Scott Sypher, Dave Meinzer, and myself had the privilege of jumping aboard Robbie Tobeck's "Salmon Hawk" for a tuna run offshore on Thursday. Conditions were just about right. With a 5 foot swell at 13 seconds and ten knots of wind we were on track for HAMMER TIME!
Only one problem...someone in our crew forgot to load the gaff and the bait net. After we picked up live anchovies we puttered around the Westport marina and finally found someone wearing a Coug hat who happened to have an extra net. Like most Cougs he had two nets...cuz you never know
The great guy was kind enough to loan us one of them and off we went offshore laughing about our good luck!
37 miles out we dropped the gear into the water and we hooked up in less than 5 minutes. It was the first time that "Get The Net!" has ever been uttered on a tuna boat
Dave was first up and picked up his first tuna ever. He's hooked
It didn't take long to get more tuna hooked up on swim baits and liveys. The deck became bloody right quick
After a week and a half from fishing...I was ready to go fishing again
The Tuna Tyrant with a big fatty
Scotty Sypher was his usual fish catching self
We had the 25 tuna that we wanted in around 2 hours and hauled ass for the dock. All of us already have pretty full freezers and that'd be plenty of tuna
Since we got in early we were able to get all the tuna cleaned up and bagged at the dock. Tobeck has this whole process down to a science.
I need to give a shout out to the great guy back in the marina who loaned us the net. Without that vital piece of equipment it would have been a long, long day. Thanks again brother
Big thanks to Tobeck and the rest of the crew for such an awesome day. I'm blessed to have some great friends in this fishing world that we live in