Tuna Finally

Finally, a break in the weather. All the forecast sources seem to be in agreement. I was looking at 4 -5 foot seas at 10 seconds with little wind. I had to take the time off if I want to get some tuna. I went ahead and took Friday off. I called Matt to see if he was available. Luckily, he's able to clear his schedule.

3:00 a.m. on Friday morning came fast. I barely slept. We top off the fuel and we're off to Westport. We get to the ramp still dark and had to wait till about 6:30 a.m. before crossing the bar. Easy bar crossing and we're off to the races doing about 24 mph. About a hour into the run my temp outboard alarm goes off. The starboard motor was overheating. I shut the motors down and checked the intake. Sure enough seaweed and grass were stuck. I clear the obstructions and fired the motor back up.

We kept going to our numbers 47 x 125.03. We got to that spot at around 8:30 a.m. I put the lines out while Matt ran the boat to trolling speed. We hook up one about 10 minutes into on the cedar plug. A few minutes later we had our second on a Zuker clone. Then it was dead for the next 2.5 hours.

We worked our way to 125.10 and saw the commercial boats and a few other sporties. At about 1:45 the bite finally turned on and we put 6 in the box by 2:30 a.m. Not wanting to miss a good bar crossing, I decided to go ahead and head in. Hate having to leave a nice bite, but oh well.

The pic is a little bird who needed a rest stop. Not sure what it was doing out 40 miles offshore.

Mom and Dad Visit

Mom, Dad, Sis and her boyfriend came to visit us. Mom and Dad stayed with us for 2 weeks. I had originally planned to take them to Sekiu but canceled at the last minute when the weather threw us a curve ball. Plan B was to head to Astoria and fish the Buoy 10 fishery.

Even down there the weather was not that great. My crew got seasick right away the first day as we fished the Ilwaco area. So back at the dock at 9 a.m. and went sight-seeing for the rest of the day. The next day, I took my crew down to Chinook and fished calmer waters. We fished until about 2 a.m. for nothing. We got the big skunk on the Columbia River.

My parents are back home in Maryland. The season is winding down and soon it will be time to put the boat away. I have yet to get out for tuna since that last trip. The weather has been very uncooperative. I've missed 4 flat days due to work. It's frustrating. I may not have another window as the north wind is now sitting on the coast and most likely driving the warm water out.