CrabbyChris
Member
Short clip of some sweet blue water...hard to believe its Vancouver Island!
[iXDRwpcekRk]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXDRwpcekRk
[iXDRwpcekRk]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXDRwpcekRk
2013 Tuna adventures
- Thread starter Sculpin
- Start date
eriks
Active Member
Just got back from our cherry popping tuna trip on "Lucky Dog", MikeP's buddy boat. What an amazing trip, beautiful water colour, and incredible conditions at Loudoun Canyon. Today wasn't quite as nice, and we packed it in early, having caught 12. Between Bad Habit and Lucky Dog, we got 94 this weekend. A huge shoutout to MikeP and family, we couldn't have done it without their experience (6th season!) and help. We had an amazing orca show on the way out on Saturday, some seal had a bad start to his day. The pod was breaching fully and landing on the seal, then whacking it with their tales. Birdnest did come over, and pulled out a very nice camera - no wonder he posts such great pictures. It's amazing how much wildlife is out there.
On Saturday, zukers were working for us, as well as diving plugs. What we did notice that we got action on the diveboards when we slowed down, so maybe we were going too fast for them, but our lures were working great for us. Cedar plugs were good too. We pulled the plug at 32 on Saturday, as we ran out of ice. Being noobs, we lost well over 12 tuna on Saturday, we had a few quiet spells when the bite went off for us, but we had plenty action all day, with numerous doubles, triples and quads.
On Sunday, it got sloppy out there. Within 30 seconds of dropping a diving plug, we had one on, but we lost it at the boat. We had decent action early on, but even though we were on a 30' center console, it wasn't quite as pleasant a time as the boys were having on Bad Habit.
Next year, Tuna Shootout for sure. It was a pleasant change to see the cooperation between the boats out there.
On Saturday, zukers were working for us, as well as diving plugs. What we did notice that we got action on the diveboards when we slowed down, so maybe we were going too fast for them, but our lures were working great for us. Cedar plugs were good too. We pulled the plug at 32 on Saturday, as we ran out of ice. Being noobs, we lost well over 12 tuna on Saturday, we had a few quiet spells when the bite went off for us, but we had plenty action all day, with numerous doubles, triples and quads.
On Sunday, it got sloppy out there. Within 30 seconds of dropping a diving plug, we had one on, but we lost it at the boat. We had decent action early on, but even though we were on a 30' center console, it wasn't quite as pleasant a time as the boys were having on Bad Habit.
Next year, Tuna Shootout for sure. It was a pleasant change to see the cooperation between the boats out there.
wildfisher
Member
What boats are running out of ukee?, looking for Buddie boats/contact boats.....
Sculpin
Well-Known Member
Cool vid Chris. Gotta love how clear the water is out there.
We did another tuna run on Sat. out of Neah Bay.
Got the boat loaded with ice and fuel Friday evening and after some good drink and BS, turned in around 10:30PM for a 6AM start on Sat. The winds were light to non existent when I arrived at the boat on Sat. AM.
I had a buddy boat with me who was also running out of Neah. A nice 30' Armstrong cat named "Plan B".
We made plans for me to run to the N. end of Nitinat canyon and him to run to the S. end. We'd then communicate when we found fish and converge on them. On the way out we ran into a large pod of about 15-20 orcas.
Plan B started trolling earlier than us and started a bit E. of where I specified as he was nervous about fuel (he had PLENTY). We kept looking for signs of life and wound up a around the 4000' line (around 125 56). We didn't find fish there so we started heading S. By the time we got to the SW corner of the canyon, we saw a few jumpers and put 3 in the boat. All singles. We called plan B in and he ran into a larger school about 1/2 mile from us. After running around about 5-10 miles to find someone I should have been able to see if I correctly plotted the coordinates, we converged at around 48 4N by 125 56W. After that we had a really strong bite from about 1-3PM. We had one quadruple that turned into a triple by the time we landed them. We had 8 lines out and after 4 fish all of the lines were involved in a mess. E.g. there was a x-shaped tangle with all 8 lines radiating out from a single spot. In retrospect, I wish I took a picture of the mess. It took 5-10 mins of "over, under, overing" to get the lines free and to land 3/4 fish. Then we picked up another single and hit a triple (we landed them all). After that, it was a few singles and doubles and the bite died down. We wound up with 14 but a few of the fish were in the 30lb range. Here's one of the bigger ones on deck.
