Tuna Report from Columbia River Bar

By Travis Seaton
Jun 29th 2016

a bag of tuna that have been caught

Fishing sport commercial (=deckhand) aboard the Fish Tales II, a 37' Viking battle wagon out of the Columbia River bar.

We got a late start as there was an 8 foot exchange on the bar—we didn't even cross until 9:30. At about 30 out (which took 2.5 hours due to a square stacked ocean), we smelled something weird, so we throttled back and checked everything. We couldn't find anything wrong, and since we were about 5 miles from the break, decided to throw in trollers and do a fast troll just in case. Within a few minutes we a had a double on, but as we were fighting the first, our Captain yells out from the flybridge that we are taking on water and the ass end is in the water.

We dropped what we were doing, kicked on all the pumps, pulled out the hand pump, and started moving stuff around to get a look below. We turned the boat toward home and continued working on the problem. Finally, we found the issue — the hot water discharge hose on the port cat popped and was pumping water into the hull. We got that fixed up, all the water out (4k #’s) and then turned back around towards the fishing grounds.

With the late start and the boat troubles, we had a very short fishing window in order to get back to the bar while still light. We did scratch up 20 fish for a crew of 4 tired, dirty, smelly, beat up guys. I'm thankful for getting some fish and making it back to the dock without the coasties assistance. It's shaping up to be an awesome season this way, as the tuna kick off isn't traditionally until after the 4th of July. I even got to use my new TackleDirect wrapped jig stick, which was killer with a Williamson Speed Jig.

Tight lines – till next time.

Travis Seaton