Dory boats gather near Haystack Rock at 0630, ready to head West for tuna.
Going to make it short. Went fishing with Ed and Kevin out of Pacific City on August 26th, headed west hunting Albacore.
We had a very good day, with a total of 8 tuna in the boat by the day’s end. All albacore were hooked trolling flies, and all flies featured in SEA FLIES.
Our best flies were tied Clouser style, with 3/0 and 4/0 Gamakatsu Sc 15 hooks – the flies were in the 5″ to 6″ range with white bellies and blue backs.
Our three friends in another dory had live bait aboard; they successfully brought a school of tuna to the surface and caught a bunch of tuna on the cast fly. We did not have live bait and all of our tuna were hooked on the fly, but we were trolling. We prefer the cast fly to the troll, but when you can’t find tuna on the surface feeding, you can’t figure our where to stop and cast. Just the way it is. We will take ’em how we are able to get ’em.
ECHO PRIME at work in Kevin’s skilled hands.
Ed shows of a nice hefty tuna on the fly.
Kevin’s tuna aboard the dory Last Cast.
Kevin works another albacore to the boat. (AIRFLO Big Game Depth Finder 400 gr. line)
Jay got one too.
That’s about it folks, we were a tad over 20 miles offshore, fish bit our flies intermittently from about 9 AM to 3 PM. We hit the beach about 5 PM.
Anyone who would like advice regarding tackle, lines, rods, leaders, and so forth, please contact the shop and I or someone will be pleased to help you find a good albacore outfit. Basically, we fish 12 wt rods, strong saltwater reels with 300 yrds of backing, and fast sinking lines with 20 – 25 lb fluorocarbon leaders.
Tuna should be doable for another month if we can get off the beach and make the 20 plus mile run to the albacore grounds. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for another shot at the beasties soon.
Jay Nicholas, August 28 2015
