Team Shake N Bake went out for our shakedown tuna run.

The ocean was flat and the fish were close.

We ran out to the 124.31 line and trolled west.

We ended up running into the fish around the .40 line.

After one troll fish we pitched some bait and it went wide open.

We stacked the deck for over an hour and ended up nearly plugged with some of the biggest albacore we have ever seen.

We called it a day early and were back on the dock with all of the fish carked and bagged up.

By 5 pm we were eating sashimi.

Back at it again tomorrow.

Captain Mike

We finally began the journey home.

Clark booked flights to Eureka and headed to PDX.

Three hours later, United told us their plane broke, so we headed to Hertz to rent a car.

A long drive later we were at the boat and getting her ready to go.

We headed north and pounded it out the Charleston.

Thursday morning brought sunny skies and flat seas, so we headed home.

We saw lots of bait, porpoises, and whales.

We pulled into Ilwaco and Clark instantly began washing up the boat.

Christmas came early and our first present from Accurate showed up.

Time to get rigging and get ready to stack the deck.

The Ilwaco Tuna Club just had our second annual tuna clinic and bar crossing seminar.

We will be doing this every July to kick off tuna season.

Scott McGrew, the Commanding Officer of Cape Disappointment came and gave a great talk about how to safely navigate the bar.

Scott is headed off to grad school, but we plan on keeping up the tradition and having the new CO or someone else from the CG speak every year.

Clark and I are headed to Eureka, CA on Monday to pick up Shake N Bake and run her home.

She should be home by Wednesday and we hope to put a few tuna on the deck on the way home.

Mike

This post is way late.

I blame Bill Monroe, as he gave me his photos on a CD and none of my laptops have CD players.

I finally found a computer with a CD player, so here are the photos.

The photos show the incredible views from Cedros Outdoors, the lodge we stayed at, the salt mines on Cedros, Shake N Bake in the Cedros harbor, Bill Monroe's big yellowtail, an Clark dealing with the Federales when they boarded our boat.

The owners of Salt Hotel in Ilwaco (http://www.salt-hotel.com) are looking to open up a pub on the waterfront in what use to be the Harbor Lights.

It is a great location to drink a beer and watch people try and dock their boats.

Jules and Laila have done wonders with their hotel and have turned into a clean, hip place to stay on the water.

They need some help in getting the pub up and running and have started a crowd sourcing loan program to get the pub up and running.

Everyone complains about the lack of a place to get a beer in the port.

It is time to put your money where you mouth is.

I like beer, so I loaned them $500.

If you want to help out, go to: http://csc.rocks/Salt-Hotel

We just got back from San Diego where the finishing touches were being put on Shake N Bake.

She got new canvas, a new bait tank, and a thru hull underwater camera in addition to having some routine maintenance.

While we were down there we took her out for spin the San Diego harbor and got up real close and personal with the USS Midway.  Very cool.

She is leaving San Diego on 7/13 and the delivery captain is taking her to northern California where Clark and I are going to relive him and take it the rest of the way.  She should be home soon.

Below are photos of the Midway, our shiny new bait tank, and our redundant, tunable pump system.

Mike