This was my first time fishing for albacore. It was a slow morning and I got a small bonito size albie. There were a few fish on board. We were heading for home and doing the jackpot stuff while still trolling. All of a sudden, boom, there was a triple hook up on the trolling gear. There were albacore all around the boat. There were people hooked up with big fish on all sides of the boat. I managed to get a 30 lb'er on 20 lb. test. At the end of the day we estimated there were over 50 fish on board for 19 anglers. The jackpot was a 40+ lb. blue fin.

I just wanted to say that the crew of the Seahawk was most helpful and informative. Ricky the deckhand was instructive and helpful. Merit, the skipper, kept us out 2 hours longer than we were supposed to when we found the fish and we didn't get home until midnight on Sunday.

We left when the fish were still biting as we had to get home. Still left the trolling gear up though. The highlight of the day was when a 10 year old boy hooked up a big 25-30 lb'er on trolling gear - Merit said we were 61 miles out at this point and had fish all around the boat. Unfortunately though, we had to get back.

What a day!

tree

Great report dude,
Glad to hear you got a couple albies. Midnight on Sunday return, whoo that must have been a boat ride!

Merit comes through once again. Ya know, that's two seahawk reports in a row where merit stayed out longer than he was supposed to... Good deal. Glad you got em. All my gear is cleaned inside and out, re-spooled, and ready to go on the 13th. I've even casted 1/2 oz. and 1/4 oz. weights on most of my setups to "practice". Even tied the 30# to a lawn chair and practiced pullin!!!! Man, I can't wait.
-Brian

Good luck on the 13th Brian. I had some good advice in advance and that was to have a 20 lb. set up (in addition to heavier) in case the fish are shy biters. There were a lot of guys catching big fish on 20 lb. including a 40 lb. blue fin.

I will be on a private Santa Rosa charter on the Stardust on the 15th so unfortunately won't make it out for albie for a little while. But man I am hooked now, need to go by a trolling set up !!!

Stoked to hear you had a good time and caught fish. Gotta love that 20lb.

Amish Ed

LAST EDITED ON Oct-03-00 AT 12:19 PM (PST)

I have fished tuna the past few years on both the sea hawk and other party boats. One KEY factor in getting bit that I have seen time in and time out, being able to get your bait AWAY from the boat. I have a friend who strictly fishes long rods, 8.5 feet and up. He gets beat up pretty badly on the fish, but generally has 2 or more to everybodys elses fish. Get the livestly, greenest bait, I like to collar or anal hook them to get them to swim away from the boat.

Also, LISTEN!! If you hear that they are crashing on the bow, drop your bait, grab your jig stick, or grab a lively sardine so you can cast it further, and hustle up to the bow. The key to my getting 5 fish on my last tuna trip - even though I was filming my buddies catching them, and also filming Chris from the landing fight a bluefin for over an hour and 15 minutes, was that I hustled.

"Fish Crashing on the BOW!!" Run up there and get one fish here, one fish there when the bite is spotty. Remember you may only get one stop that will open wide open, so be ready to trade up in line class, all the way up to 60 lbs. You may only get 20 or so minutes to put the fish on as they rush the boat. This is the time to put your two or three fish on board! Inversly, if you the bite is seeming to fade you may want to get that last fish so be ready to drop down.

Make sure, that if you can, you bring a 20, 25, 30, 40, lb set ups, I also like to bring 50, 60 adn 80lb setups if the bigger stuff shows up, and 16 and 12 lb setups ( freshwater bass rods with abu garcias 5500's) This has saved me on more than one occasion. Remember, you are paying top dollar for a top fishing experience. What if the big bluefin 100 lb + show up, will you be ready, or the one who got spooled. This will only happen a 'finite' number of times. Be ready. As for the 12 lb setup, I was on a Ronnie Kovach Fising School ( don't ask, I won the trip in a raffle) had about 35-40 anglers and staff on board. I show up with my full quiver of rods ( not shiney gold and silver reels and new shiney black rods but setups I put together while deckhanding, a rod here, a reel there) Well the staff and a few other anglers began to give me a hard time about my 'fresh water gear' Little did they know that the grade of fish we were looking at were all 10-12 lb bluefin. I had fished them four days before. Long story short, out of 35-40 people fishing, I had 5 bluefin out of a total count of 65 fish. The fish were super line shy. The only reason I didnt have more was that it took me time to get the fish in. Every bait I dropped, I got bit on. I also used circle hooks to corner hook the fish. I didnt lose any fish that trip.....

Another thing, spend the extra 20 minutes to let your line drag behind the boat on the way out. This does two things, it takes out any spin in the line, straightening it, and it also wet-packs your line on your reel, both inhibiting backlashes and "line-crunch" These are no 3 lb calicos. The fish are getting to be bigger, and any little mistake that you may get away with a smaller fish, DRASTICLY reduces the chance of landing fish. Line that is old, or not well packed, will be 'bit' down by the pressure of the running fish and you can cut your self off at the reel or give yourself a mini backlash, again causing a weak link that may fail.

