Bamfield tuna shootout!!! September 22 - october 1

Double post. Sorry.
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I meant to radio you later that night but I assumed you went to the other side of the harbour as a couple of the guys thought they saw you drive by. My phone died late that day. How did you make out today? Did the swell come up this afternoon?

I meant to radio you later that night but I assumed you went to the other side of the harbour as a couple of the guys thought they saw you drive by. My phone died late that day. How did you make out today? Did the swell come up this afternoon?

Yeah we went over to drop the other guys off and then for a late night fuel stop. By the time we got to mills I was pretty bagged and we were getting up to fish again. Should have fished the green water on Sunday, temp broke around 35 miles from Beale. We kept running to Barkley and picked up a couple in a couple hours then ran down to Nitinat where the water was the bluest I have ever seen but no signs of life. Nada. Picked up again and burnt some more fuel running back to point A and killed 4 more in an hour and headed for the barn. On the way home we spotted jumpers in about 400' of water. Temp was 58.9. There was one hog and a coho that looked like they were having an acrobatic competition jumping side-by-side. Shot some cool video including wright dolphins rubbing against the bow of my boat as we were trolling. Will post more when I get home today.

I am stranded in bamfield with no fuel, gotta love having the only diesel boat in the fleet!
Cheers,
Andrew
 
I was lucky enough to get a couple days out on the Trophy Hunter and had a blast. It was good to meet the folks involved . A big thanks to Jody for the invite,I have been out on 3 trips now and can't get enough ." Salmon fishing ......it's ok I guess" lol that was said quite a bit out there. A couple of us reeled some in on Salmon gear ,teaser head anchovie with a #4 hook a whole new rodeo.we were too pooped to party at night so passed on the festvities but another big thanks to Bamfield Sport Fishing for the great accomodations.
 
The water conditions don't look good in the next while, but if anyone is thinking about going out again? Please send me a pm - I'm still packed from last friday and would love to fit in another trip. Sounds like the trip was a blast and thanks to all who have posted - It's the next best thing to being there!

About the 'poor man's outriggers'... I was able to build 14' downriggers using standard Scotty parts and standard SS tubing. I use them as working downriggers, but they also worked very well as outriggers when I went to La Push. If you just want horizontal outriggers for tuna, its not too hard, some tubing and minor mods to Scotty bases - happy to provide details for those interested
 
I hope to come up wendsday night for a visit. Would there be a spot there for my camper/trailer? Its only 18 feet.

Thats great that youre gonna show up!

I have plenty of space at my house if you need a bunk. Just gotta tolerate a bit of craziness!!LOL

Looks like mid week we'll be hammering it again.

Huge wrap up party and fresh tuna dinner this Saturday. I'd reccommend coming out for that to anyone even if you don't fish... Seriously.

Everyones got a prize and if I missed them they have one coming! That means you guys for sure Runamuk and Harper 44!!
 
The water conditions don't look good in the next while, but if anyone is thinking about going out again? Please send me a pm - I'm still packed from last friday and would love to fit in another trip. Sounds like the trip was a blast and thanks to all who have posted - It's the next best thing to being there!

About the 'poor man's outriggers'... I was able to build 14' downriggers using standard Scotty parts and standard SS tubing. I use them as working downriggers, but they also worked very well as outriggers when I went to La Push. If you just want horizontal outriggers for tuna, its not too hard, some tubing and minor mods to Scotty bases - happy to provide details for those interested


Those sound cool Terry but the ones I'm talking about are made from a chunk 2x4 10" long so I think Birdsnest has it down for the cheapest lol. You can easily get your gear out the side of the boat 20 plus feet and they ride real nice in the 4th or 5th wake wave and they give your lure some action as well as being an attractor (the boat itself splashes around). I'm just amazed at how simple they are and well well they work. Like I said their FM !!!
 
Double post. Sorry.
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This is what he is talking about in the above photo. The orange thing. The calmer it is the farther out you can fish'em. I had 75 to 100 foot spread the other day with them. We ran four of them off rods. 2 off each side. They are fantastic.
 
Thanks for pic... I do understand tho about the splash boats. Bought a couple myself, just have not actually used them. I didn't mean to derail.
I try to catch salmon/ hali without flashers, so I was just offering an alternative sys IF anyone was interested. Tip to tip from port to stb on the outriggers is about 36' Not quite the same, but only lure on the line. ( Maybe splash boat is no hinderance to the run/fight?)
 
just cooling down the canner with habenero tuna, got lots of loins vacuum packed, had tataki for dinner, this shootout thing is the best idea ever.
 
just cooling down the canner with habenero tuna, got lots of loins vacuum packed, had tataki for dinner, this shootout thing is the best idea ever.

