lines out as possible and get right back on the troll ASAP. On the best day I had (the overnight trip when we caught 13 and almost all were caught in the 1.5 hours prior to dark), rapid re-deployment and getting back on the troll resulted in many singles in short succession, a double and a quadruple.
This year I also ran mostly rapala X-rap 20's in the purple-black combination. Last year, I noticed the 3 hits I had on clones came on the rods on the corners (which were farthest away from the white froth of the twin engines. I realized I didn't have my tuna clones far enough back or in clear enough water for them to be seen well. X-raps solved most of that. I also have gotten much better/smarter about marking my hookups and trolling those areas hard. Last year, I was just so thrilled to have a fish on and it took so damn long to bring it in (after we allowed it to nearly spool the reel) that by time time everything was in, landed, bled and in the ice slurry, I had no idea where that fish hit and where I was relative to that. This year, a waypoint gets dropped when the fish hits, only the lines in the way are brought in, the fish is brought in quickly and brain spiked and I'm back on the troll as soon as the fish hits the deck. Lots of things still to perfect, but it's fun and I feel like I learn something every trip.
I made about 5 trips out this year. One with 6 fish, one with 13 fish, one I called off early with zero fish (nasty water), one with 1 fish (again nasty water) and one with 11 fish. So that's 5 times as much experience as last year. The learning curve for me has been huge and I feel like this year I transitioned from complete amateur to almost mediocre. Last year, when I caught fish, I kept trolling and let the single almost spool the reel on the hopes that one of the others would hook up. This year, I stopped shortly after the first hookup and worked hard to quickly get the fish to the boat. I haven't yet gotten things to where I can develop a good bait stop but I'm working on that. However I have found that my doubles (a few) and my quadruple (one) all hit very soon after the first fish - in less than 10-15s. I also noticed that if I quickly landed a single and got all lines back out and moving again, I was more likely to get hooked up again than if I let thee single nearly spool me and then had to take a long time to land the fish. So while I don't have a lot of experience, I think it's not so useful to keep trolling very long after that first hit and better to focus on either bringing it in close to the boat quickly and jigging/bait fishing while it dangles or horse it in quickly leaving as many lines out as possible and get right back on the troll ASAP. On the best day I had (the overnight trip when we caught 13 and almost all were caught in the 1.5 hours prior to dark), rapid re-deployment and getting back on the troll resulted in many singles in short succession, a double and a quadruple.
This year I also ran mostly rapala X-rap 20's in the purple-black combination. Last year, I noticed the 3 hits I had on clones came on the rods on the corners (which were farthest away from the white froth of the twin engines. I realized I didn't have my tuna clones far enough back or in clear enough water for them to be seen well. X-raps solved most of that. I also have gotten much better/smarter about marking my hookups and trolling those areas hard. Last year, I was just so thrilled to have a fish on and it took so damn long to bring it in (after we allowed it to nearly spool the reel) that by time time everything was in, landed, bled and in the ice slurry, I had no idea where that fish hit and where I was relative to that. This year, a waypoint gets dropped when the fish hits, only the lines in the way are brought in, the fish is brought in quickly and brain spiked and I'm back on the troll as soon as the fish hits the deck. Lots of things still to perfect, but it's fun and I feel like I learn something every trip.
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tykkyt e blue
Well-Known Member
I know what you mean about not knowing where you were when a fish hit... second two fish, I remembered to hit the MOB tab before I left the chair
Questions/ideas for you all - has anyone tried the Xrap 15 size? seems to match the anchovy profile closer
and now that I have seen the xrap 20 in action at 7mph ( clear enough water to actually see it )what do you think about a 5" Tomic instead?
I'm tempted to add 6 or 8 ounce banana weight between the main line and 6-7' leader to a Tomic plug to see if it will stay under at that speed and how it might 'wiggle'
and last - I have some 5lb cannonballs used for lake trolling - add to the handlines to get something down 10' feet or so?
I'm suffering from 'square wheel thinking' - something is gonna come from this IF I can just get it to turn over a couple times...
Questions/ideas for you all - has anyone tried the Xrap 15 size? seems to match the anchovy profile closer
and now that I have seen the xrap 20 in action at 7mph ( clear enough water to actually see it )what do you think about a 5" Tomic instead?
I'm tempted to add 6 or 8 ounce banana weight between the main line and 6-7' leader to a Tomic plug to see if it will stay under at that speed and how it might 'wiggle'
and last - I have some 5lb cannonballs used for lake trolling - add to the handlines to get something down 10' feet or so?
I'm suffering from 'square wheel thinking' - something is gonna come from this IF I can just get it to turn over a couple times...
Sculpin
Well-Known Member
Some interesting idea's for sure Terry. I hope Birdsnest chimes in as he likes trying stuff out. Maybe he has some idea's about using weights. I really like the idea of getting some stuff down under the spread a bit to give it a 3d look. Last year we used the downriggers with great success using just a big turd hootchie. The were reading around 35 feet if I recall but with the blow back at that speed it was probably about 15 -17 feet down for the lures. I might pick up some of those Yozuri diving boards or look into some Old Salty diving boards.
I like the banana weight idea with a tomic plug. I have buckets of old ones that would work great. I would like to try them on the hand lines off the rear cleats.
When I first started I talked with a commercial guy. He said he always wished he had a way of keeping his lines down 20 ft or so. We can do that with a couple lines. I used to run 2 lines down on downrigger and we would get about half of our bites on them. This comes back to not keeping all the same lures out to swim the same. If you only want 1 or 2 hooking up it is fine to run something deeper. As soon as I run same lures even if diff color I started getting multiple hookups. I have made up 2 oz wts on 1 ft leader to run ahead of any lure. I think all we need is to keep lure in water and with boat noise and mabey some birds splashing pulled from boat the tuna will spot them and come up. I do agree with Terry and other guys have said the smaller clones usually work better but they are also lighter so maybe the extra wt will keep them under water. If they are bouncing it is harder for tuna to spot them.
