Overnight and Offshore

We took a scouting trip in early Spring, looking for longfins,  fishing overnight, and back to port the next day.   We were hoping to catch the first sport-caught tuna in Oregon that year. 

Offshore and Overnight from Sublime on Vimeo.

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!

Passions and Pelagics: Pacific Pork and Pomfret

Ahhh! Let me first start by saying, 'what an AMAZING day yesterday on the water!' From the time we stepped aboard The Seelicious, we knew it was gonna be a great day. We idled out to the coast guard tower, then throttled up. Made our way out past the tips with no concern. Flat bar. The sun peeked its rays above the coast range.




Little Italy, once again, has treated me to a head full of memories!



Bud, Mike, Dylan and I made the run west, only after a nice filling breakfast at the Wheelhouse. Mmmm, what a way to start out the morning...coffee, biscuits-n-gravy, bacon, eggs and toast! Can you tell I'm hungry this morning?
Seelicious was loaded with its late-season arsonal. A porcupined boat; quills armed with fishtraps and iron. Chovie along with light green/clear fishtraps worked the best, with purple/clear also getting a little action.



Mike brought his own gear, and found the fish REALLY liked his BF jigs.



Oh yes, lastly, to add to the arsonal of Late-season tactics, we had a livewell full of anchovies just WAITING to become heroes! This was their day to shine! This was the day they lived their whole lives for.. The big dance...
...Go get 'em, squigglies!





So we make our way out past the tips, across a relatively smooth bar. The ride out was comfortable and seemed quick given the distance. We found green/blue water and some good temp breaks around the 125 line. The wind laid down as the day progressed. Sheep never appeared, making the spotting of jumpers MUCH easier! Most of the time, Ole' Eagle-Eye Mike would spot 'em 1000's of yds out before the rest of us saw them.... (I think its a trained eye that comes with all those ocean hours!)
The fish were a bit skittish and would sound fairly quickly as we rolled up on them. For the most part we could slide up, throw a few traps and iron and hook right up. Livies would then be deployed creating the second wave of the attack. This hooked up the next couple fish in the pod. By this time, the fish would normally sound and be below us. Once it seemed the pod moved on, the third and final wave of the attack was deployed...Iron to 100ft. Iron Mike would hook up on his BF jig down around 50-100'. Granted, not every pod out there produced these numbers. We Did have a couple stops that were bounty-less. But for the most part, we made it happen when we needed to.

Dylan spotted what we thought were 2-3 dorado under a kelp paddy we slid up on. We casted EVERYthing at them, including live bait but no hits. I was fortunate enough to see the forked blue-green tails as they were swimming off. We even slow trolled the livies around the paddy, with no results. We decided to move on to the next set of jumpers.

A little later, we came across a small baitball getting worked. We slid right up on it, and it moved right towards us. The predator fish that were workin this baitball were smaller....so we casted all around and thru the bait ball, and immediately hooked up with a Pacific Pomfret. You could see these chrome, crevalle-lookin piranha fish down in the water flyin in on the baitball, hitting it from all sides. Apparently our iron jigs looked extremely tasty to them, and we had 4 in the boat within a couple mins. They aren't large fish as you can see.







After the excitement wore off, we continued on our quest for longfins.

In the afternoon, the bite really picked up. We were noticing more and more pods of jumpers. The wind dying down and the ocean calming helped this out! We managed a healthy number of fish throughout the afternoon. Unfortunately, it IS October... The sun is setting earlier and the days are getting shorter, so we decided to run in.


We pointed the battlewagon east, and ran back to the barn at a smooth and comfortable 28 kt cruising speed. It was like a lake out there!





On the ride in, we recollected the events and highlights of the day. The calm conditions, seeing the dodo's, sharks, casting and hookin-up, (and yeah, losing a few), catching the Pomagranites, err PomPoms, err Pompanos, err....POMFRETS!, whatever they are! just kidding, they're pretty cool little fish!



These fish have some Sharp little teeth.. I'm not at my normal computer to edit, but you can kinda see them in this next picture. They also have a nice deep blue line along with that lighter blue along the back of the fish.



Anyway, just be be out on the ocean in and catching tuna in October definitely gave us a sense of accomplishment. To be blessed by Mother Ocean with 23 tuna, 4 exotics, along with visuals and memories to last till...well,. NEXT TRIP!


I couldn't have been out there with a better group of guys. I enjoyed fishin with all of you! For the most part, we were a fairly-well-oiled machine out there... Glad we got to fish together again, Mike! and of course a HUGE thanks to Bud for another AMAZING trip on the pond! You've allowed my head to swell with some amazing memories, yet again. Thank you, Amigo!

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!!

Humbolt Squid Caught While Rockfishing

Just like Forrest Gump once said, "Life is like a box of chocolates...You never know what you're gonna get". Lake Pacific has provided me, once again, with this fascination. Saturday was no exception. . .

I had the invite from Brad (GreenButtSkunk), to go fish for some rockfish and maybe in-shore halibut. I jumped at the opportunity! My friend Dylan (ZodiakFisherman), and I cruised over to Little Italy early Saturday morning to join Brad and Dan (74 CJ5). It was so cold Saturday morning, that the walk ramp going down to Big Tuna Marine was iced over. Sliding down with rods, bags, food, etc, we clumsily made our way to the boat, like deer on ice. Once it began to get light, we made our way out of the marina.



