LI Tuna 9/11 - Shark Bite!

 Hit the pond with Chris on Saturday.

Our day started a little slow but progressively got better and better...

Saw Danno running alongside for a few...

Turned out to be a pond out there!

Water changed at about the 28 line, and finally got blue around the 36-40 line. Most fish were caught around 46 and out.
Got one fish early, but didn't get into fish til the afternoon bite, for the most part.

We ended up with 14 fish between two of us. Most slow trolling rapalas and swimbaits.

4 more casting iron. Was great having 5 lines buckled over in rod holders with fish on and just two of us to wrangle them in! But we did! Turned 2 fish into 7 on one stop. A commercial boat must have seen us stop, because it turned right toward us, from a mile away, and ran almost over our gear. Hard to think we were having better luck, but then again, I never did see them pull a fish aboard.

Then a GIANT shark, I mean a GOOD 12', was about 20 feet down while we had two tuna hanging.
We quickly TRIED to get the fish in. One fish made a death run straight down and popped off. The second... well,... We fought that shark hard for this fish...

and got most of it back!!!

Definitely some razor sharp teeth. We didn't even feel him slice that tuna in half!!

We were guessing probably a salmon shark? Definitely not a thresher, but looked more like a salmon or white. AMAZINGLY big!!

Happy Hunting!!! They're definitely still around!!

Albacore Tuna-Live Bait-Underwater!

Went out on the pond last Sunday and couldn't have asked for a better day out there!  Flat ocean, very little wind, and LOTS of fish!   We never had to troll for a fish.  We saw a jumper and casted a butterfly jig.   HOOKED UP, Got 'em on!      ...Deployed the live bait volunteers!   They did their job well!  we were on a quad...then a triple, then another, then....


Underwater Live Bait Tuna Fishing from Sublime on Vimeo.

Less than 2 hours later, 42 fish were on board, and we were out of ice.  We never had to turn on the boat and move once.   One-stop shopping!   Can't beat it!   

Here's Bud with a nice piggy!

Tuna Time next to us hooked up with a triple...

Ahhh, Tuna!

Myself, with a nice fat Albie!

Can't waith for more calm water!!!

Sporty Seas Albacore Arrive! ...and DIE! (7/01/10)

Thursday, July 1st was NOT a good day to be a TUNA. It was our first Tuna excursion of the year. The Seelicious, along with Tuna Time and Caddywhompus, left the dock around 4:30am and were running to Tuna Town on a nice slick ocean! Seas were 1 and 4 with very little wind.

However, we knew there were showers in the area and they would kick up some brutal SW wind chop in the afternoon. We zig-zagged between showers as we headed West. We ran over a warm plume of water that we saw the night before on the SST and felt the fish would be on the backside of that plume.

We found clean bluish water out at the 125 line and went as far as 125.30. The first fish hit around the 45.05/125.16 line for us. We had the outriggers down and clones were a'dancin' behind birdies!

Before we knew it, the sounds we were waiting to hear...
The outrigger popped, and the reel began to sing. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzz! FISH ON!

FIRST ALBIE OF THE YEAR!!!

The first few fish were singles, but consistent. An hour or so later, we switched out the birdies for Archer Bars and immediately got pounded! A couple doubles and triples, landing our first triple of the year successfully! After that, almost all fish were 'Bar Fish'!

Many of those fish ate up their last 'Hawaiian Breakfast'!

The weather continued to go to Tillamook Manure as the day went on.

...Waves were steeper, and troughs were deeper. But the fish kept biting.

We put a few more fish in the boat by 1pm, and with weather in the minds of us all, we chose to pick up and run back to the barn.   Before we ran, we could see Tuna Time hooked up with another one!

Good thing we did! Running back up and across that SW chop made for a VERY sporty ocean!

Add blowing rain and it felt more like February out there!

We ended up with 28 fish for the day. We had a NICE grade of fish, for this early in the year, with a 20lb average. What an awesome way to kick off the 2010 Season!! Thanks again, Buddy! (great pic, btw)!

Happy4thofJuly!!

Salmon Fishing- Garibaldi

I was invited to fish with Johnny Bowles out of Garibaldi for spring chinook and possibly some inshore halibut or rockfish. I headed across the hill with Dylan and hopped aboard with Johnny B. We set out across the bar, checked crab pots, and continued on...



FULL VIDEO LINK HERE

and here's more of the story...

Ran up to drift a couple areas for halibut, or maybe a rockfish.

We only fished for halibut for an hour or so and wanted to come back in to hit the tides right.

Checked the pots and ran in to pick up Johnny's Daughter

and she brought us good luck!!

FISH ON! We tell Captain JB to take the fish (he never gets to,... always handing 'em off!).

Abby (sp?) was on the camera filming the second half of this video and did an amazing job keeping the camera still, focusing on the fish, and just plain balancing herself?! Great Job Abby!

