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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2016
Tuna ishing trip worth the rock-and-roll
The ocean serves up
a different adventure
on every trip
By RICH LANDERS
The Spokesman-Review
W
ESTPORT, Wash. — There’s nothing
canned about the tuna ishing expe-
rience on a charter boat out of West-
port, Washington.
With a state-average catch rate of eight ish
per person, charter boat anglers are almost sure
to return with the makings of a saltwater feast.
But the ocean serves up a different adventure on
every trip.
Anglers lining up at boat docks before sun-
rise are aware that venturing 25-60 miles off-
shore leaves no place to hide if the wind fouls
the mood of the sea.
If you’re game, September is prime time
for albacore averaging roughly 20 pounds or
more, and October is known as big-ish month.
The local derby-leading tuna last week was 43
pounds.
Westport charter boats are up to the chal-
lenge, landing 88 percent of Washington’s sport
albacore catch, the Fish and Wildlife Depart-
ment says.
Even though schools of these tuna are mea-
sured by the acre, they are a speck in the open
ocean. Skippers ind them in 3,000 feet of water
by trolling while scouting the horizon for jump-
ers and seabirds locking to feed on bait boiling
to the surface as tuna slash and feed below.
A deliciously blue-collar experience
Pursuing the albacore and some yellowtail
that cruise within striking distance off the coast
from mid-June into November is a deliciously
blue-collar experience. A certain toughness is
required. A cast-iron stomach helps.
Tuna anglers tend to be on whack-and-stack-
ers. There’s no catch limit. Skippers warn that
customers should be capable of boarding a car-
nival ride and lifting 50-pound bags repeatedly.
Some anglers bring beer aboard for refresh-
ment. Chardonnay? Probably never.
Choosing a smaller six-angler vessel is the
newer, faster alternative for getting lines in the
water, ish in the hold and back to the marina
before the traditional larger boats and overnight
charters.
At the helm of a 29-footer powered by twin
250-hp outboards, Capt. Mark Coleman of All
Rivers & Saltwater Charters warns anglers
on his website that these are “hardcore 8- to
12-hour ishing trips!”
Anglers must have full rain gear that includes
rubber boots, bibs and coat with hood. “And no
cheap crap, either,” he says.
Rain and saltwater spray can be expected and
everyone is hosed down in the bloodbath after
a bite. Skippers worth their paycheck immedi-
ately bleed and ice every tuna that comes into
the boat.
“These are physically demanding, fast-paced
trips that require coordinated movements on a
busy, moving deck among other anglers while
battling a powerful ish,” the website says.
“These trips are not appropriate for people
with balance, spine, neck, limb, or severe health
issues, recent surgery, require canes, crutches or
disabled in any manner that would inhibit keep-
ing up during the trip.
“Depending on the ocean conditions, the ride
to and from the tuna grounds can be bumpy with
occasional harder bumps as you’d expect.”
Smitten by the promise
My friend Jim Kujala and I signed up with-
out hesitation.
Costs are a bit more than tuna in a can: $400
?
9-1-WHAT?
THE BEST OF THE WORST CALLS TO ASTORIA 911 DISPATCH
Rich Landers/The Spokesman-Review
Puget Sound fishing guide Keith Robbins poses for a photo in September in a boat off Westport, Wash. Robbins switched positions to
be a client on an All Rivers and Saltwater Charters tuna trip out of Westport. “Albacore are delicious,” he explained.
albacore are pale-leshed - the advertised
“chicken of the sea.”
Unlike salmon, which are cold-blooded
slaves to their environment, albacore are basi-
cally warm-blooded. They can regulate their
body temperature. These speedsters come into
a boat about 15 degrees warmer internally than
the water. This gives them an advantage over
their blue-water prey, researchers say.
Swim bladders
Rich Landers/The Spokesman-Review
Capt. Mark Coleman coaches his group on
an All Rivers and Saltwater Charters trip
out of Westport, Wash. Multiple hookups
are the norm when tuna boats get their an-
glers into a bite.
per person, plus tips and extra for ish cleaning
if desired. But we were smitten by the promise
of hooking ish that accelerate like sports cars
and feed friends like a gourmet chuckwagon.
