Happy Bloody 4th of July!!

First of all,
Happy Bloody 4th of July to all!



Got the call to leave first thing in the morning. Dylan and I made our way to across the hill to Little Italy to meet up with Bud for a tuna run.
4:30 came early, especially after a few drinks, Friday night!~
But knowing we were on a quest to find warm blue water and longfins, we seemed to wake up pretty quickly. CD joined us for the hunt.
We headed out past the jaws into a weak fog bank. It wasn't 'pea-soup' thick, but enough to keep you on Extra alert for crab pots. With a little slop out there, we made our way WSW at 20-23kts. The clouds began to part radiating sun against a clear blue/green propwash.
With some information passed on by Secret Island (thanks Tron), we put in lines around the 125.13 line and within 20 mins the first rod went off. The first 2009 Garibaldi sport-caught tuna was now landed!


We had a few doubles and a triple for a moment, until one came unbuttoned. All were caught on zuchini clones. A couple came behind birds. Water temps were up to 61.9 by the afternoon. Some of that was probably the sun warming the surface.
We had a little down time between the action ...and of course, when we bring out the camera for a quick pic....ZZZZZZ! the rod behind me starts going off (as you can see in the background)!


Made for a good photo opp... but back in the bag went the camera, and the fun began again! We kept putting fish in the box, but just not in great numbers yet.


We stopped fishing once we ended up with more fish than ice. The fish we caught ranged from about 15-25 lbs. We noticed Dick came in with nice-sized fish. Could've run 35'ish? The fish are there, but just not in the numbers yet. Hopefully they'll keep moving in closer!


Once we were back in, and cleaning the fish box, we saw a bait that one of the fish coughed up. This thing was about 10 inches long, hard-pointed nose, somewhat mackerel-looking. Anyway, found it interesting. Must've eaten it that morning, by the way it looked.


The ocean laid down as the day went on which made for a comfortable ride in around 30kts..Ended up with great weather, good fishing, and even better friends to kick off the 2009 Albacore Season!


Let the bodies hit the floor...
Let the bodies hit the floor...
LET THE BODIES HIT THE FLOOR!!