Osama Bin Hopper
Active Member
Bunch of us heading out of Bammy on Thursday. Couple boats likely staying out overnight.
Can't wait. Waters closer, looks good, I could here some yanks on the radio from the big bank today and one had 13 at 10:15...
Holy **** I'm pumped!!!
Can't wait. Waters closer, looks good, I could here some yanks on the radio from the big bank today and one had 13 at 10:15...
Holy **** I'm pumped!!!
Sculpin
Well-Known Member
Here is a nice shot of how the water came in closer for the Tofino crew especially. Chloro doesn't look that good though.
http://www.tempbreak.com/index.php?&cwregion=wa Go to the drop down menu below the location and look at the 09/18/2012 2:49pm shot. (sorry I thought it would work in the link but it just goes to the composite shot).
I like to bounce back and forth between the free one posted above and terrafin (subscription). They are actually pretty close if you look at the individual day's in the drop menu on Tempbreak. I don't like composite shot's and I'm starting to wonder what they are for? They don't seem very accurate for what we are trying to achieve or look for.
If anyone want's to seriously go after these fish you do need to subscribe to Terrafin and Buoyweather as a bare minimum. For the price of spooling a tuna reel each you have year round access to invaluable information at your finger tips. I look at these things twice a day or more and I am still learning but catching on quick on how to predict what will be the next day etc.(more so the temp but the chloro is still a mystery to me). This gives you such a safer experience out there weather wise and saves you that much more in fuel before you head out.
It's still like finding a needle in a hay stack (well not that bad) but at least it gives you a starting point.
Cheers,
John
http://www.tempbreak.com/index.php?&cwregion=wa Go to the drop down menu below the location and look at the 09/18/2012 2:49pm shot. (sorry I thought it would work in the link but it just goes to the composite shot).
I like to bounce back and forth between the free one posted above and terrafin (subscription). They are actually pretty close if you look at the individual day's in the drop menu on Tempbreak. I don't like composite shot's and I'm starting to wonder what they are for? They don't seem very accurate for what we are trying to achieve or look for.
If anyone want's to seriously go after these fish you do need to subscribe to Terrafin and Buoyweather as a bare minimum. For the price of spooling a tuna reel each you have year round access to invaluable information at your finger tips. I look at these things twice a day or more and I am still learning but catching on quick on how to predict what will be the next day etc.(more so the temp but the chloro is still a mystery to me). This gives you such a safer experience out there weather wise and saves you that much more in fuel before you head out.
It's still like finding a needle in a hay stack (well not that bad) but at least it gives you a starting point.
Cheers,
John
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Sculpin
Well-Known Member
There is a little patch of bluish (not blue) water in there somewhere. Good luck tomorrow. I'm looking into getting my act together for Thursday.
dak
Member
Looks like we will head out thursday with a few other boats, are you able to make it Matt?
Finished Business
Well-Known Member
We are locked in for Thursday. See you all at Mills! (or Emperial rooms permitting)
Fifth element
Member
Hey Dak,
I won't be out till Friday this bloody day job is keeping me occupied in town.
What day are you heading home? I'm super stoked, keeping a close eye on the chloro, hoping it keeps improving to the weekend.
Depending on the weather I could go out Friday night, saturday morning, or saturday night.
I'll bring my spotlight and we can go from there! I hope you guys nail em Thursday.
Holy Hoola
Member
ok guys, let the GAMES begin, looking forward to seeing everyone out at bamfield. lots of ice here at mills, and after hours, lots of tales at the fire. wish fogducker could make it. islandbound better hurry up.matt , you mite wana play hooky on fri. thur night might be an over nighter on the water. hoping to see the fishmyster out here some where and catch up on some things since he is the one that hooked me here.
Island Bound
New Member
Been keeping up with the postings guys, great work, learning something new every day! The day job is cutting into the fun stuff at this time, the earliest I'm going to be able to get to Bamfield is the 26th.
I'd hate to be standing in front of Dak this morning while "the moose" is getting off the plane, could get trampled.
Good luck out there Thursday and thru the weekend fella's, hope you all get into them. I will be watching the board for updates.
I'd hate to be standing in front of Dak this morning while "the moose" is getting off the plane, could get trampled.
Good luck out there Thursday and thru the weekend fella's, hope you all get into them. I will be watching the board for updates.
Dogbreath
Well-Known Member
As regards fishing lures deep these plugs run below 30'.We had some aboard in Tonga but since fish were close to the surface didn't bother using them I gathered from my Captain that they're not the easiest lure to run.
Terry-if we do get out I've got one of these Zwing units rigged to run off a handline not sure how far down it'll get though I don't believe the numbers they give on the site.
Terry-if we do get out I've got one of these Zwing units rigged to run off a handline not sure how far down it'll get though I don't believe the numbers they give on the site.
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the fog ducker
Well-Known Member
thx amigo , i was never invited : )....
commited ta a firefighter derby here in van ,(my hockey team ) will see you soon enuff Jerry ,
you guys have a great time , bak to the dock safely all of you , catch up ta ya soon
hello to my brotha with a diff motha , make sure he has lotzza azz wipe,,,
felix - fd
commited ta a firefighter derby here in van ,(my hockey team ) will see you soon enuff Jerry ,
you guys have a great time , bak to the dock safely all of you , catch up ta ya soon
hello to my brotha with a diff motha , make sure he has lotzza azz wipe,,,
felix - fd
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