While Westport also is known for introduc-
ing masses of anglers to Washington’s iconic
salmon runs, tuna are another animal - one of
the bright spots on an otherwise concerning
Northwest saltwater scene.
Albacore, which venture into cooler water
than most of the 15 tuna species recognized
worldwide, are large, sleek predatory ish that
spend their lives in the open oceans. That’s in
contrast to salmon, which hatch in rivers and
migrate to live most of their adult lives at sea
before returning to natal streams to spawn.
Salmon have orange or pink meat while
Albacore don’t have swim bladders, so they
must be constantly on the move. To fuel this
activity they eat around 25 percent of their
weight every day, according to some reports.
All of this works to the advantage of the
angler. Tuna are a scream to catch.
We were nearly 30 miles offshore when
Coleman found the irst school of the day. He
eased the boat in and shut it down while deck
hand Travis Richey grabbed a plastic whifle
ball bat with the end cut off. He stuffed the bat
with live anchovies and swung it to spray bait
out from the boat as though he were a priest
linging holy water over churchgoers.
The congregation responded.
Hooks baited with live anchovies were
lung over the boat side facing the wind and
allowed to swim and free-line into the school.
“Virtually no thumbing,” Coleman yelled.
“Keep the line coming off the reel. To do
it right, you’re always on the very edge of a
major backlash.”
Soon, line started peeling off quickly. Count
to two, Coleman said, and then shift the lever
smoothly from free-spool to let the drag take
charge of a tuna that’s about to go ape.
“Don’t jerk the rod up to set the hook,”
Coleman had said in his prelaunch brief-
ing. “We have strong gear, but tuna can be
stronger.”
The anglers had to dance around the boat,
lifting rods over one angler’s head, under the
rod of another and back again as their quarry
darted around like aerial ireworks gone
haywire.
Some of the tuna made ive or six arm-ach-
ing runs before coming to the boat. The ish
were gaffed - it’s faster than netting - and
hooks immediately were rebaited and put out
until the bite waned.
Six albacore - known as “longin tuna”
because of their unusually lengthy pectoral ins
— littered the boat loor after the irst siege.
Coleman kicked into gear again, trolling
jigs as he searched the horizon for a run and
gun. Both methods found schools in a pattern
he repeated until shortly after noon, when the
four anglers had caught 33 albacore.
With the wind picking up, he gave us an
option to call it good, and we did.
Unsavory
character
M
ost of the odd callers to emergency dispatch live in a world of prose,
not poetry.
But kudos to the caller from Seaside who reported “an unsavory
character loitering.”
Follow reporter Kyle Spurr on his 9-1-What? Twitter watch, where a few of
the sometimes head-scratching calls to area dispatch take center stage. The full
feed is at www.twitter.com/9_1_WHAT.
W hile other n ew spa pers give you less, The D a ily Astoria n
GIVES
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From left:
M a teu sz Perk ow sk i,
Pa ris Achen
covers the sta te for you
Filleted the catch
Richey illeted the catch on the salt-sprayed
deck as the boat rocked and rolled during the
rough run back to port. By the time Coleman
eased off the throttle at Westport Marina, all
the ish were processed and bagged, including
a neat kite-shaped tuna belly slab from each
ish.
Depending on the weather, bar conditions
and tides, the return time to Westport may be
slightly early or late in order to be safe. The
ocean calls the shots.
But on this September day, we were eas-
ily back by 3 p.m. - soon enough to load ice
and ish into our vehicle, avoid the trafic grid-
lock on I-5 and beat the 6:30 blasting closure
on I-90 at Snoqualmie Pass by three minutes.
We called it a day back in Spokane in time for
a good night’s sleep.
The gourmet part of albacore ishing started
the next evening, complemented by a bottle of
chardonnay.