Ship’s Log August 21st-30th 2019
The Edge
August 21st Mark and I woke up early to begin a very busy day. We had to remove the hot water heater that had blown and leaked thru the floor in the house to the engine room area above the batteries during our last trip. We cleaned that mess up and removed the water heater. The previous owner of the vessel, Dave, who lives in Ilwaco gave me a ride to get a new water heater and supply for that, then to the Fred Meyer for groceries and the remaining supply needed for another 22 days at sea.
After stocking those supplies, and installing the water heater we went to work getting the 4 bait tanks on deck operational. I had an appointment for live anchovies at the bait dock. That is one very important appointment that has to be met or no bait, or delayed bait, costing a day or a trip without live bait. Guys are seriously after it! There is a shortage with no bait available in Westport and very little here. You do not get it if you do not deliver your fish into Ilwaco, and make a timely appointment. This is going to be my first live bait appointment since buying the James Lee 2 years ago. I am a bait addict. I must have bait, and since 2012 with the Manatee II I always throw out at least one box of frozen salted tuna chum (anchovies the smaller the better)…And they work. So I’m pretty excited thinking about throwing my usual box per day and also assisting that with the live anchovies to really excite the fish and add significantly to the daily catch. We did the deed and all systems worked perfectly. We were filling the last tank with water when we got the call for our turn at the bait dock. We took on 80 scoops total of live anchovies, then motored over to the fuel dock for 1000 gallons of fuel to top off the tanks.
Mark Kimball, Seanna and I left Ilwaco August 22nd at 4pm crossing a nice calm Columbia river bar into a slight northwest wind. I shot for just a bit above the Astoria Canyon and shut down at 11pm. On the 23rd we worked pretty hard to get near a ton with 124 fish, then up and out a little the next day for 127 fish. We were in the “sportie” zone. Where there were a lot of sportfishermen trolling and or making bait stops. This is a confusing zone! I like a specific tac back and forth for about 3 to 5 miles each way. Hit the same exact line each way while tossing chum when the fish hit. The sporties are all over the place, and troll across the bow, then suddenly stop because they hit a fish or two, and cannot keep going unless they want to run out of line and get spooled. We keep going and just drag em in. They need to use the drag on their reels. I get that. Instead of running over one of these little sportie’s and causing a whole shitload of problems, we backed off of that area and found 149 fish further up and out.
On August 26 the ocean got rough ass, and we blew 12 miles south overnight. That was from about 10pm until 6am. I made a call to a friend on the satellite phone. They were doing better than a ton per day down in the 43 block closer to my homeport of Winchester Bay. So I began taking the wind down south, flowing easily with the wind and waves. But we hit an EDGE! This was the most defined edge I have ever encountered while tuna fishing all the summers from 2012 til now. GREEN water filled with debris, mostly Bull Kelp, but lots of other shitteroo including sea cabbage, woody stuff, and some other garbagie stuff. An exact line to other side contained the most beautiful blue water, and a shitload of birds, and bait, and tuna!! All of it was covered in seriously choppy rough water which was intensified by the two ripping currents opposing each other while a 20 knot sustained wind was blowing. I got really excited. The arrival to this edge was well into the afternoon. We hardly had any fish when we got there, maybe 40 or 50. By nightfall we had 256 good grade fish. I charged against the choppy sea a ways up north to plan for a long drift which I hoped would bring us back to this spot in the morning.
The night was a rough one. We are in a 54 foot long by 18 foot wide vessel. It is a wooden boat built in 1969. It has a deep rounded belly and a heavy keel. There are no rolling chalks, and we do not have any stabilizers set up on the poles. During fishing times I try to stay out of the “trough”. Keep the nose into it while trolling at a slight angle either left or right in order to lessen the effect of each swell a bit. Then make a turn down and with it which in this vessel is like heaven vs hell. Literally. The following sea is so comfortable no matter how rough it has ever been while in this boat. We only turn to the North (or against the sea) if we need to stay on a tac and keep getting um, and then it is worth it, but somewhat violent and very tiresome. At night in the trough while drifting it is entirely violent. That is the only way to really put it! All the stuff on the counter is stacked up in the sink. Both sides are plugged up with stuff. Food is hard to cook, so it is usually prepped on the last slide (with it)…; and then consumed once the work is done. If we take off our boots, our bare feet or our socks will slide on the carpet and we either kinda sometimes virtually crawl around, or hold onto something 100% of the time. Seanna slides. Expecially on deck, which makes for some tough decisions for her during the rough times. She is scared shitless of the scuppers, even though she cannot fit thru them. She holds it. I am impressed with her abilities!!
