Tuna Fishing

Last week I paid $70 to go out on a charter boat salmon fishing thinking that I would at least catch one keeper. I was really excited to get out there but as the day wore on I got more and more frustrated as I wasn't even getting a bite and the guy right next to me reeled in two keepers and was done for the day. The weather turned for the worst and started raining hard. Most of the 16 people that came on the boat to fish went inside the cabin but I was not about to abandon my pole and it finally paid off. I had a bite! I started reeling in and within a few seconds it came off. Dang! The time for the trip to end was quickly approaching and I feared that had been my only chance. I then got another hit and yelled "fish on". I started reeling it in while chanting out loud "please let it be a keeper". We got it on the deck and it was a nice Coho Salmon but alas it was a native fish which meant I could not keep it. The day continued on without any more hits on my pole. The trip ended with very few of the people on the boat actually catching keepers. I ended up driving to town and buying some smoked salmon and some tuna with the idea that if wifey liked the tuna she would let me go on a tuna charter which costs $175. She liked it and said I could go but as I was talking to my friend D he said that wifey's old boss had a boat and had invited him to go fishing. I went to the office and told E that I wanted to go fishing with him.

I didn't expect he would get back to me so quickly but within a few days he called and asked if I wanted to go fishing. We headed out monday at 3:45 am with his boat and 175 pounds of ice. We put in at Tillamook bay and headed out to the ocean. The ocean has been warming due to recent winds and storms and the tuna have come extremely close to land(as close as three miles). They are normally out 20 miles or further. We headed out a few miles and started trolling. Within about at hour we had a hit. I grabbed the pole and started reeling it in. I have never had a fish fight so hard and toward the end I was wondering if I would have the energy to get it in the boat. We got it in and E showed me how to stab it through the brain and then cut it's gills. Man they sure bleed a lot. We got blood everywhere in that boat. We started trolling again but as we headed out to sea the water started cooling so we turned around and within a half hour we got another fish on. D reeled in this fish but he had been getting sick and had a hard time and had to stop to feed the fish. From then on we had quite a bit of luck and by the end of the day we had 12 fish. I brought in most of them becuase D was sick almost the whole time and E didn't really care to bring them in. We could have caught more but D was not feeling good so we headed back in. It was an awesome day and I hope to be able to go again sometime but I doubt E will take me again. Not becuase I did anything wrong but just becuase he has a bunch of other people to take and I don't think he really even goes that often.

Anyway, we drove back and E showed us how to fillet the fish. I was quite suprised to find that most of the fish is actually meat. Their guts take up very little of the fish. E didn't want much of the fish so D and I got a lot of fish. I am in the process of canning some of it right now which is actually pretty cool. I have never canned fish before and it is working quite well. I am going to smoke some of it up here in a few minutes and see how that turns out.

For anyone who does read this and likes to fish, I highly recommend going fishing for tuna. You are almost guaranteed to catch something and they are a great fighting fish.