Italian Tuna, Turbulance, and Taters!

On 9/8/09,
Dylan and I ventured our way over the hill Tuesday evening, to the Mediterranean of the NW in hopes of stinging some bluewater bullets.


When we got over there, we learned of some unfortunate news that put a hault on a Wed. run to tuna town. He and I had the next couple days off, so we decided we'd stick around and check out the sights and sounds of the harbor.



While walking down the dock we saw Johnny Bowles, back from a trip, unloading a few coho and a nice amount of crab!
Crabbing looks pretty good over there.



We made our way around some other docks to look at some of the vessels. This is when I found my namesake boat! ... The Stoney! I had to get a picture with it~



We meandered over to Tillamook Bay Boathouse just in time to see this Crusty Ole' Salt hoisting a load of crab out of the boiler. Some larger crabs than I've seen lately.



I noticed this planter that they had there as well. A tribute of respect to those that lost their lives.



By now, boats were arriving back to port. Many of which didn't make it out to the grounds due to the lumpy conditions. One of which was Chris (id. painter). We ran into him a couple weeks ago while over there.
He was out Wed. but turned around about 12 miles out due to the conditions. However, he managed a nice coho out of the day!

We listened to the forcast that evening, and noticed it was trending down, along with the wind. The decision was made to go for tuna on Thurs!

Next morning, we made our way out. Wasn't a bad run, and even nicer than we thought.


After finding some warmer water, we dropped in. About an hour later, the first rod starts singing. We made sure Chris took the first fish! It was a good one too!



Dylan put the sting on this albie...right in the head! First fish, in the boat!


The Captain was glad to see the skunk off the boat.



A little later I get my chance to fight. This one is a PIG! Took some great runs, until eventually surrendering itself to the gaff. This is my biggest fish to date! 35 lbs. You can definitely tell the difference between a 25 and a 35 lb fish!


Still only had two fish by the afternoon. With each hook-up, we tried casting iron and swimbaits to create multiple hook-ups, but to no avail. Run and gunning to jumpers was out of the question due to the swells and the wind (sheep).

A while later and Dylan gets his chance to scrap. We only had 30 lb line, so we couldn't exactly horse the fish in. He had a good fight with a nice grade of fish also.



While he was fighting this fish, I noticed something about a 100yds behind the boat, moving across the stern. The deep blue water turned milky white, like the color of an iceburg just below the surface. You can see it just below the long white cap at the top of the picture.


A pod of pilot whales (?) surfaced to breathe. Was an awesome sight.


The sun was starting to get lower in the sky, and as much as we all wanted to stay out and enjoy it, we knew we should probably head back to the barn.


We made our way past the tips and towards the harbor.



We had a couple watchful onlookers overseeing our return.



Was a great day with some great people! I enjoyed fishing with you, Chris, and hope to again soon! just gotta keep that boat of yours out here.. no need to trailor it back to ID!

Took a few pictures as the sun set, and before heading back over the hill to the valley.



Any day that you are alive, and out on the water, is a great day, fish or no fish. Chris, I love your perspective on life. I hope some of it rubs off on me. Thanks again!

Killin Tuna and other fish out on Lake Pacific

I had some time to put together some of the trips I've taken out on the Pacific Ocean. Most trips were out of Newport, OR, or Garibaldi, OR. We have seen some amazing things out there, but never have the camera for all of it. The quality isn't very good, sorry about that. But hope you enjoy it anyway!

Now THIS was TUNA Fishing!

I can never get tired of watching this video.  If this doesn't get your heart racing, I'm not sure what will!
This was fishing in a pole boat... this was the heroic times of fishing for tuna!

Buy Your Decals Now~!!

Here are some pictures of the White Decals. These are best for Windows, trucks, cars, canopies, etc...

Tillamook Tales!

Went over the hill to Garibaldi for the weekend. We didn't go out fishing til around 10, so we watched the zoo at the ramp. I'd call it 'controlled chaos'.
Many weekend warriors, excited clients, and others dreaming of coastal chrome!


It was still a bit windy in the morning, even in the harbor.



I was impressed with how quickly and smoothly it went! Glad I wasn't a part of it, and was only documenting it!



Walked over to the Tillamook Bay Boathouse and got a few more shots before it got light.


Mmmmm...


Big Tuna Marine at First Light


We eventually made our way out to Barview to watch the fleet start harvesting chrome.


Glad to have these guys watching over us!


Was a pretty calm bar, with most of the boats venturing outside the tips. Look close, two boats have fish on!


Looking North, the sky began to get light...


We headed back to Big Tuna to get the crab pots rigged and lines ready.

Trying to get out between the salmon boats was like a corn maze out there!
Looking back at them, once we were out, they looked like you could literally walk across them!




Saw Captain Johnny Bowles out there puttin a hurt on the feesh, while we slid out past the Chrome-seekers.



Ended up with some large ocean crab as well as a pile of rockfish.



Great day on the water... Could be the last nice one for a long time, looking at the weather forecast!

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Steelhead/Sturgeon Fishing at Bonneville

Sorry for the late post, been busy all weekend. I had the pleasure of fishing with Gary (Imnaha), for some steelhead on Friday. We got up to the fishery around 7am and were suprised by the lack of trailors.
...Either that was a GOOD thing, or a BAD thing... yet to be determined...



We decided to head upriver past some recognizable landmarks, such as Beacon Rock,


and made our way to a secret locale we clever named the 'shad rack'

We anchored in 15' of water, put back a U20, and some spin-n-glos/shrimp combos.


first bite was on Gary's rode. The thing starts fighting more like a summer nook than a steelhead. larger with the long, pulling headshakes. Didn't fight like a sturgeon...but it was. Nice sized fish too, almost keeper size. Safely released and back to the deep depths of 15'.


Around 9 or so, my rod buries. safe to say this fish is hooked good. The fish rockets straight out of the water with three or four great acrobatic jumps. After her show was over, I grinded her up to the boat, to notice no extra fins.

BONK BONK! (Didn't take much for a 6 lb fish)



"Hey, look at the holdover trout I caught up here at the lake!" is what I felt like saying holding it up.


...just seemed so tiny compared to salmon/tuna/halibut as of recently. But still great fun, don't get me wrong!~ Sometimes its good to scale down.. Its like tying on a #18 caddis to a 4wt and hittin a small creek the day after bloodying the boat with tuna 35 miles out on the Big Blue.
....Brings things into check.

Meanwhile, absorbing the rays of the sun, Gary is brought to his feet by another good bite later that we KNEW was a sturgeon the minute it started poking at his rod.


Another good healthy legal-sized fish.


Again, popped the hook out and let it swim on back to scavenge on something dead.
We made sure to keep the prawn rig up further off the bottom but with their good sniffers, they still seemed to find it.
One random thing I thought was kinda ironic is that the sturgeon both came on the inside rod, and on the bait that was higher up in the water column.. and the steelhead came on the outside rod, deeper water.


Turned out to be a great day on the water.. We ended up keeping one steelhead, and letting two 'incidental bi-catch' (trying my gillnet terminology) sturgeon back to grow larger and maybe keep, another day.

Hope to get up there again.. Just watching the osprey dive for fish, the herons fight for fishing grounds, even the other fishermen attempting to anchor, made for some great entertainment!