The makings of a spectacular tuna trip. Unbelievable!
I have not been fishing much this year due to other activities and priorities like starting a lavender farm and my oldest daughter getting married. Now that the dust has settled, I am getting some good opportunities to get out and kill some fish.
This particular opportunity, I was invited out on a friends boat for a late season tuna trip. We could not have asked for better water and weather conditions for early October. There was a fog forecast that kept many sitting on their couches. This was very fortunate for us.
We all gathered in Ilwaco, WA for an early launch. We had to wait for the bait dock to open. With the live bait comfy in the tank, we headed out. The seas were relatively calm and there was a light fog. Visibility looked to be about 3-4 miles. We headed west to about the 30 line where we started our troll.
It was not long before we got our first screamer. Tried to get a second on, but no luck. Tossed a few handfuls of chum in the water and started our live bait action. Tuna started jumping around us and the show was on. This action lasted about an hour or so. About twelve on the deck before it shut off. We did a little cleanup and processed the fish while getting back on the troll. Minutes later, we found the school again. This time, live bait, iron, it did not matter. Whatever we threw at them, fish on. Again, this lasted about an hour or so before it turned off. This time, fifteen or so on the deck. Rinse and repeat, a little cleanup and processing while on the troll for a few minutes before the next hookup and frenzy.
Because this boat has a self bailing deck, we tried to keep as much blood off the deck, but it was so crazy at times, there was no way to prevent it. Eventually, the sharks came. We had what looked like to be about a 10 ft blue shark started circling us. He stayed with us the rest of the day. It made for some interesting times bringing in the tuna.
We had one stop one of our crew was magic with the iron. We started calling him ‘Ironman’. There was a school about 50 ft off the bow and they would not come to us. Ironman would toss over some iron and within a twitch or two, he had fish on. He would hand off the rod and grab another to toss a jig over. Seconds again and fish on. We repeated this process for quite some time. My arms were getting so tired, I had to take a break and man the gaff. Before 1pm, we had as much as we could hold on the boat and had to stop. It is a sad day you have to leave jumpers.
We heard others on the radio to the south of us that seemed to be struggling. We happened to be in the right spot at the right time. The ocean was flat that made it easier to spot the jumpers and the fog never showed up. I feel very fortunate to have experienced what tuna fishing is supposed to be like.
On the ride back in, we hit a shark and had to remove it from the prop. The entire day, there were young sunfish in large schools jumping tricking us to think they were tuna from afar. We even had a whale jump out of the water in front of us and we had to stop to make sure we did not hit it. It was an incredible day.
