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You guys see this? Dorado caught out of Ilwaco

2K views 16 replies 14 participants last post by  papafsh 
#1 ·
#11 ·
I wonder if Mingo had anything to do with this. Maybe he had it planted out there.:D
SSSHHHHHHHH!!!!! Jim, let's keep that between us, okay?

Well that Dorado looked a little "Blue" to me, they are usually yellow/greenish in color, like this one. The cooler water may have been responsible for that though
It looked like that because it was dead. They fade quickly after they're killed, but I've caught quite a few that had a silver/blue color pattern rather than the usual gold/green. Those bluish ones are very cool looking.

I've talked to guys who hooked huge fish they couldn't budge while albacore fishing out of Oregon and Washington ports. Some think they might be bluefin....they are out there.

Heh, that's already happened! Here is the story:

Surprised Fishermen Hook Marlin Off Coast

By Dave Birkland
Seattle Times Staff Reporter
Two longtime fishing buddies, Mike Halbert of Issaquah and Dick Miller of Cle Elum, got the surprise of their fishing lives yesterday when they hooked a marlin off the Washington Coast.
"We were pretty shocked at first. We thought it was a tuna, but then it jumped six to eight times," said Halbert, 55, a retired plumber.
Marlin, considered trophy game fish by saltwater anglers, are usually caught in waters off Mexico and sometimes off Southern California, but never this far north, said Halbert. He heard of a marlin caught some years ago off the Oregon coast, but "this is the first one off Washington," as far as he knows.
There's no doubt in Halbert's mind why the species was so far north. "El Nino," he said.
El Nino, the warming of Pacific waters off equatorial South America, is a phenomenon that recurs about every 3 to 5 years, producing climate abnormalities around the world, including warming Pacific Ocean waters further north than usual.
Miller, 69, a retired contractor, played the 104-pound, 8-foot marlin for one hour and 20 minutes before they could haul it into Halbert's 24-foot boat, the Kemika.
The friends were fishing for tuna about 30 miles off the coast, opposite Grayland in Grays Harbor County.
They had been fishing only a few minutes and Miller had reeled out 40 to 50 feet of line when the marlin grabbed the bait, a "tuna jig" that resembles a small squid.
Approximately 200 yards of the 40-pound test line screamed out of the reel before the fish ended its initial run, Miller said.
"I thought it was a tuna," Miller recalled, but tunas don't jump, as the marlin did several times and then disappeared deep in the water. "We didn't see it for another hour," Miller said. The fish finally tired, and the men were were able to get their catch into the boat.
Back in Westport, with the marlin and 10 tuna they also caught, Miller and Halbert created quite a stir. People on the dock, Westport veteran fisherman and even TV crews showed up to see the marlin.
Even if the large fish had gotten away, Halbert and Miller were ready for skeptics who may have thought this was just another "fish story."
"We got quite a few pictures of the fish (while Miller was playing it). In case we lost it, we'd have proof," Miller said.
 
#13 ·
There have been bluefin tuna bones found in archaeological dig sites in British Columbia dating back over 5,000 years. NOAA published a paper on it - http://fishbull.noaa.gov/951/crockford.pdf. Albacore fishing in the northwest is a relatively new thing not because the fish weren't here, but because the sport fishery is a recent development. They only started commercially fishing them in southern California in the early 1900's and slowly expanded from there as more was learned about their lifecycle and migration patterns.
alpinetrout?!? Where you been?
 
#14 ·
Papafsh, dodos change their colors drastically, either when you're fighting them or when they come aboard. It's pretty awesome toe watch. Also, after they die, the colors change quite a bit. Their lit up yellow and green is just the most common and well know color scheme.

GAT, not sure what you mean. There's been tuna up here for many, many years. I believe there are giant bluefin bones out at Neah Bay and I think the Natives used to hunt them. It sure would be something else to have BFT like that around. I caught one last year, but it was a little football 12#er. Still tasted delicious!

Last year one of our days worth of albacore were stuffed with small mackerel.

That's why I love the salt - you just never know what you're going to come across out there.
 
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