We released a nice 28-30lb fat boy and were happy to do so! Was a great day on the water, just wish the sun would've come out a little earlier! The company couldn't have been much better. We even picked up a live sand dollar, that we decided needed to go back to the water and live a little longer, til we could pick up it's shell later.

Thanks again for a great trip, Johnny! Next time the sun will cooperate with us a little more! Your 1st Mate is a Great Good Luck Charm!

Tillamook Bay Spring Chinook

Saturday was looking great...Sunny weather and warm temps.   I got to play 'Guide' and took Gary and Dwight over to Tillamook Bay to try for some Spring Chinook action.

Great ride over, saw some local Tillamook golfers smackin the ball around.

sun beaming on the Cheese factory...

Getting ready to back the boat down the ramp, we noticed some cones on the ramp guarding a small seal pup that was emaciated, or just napping.  It would look around, then go back to sleep...ON THE RAMP!   I should've got a couple picture

Once we hit the bay, most of the morning was slow.  We didn't see a net go up in any boat.  We did see some familiar faces out there, including Bud, Dick, Johhny, etc.

Saw Johnny Bowles fly by a couple times to head out on the pond to check some crab pots...

The incoming tide had about another hour or so left as we were trolling with the tide.  We ran along the Coast Guard tower,

and made our way back toward Crab Harbor and 'Shit Rock'.    Gary decided he wanted a slower roll on his herring, so He reeled up, re-baited and dropped it back down.

No more than 5 seconds later,  WHAMMM!!!   His rod buries.  He jumped up, set the hook and it was on!  I grabbed the camera and started filming his fight. 

Tillamook Bay Spring Chinook Salmon Fishing from Sublime on Vimeo.

This fish was HOT, and made some amazing runs!  You could hear Gary's clicker screeeeeaaaming as that fish took off.  It did NOT want to be near our boat.   Eventually the fish got close enough and Dwight netted that fish so fast as if he's done it before! (which he has, about 1000 times in the past!) 

First and only fish in the boat!!   26lbs of blinding Chrome!

Twas a good day on the bay!

Bald Eagles = Good Luck Charms

I got the call to fish the halibut opener this past weekend but was blown off the water the first two days. However, Dylan and I had a Plan B. We brought our waders and salmon gear to go hiking up some NW rivers. The temperature was perfect; the bright greens of the moss and foliage, the deep blues of the sky, the sun glimmering off the water. We knew we could find some fish! We made our way to the river, and began our trek.

At the first hole we came to, Dylan hooked a Nice fish.  The fight played out and as the fish came to the bank, it came unbuttoned.   So we knew they were there...
We hiked our way through steep canyons, LARGE boulders, and 100yr-old trees.  Beautiful area!Some pools were tough to navigate, but we would eventually find a path up to the next hole. 

Unfortunately, still no fish were taking our offerings.   We fished bobber/eggs most of the day through the deeper holes.  Couldn't BELIEVE we didn't hook any fish holding in this hole.   It seems like the perfect hole for fish to plug up in.  We made our way up around these boulders, larger than cars, to the next run.  You can see Dylan in the upper left-hand corner of the next picture.  This shows how small we can feel sometimes.

 
While wading across one tailout, a large shadow cruises across the ground.   We look up to see a HUGE bald eagle flying up the canyon. 

We've seen it there before, and know there are others in the family.  This one in particular stood out due to its larger size.

We continued up the river until I found a nice deep slot that ran along the far bank, and into a deeper hole.  I pitched my bobber upstream, let it float its way down into the hole.   As it entered the slow water it sunk...

FISH ON!!     After a great fight, we realize it was a hatchery fish!   So, up the bank it came. 
BONK!  Time to stock the freezer.

It seems like every time we see a bald eagle we hook up with a fish.   So, we've concluded that they're our fishing good luck charms.   The next morning, before heading out for Halibut, we spotted another nice bald eagle perched out on the tips of the jetty.   We limited that day by noon.

Santiam Scouting for Springers

Santiam River Spring Chinook Scouting Trip from Sublime on Vimeo.

High Water, But Still got a Spring Chinook

Decided to run up and hit the river with a Mike, his dog Wiley, and Alex yesterday evening around 4. The river was still running high and fast, but had good color, so we decided to give it a try.

We ran up to a couple runs and holes and decided to bring out the diver and eggs and start dredging.

Had a few squawfish take our baits, and a few bites that we swore were chinook, but missed those. Mike's rod started getting nibbled on..waited....waited.....waited.....waited.. for like a minute.. and finally he set the hook and BAM! FISH ON!
The video is from a still cam, so it's pretty shaky, but you get the idea!



Wasn't a large fish, but HEY!, it was a high water springer, so we were happy! We were the only boat on the river. Apparently nobody else thought the river was fishable.  

Too bad we only had a couple hours on the river.  The fish are all over, just have to find them!