We found our depth, shut down the boat and dropped the baits. We were in search of in-shore halibut.
Not more than 5 minutes later, a loud PFFFFSSHHHHHHHH sound came up RIGHT where I was staring! A baby humpback whale peeked its head up, took a breath, and I swear it was staring right at us, curious as we were. Brad looks and says, "I wonder where Mama is..." A few seconds later, here comes Big Mama, swimming behind her calf. Such a massive and beautiful creature! Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera at the time...only a rod and reel...
Once we found our halibut spot, we made a few drifts at different depths. Unfortunately, they didn't produce. What we did notice, is TONS of jellyfish floating below us. You could see them at all depths.


We decided to run up to a reef he knew of and tried a few drifts there. A few drifts brought numorous rockfish, quillbacks, and lingcod. Here's Dylan with one of the smaller Lings.


Dan also got into a nice ling on the same drift.


We picked up lines and ran back up for another drift and Dylan hooks into a pretty large fish... or so we thought. He said he couldn't feel any real headshakes...just long pulls. but fought him good. Line would peel off the reel at times. He finally got it up to color and we noticed it was a HUMBOLDT SQUID!




We honestly didn't know what we should do with it. I grabbed the underwater video camera and started filming. It was amazing the way this thing would shoot down 20ft, but get pulled right back up. What looks like its mouth, is really a vent...for the mouth is really the beak in the middle~



I actually got some pretty good video! Had great clarity in the water!
We decided not to keep the squid, and it eventually popped off the line so we didn't have to deal with it!

That reef produced all kinds of 'creatures from the deep'.
Another fish pulled up this weekend was this Ratfish we caught, while fishing for some inshore halibut.






This was another first for me, aside from the Squid and the Humpbacks.

We didn't have a lot of time to fish, and we wanted to be back inside before the bar started standing up. Although we didn't get our halibut, we still had a great time, a few firsts, and a few Lings for the dinner table.

Hope its not the last run of 2008!
Had to end the day with an Ice cold Fat Tire.

Thanks again, Brad!

November Yellowtail!

Here I was, sitting at work, Saturday afternoon, watching golfers beat the ball around out on the range. Checking the computer every few minutes for an update, I'd wait to see how the Tuna guys were doing. I saw Chad's post from Bud, talking of fish in the boat. Didn't sound like a monster day for numbers, but hey, any tuna in October is a great sign!

Later that afternoon, I get the call from Bud. I hear how they did, and the other boats that were out. I got work cleared and made preperations for a Sunday Run...which could quite possibly be the last Tuna Trip of the Year. I called Dylan (Z. Fisherman) to join us.

He and I cruised over to Garibaldi first thing Sunday morning to meet up with Bud and Dave (Beer Wagon). We left dock around 7am. At some point on that dock I heard Bud mumble, "Red sky in the morning, sailors take warning..." This is a preface as to what was to come..


The bay was littered with smaller salmon boats, anxiously awaiting that first-light salmon bite. I mean LITTERED. We had to dodge our way out through the mine field of boats. Finally, we were to the tips and noticed a realitively flat bar. It was an easy crossing. Up to 25 knots we rose, gliding over 5' swells with ease, due to the length and duration between each swell.


Calm seas and little wind accompanied us on the way out.

The water started clearing up pretty quick and before we knew it we were into bright blue water. We threw out trolling gear and made our way West in 58.5 degree water.

A large dragger was up ahead and we made our way that direction. We noticed alot of bird activity, most of which were albatross. We trolled through them a few times when the first rod went off. Up to the boat came Sr. Albacore!


We caught him on a Cedar Plug Chain. First fish in the boat. This brought a little ease off our shoulders for the rest of the trip.

In this same vicinity, we hooked up again. This one ran and fought differently, shooting from side to side. As it came up, we heard "Yellowtail!" We made sure THIS fish wasn't getting away! He attacked one of the spreader bars. Here's a scary fella, brandishing a bloody knife and a glare that could kill. Oh wait, it's just Dave.


We each wanted a picture with this one. This next one is Dylan.


...and finally, yours truly...


Our first exotic of the year, and what a time for it to come....OCTOBER?!

We spotted a few schools of jumpers, but they remained pretty shy of the boat. We hooked up a couple others, but somehow they came unbuttoned. Managed to get another nice-sized albie in the boat.


Around noon, the wind started kickin up from the South. This bumped the forcast up to more of a 3 and 5 forcast. We started seeing some sheep which made spotting jumpers almost impossible. at this point, we started trolling west and eventually pick up and ran.


The ride home definitely was not as comfortable as the ride out. With that southerly, the chop was nearing 4-5 ft.

We slid in across the bar before it really had a chance to stand up.



All in all, it was a successful mission. The yellowtail just brought that extra bit of energy and enthusiasm.


Driving back around the bay, headed for home, made for some good picture opportunities as well.

Wow, what a difference a few hours make. That morning, the Ghost Hole was PACKED! Not to mention pretty rough
... and now, at sunset,...calm and quiet... no boats.


Great year. Thanks Bud, I've had some great trips and memories! What a great way to end the 2007 Oregon Tuna Season!

....Or IS it the last? ...can't tell with Bud