The morning was still violent. AAARRRRGGGGHHH!! The stormy sea! Get up anyways. Somehow the coffee gets boiled. Go start the main, engage the hydraulics, and motor with it for a moment to set the gear. We were kinda nowhere really in relation to the possibility of finding that EDGE! Pissed… I took a guess and nailed it. We found our edge again!! It took a while, but there it was and it gave us 241 very difficult to pull fish. There was another boat working the top of a sort of boomerang shape to it. We fished the down and in area for about a 2 mile short tac. That edge is not a straight edge. It is winedy. Not windy but wine dee. And moving quickly to the West. And if you are close it’s fish on. Drifting away is nominal fish on. Crossing it is disaster!! The Bull Kelp and shitteroo will all attach to every hook! 16 pieces of shitteroo all at once! OR the diver gets ripped off because a wad of bull kelp grabs it and breaks the 250 pound line to it!! Trouble at the edge! It was rough ass shit! But a serious gas of a fishing day, Mark and I were in awe of it really. High fiving all the way, I was helping pull fish and running back to the wheel cause Mr. Autopilot has no actual eye on the edge, and missed that often enough to have to cross into the green, getting kind of clear of debris, then having to cross BACK into the blue to get back to the fish. That is twice thru the debris and twice to clear all the gear. WORTHY though for 241 fish that day.
We were piling them on! The forecast called for nicer weather the next afternoon. Sweet. This time I did not run away from the edge. I was pretty exhausted! We ate and layed it sideways for the night’s drift.
MISTAKE. We have water intakes under the vessel with grates to keep out the shitteroo. I ended up drifting right on that edge. It sucked me into it and kept us there in the dark stormy night. I didn’t really think of the consequences of that. The trip took a turn for the worse when my Hi Side blew. That is a refrigeration situation all tuna fishermen with freezers or brine systems have nightmares about. That damn Hi Side. The pressure in the cooling system gets too high due to any particular reason, but this reason was that the grate on the bottom of the boat clogged all up full of debris, and no condenser water got to the spot that’s supposed to have condenser water. Think it like running out of fluid in your radiator. It causes the heat to build up and pressure and “BLOOMIE!” You are parked on the side of the road with a dead engine. In our case it’s a dead freezer. Our brine system is out, and our live bait tanks are also starving for fresh sea water. That means the fish are beginning to warm, and the bait is beginning to die! $700 bucks worth of bait, and about 20 thousand worth of fish!! They must be delivered at less than 10 degrees F in their centers. Last night they were at 3 to 5 degrees center based on my average delivery with a 1 to 3 degree brine. I’m not sure when my hi side blew. But it is time to go in ASAP and get these fish off!
I really began to screw this situation up. There was SOME water getting to the bait and getting to the condenser. Maybe if I eliminate the deck hose? Run both the brine pump and the deckhose/water pump at same time pulling that shit thru if possible?? I tried it all and got some success! So after heading in about 20 miles, I turned around to go back out once I stabilized my hi side. With no deck hose, but no problem we have buckets…29 fish that day.
Then jerked myself around again the next day, heading in cause of weakness in system, stabilizing it and staying and back and forth for 40 fish. That is 2 crapper days in a row. Woke up next day and the weakness persisted so we headed in. Pissed. Sullen. Irritated!!
We arrived to Ilwaco at 3pm on August 30th. 9 days including the travel and the crappers gave us a delivery of 12,135 pounds. 6 tons. Shoulda been 9 tons and still gettin… I hired a scuba diver guy who found a big pile of debris including sea cabbage, string of some sort, a plastic bag, and something that looked like puke but was hard to tear apart. I mustered up some gratitude, and then we went for a drink.