Finally a long awaited charter to catch tuna, left Thursday to fish Friday AM. People all over the marina (inside also) fishing for salmon. Arrived at dock @ 0630, quick seminar on "how to, what to, & need to" do to get started, pick up 30 pounds of live anchovies and off we go. At about 30 miles out "Captain Mark" lets out swimbaits and lures to target tuna. after 45 minutes, fish on!! All poles that were in trolling are now swapped out for the live bait. Facing towards the wind we are hooked up and letting the anchovies swim away, free spooling with no drag, when the line starts running, slowly lock the free spool (4"-5") and start reeling, no hook set needed, and you are in the great fight, massive runs while you maneuver around the other fishermen, (6 total) if all is good, after dancing around for 10-15 minutes and not tangling with others, you are rewarded. You will see at least 3-5 people hooked up, my brother has seen everyone including the captain (using swimbaits) have a fish on, this get s crazy because it's usually first come first serve, and the captain/deckhand is going crazy going around trying to gaff, untangles lines, at least 3 or 4 lines, (with fish still on) retying/rebaiting gear. These are called bait stops, when you are over a school and you just drop your anchovies and the tuna just pick it off, many times you can follow your bait then see a flash of silver and game on!! Your patience is severely tested because you get into that selfish mode of "what about me", needing a new hook, bait, gaff, or untangling my line is taking forever, you have to get it why the going is good. Seeing your guy next to you bring one in, then 15" later have another one on, yes, that fast, again, it's called a bait stop. My brother and our 2 friends, (veterans at this) were blessed with just this one bait stop, other encounter they had to make 4-5 stops. We were very fortunate that was all we needed to fill up the boat, 55 total, largest being about 25#s, got done @ 1330 For some reason all I have is the picture of the aftermath of our day, don't know what happened to my other pics. Day was better than expected, light breeze, and sunny, I hate to admit it, my forearms burned out after 4 fish, I was hurting, but yes, going to do again next year!!

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