Tuna Fishing Out of Westport, WA

Does any one know anything about going tuna fishing out of westport, WA. I am trying to get organized so I can stay out overnight, get the tuna & get salmon on the wy back in. I can get in & out of westport without any problems, I just need to know what type of bait is used & how the bait is presented...Thx Max

For starters, I'd recommend you spend a couple hours reading & researching on Ifish's "Salty Dogs". They have tutorials on making tackle and lots of posts on technique.

You need to know WAY more than just "what bait to use".

i looked at the ifish salty dog forum page & saw nothing about tutorials or tech tips or anything like that, i posted the same question as i did here when i was there...

would happen know where on ifish salty dog section these tutorials are hidden??

I went out of Westport last August and had a great trip aboard the Goldrush. We did the one day trip, left at 0300 and returned around 7PM. We were 45 miles SSW, actually off of Wilapa Bay, I have the Lats and Longs although the fish were moving several miles a day and i'm sure it varies from year to year.Check out this link, it may answer a few of your questions. http://westportcharters.com/tuna.html

We started out trolling in the morning and when that was not working Kevin just found the birds, and we were in the fish for the next 7 hours pretty much non stop. I do not think I could have caught salmon on the way home if I tried, I brought 17 fish to the boat and another guy got 21. We ended up bringing 11 home a piece. I had all mine fileted on the way in and brought home just over 100 lbs of tuna.

Best of luck I will go again with Kevin next year when I finish all the Tuna I have now.

NEN

As I don’t type so good and me written is even worser bear with me. (We won’t even talk about spellin)


Theory—Long fin are a deep travelin fish, when they sees a boat travelin over head they thinks it’s a ball of bait.

Practice--- Trolling--- “feathers”
Green and yellow, Red and white, blue and white, all white, black and white.

Feather-- is a lead head jig the main line (60 to 80 LBS) passes through and attaches to a DOUBLE hook. One trolls this rigging until a school is located. The school thinks the feathers are stragglers (theory) a grabs ‘em.

Person on the trolling poles job is to get the “hook up” to the boat as fast as possible. Which in turn will bring the school to the boat. If the troll fish gets away it’s all over, they is gone. Go lookin for another school.

Bait person--- On the “hook up” put that puppy in neutral and slide forward. Bait person throws about (in a wide arch) maybe 15 or 10 live Anchovy. ( More stragglers) and the school comes to the boat.

Ya live bait “Anchovy”—fly line –no weight-- until the school goes away and then ya start again. Keep the chum in the water. The more chum the longer the school will stick..

Use a one piece pole—Mayhaps 6 feet. With 20 pound. Trollin poles-- use your halibut stick.


Can’t tell ya how to hook the Chovie. Gotta show ya.

Have Tuna gear ( up to and including a Penn International 80 SW) will travel. P.M me and I’ll give ya me Phone number for more info.

Took a break from outstanding salmon fishing last summer at Westport and took my boat offshore for tuna...we got one and learned alot about what we did wrong. We geared up better and the weather kept us form trying it again. We will be trying again this summer but maybe out of Depoe Bay Oregon so we don't have to travel out so far. My favorite part was the call: "DEPLOY THE CLONES!"....Like Slabquest says go to IFish and search "tuna" there is a ton of stuff there.

MaxMad,

The second thread "pilars topics have been made permanent" has the gear instructions. You'll need to search a little for the methods.

You need a ton of fish storage and ice for one thing.

Good luck.

thanks everyone!