105 cold water tuna!
I fished Westport on Saturday and Sunday 10-15-11 and 10-16-11
We had a five man crew both days. I was joined by:
Mike L, Rob S, Matt S, Jeff N, and Bob H.
We had good weather and good ocean conditions both days but,
it did get a little bumpy midday on Sunday.
The conditions were better than excellent if you factor in that it was the middle of October!
We fished near guide canyon both days. On Saturday we started out at 125.05 and found 58.5 degees and lots of life, birds and scattered jumpers.
We were catching fish at a steady pace when we got the call that it was wide open several miles south east of us.
It was time to make the call, do we leave good fishing to try to find great fishing or do we stay where we are and hope it goes wide open.
With not enough time in the the day to return to our location if the gamble did not pay off I reluctantly make the call to move. We left birds, scattered jumpers and biting fish in hopes of something even better. I was second guessing myself the whole way.
When we arrived at our new location just outside of the 124.40 line we had blue water and a temp of 58.8
The birds were diving everywhere and there were lots of jumpers, It was game on!
We instantly hooked up all five rods and went to work! We worked the school till we ran out of bait then switched to the troll. ZZZZZZZZ! The tuna were eagerly biting our troll gear but not wanting to cross the bar in the dark on a strong ebb we left a nearly wide open bite and headed for the dock. We ended the day with 53 tuna landed and several lost.
On Sunday we headed back to where we had left off the day before but the temp had dropped over two degrees
It was 56.2 and green with small patches of blue. The birds were still there but they were scattered. we went on the troll and it took a while to hook our first fish, but when we did we went right to the live bite and the bite was on! we landed over twenty fish on our first stop but the bite fizzled and died.
We trolled the area for a while longer without any luck. Again a call comes across but this time they are catching good numbers of fish 8 miles outside of us and they have got better water color and a little better temp. we trolled our way out to them, catching a few singles along the way.
When we arrived at their numbers we found 57.9 degrees, working birds and a really nice batch of jumpers. We slid into the jumpers with live bait and everyone was hooked up instantly . we worked that school till we ran out of bait then switched to the troll. We trolled the area for a while catching a fish or two every time we crossed the mark till we decided to head in. Not wanting to cross the bar in the dark with a strong ebb we ended the day with 52 tuna.
Live bait accounted for most of our fish this weekend but we also did well trolling x-raps and swim baits
It was a great weekend of fishing! 105 tuna landed, good weather and the best mid October tuna fishing I have every seen!