I made it back out to Westport for the Tuna fishing season this year, and as a bonus I was able to take along my father-in-law. This is a fast paced trip and makes for a long day and I was worried that it might be a bit much for the in-law, but he did great. We started out leaving from Snoqualmie and driving to Westport. Paul (FIL) and I agreed to pull a 30' RV for the friend that takes us, so he could pull his boat. After getting the right ball and other odds and ends we hooked up and took off around 7:30PM.
Although 7:30 seems late it is really a blessing in disguise. Anyone who has driven through Tacoma knows the traffic at 4-6 is really bad. My wife left 4 hours before us and beat us there by 1.5 hours, based on the traffic. So having less traffic, when pulling a 30' RV worked out.
We hit Westport around 10:30 - 11:00 and had the RV dropped off and back to the Condo the wife rented by 11:30. Had one drink (one Gin / one Crown Royal) and were off to bed by 12:00. Then the fun started back up at 4:00AM and on the boat ready to leave by 5:00. We headed around 40 miles offshore and one of the weirdest thing from the time we got 10 miles out the rest of the day the waters were filled with baby jelly fish.....some places you could have walked across them. Not sure why, still investigating that.
Either way around 7:30AM we dropped our troll rods in, running about 9 miles an hour, and 10 minutes in it was fish on. Most of the fish we caught were on the troll, but we did have one good frenzy bite that landed 7 off the bait bite. For those who haven't been Tuna fishing it can get real exciting really quick. You troll with 5 rods. As soon as you hear "fish on" one guy has the responsibility to start reeling that fish in slow to pull the school up by the boat. One guy is chumming with live and frozen anchovies. Others clear the other troll rods. then everyone grabs a new rod and baits up live bait and drops them in the water. If done right there is usually a school of Tuna......The fun starts when you get 4-5 tuna on at the same time. They are so strong and pull a lot of line you really can't control them. So you end up handing rods off and going over under trying not to tangle each other.....its a 5 ring circuits on a 10x6 platform....but a lot of fun.
We finished up the day and pulling in around 6:30 with 34 tuna between 20-30lbs. Then proceeded to clean fish until 9:30. When we got home I think the FIL was awake for all of 5 minutes after hitting the door. Not me I got the wife speech of I hadn't been around all day and she wanted to go for a walk on the beach. We've all been there I could either argue for an hour and still go, or just get it over with. I went immediately..and got home around 12:00 totally tired and did something I haven't done in years....slept until 9:00
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Next trip August ... Alaska
