Tuna, Tuna, Tuna

We have tuna now.  Susan, Steve Reher, and I left on a Sunday afternoon (Sept. 14) to head out to the tuna grounds.  We had heard they were hitting hard and not to far offshore, so we got the boat ready for fishing, stocked up on food and drinks for an overnight adventure.  We headed due west expecting to arrive sometime in the early morning about 30 miles from shore.  As the sun dipped below the horizon the fog came out, getting thicker and thicker.  I was able to see the bow with the navigation lights but not much more.  The windows had so much moisture on them that I had to poke my head out the side to try to see anything.  The only thing to see was phosphorescence as the waves would hit the side of the boat.  The radar showed boats out there and they always seemed to be right were I was going.  I had to change directions about 5 times during my watch.  I never did see these boats because of the fog even though they came within 1/2 mile.  About one hour into Steve's watch the fog lifted and we were in the middle of a lot of boats.  Steve counted 34 boat lights, all just drifting, so we decided to turn the engine off and drift until daylight.

At 6:30 there was enough light to start fishing, so on with the engine and out went the tuna hand lines.  It wasn't more than 5 minutes before we had our first fish.  With Susan driving, Steve and I in the back fishing, we were able to get all the fish we could handle in 4 hours.  Most of the fish were large in the 30 lbs range, and some in the 10 lbs range.  Most of the hook ups were singles, some doubles, but no triples.  Everytime we had a fish on, Susan would mark it with the GPS and then circle back slowly over that point.  It did not take much time before we had a very nice pattern.  So, by 10:30 we were done.  It turned out to be 360 pounds of tuna fresh from the sea, bled out and placed on ice.  It was time to turn for home, now 39 miles away.

The sea turned rough as we came in with 20 knot winds, confused seas and just general uncomfortable conditions.  Susan had to go out back and tie down the ice chests and equipment.  By 5:00 p.m. we were tied off at the dock.  As weary as we were, we needed to get the fish to Chuck's Seafood for processing before 6:00 when they would close.  With lots of pushing and pulling all 360 lbs. of tuna made it in time.  Seven days later the finished product was ready for us, 180 lbs of canned tuna.  It only took me 2 days to clean the boat after the blood fest that tuna fishing is.