Tuna Frenzy on the Big Blue Pond

Got the call last weekend, so my brother and I headed over to Garibaldi for some TUNA! hunting with Bud and Andy. Snapped a pic of the sunrise on the way over from Salem...


After loading up with ice, we headed out past the jaws. About 20 miles out, we brought down the outriggers, and deployed the gear.


Mexican flags and Archer spreader bars were the ticket. We immediately picked up a single once we got up to speed. Right as we hooked up, I ran up front, casted a swimbait out, and hooked up with another. Within 15 minutes we already had 3 in the boat. We knew we were in for a great day!
Can you believe these pics were taken 20 miles out?! Almost the glassiest water I've ever seen out there!


I was "allowed" to take all the pics and film as much as I wanted by Bud. (Past trips, while bringing the camera out, have resulted in missed fish, bad gaffs, and lost fish). Soooo, I took the opporTUNAty to film away, and shoot some good photos. Got a few nice ones of some tuna coming in to the gaff. The water was a beautiful blue out there!


You can see the look on the eye of this tuna.. He sees the gaff coming, and ya know he isn't a happy camper!


I couldn't stand to just film the WHOLE time, so I had to put the camera down at some point and get into the action as well!


Like I said earlier, Mexican Flag was the ticket. Here's a great shot of the clone, as well as a good shot of that hook stickin out of this guy's mouth!



A few of the fish also came behind an Archer Spreader Bar. Here's a shot of one of those...


It was good to fish with Andy again, and he kept a good line on those fish as well!


Lastly I had to get a picture with my brother, Mark (Sea-Bass). This was his second trip and can't WAIT to get back out there for more action!


We ended the day with exactly 30 fish! What a great day, with triples, doubles and plenty of singles! We had some larger sharks make some V-lines toward our boat when we would hook up, so we had to get some of those fish in quickly! Couldn't get any pics but there were LOTS of sharks! Another first for us, was that Mark caught is first fish while casting a swimbait out. He couldn't believe the way that fish hit and took off. I was up front casting beside him, as his drag began to sing! He was pretty blown away by their power.

Around 2, we decided to return back to the barn, on a greasy-flat ocean that allowed for a smoooooooth 29-knot run back in. Saw a few dolphins, multiple sharks, albatross, sunfish. ...God, I can't stop thinking of those things. so much to see, ironically, while out there!

Mark and I ended up bringing about 6-7 fish home to process and vacuum-sealed the loins. Ended up with over 60 lbs of loins!

We've BBQ'ed 'em, marinated them, sautted them, cajun-styled, etc...I love trying new ways to eat tuna! It'll DEFINITELY not go to waste!


Couldn't have asked for a better group to fish with. Bud, you rock, and I had a blast, as well did Mark! ...and to think its only the first of July!!! Hopefully there will be more to come! Your kindness and generosity is larger than can be described with words. Thanks for imprinting so many memories into my head. I'll never forget these trips!

Garibaldi Halibut and Salmon Report - Seelicious

Bud, Michelle, Eric, Doug, and I headed out on the pond for some Halibut limits with some potential for some salmon on the way back in.

...Man, you wanna talk about great ways to fish for Halibut! Bud had some SWEEEEET new electric reels.


Felt like we were almost cheating, it was too easy to pull those up. just flip the switch and control the speed. I couldn't help but chuckle, looking over at the charter boat, right next to us, as some guy is straining himself, lifting, and reeling, lifting and reeling, as I just flip the switch and smile.


We Picked up 3 chickens on the first drift, then filled the tags on the second drift. Eric picked up, what we THOUGHT was a Halibut, but turned out to be some type of shark.



I'm sure someone out there knows what kind of shark this is, we didn't, so I took some pictures, so someone could let us know what it was. (Notice the blood drips falling from the shark's head in mid air?. thought that was kinda cool...)




Picked up gear, ran in, and dropped lines for salmon. The salmon bite was pretty hot. We lost a fish right at the boat that had to be 30+... Eric managed to land this nice hog.


Seely got into the action, too! Hooked up with a GIANT!


The fish ended up 'Fish-slappin' her though, right when I took the picture.


Sorry, Michelle, Had to put that pic in.
Caught a few feeders, and some silvers too.. Even got a couple while reeling up to the boat.

Took the fish home, Doug, Eric, and I cleaned our prizes, and we called it a day.

The ocean was calm, the sun was beating down.. couldn't have asked for much better weather! ...AND able to take home some salmon and halibut for a BBQ tonight!

Thanks again Bud, had a Stellar time out there!


Felt like we were runnin for Tuna out there ..expecting to see jumpers. But guess that'll have to wait a month or so...

...Doug can tell ya about the last Halibut...

Shark Attack on the Seelicious!

While pounding some TUNA! this summer with Seelicious, one fish fought a little differently than the rest.

As it got near the boat, it took a deathdive. On the electronics, you could see the fish dive to almost 75 feet. I finally turned the fish and started bringing it back up.. As it rose to 30 ft or so, it became heavier and the fight was more like a large salmon.
I knew what happened at this point, since there had been a couple sharks in the area recently. We already had a double on, so once one fish was in the boat, we focused on mine. We could see Color at that point, as the fished came up from under the boat. However, this tuna had about 5-6 ft of black shadow attached to it. ...Longer tuna than we were used to!
We grabbed the leader, gaffed the fish, and at that point, the shark thrashed its head side-to-side, and ripped off the back half of that Tuna. We brought the tuna up, looked at it quivering. That shark was determined to take its piece. After it was over, I got half, and it got half. ..BUT I GOT THE GOOD HALF!
...It really got a butt-chewin! ,,,,okay bad joke. hahah!

Anyway, I only had my camera phone, so the detail isn't that great. here's a picture once we got the fish and put it on ice.



Here's a closer look. Check out the teeth marks shredding the skin just up from the main wound. I can't even imagine if that were an arm!