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I haven't posted much lately, but this trip yesterday must be mentioned.
I was fortunate to be part of another Anil-orchestrated tuna trip out of Warrenton, Oregon. And I was also fortunate to have invited my brother Eric who has never done any kind of trip like this before.
As Sunday approached last week I kept a keen eye on the marine report as it kept becoming more favorable. Hope began to grow as so many planned trips had been canceled due to poor conditions.
Well, Saturday confirmed the next day would be a 'go' so off we went to Warenton.
After a fitful night at Captain Chuck's home in anticipation of the day to come, we woke up at 4am and it was wheels up at 5am, over the bar, after baiting up at Ilwaco, at 7am. Three hours later over calms seas and beautiful sunshine we were in bluewater and the day's fishing adventure officially began.
About 20 minutes later we had our first hookup on the troll. It was a shout-out of "Fish-On", and then seconds later another "Fish-On", and then seconds later, I shouted "Fish-On". Oh yes. Could this be the day?
Well, we landed those three fish and with the first bait stop others caught a couple more. Within the first hour or so we had 8 fish on board.
Off to trolling for a couple more hours with a couple more fish or so, and then around noon it was shouts of a quad hookup on the troll. Captain Chuck brought the boat to a halt and started tossing anchovies over the rail and for the next two hours it was nonstop nirvana of tuna fishing.
Tuna were thrashing on the surface, tuna were streaking like dark ghosts all over by the boat, and tuna were gulping our flies for the next two hours.
Several times it seemed like (and it was actually true) that everyone on the boat was hooked up with a tuna. Captain Chuck by now had put out 4 rods with live bait and 2 of those rods had tuna on them, pulsing the rods in the rod holders. I looked at Anil, with flyrods and Chuck's rods zipping all over with hooked up tuna and said I don't know where to cast without risking a tangle with someone. Anil said something to the effect of "Well, it's better to have a tangle than not to have a hookup." So, out went my fly and seconds later another hookup! Good Lord, it was absolutely nuts. After a 20 minute fight here I was with another one that zipped off line at unbelievable speed until you had so much backing out you wondered how you'd ever reel it all back in. At one time Chuck's 4 bait rods had hookups (sitting in the rod holders) while he and Anil scrambled with the gaffs and nets as the rest of us were fighting fish and shouting to land ours.
Two hours later, with everyone completely satiated (OK, Anil wanted to keep fishing, and as tired as I was, I would have kept going), Captain Chuck called an end to the affair as sharks moved in - my last tuna (the last of the day) came in partially eaten. He said this is the best it could ever be and we've had enough. And he was right.
We cleaned up the deck of tuna, broke down our rods, and prepared to head in. I don't think anyone could even fully absorb what we experienced and I'm still trying to get perspective. It was beyond anything I could have imagined and I was so appreciative that my brother got to experience this.
After arriving back at the dock, we counted 33 tuna and it confirmed we had the Day of Days.
It will be a long long time before the feeling of ecstasy abates.
Thank you Anil for finding Captain Chuck and for organizing these trips. While not any given trip can be like this, the opportunity to experience this has been worth all the weathered-out trips, all the aborted trips, all the skunk trips.
This is my feeble attempt to memorialize yesterday's trip. For those of you on the bubble of trying for tuna, know that you may have to go through a few trips with minimal results, but maybe, just maybe, you can experience what we found yesterday. It truly was the Day of Days of Tuna.
I was fortunate to be part of another Anil-orchestrated tuna trip out of Warrenton, Oregon. And I was also fortunate to have invited my brother Eric who has never done any kind of trip like this before.
As Sunday approached last week I kept a keen eye on the marine report as it kept becoming more favorable. Hope began to grow as so many planned trips had been canceled due to poor conditions.
Well, Saturday confirmed the next day would be a 'go' so off we went to Warenton.
After a fitful night at Captain Chuck's home in anticipation of the day to come, we woke up at 4am and it was wheels up at 5am, over the bar, after baiting up at Ilwaco, at 7am. Three hours later over calms seas and beautiful sunshine we were in bluewater and the day's fishing adventure officially began.
About 20 minutes later we had our first hookup on the troll. It was a shout-out of "Fish-On", and then seconds later another "Fish-On", and then seconds later, I shouted "Fish-On". Oh yes. Could this be the day?
Well, we landed those three fish and with the first bait stop others caught a couple more. Within the first hour or so we had 8 fish on board.
Off to trolling for a couple more hours with a couple more fish or so, and then around noon it was shouts of a quad hookup on the troll. Captain Chuck brought the boat to a halt and started tossing anchovies over the rail and for the next two hours it was nonstop nirvana of tuna fishing.
Tuna were thrashing on the surface, tuna were streaking like dark ghosts all over by the boat, and tuna were gulping our flies for the next two hours.
Several times it seemed like (and it was actually true) that everyone on the boat was hooked up with a tuna. Captain Chuck by now had put out 4 rods with live bait and 2 of those rods had tuna on them, pulsing the rods in the rod holders. I looked at Anil, with flyrods and Chuck's rods zipping all over with hooked up tuna and said I don't know where to cast without risking a tangle with someone. Anil said something to the effect of "Well, it's better to have a tangle than not to have a hookup." So, out went my fly and seconds later another hookup! Good Lord, it was absolutely nuts. After a 20 minute fight here I was with another one that zipped off line at unbelievable speed until you had so much backing out you wondered how you'd ever reel it all back in. At one time Chuck's 4 bait rods had hookups (sitting in the rod holders) while he and Anil scrambled with the gaffs and nets as the rest of us were fighting fish and shouting to land ours.
Two hours later, with everyone completely satiated (OK, Anil wanted to keep fishing, and as tired as I was, I would have kept going), Captain Chuck called an end to the affair as sharks moved in - my last tuna (the last of the day) came in partially eaten. He said this is the best it could ever be and we've had enough. And he was right.
We cleaned up the deck of tuna, broke down our rods, and prepared to head in. I don't think anyone could even fully absorb what we experienced and I'm still trying to get perspective. It was beyond anything I could have imagined and I was so appreciative that my brother got to experience this.
After arriving back at the dock, we counted 33 tuna and it confirmed we had the Day of Days.
It will be a long long time before the feeling of ecstasy abates.
Thank you Anil for finding Captain Chuck and for organizing these trips. While not any given trip can be like this, the opportunity to experience this has been worth all the weathered-out trips, all the aborted trips, all the skunk trips.
This is my feeble attempt to memorialize yesterday's trip. For those of you on the bubble of trying for tuna, know that you may have to go through a few trips with minimal results, but maybe, just maybe, you can experience what we found yesterday. It truly was the Day of Days of Tuna.
