T
troutmasta
0
So my fabulous fiance was kind enough to gift me a tuna trip for my coming birthday. Tuna is something Ive wanted to do for a very long while. I researched tuna charters and with assisatance of Bobbi Doll I landed at the gates of Captains Reel Deep Sea Fishing in Newport. Headed out with the lady the night before in attemt to have a nice evening at the beach before she dropped me off in the morning and went shopping all day
. We were going to stay in a Urt?? or something like that but they were all sold out, so we just pitched our pup tent and made camp at the south beach camp ground (it was a zoo). After a healthy dose of pizza and beer at the rogue resturant (the one on the bay front in old town is the BOMB), we took a late night stroll on the beach and hit the sack.Could not sleep for the life of me and at about 1:30 I think I finally left conciousness. 5 am my cell phone pierced the early morning tranquility, signaling the birth of a beautiful day. Slowly I rose, fresh on 3 1/2 hours of sleep on the cold ground, eyes burning like hell, $@#! eating grin ear to ear (like this one
). Woke up the lady (not smiling ear to ear might I add) and we were OFF! My two buddies Shane and Jason would be escorting me on my 'quest for the one' and met me fresh and chirppy in the pitch black morning at the doors of heaven, well just the charter office but it was pretty effin rad to us. I was told the night before that a total of five people including us had booked and we would be going out on a small six person boat which I thought was awesome becuse it would be more one on one, and personal. This was not the case we would soon see..................... it was much, much better. Apparently due to the 10 knot winds predicted the night before the captain of the little boat was gun shy. Thats when the man stepped up. Gerald, Ruler of the Sea Captain said "Hell ya I'll go tuna fishing but Im taking the BIG friggin boat!" No, he probably didn't say exactly that but he said he would take us and we ended up on the BIG boat. 40 foot Sea Captain set up to troll over six rods at once with only five people fishing (decent odds
). Well those odds would soon get even better as Shane was struck with the wrath of the sea gods
. Not taking Dramamine caught up to him before we crossed the bar and the chunks were flying! He tried to rally like a trooper but the sea had its ways and he waws down for the count for the next 13 hours (unless he was up puking,or being forced to try to reel in fish while puking).The wind was crappy, the waves were large, and the odds were great! We set out on our our voyage and spent the first couple hours talking with the deck hand Gerry (good guy), and the two other fisher folk, a father and son from wyoming, the son had never seen the ocean and was in his mid 20's. Needless to say he was pumped (I realized how pumped he was later when he started eating tuna hearts!). Spent the last little part of the jog out to sea talking with the captain about steelhead fishing and how I was tickled pink to actually be tuna fishing. Then we found em' THE BIRDS! Tuna birds to be more precise, and the were crusing all over chasing bait fish, Booya! The water temp was a toasty 61 degrees and had blossomed from the greenish black we Oregonias are used to seeing in the Pacific into a crystal oasis of deep tranquilizing blue. We got the rods in the water all rigged with 80 pound test and began the troll. I stationed my self in front of the center rod knocked on wood and was instantly rewarded. HOOK UP:shock:!! I bellowed as my poll slammed over violently drag began to scream. After thanking god at the very tippy top of my lungs a few times, Gerry the deckhand finally asked me to politley quit screaming in his ear and focus. I thought 'Geez Gerry Its just one fish?'! It was then I realized five of the six rods had hook ups and even the captain was at the back helping reel some of them in (shane was still out at this point). It took me a good 20 min to get my fish in (I was the last one). I was pumped! Fish on the boat for every body within the first 1/2 hour of fishing. We dragged our fish over to a big bucket where Gerry punched the gill plate with numbers of dots to Identify the different anglers. We got the first round in the bucket and started resettin lines. I say started because we had two Fish Ons! on the first two rods before even the third was back in the water. Jason and the son from Wyoming, Joe, brought these two in. While they were doing so the captain and I grabbed light tackle, 40 pnd test 2 oz. lead head jigs, and pitched them OFF the side. FISH ON! FISH ON! Another double on different part of the boat. I tried to horse my fish to the stern of the boat and lost him, and the captain following my path suffered the same fate. But Holy Cow. I was in hog heaven. Those strikes were massive. They got the two on the back landed and we stared our troll again for about another 4 min then BAM BAM double again. I Took one this time and we dragged shane out of the cabin to bring in the other one, and puke a little bit. The captin hooked another one on the side of the boat with light tackle and was able to land this one. Shane and I landed ours, and thats the routine we began our day with. Over the next two hours I got 4, Jason 3, Joe 4, Joes dad 4, shane 2. The captain saw 2 blue fins jump and said the were at least five or six feet each. Shortly after I got whipped, Spooled, and I mean FAST! Using the forty pound light tackle I hooked into something big and in about 15 seconds I had about 25 yards of line left I clicked my drag two clicks tighter and my rod instantly pointed straight at the water for about 2 seconds then. Twang. Snapped line... What an experiance though something BIG! Felt like a small submarine, never know though. Then at noon as quikly as It began... It ended. The birds left us and so did the fish We trolled for another two long ours anxiously watching the rods. Nothing.....Then BAM BAM one more double, Jason and Joe took this one. Both fish landed we started back for Newport on a High speed troll at 10 knots. About 20 min into our return I got a hook up on the High speed trool but ended up losing the fish. We had some cold beers on the way back and talked about old fishing stories from all over the place. It was great. Incredible day, Amazing people, great spirits. Shane even woke up for a little while on the way back!. We arrived in port at a quarter to seven. Final count Myself 4- Jason 4- Shane 2 -Captain 1- Joe 5 -Joes dad 4. Not bad, my biggest was pushing thirty pounds captain said and we all seemed to land some serious, serious toads!. We got em sliced up on the dock put down a twelve pack with everyone and headed home. I was beat up, and rolling with 50+ pounds of meat. Score one for the home team 
.
