Charter Tofino
Well-Known Member
Harbour Chandler had the swim baits with the pyramid heads. I bought a bunch last month as they are a popular late season technique in the states.
2015 Tuna Adventures
- Thread starter Sculpin
- Start date
Sculpin
Well-Known Member
Saturday was a great day out past the ammo dump off Clayquot Canyon. We got a text from Birdsnest on Friday night saying that 5 boats were going out from Tuffcity. We weren't even going to go tuna fishing till then lol. I made a quick call to Neptune Ice and arrange for a tote to be left out for us. I had my buddy Marc owner of HuntingBC and his buddy Simon coming out with Jake and I on this trip. Jake and Marc stayed at camp to get the boat ready and Simon and I went to get ice. We didn't get to bed till 3a.m. and got 2 hours sleep before heading out. I took one last look at Terrafin and picked a spot to try. We went just past the 1000 fathom line 48 38 N / 126 56 W. We hailed Birdsnest and they were NW of us by quite a few miles. We saw another sport boat near the spot we picked and decided to drop the gear. It was great fishing around another boat and talking to Birdy through out the afternoon.
I have really been wanting to try the drift and jig thing and have all the gear to do it but we forgot the bulk herring this trip. I don't have as many trips under my belt as some of the veterans and I have been really trying hard to get a good understanding of the shots, conditions, and trolling techniques these past couple of years. I think I have a pretty good understanding now and we had a great day out there with some skitterish fish and some of the bluest and clearest water we have ever fished. Word to the wise.....suspicious birds are your friend lol.
We started off the day similar to the Winter Harbor trip last weekend with a triple within 10 minutes of putting the gear out.
The grade of fish was bigger than our last trip out of Winter Harbor.
I'm still not sure if Jake likes this tuna fishing gig lol
.
The ice from Neptune is some of the coldest and best ice I have ever used. White gold
.
Each one of my half totes holds 12 tuna in the whole properly iced down. We almost filled both of them this day.
Marc got some great go pro footage that I will post up in a couple of days. One particular clip captures the last quad of the trip. It was text book. We had some slow periods but the fishing really picked up later in the day. There were tiny patches of 2-4 tuna birds battling the tuna for bait on the surface. We would troll about 60 feet to the side of the feeding tuna and birds and start a turn. Right when the spread was just next to the last spot we saw them I would drop it down to half speed around 3 mph. and count to 7. This seemed to trigger a strike and we got quite a few doubles, a triple, and the last quad using this technique. When we just kept going the same speed earlier it resulted in either a single or no takers.
We started the day off with my new favourite color of Zukers. Green on green. I just think its a great basic go to colour to start with and it worked great up in Winter Harbour. We caught about 8 on these before things really slowed down. One of the tuna puked up a really small bait fish on the deck and the conditions were very similar to one of the days during the tuna shootout last year. We decided to switch up to the little blue, white, and pink micro jets that are about 3.5" long. We used these last year and they were killer. Well they were just the ticket and we put 15 more fish in the boat using these lures and the trolling technique mentioned above.
It was a great trip and I'm glad I got to share it with Marc, Simon, and my son. They all worked together like a tuna crew should. All the smiles through out the day and popping Simons cherry made my trip. We headed in quite late and stopped in to Ukee harbour so I could pay Crystal from Neptune for the ice she left out for us. Stopped at the government dock and ran up the street to grab a well deserved pizza
.
The sunset on the way back to Salmon Beach just outside Ukee harbour.
Going to head out again soon and will be talking to Birdsnest some more about his jigging experience. We will have bait in hand. Derby has two boxes waiting for me to pick up. See you addicts out there.
Cheers,
Sculpin
I have really been wanting to try the drift and jig thing and have all the gear to do it but we forgot the bulk herring this trip. I don't have as many trips under my belt as some of the veterans and I have been really trying hard to get a good understanding of the shots, conditions, and trolling techniques these past couple of years. I think I have a pretty good understanding now and we had a great day out there with some skitterish fish and some of the bluest and clearest water we have ever fished. Word to the wise.....suspicious birds are your friend lol.
We started off the day similar to the Winter Harbor trip last weekend with a triple within 10 minutes of putting the gear out.
The grade of fish was bigger than our last trip out of Winter Harbor.
I'm still not sure if Jake likes this tuna fishing gig lol
.
The ice from Neptune is some of the coldest and best ice I have ever used. White gold
.
