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TUNA TUNA TUNA

By: Ron Wilson

September 2, 2009.... The warm water that albacore tuna love has just not come in close enough to shore for a lot of the smaller boats this year off the coast of Half Moon Bay. It has inched its way up north enough this year for boats in Monterey and Santa Cruz to reach them but it can be a 40 mile or so run from even there and that’s where the tuna are right now.

Something I have noticed over the years that when you make the long runs out past the 601 spot out of Half Moon Bay the weather can change out there two or three times as you make the long run. You can run into different winds from no wind to wind and back to wind back again all on the same run.

I recently went out of Half Moon Bay with Captain Jay Friesen on his 28 foot Keviat Kat that he has berthed there. No pen and pencil for this writer so here is what I remember off my head. Howard Suzuki, Daniel Harsch, Scott Sylvia, Mark Seaters and a couple of his duck hunting friends were out there at different days for the two day albacore slug fest. Jay, Mark and I were there for both killer days of whacking them.

Day 1 started at 3:30 a.m. when we left Pillar Point Harbor in the dark and headed out past the rock jetties where Jay set the kat up on the pads and headed out past the red can at 25 knots toward the 601 spot and some warm water Captain Jay had charted out from the internet a warm water spot on a chart just outside the 601 area. Jay knew that there was some fish further south but was hoping they had traveled north over night.

We arrived well before daylight on the other side of the 601 spot and started trolling south for 3 hours without a bite before we found the fish. Singles, doubles, triples were happening and it was a cluster mess with blood and guts all over the boat for about an hour and a half where we put 21 fish in the boat. With a run that far and the amount of gas that the kat eats we had to leave them chopping at 1:30 so that we could get back in time to refill the 300 gallon gas tank so we could do it all over again the next day.

We made it easily as at times Jay had the kat cruising at 40 knots. The kat got almost a gallon a mile at that speed and a little less going slower.

It got a little snotty the last 10 miles of the ride in as Mark got a rude awakening when the kat hit a good roller and pitched, throwing Mark off the bunk in the bow. I had to chuckle as he came crawling out all red eyed like what the hell just happened. Jay slowed the kat to 20 knots and we cruised on in on the wind chopped waves. If you never rode in a kat it’s a real sweet ride and the faster you go, waves permitting, the smoother she rides. I can only describe the ride like a good old horse that has her own gate that rolls you slowly from side to side with a little up and down motion as you go over the waves, now of course you can only do this when the swells and wind waves are in favorable conditions.

We pulled into the gas dock at Half Moon Bay harbor and started pumping. We had burned a little over 200 gallons of gas out of the 300 gallon gas tank. Mark, Howard and I worked on the tuna while Jay got the boat ship shape for the next day.

On day two in was Jay, Mark and a couple of his duck hunter friends, Scott Sylvia and me. It was like a 6 pack boat with guys that knew there business except for one greenhorn. We headed out straight to where we left them chopping the day before and started whacking fish at 7 a.m. First stop was a triple, a fiver and then a quad. Mark is one hell of a deck hand and he even reels in a fish or two once in awhile.

Captain Jay  likes to bait fish or toss swim baits with light line and black bass rod stuff. It takes him a while to get them in but he enjoys the fish and savors the challenge of trying to handle them. We caught a few fish this way after a hookup on a troll rod. I hope to see him hook up with one of those 40 to 50 pound fish that cruise around out there one of these days.

One of Marks duck hunting buddies had never caught a tuna before so after he landed his first tuna Mark cut the heart out and gave it to him and he bravely put it in his mouth and gave it a couple good chops before swallowing it. High fives all around as he had proved that he was indeed going to become a hardcore tuna nut to go along with his waterfowl fever.

He went on to get his first iron fish and had another that pulled free of the hook at the gaff. After the first fish he was hooked and after 4 or 5 he said man I have never experienced anything like this, I am hooked.

I have been on a lot of tuna trips in my life time and most with smaller crews that worked well together but by days end this group was like a well oiled machine. Guys fighting fish, other guys clearing lines, chunking bait, changing lures, gaffing fish, washing the bloody deck and just doing whatever had to be done at the time. It made for a real sweet day for all aboard.

We had a classic ending to the day of fishing. We had 34 tuna in the box. Every fish box aboard was full and the fish iced down but before we pulled the plug  (reeled in the rods and headed home) we had to have a group fish picture on the water where they had died. Here we all were with 34 tuna on the deck, everyone at the back of the boat holding fish, everyone that is except for Captain Jay who was taking pictures with 6 different cameras when Murphy’s Law took over, you got it, two rods go off with fish on. We stumbled around over the fish, but got the job done. Lines cleared two more fish in the box and time to head for the barn and call it a day. Everyone had 6 fish to take home.

On these two days of tuna fishing we had found that the tuna wanted the small 6 inch Rapalas on the troll. I think it was the swimming action of the baits and the size as the tuna were eating real small shrimp and fish out there. Another thing that helped the spread was an archer bar about 75 feet back that we only caught one fish on, but the rods with Rapalas next to it were smoking hot and these helped draw other fish to the outside rods. We also nailed a few on a long lined way back with a natural cedar plug off the rod rack. Mark used every available inch of water as  we trolled over it and we had a 9 rod setup when he got the spread out.

The fish are out there in schools everywhere in the right type water. Look for stick boats (commercial fishermen) as a clue to where to start or a batch of  smaller boats out there in a group. Where we found no boats around it usual meant no fish, at least that was what we experienced. Fill the gas tanks, ad a few cans to carry along, fill the ice chests with ice and go get them.