Habanero Tuna sounds yummy.

Sounds like you guys had a great trip! Great for ya!
 
Do you have a recipe for this?

two years ago a buddy gave me some of his canned tuna with hot peppers and it was so good I thought I'd try it. All he did was to put some habenero pepper slices in with the tuna when he put it in jars, then processed it. That's what I did so we'll see how it turns out.
 
Well the 1st* Annual Tuna Shootout 2012 was a pretty big success for us. Thanks to all those who put in some hard work and long hours to make it happen. First and foremost Jeff, aka Osama Bin Hopper. If Jeff hadn’t gotten this ball rolling back in 2011, I’m not sure we would have seen such a great event as I witnessed this past weekend. And it’s still going on!! Notable mention should be given as well to Gerry and Diane for their efforts in making sure the facilities were top notch. I saw them many times into the evening working down at the freezers and cleaning tables, preparing for the next boatload of fish to arrive.

To everyone else involved, and I mean those on the water, Thank You! It was a real sight and pleasure to be a part of the comraderie out beyond the 50 nautical mile line. The communication, information, and status passed between boats made targeting the fish possible, and as a result, EVERY boat brought home fish.
As far as the fishing for our boat, I could write a story as long as the run to the Tuna grounds, but this time I had the GoPro rolling and once I get the videos uploaded, I will let them tell the tale! In short, we ran out as the smallest boat on the pond, but managed to fill our holds in queue with the rest. Between myself and the captain, with the boat ghostridin’ the waves, we managed 28 of 29 between up to 7 rods. We had multiple double headers, two triples, and a quad, all landed successfully! We paid special attention to the care of our catch this year (hang bleeding, slush ice, coolers) and ended up with some of the finest loins we have produced to date.

The following Friday after a few wobblies at Jeff’s abode, we were persuaded to jump aboard the Mighty Sculpin, for one last hurrah of the season Saturday morning. Detailed by John already, it was a long day that finished with a bang at 7 fish in 40 minutes. The rest of the day melted away after those slabs hit the deck.

Here are some great and kind of blurry shots from the festivities in and around the TUNA SHOOTOUT. Videos to follow in the near future. If someone can PM me the way to direct link the movies to the site via youtube, that would be great!

Pics to follow....
 
Tuna Shootout Photos

Here is a shot of our sounder as we head to the Kill Zone, the beginning of Barkley Canyon. Once the gear was down, our heading was SW in the direction of Nitnat Canyon.
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Once entering the Kill Zone, we began "seriously filling the boat". Here is a nice pair of Tooners. Check the Baha Tuna Clothing, shorts, T-Shirt, and sandals...what a last week of September!!
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Here's a shot of our days work. 28 Fish. We could fit approx 8 to 10 well iced fish in the Igloos.
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For those interested, we tallied the weight of each fish. The average was about 18lbs per fish. Largest was 31 (33 before bleeding and a day on ice) and the smallest at 12lbs.
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Cleaning Tables

Transporting fish from the boat to the cleaning tables became an Olympic sport. Scoffing at the use of the ATV we and Tackleberry (Crabby Chris) ran course on what we called "The Tuna Dash". Essentially pushing a 300lb cooler down the Mills Landing dock. Times weren't recorded but the big bear beat us I'm sure. LOL (note the 'supervising' done by Aaron)
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At the cleaning tables things went quickly given the amount of loins processed between the two tables. Heres a shot of the Crabby Crew (Jeff, Aaron, and Chris) with Darren to the right handling part of our catch.
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Things started to get a little out of hand and crazy at the cleaning tables. Clearly we were not prepared on the clean-up end. We called it a learning curve for the Shootout, Gerry called it a pain in the butt! Our apologies again! (we ended up short a few hands on clean-up [JEFF!! haha] but we managed to straighten things up for the next catch)
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Down to feed the fish and crabs!
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Dak couldn't resist some "Happy Life" salmon. Happy life because they are for a happy wife!! The only boat brave enough to fish salmon during the Shootout.
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A shot of the Tuna Shootout board. Just for fun, keeping track of everyone's daily progress. Pretty successful thus far I'd say!
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Lastly a shot from the festivities at Jeff's Pad. Oil seared loins with belly (toro) sashimi. Wow, what a night, a great group, and great eats!
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