We've talked about doing a Tuna trip for two years but with our Trip to BC and some other projects it didn't look possible for this year. So I booked a trip with Gold Rush on Sep 27 and caught my first Tuna.
We had a full tank of 150 gallons in our 26 LC Osprey Kodak and it looked like the weather, waves and crew schedules was going to align so I scrambeled to get a bait tank and bleed barrel put together and went over Thursday afternoon to install them. KimH came over to help and we took some time to visit the One Eyed Crab before working on tackle and getting the boat heater working.
A short night in the cuddy and a trip for coffee and chocolate at the Hungry Whale while the rest of the Crew arrived. The Barbless boat crew wished us luck as they walked down float seven and we appreciated them coming by Thursday to share some knowledge.
My friend Dick was going on his first Tuna trip along with FinFinn, Kim, Bandaid and I and we passed the Defiance 22 Koolaid on the way to get a scoop of anchovies. He was heading to the same area and we followed him about 10 minutes behind. Dawn rose as we cleared the jaws and bounced thru the sharp windwaves from the NE wind.
The bait tank flow wasn't as good as I hoped and the washdown pump didn't work so we added a bucket of water every couple miles on the way out but the bait wasn't doing well. The rough chop didn't help I'm sure.
It took over 3 hours to travel SW to the 125 line and we only saw a few commercial boats though I was able to radio Koolaid to ensure we had a buddy available. I never heard Barbless all day. We also heard Mark Coleman in Reel Tight who reported a couple troll fish and a few on bait. My new Furuno 3D system plotter GPS display was off from my handheld GArmin and the sonar display was acting up. Addiitonally I knew we were in the same water as the other boats but the temp display was hung up at 58.8 while they were reading 61. Argggghhhh.
We were running four troll rod spread with a zuchini clone, X Rap 20, cedar plug hootchie chain, and cedar plug about 11 the X rap pole hit followed shortly by the clone. Later on we swapped the cedar for another X Rap and that worked too. All five setups hooked fish. I was able to use on new gaff while Kim used the other and two fish were put in the ice slush.Dick and his first TUNA
An hour later we hit a triple and with some dancing around lines trying to cross- we got all three in. Bandaid said she was just going to run the helm but we drafted her to grab the leftie reel/ pole set up I got her. This turned out to be 20+ # fish and after a while I provided an assist and we got number 6 in the slush
We tried to get some additional action on the next couple troll hook ups throwing some chum and jigs along with a swim bait. But I was feeling happy to concentrate on the hooked fish and we never did get a stop going but managed 9 tuna and lost another big one at the boat trying to untangle another pole's line.
FinFinn hauls Kim's in
We worked our way East the waves laid down a bit and we finally saw Koolaid and Reel Tight on bait stops several hundere yards apart and worked toward them. Mark headed in and Koolaid followed about four while we untangled lines before trying to get some action from the only jumpers we saw all day. We started back but averaged 15 knots as the wind waves were still against us and we saw the sun pass the horizon well before we got back to the dock. Then the radar stopped working and a reboot didn't solve the problem but the plotter did well as we followed the traffic lane around the red buoys and got back to the dock at 7:30 very tired but happy.
I'm thankful for a good crew that worked well together, lots of advice and tips from many others and an opportunity to do it ourselves. Tuna are special and we will be after them again next season.