Each one of my half totes holds 12 tuna in the whole properly iced down. We almost filled both of them this day.
Marc got some great go pro footage that I will post up in a couple of days. One particular clip captures the last quad of the trip. It was text book. We had some slow periods but the fishing really picked up later in the day. There were tiny patches of 2-4 tuna birds battling the tuna for bait on the surface. We would troll about 60 feet to the side of the feeding tuna and birds and start a turn. Right when the spread was just next to the last spot we saw them I would drop it down to half speed around 3 mph. and count to 7. This seemed to trigger a strike and we got quite a few doubles, a triple, and the last quad using this technique. When we just kept going the same speed earlier it resulted in either a single or no takers.
We started the day off with my new favourite color of Zukers. Green on green. I just think its a great basic go to colour to start with and it worked great up in Winter Harbour. We caught about 8 on these before things really slowed down. One of the tuna puked up a really small bait fish on the deck and the conditions were very similar to one of the days during the tuna shootout last year. We decided to switch up to the little blue, white, and pink micro jets that are about 3.5" long. We used these last year and they were killer. Well they were just the ticket and we put 15 more fish in the boat using these lures and the trolling technique mentioned above.
It was a great trip and I'm glad I got to share it with Marc, Simon, and my son. They all worked together like a tuna crew should. All the smiles through out the day and popping Simons cherry made my trip. We headed in quite late and stopped in to Ukee harbour so I could pay Crystal from Neptune for the ice she left out for us. Stopped at the government dock and ran up the street to grab a well deserved pizza
.The sunset on the way back to Salmon Beach just outside Ukee harbour.
Going to head out again soon and will be talking to Birdsnest some more about his jigging experience. We will have bait in hand. Derby has two boxes waiting for me to pick up. See you addicts out there.
Cheers,
Sculpin
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Birdsnest
Well-Known Member
Thanks for posting. What an epic day it was.
Another buddy of mine was out there that day and he decided to start chumming. He only had $trayed$ bait so he ended up "recycleing" his anchovies. They would spot jumpers and drive up to them and when in throwing reach from the front of the boat he would chuck an hand full of choves ahead of the boat. They then continued to troll through the school and they hooked up every time doubles and singles. Then they would cut the tuna open and get there choves back and repeat.
I think it would be easier to just get your bait from Deryk. lol
Another buddy of mine was out there that day and he decided to start chumming. He only had $trayed$ bait so he ended up "recycleing" his anchovies. They would spot jumpers and drive up to them and when in throwing reach from the front of the boat he would chuck an hand full of choves ahead of the boat. They then continued to troll through the school and they hooked up every time doubles and singles. Then they would cut the tuna open and get there choves back and repeat.
I think it would be easier to just get your bait from Deryk. lol
jeffywestcoast
Well-Known Member
Great report Sculpin...looked like a killer day for it!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
SpringVelocity
Crew Member
Saturday was a great day out past the ammo dump off Clayquot Canyon. We got a text from Birdsnest on Friday night saying that 5 boats were going out from Tuffcity. We weren't even going to go tuna fishing till then lol. I made a quick call to Neptune Ice and arrange for a tote to be left out for us. I had my buddy Marc owner of HuntingBC and his buddy Simon coming out with Jake and I on this trip. Jake and Marc stayed at camp to get the boat ready and Simon and I went to get ice. We didn't get to bed till 3a.m. and got 2 hours sleep before heading out. I took one last look at Terrafin and picked a spot to try. We went just past the 1000 fathom line 48 38 N / 126 56 W. We hailed Birdsnest and they were NW of us by quite a few miles. We saw another sport boat near the spot we picked and decided to drop the gear. It was great fishing around another boat and talking to Birdy through out the afternoon.
I have really been wanting to try the drift and jig thing and have all the gear to do it but we forgot the bulk herring this trip. I don't have as many trips under my belt as some of the veterans and I have been really trying hard to get a good understanding of the shots, conditions, and trolling techniques these past couple of years. I think I have a pretty good understanding now and we had a great day out there with some skitterish fish and some of the bluest and clearest water we have ever fished. Word to the wise.....suspicious birds are your friend lol.
We started off the day similar to the Winter Harbor trip last weekend with a triple within 10 minutes of putting the gear out.
The grade of fish was bigger than our last trip out of Winter Harbor.
