We were a little bummed about yesterday, so we recruited Keven Newell to fish with us today, as he smoked us yesterday.

We ran out to his spot and it was dead.

We burned holes in the water for 5 hours and pretty much had given up when Clark told me to head east and check out the break near the 125 line.

A few minutes later, Kevin yelled "jumpers", and I turned around to see a whole bunch of tuna boiling and jumping way out of the water.

We tried to slide in with no luck, so we trolled around and pretty soon had a double on the troll and started picking them off one at a time with live bait.

Just as soon as it started, the bait stop ended (zero missed fish) and that was it for the day.

We are sitting out tomorrow, but at it again soon.

​Captain Mike

After things picked up late in the day, we were excited to head back to the honey hole with some fisherpeople who had plugged our boat in the past.

We dropped in and got three right off the bat and then it died, deader than dead, for three hours.

We burned holes in the water for hours and went as far west as 125.23.

We trolled up 2 more and that was it.

Luckily, someone loaned us a watermelon so everyone had something to hold up for the photo.

We are blaming the full moon, and we got a hot tip and a guest captain coming along tomorrow.

We have been getting some real, real good reports from 65 miles south, so we hope the fish are headed our way.

At it again in the AM.

​Captain Mike

Since we found a bunch of fish yesterday, we headed back to the same spot.

After burning holes in the ocean for a couple of hours, we got our first bait stop going.

Our crew were killers and our conversion rate was close to 100%.

The fish were skittish and would disappear for no reason.

We ended up half plugged with a very good grade of fish and I got to get some old friends into their first tuna.

Clark and I are at it again in the AM.

​Captain Mike

We ran out to where our buddy Mark Coleman has been doing pretty good and got our daily bait delivery (thanks Mark!!).

We did not get much love, so we struck out on our own.

A troll rod went off, Clark pitched some bait, and the ocean EXPLODED with boils.

It went WFO, but we lost most of our fish and the school went down.

We picked away at them, getting one on the troll and one or two on bait, and then it completely shut down.

We trolled east towards the barn and 45 minutes later Clark yelled "jumpers" and we picked up a few on bait before a bust off put the school down- the sonar showed a whole bunch of fish under the boat, but the scrammed.

We did it one more time for two more and then had to head in half plugged.

John, Clark, and I are at it in the AM.

​Captain Mike

Today we took out the Behind The Badge auction crew (a very cool organization that works with families of officers who die in the line of duty) and we decided to go deep SW.

We ran around 60 miles SW on a pretty nice ocean and dropped in and got a double on the troll right off the bat.

We were marking a ton of bait, real close to the surface, and everything looked perfect, except the fish would not come up.

They would come up and hit a jig or two, but no love on the slide.

This not having live bait thing is really getting to be a drag- we are killing ourselves to get it and hopefully we will have it soon...

Sitting out tomorrow to fix a few things and work on getting bait.

At it again on Friday, for a four day run.

We have not plugged the boat this year and we want to make sure that changes real, real soon.

​Captain Mike

We learned from our earlier trips this week that we can still get it done even when the ocean is lousy.

Today was 5 feet at five seconds, or worse, with 19-14 knots of wind, plus 50 yard fog on the bar, both ways.

After a long slow run out, we got one right away and then began picking them up a couple at a time.

Mark Coleman gave us some bait, so we were able to fish live bait.

We had two bait stops, one that went WFO for a minute.

If there had been no wind, we would have plugged the boat early.

To make things a little more exciting, the Coast Guard dropped a rescue swimmer in the water and they pulled a distressed passenger off a boat nearby.  Amazing.

Great crew, crap ocean, and good fishing.

We are sitting out for a few days, but at it again soon.

Captain Mike

We ran out to our numbers from Thursday and got a couple right away.

The huge bait balls were gone, which made us really nervous.

We picked away at them one at a time until we found a kelp paddy and found a pretty good pile of fish.

We were definitely hamstrung by the high winds and lack of bait (there is no bait in Ilwaco right now).

Clark and I are at it again in the AM.

​Captain Mike

The forecast was not great, but Nils said his guys were tough, so we headed out.

We ran deep SW and were sitting at zero when we got a text from Aaron Walker, 25 miles north, that the bite was on.

We ran north into some LOUSY seas (6-7 feet at 6 seconds) with water coming over the top of the boat the whole way.

It was worth it.

As soon as we dropped in we got a triple.

There were HUGE bait balls everywhere and lots of biters.

The wind was howling, so it was very hard to get anything on the slide.

We didn't plug the boat, but we caught a lot of fish and one guy (his first time EVER offshore) now knows he does not get seasick.

Great crew, great fishing.

At it again Saturday.

Captain Mike

We got a report of FatCat getting 45 fish around the 125 line straight out on Saturday, so we had to run Sunday.

We (Clark) trucked in some bait and after a late start we headed west.

Pretty soon after putting our lines in at 11 am we had 3 in the boat and thought it was on.

It went dead after that so we burned holes in the ocean for hours.

Eventually we decided to leave the fleet and head north where FatCat told us to start and had a triple on the troll.

For whatever reason, we could not keep the fish up- we were marking tons of bait and got them boiling once, but they just would not stay up.

5 hours later, it was time to head east and we headed home with 12 in the box.

Not great, not terrible.

The wind is going to start blowing and the forecast sucks.

Lets hope it changes, as the fish will be here in good numbers soon.

Stay tuned.

​Captain Mike