I had just myself and 1 buddy on board so it was a bit of effort to keep things going. 3-4 is more ideal as you have at least two to reel/gaff and another to run the boat. I think we could have landed 1.5-2x as many fish with just one more person on board. We stopped on the way in to salmon fish for 30 mins or so, but the bite wasn't hot so we bagged that after landing and releasing a couple of wild coho and a couple of small springs.
While we were out, we were visited by a number of pretty tweety birds who needed a place to land. I think these are some kind of finch. Anyone know the species?
We were running out of daylight as we passed Tatoosh Island and we wound up getting into port in complete darkness at around 9:30.
Fortunately, my buddy got in early enough that he could order a couple of pizzas before the pizza place in Neah Bay closed (8PM). We re-iced the fish, had a nice dinner of pizza, polished of a bottle of wine and got up early on Sun to clean and vacuum pack the tuna loins. Here's the haul laid up prior to cleaning.
Got the boat loaded with ice and fuel Friday evening and after some good drink and BS, turned in around 10:30PM for a 6AM start on Sat. The winds were light to non existent when I arrived at the boat on Sat. AM.
I had a buddy boat with me who was also running out of Neah. A nice 30' Armstrong cat named "Plan B".
We made plans for me to run to the N. end of Nitinat canyon and him to run to the S. end. We'd then communicate when we found fish and converge on them. On the way out we ran into a large pod of about 15-20 orcas.
Plan B started trolling earlier than us and started a bit E. of where I specified as he was nervous about fuel (he had PLENTY). We kept looking for signs of life and wound up a around the 4000' line (around 125 56). We didn't find fish there so we started heading S. By the time we got to the SW corner of the canyon, we saw a few jumpers and put 3 in the boat. All singles. We called plan B in and he ran into a larger school about 1/2 mile from us. After running around about 5-10 miles to find someone I should have been able to see if I correctly plotted the coordinates, we converged at around 48 4N by 125 56W. After that we had a really strong bite from about 1-3PM. We had one quadruple that turned into a triple by the time we landed them. We had 8 lines out and after 4 fish all of the lines were involved in a mess. E.g. there was a x-shaped tangle with all 8 lines radiating out from a single spot. In retrospect, I wish I took a picture of the mess. It took 5-10 mins of "over, under, overing" to get the lines free and to land 3/4 fish. Then we picked up another single and hit a triple (we landed them all). After that, it was a few singles and doubles and the bite died down. We wound up with 14 but a few of the fish were in the 30lb range. Here's one of the bigger ones on deck.
I had just myself and 1 buddy on board so it was a bit of effort to keep things going. 3-4 is more ideal as you have at least two to reel/gaff and another to run the boat. I think we could have landed 1.5-2x as many fish with just one more person on board. We stopped on the way in to salmon fish for 30 mins or so, but the bite wasn't hot so we bagged that after landing and releasing a couple of wild coho and a couple of small springs.
While we were out, we were visited by a number of pretty tweety birds who needed a place to land. I think these are some kind of finch. Anyone know the species?
We were running out of daylight as we passed Tatoosh Island and we wound up getting into port in complete darkness at around 9:30.
Fortunately, my buddy got in early enough that he could order a couple of pizzas before the pizza place in Neah Bay closed (8PM). We re-iced the fish, had a nice dinner of pizza, polished of a bottle of wine and got up early on Sun to clean and vacuum pack the tuna loins. Here's the haul laid up prior to cleaning.
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blackvelvet
Member
Nice job Seadna. Looks like everybody had calm seas on Saturday. You probably are around killer whales more than you think, because on sloppy days they're tough to spot unless you're very close by, but calm days they can be seen for miles.
