Tuna, first trip August 26th

Left the docks in Garibaldi about 5:45 a.m. in my friend Todd’s 19’ Arima. He has a 140 horsepower Suzuki on it. We went NW for about 51 miles, and trolled from about 8:30 a.m. till 4:00 p.m. We had one bite and landed one tuna. It was a beautiful fish, 21 pounds on the scale. We could see tuna jumping, lots of blue sharks, sunfish, schools of mackerel breaking on the surface, and gorgeous whales.

We could not figure out whey the tuna would not bite. We varied trolling speed, and used both topwater and sub surface lures. I have since heard that they were eating anchovies, about 2 to 3” inches long, which swim rather slow. I was told to troll small swim baits, at a salmon trolling speed to get them to bite. Another option, would be to stop the boat, and throw jigs, let them sink for 10 to 15 seconds, and reel back in.

You cannot have the “great” days without some slow days. I still had a blast though, seeing all the wildlife and the “blue” water cannot be beat. We went over 130 miles on the day, and used about 32 gallons of gas, the Suzuki is incredibly fuel efficient. Now to look for the next window to tuna fish.