I'm still not sure if Jake likes this tuna fishing gig lol
The ice from Neptune is some of the coldest and best ice I have ever used. White gold
Each one of my half totes holds 12 tuna in the whole properly iced down. We almost filled both of them this day.
Marc got some great go pro footage that I will post up in a couple of days. One particular clip captures the last quad of the trip. It was text book. We had some slow periods but the fishing really picked up later in the day. There were tiny patches of 2-4 tuna birds battling the tuna for bait on the surface. We would troll about 60 feet to the side of the feeding tuna and birds and start a turn. Right when the spread was just next to the last spot we saw them I would drop it down to half speed around 3 mph. and count to 7. This seemed to trigger a strike and we got quite a few doubles, a triple, and the last quad using this technique. When we just kept going the same speed earlier it resulted in either a single or no takers.
We started the day off with my new favourite color of Zukers. Green on green. I just think its a great basic go to colour to start with and it worked great up in Winter Harbour. We caught about 8 on these before things really slowed down. One of the tuna puked up a really small bait fish on the deck and the conditions were very similar to one of the days during the tuna shootout last year. We decided to switch up to the little blue, white, and pink micro jets that are about 3.5" long. We used these last year and they were killer. Well they were just the ticket and we put 15 more fish in the boat using these lures and the trolling technique mentioned above.
It was a great trip and I'm glad I got to share it with Marc, Simon, and my son. They all worked together like a tuna crew should. All the smiles through out the day and popping Simons cherry made my trip. We headed in quite late and stopped in to Ukee harbour so I could pay Crystal from Neptune for the ice she left out for us. Stopped at the government dock and ran up the street to grab a well deserved pizza
The sunset on the way back to Salmon Beach just outside Ukee harbour.
Going to head out again soon and will be talking to Birdsnest some more about his jigging experience. We will have bait in hand. Derby has two boxes waiting for me to pick up. See you addicts out there.
Cheers,
Sculpin
Another awesome post!
Sculpin
Well-Known Member
We left from Ukee so it was farther than that. Calculate it from Bamfield and you can see how far we ran during the shootout last year!
It took us about 4 hours to get out there this day. Couldn't run at cruise due to the tight swell period. The best days weather wise are the ones with about 1 meter or less swell at 19 seconds and no wind. Those don't happen very often but you can really boogie out there then
. Tomorrow and Thursday look really good with light winds and around 1.3 meter at 16 seconds. Might have to play hooky tomorrow 
. We burned 79 gals. this trip and used about 6.5 litres of oil. My tank is 110 gal. so we were really close to the 1/3 rule. It's nice having such a big tank in my little gal. The previous owner had it specifically built for tuna fishing off of Newport Oregon and wanted some range if needed.
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SpringVelocity
Crew Member
We left from Ukee so it was farther than that. Calculate it from Bamfield and you can see how far we ran during the shootout last year!
It took us about 4 hours to get out there this day. Couldn't run at cruise due to the tight swell period. The best days weather wise are the ones with about 1 meter or less swell at 19 seconds and no wind. Those don't happen very often but you can really boogie out there then
Still really not the bad gas/oil wise...have fun tomorrow
Aces
Well-Known Member
Do you supply the jigs and bait too???
Sculpin
Well-Known Member
See you Wednesday night buddy. Bumped into our "dealer" today lol.
1 case of IFQ anchovies and a case of Saury. Should do it. We are so stoked to try jigging em up and hopefully get into some slobs
. It's going to be really fun fishing with you on my boat this time .
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getbent
Well-Known Member
Man that is a lot of meat to bleed, slush and chill, how much ice did they have?
Be carking for days!!
cant even imagine landing that many...talk about getting beat up.
Birdsnest
Well-Known Member
See you Wednesday night buddy. Bumped into our "dealer" today lol.
1 case of IFQ anchovies and a case of Saury. Should do it. We are so stoked to try jigging em up and hopefully get into some slobs
MMMMMMMmmmmm. Candy!
Birdsnest
Well-Known Member
Take a look out side right now. Your looking at the best tuna weather day so far this year. Its right there in front of you! Off to work I go.
I'm happy for those who get the day out there today tho. Hope to hear some reports. I hope some of them are trying some jigging and other things. I just want to hear about it.
I'm happy for those who get the day out there today tho.
Hope to hear some reports. I hope some of them are trying some jigging and other things. I just want to hear about it.
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