Good luck - Tight lines and burnt drags.

MAKE SURE THAT YOU KNOW HOW TO SHORT PUMP YOUR FISH - it has made the difference for me from a 50 minute 50 lb bulefin - to a 3 MINUTE 56 LB Bluefin on 30 pound test! Post if you want me to elaborate on short pumping.

Thanks for the informative post. Most of the things you mentioned are things that I figured out in hindsight because I made all the beginners mistakes.

I was dying reeling up the 30 lb. fish until someone showed me how to short pump!

This was my first time at albie fishing and right now I tell you I can't wait to go again!

did you eat the heart?????????????????

be glad that your first tuna wasnt a 70 lb tuna!!!

moondoggie

did you eat the heart?????????????????

be glad that your first tuna wasnt a 70 lb tuna!!!

moondoggie

Moondoggie,

I'm curious as to what you mean by short pumping. I may already know it just not by that name. And I'm sure I'm not the only one who would benefit from the post. Thanks!

*************************************

You can't catch tomorrow what you kill today - please practice catch and release.

Actually, I really did want to eat the heart but the deck hands were so busy with other stuff at the time I didn't want to bother them. I'll get it next time for sure - with a Corona to wash it down.

As for short pumping, you pull up a small amount on the rod and quickly reel ONLY 1 to 2 quick turns on the way and keep repeating the process. The purpose is to constantly keep the fishes head coming up. Initially I made the mistake of doing long pulls and then a number of reels on the way down. What this did was allow the fish to get his head pointed down and pull off all the line that I just reeled. That's the best I can explain it. Maybe some one more experienced can elaborate.

Short-pumping or stroking is a method of fighting the fish that can be used at several different times during the fight. It can be risky, as it does put a lot of pressure on the hook and line. If used directly after the hookup, the strain on a fresh or green fish can exceed what the hook can hold, the line or tackle can support. Likewise, if you do 'stroke' in a hot fish, make sure to yell "hot fish" and have the gaff ready, or you will turn a three minute fish into a 30 minute fish as the fish wakes up and is really pissed off.

Short stroking consists of several factors. One is rythmicaly pumping the rod, sometimes just a few inches, and grinding the reel to gain line, inches at a time. What this does is keep the fishes head pointed towards you, coming up in a big corkscrew sprial. That is the KEY, it the fish can point his head away from you, it will run and you will lose line. Raising your rod all the way up does gain line, but you are not able to grind fast enough to maintain the pressure on the fish, and so his head drops and you lose line. Sometimes I am only able to get a quarter-turn on my reel's handle, but all the while, grinding him in, little by little.

Another factor involved, is using the boat and the waveaction. When the boat, which should be in the trough, rocks up and down, us that to your advantage. You don't even need to raise your rod, if there is enough swell, just let the boat do the rocking action, and grind as the boat drops.

I mainly short-stroke in with the rod in two positions. this first, with the rod belt as low as you can get it without it falling off your hips. I like to have my rodcup hang below, pardon my french, my balls. If you have your cup too high, the axis will shift up and you will have to use your back, and at a certain point, you lose leverage and the fish begins to gain more leverage on you. I like to use a rod with a pretty soft tip, but some backbone in this position. I like the reel a little closer to the butt than normal, so I have a little more rod to grip ahead of the reel, and my hands are around waist high. Using your hips, rock rythmically and work the fish in, as opposed to using your back.

The other time I will stoke, is when the fish is in the 'death-sprial' and I will stick the rod butt under my armpit, and use the boat and my back to grind on the fish. This is a little harder on your back, but will kill a fish faster than normal.

I only get to tuna fish a few times a year, so I like to be able to get my moneys worth. I clean all my own fish, ice them down, fillet, chunk, ziplock and wrap in newspaper. I will often spend more time cleaning and filleting the fish, than I spent catching them. I have frozen fish up to 6 months with great success. I go out to catch as many fish as I can, and I give a bunch away to my neighbors. Granted we are talking about 5-10 fish here, not hundreds. I would not keep any fish that I would not use, ie. waste. I have turned many of my friends onto this sort of fishing and the delicious fillets that come home with me. Make sure that if you are not able to use the fish, either give them away on the boat, or release them. Releasing tuna can kill the bite. Tuna are opportunistic feeders and are always trying to find food. This is the theory behind trolling up fish and bringing them in quickly. All of a sudden, "Joey" is hooked, shaking his head and speeding back and forth, all his buddies will see this and come over to see what he is eating that they are not. conversly, if you lose a fish early, or release tuna, they will speed away from the boat into the depths, pulling their buddies away from the boat to see why he is headed down.

If you want some tips on bagging your fish for maximum freezer time, let me know.

nuff said for now.

MoonDoggie

Proof of consumption:

http://www.calfishing.com/dcforum/User_files/39db80cf37260bcd.jpg

MoonDoggie