. We were going to stay in a Urt?? or something like that but they were all sold out, so we just pitched our pup tent and made camp at the south beach camp ground (it was a zoo). After a healthy dose of pizza and beer at the rogue resturant (the one on the bay front in old town is the BOMB), we took a late night stroll on the beach and hit the sack.Could not sleep for the life of me and at about 1:30 I think I finally left conciousness. 5 am my cell phone pierced the early morning tranquility, signaling the birth of a beautiful day. Slowly I rose, fresh on 3 1/2 hours of sleep on the cold ground, eyes burning like hell, $@#! eating grin ear to ear (like this one). Woke up the lady (not smiling ear to ear might I add) and we were OFF! My two buddies Shane and Jason would be escorting me on my 'quest for the one' and met me fresh and chirppy in the pitch black morning at the doors of heaven, well just the charter office but it was pretty effin rad to us. I was told the night before that a total of five people including us had booked and we would be going out on a small six person boat which I thought was awesome becuse it would be more one on one, and personal. This was not the case we would soon see..................... it was much, much better. Apparently due to the 10 knot winds predicted the night before the captain of the little boat was gun shy. Thats when the man stepped up. Gerald, Ruler of the Sea Captain said "Hell ya I'll go tuna fishing but Im taking the BIG friggin boat!" No, he probably didn't say exactly that but he said he would take us and we ended up on the BIG boat. 40 foot Sea Captain set up to troll over six rods at once with only five people fishing (decent odds). Well those odds would soon get even better as Shane was struck with the wrath of the sea gods. Not taking Dramamine caught up to him before we crossed the bar and the chunks were flying! He tried to rally like a trooper but the sea had its ways and he waws down for the count for the next 13 hours (unless he was up puking,or being forced to try to reel in fish while puking).The wind was crappy, the waves were large, and the odds were great! We set out on our our voyage and spent the first couple hours talking with the deck hand Gerry (good guy), and the two other fisher folk, a father and son from wyoming, the son had never seen the ocean and was in his mid 20's. Needless to say he was pumped (I realized how pumped he was later when he started eating tuna hearts!). Spent the last little part of the jog out to sea talking with the captain about steelhead fishing and how I was tickled pink to actually be tuna fishing. Then we found em' THE BIRDS! Tuna birds to be more precise, and the were crusing all over chasing bait fish, Booya! The water temp was a toasty 61 degrees and had blossomed from the greenish black we Oregonias are used to seeing in the Pacific into a crystal oasis of deep tranquilizing blue. We got the rods in the water all rigged with 80 pound test and began the troll. I stationed my self in front of the center rod knocked on wood and was instantly rewarded. HOOK UP:shock:!! I bellowed as my poll slammed over violently drag began to scream. After thanking god at the very tippy top of my lungs a few times, Gerry the deckhand finally asked me to politley quit screaming in his ear and focus. I thought 'Geez Gerry Its just one fish?'! It was then I realized five of the six rods had hook ups and even the captain was at the back helping reel some of them in (shane was still out at this point). It took me a good 20 min to get my fish in (I was the last one). I was pumped! Fish on the boat for every body within the first 1/2 hour of fishing. We dragged our fish over to a big bucket where Gerry punched the gill plate with numbers of dots to Identify the different anglers. We got the first round in the bucket and started resettin lines. I say started because we had two Fish Ons! on the first two rods before even the third was back in the water. Jason and the son from Wyoming, Joe, brought these two in. While they were doing so the captain and I grabbed light tackle, 40 pnd test 2 oz. lead head jigs, and pitched them OFF the side. FISH ON! FISH ON! Another double on different part of the boat. I tried to horse my fish to the stern of the boat and lost him, and the captain following my path suffered the same fate. But Holy Cow. I was in hog heaven. Those strikes were massive. They got the two on the back landed and we stared our troll again for about another 4 min then BAM BAM double again. I Took one this time and we dragged shane out of the cabin to bring in the other one, and puke a little bit. The captin hooked another one on the side of the boat with light tackle and was able to land this one. Shane and I landed ours, and thats the routine we began our day with. Over the next two hours I got 4, Jason 3, Joe 4, Joes dad 4, shane 2. The captain saw 2 blue fins jump and said the were at least five or six feet each. Shortly after I got whipped, Spooled, and I mean FAST! Using the forty pound light tackle I hooked into something big and in about 15 seconds I had about 25 yards of line left I clicked my drag two clicks tighter and my rod instantly pointed straight at the water for about 2 seconds then. Twang. Snapped line... What an experiance though something BIG! Felt like a small submarine, never know though. Then at noon as quikly as It began... It ended. The birds left us and so did the fish We trolled for another two long ours anxiously watching the rods. Nothing.....Then BAM BAM one more double, Jason and Joe took this one. Both fish landed we started back for Newport on a High speed troll at 10 knots. About 20 min into our return I got a hook up on the High speed trool but ended up losing the fish. We had some cold beers on the way back and talked about old fishing stories from all over the place. It was great. Incredible day, Amazing people, great spirits. Shane even woke up for a little while on the way back!. We arrived in port at a quarter to seven. Final count Myself 4- Jason 4- Shane 2 -Captain 1- Joe 5 -Joes dad 4. Not bad, my biggest was pushing thirty pounds captain said and we all seemed to land some serious, serious toads!. We got em sliced up on the dock put down a twelve pack with everyone and headed home. I was beat up, and rolling with 50+ pounds of meat. Score one for the home team .
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