Northwest Fishing Reports

Had the opportunity to hop in a boat with a serious albacore junky this weekend, and it paid off in spades!

28 foot Albemarle set up for pelagic trolling, 3 guys, lotsa diesel, 300lbs of ice, and off we went out of Westport.

While we were letting out the lines for the troll, WHAM! Todd looks at me and says with a smile "fish on..."



My first albacore!

So the day progressed through decent fishing, consistently getting a couple an hour or better. We did manage a couple doubles but no 4+ hookups like those later in the season.

Carnage ensued through sunset, resulting in a body count of 22:



They were coming in with decent size as well:



Its a lengthy trip out (just inside 50 miles from the WP bar) but it was WELL worth the trip. Absolute blast reeling in these little buggers, bouncing from 10-25 lbs. Huge amount of meat piled up in the freezer as well, which is good because the salmon is gone and the halibut is getting scarce.

E

Now THAT would be a fun trip! That's a long trek away from shore though!

Way to go E!
Those look like nothing but pure solid muscle. I agree with Dustin, that's a long ways out there.

Congrats on your first albacore!!

nice job gesteppo, is that the same todd as tower todd? I went to a seminar him and cf put on about a month ago and those guys seem to really know there stuff. Im hoping to catch my first albie this summer myself!

Thanks for sharing G...looks like a GREAT trip by any standard!

None other than Tower Todd Schwartz himself. Unfortunately Tommy "Cornfed" wasn't free to go out so we picked up another guy from that forum and hit it up.

2.5 hrs run time in that bigger boat, so obviously its a trip to get out, but man they are fun to catch.

Oh, and in the spirit of full disclosure (since some people think seasickness is a weakness), I puked 7 times in 11 hours, making sure to only blow chunks between hookups. I held one back until I brought in a back-to-back pair of albies, and never missed a single hookup while on my knees. Never even asked to head in because I was having so much fun between pukes that I couldn't think of anywhere Id rather be.

E

It takes some guts to keep at when you're toss'in 'em. Urp....

PS I don't care who you are, if you spend enough time on the water it's going come up sometime....

PPS Nice catch!!! sashimi on the fin....

VERY NICE!

I feel your pain with the sea sickness. I had a bad inner ear infection 25 years ago and ever since then I spend the first day on the open ocean chucking in technicolor. Second day is much better and the third+ I have no problems.

Sounds like you had a blast G. Them some nice lookin fish.

A blast from down deep......hehehehe