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Albacore out of Ilwaco

 
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rogerbum



Joined: 21 Nov 2004
Posts: 5922
City/Region: Kenmore
State or Province: WA
C-Dory Year: 2008
C-Dory Model: 255 Tomcat
Vessel Name: Meant to be
Photos: SeaDNA
PostPosted: Tue Sep 06, 2016 10:31 am    Post subject: Albacore out of Ilwaco Reply with quote

Sunday was definitely the day to be out tuna fishing. We crossed the Columbia river bar early in the AM having pushed off the dock at about 5. The bar was restricted to 20' and under but that appeared to be based on the reports from the previous night's last daylight. The ebb was just getting started and bar conditions when we crossed were pretty much as I expected - a little lumpy but nothing too bad. Given that it was pitch dark, we motored out at 8-12 kts until we were well clear. The lumpiness remained until about 10-15 miles out as the ebb was building but a couple of hours after the sun came up, we were far enough out that the waters started to calm and the rest of the day was very pleasant - 2-3 foot swells at 14s with a 5-10kt wind from the north.

Reports from the previous day indicated that there was good fishing about 40 miles out and off the opening to Willapa bay. My plan was to run out on the N. edge of Astoria Canyon and then if we didnt' see signs of life, motor N until we did or until we were at the previous day's report location. We ran out to about 32 miles and didn't any life. We turned north but with the tide still ebbing and a bit more of a N wind (it layed down later in the day), we couldn't go much faster than about 10-12kts without beating ourselves up. So after 20-30 mins, I decided that since we couldn't go too much faster than trolling speed (6-8kts), we might was well put lines in the water.

We ran a spread of 8 rods. 4 purple/black/silver tuna clones on rods of the stern - one on each corner, two inside of that. Those were out at 50-75' (alternating length. From two rod holders on the cabin hand rails, I ran some Mexican flag clones at about 125' back and then from two rods on the roof, we ran swim baits at about 150-175' back. We got our first bites at 10:30AM and put two nice size (~22#) albies in the boat. A circle or two around those hits produced nothing so we wandered further N. Around 11:30 we got 4 more but these were smaller 8-12# fish. We started tacking NE towards coordinates that were called out earlier on the radio but before we ever got to those, we started hooking multiple fish.

We wound up about 32 miles offshore about 1/2 up the Long Beach peninsula. We stopped at 2PM with 18 albacore on board. The largest was a little over 30#. That one was fun as it bit on a swim bait that I casted out, let out about 50' of line and gave a few hard tugs. Feeling the bit with the rod in your hands is super fun. The swim bait was on a relatively stiff salmon rod but that fish nearly bent it in half. It took 10+ minutes to land it.

Every rod and every type of gear I had out landed fish but the best producers were the swim baits and the Mexican flag clones. The 8 rod spread only got tangle a few times - once when a shark took gear across several lines before chewing through the leader and a few times due to some "interesting" work at the helm by a party who will remain unamed here. From the radio reports, it sounds like everyone was having a good day. Many of the guys with live bait plugged their boats before noon and headed home. So Monday I took the time to install my live bait tank for the next tuna adventure.

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Roger on Meant to be
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colvosview



Joined: 04 Nov 2003
Posts: 112
City/Region: Gig Harbor
State or Province: WA
C-Dory Year: 1987
C-Dory Model: 22 Angler
Vessel Name: C-heeto
PostPosted: Tue Sep 06, 2016 1:16 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Sounds like a great day!
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David S
Gig Harbor, WA
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