About the cute little yellow hitch-hiker.......isn't that the "Official state bird of Washington" ???. Goldfinch ??? We've had these birds visit our boat several times over since I started yearly Barclay trips around 1990. Perhaps the SE wind pushes them out there, who knows ???
BTW, tell your buddy that I'm in love with his Armstrong cat. Those boats are the best of both worlds..........Beast and Beauty.
About the cute little yellow hitch-hiker.......isn't that the "Official state bird of Washington" ???. Goldfinch ??? We've had these birds visit our boat several times over since I started yearly Barclay trips around 1990. Perhaps the SE wind pushes them out there, who knows ???
BTW, tell your buddy that I'm in love with his Armstrong cat. Those boats are the best of both worlds..........Beast and Beauty.
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Captain PartyMarty
Crew Member
Nice report and great pics, Keep em coming for us guy's who can only dream 
Sculpin
Well-Known Member
A guide out of Ukee tells a story about one landing in his lap while he was driving the boat. It tucked itself under his jacket and had an hour and a half nap. After it woke up it just flew away again. Gotta have a rest somewhere.
I think it was Tuna Don or one of the Bamtown boats doing the overnighters out tuna fishing that said there was a whole flock of them huddled together on the roof of the boat during the night.
I think it was Tuna Don or one of the Bamtown boats doing the overnighters out tuna fishing that said there was a whole flock of them huddled together on the roof of the boat during the night.
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Fish Assassin
Crew Member
We had one go into the cuddy of a friends boat I was on and hang out for the day. At one point we had 6 or 8 of them on the boat. We were able to feed them crumbs from our lunches and give them fresh water. They would sit on our fingers and rest. The one that went into the boat stayed with us until we got to Bamfield Harbour then flew off.
harper44
Well-Known Member
One paid us a visit on Saturday at big bank. No fear in those little guys whatsoever. First spotted on buddies hat brim as he was having a late morning snooze between bites.
At one point he flew off only to return a few minutes later to devour the large flying insect he had caught.
At one point he flew off only to return a few minutes later to devour the large flying insect he had caught.
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blackvelvet
Member
Seadna, I think your reference pic is of an east coast goldfinch. The one that landed on your boat are just like the ones I've seen in western Washington for over 50 years. The pic of the male and female goldfinch you posted looks nothing like I've ever seen in the PNW.
Thanks for sharing
Thanks for sharing
trophywife
Crew Member
we have seen them red,green, and yella
OK - I'm used to seeing the ones like I posted in the lower picture when I lived in Illinois. Didn't realize the goldfinch came in green. ON further googling - it looks like a "Lesser Goldfinch"
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why knot
Active Member
Sutarday tuna run from Bamfield, we did it with two body boats, Sharps and Tykyty boo ,
We left 5 am from the dock, set the coordinates to louden and had a pleasure ride with the morning coffe.
We started to fish south side of the canyon around 8 am, we were trolling for an hour with no bite, and decided we do an other run out to the 500 fathom marks , the water was blue-blue, saw jumpers and got the first fish around 10 am. It was a slow fishing, very spoty. We try to contact Tofino boys to see how is fishing further up,they had much more success but they were still 18 knots from us, so we decided to stick around.
Thank you for the help anyways .
5 pm we decide we heading back to the dock, we had a 60 miles to go to cape bill, everybody got fish , our body boats put 8,13 fish in the box and we did 20. All of the albi we got was under #20. It was a nice day on the pacific and we had a blast .
We left 5 am from the dock, set the coordinates to louden and had a pleasure ride with the morning coffe.
We started to fish south side of the canyon around 8 am, we were trolling for an hour with no bite, and decided we do an other run out to the 500 fathom marks , the water was blue-blue, saw jumpers and got the first fish around 10 am. It was a slow fishing, very spoty. We try to contact Tofino boys to see how is fishing further up,they had much more success but they were still 18 knots from us, so we decided to stick around.
Thank you for the help anyways .
5 pm we decide we heading back to the dock, we had a 60 miles to go to cape bill, everybody got fish , our body boats put 8,13 fish in the box and we did 20. All of the albi we got was under #20. It was a nice day on the pacific and we had a blast .
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