Ductwork 24 hr. Tuna/Tile 16-17

[Bob T.]

Fished for the first time with Captain Phil, second time on The Ductwork. First time was a fluke/seabass trip a couple years ago that we caught a lot of both target species. This was only my 2nd tuna trip and never got to hook one the first time. Well let me tell you, popped my tuna cherry big time. We headed out at Noon as planned, 2 guys short for a family emergency not planned. Phil says, "it's too nice not to go". Game on. Stowed our gear and settled in for a 90+ mile ride to the Washington Canyon. Phil, Kenny and me. managed to get some shuteye on the way out, real comfortable ride with flat seas and a comfy beanbag seat. Saw some jet fighters doing dogfight maneuvers at about 15,000 ft. We arrived to about 8 boats already there at about 5 pm. Lots of life-pilot whales (dozens), a couple boats on the troll, most chunking. We got set up with a down line, a flat line, I started jigging, and Phil started the chum, within minutes the flat line went off and Kenny was up and brought in a nice YF that Phil gaffed. I was next and caught my first YF, what a friggen rush. It was combat for the next 5 hours, 3 were big boys over 50#, a couple had to be measured, then after we had 7 in the box we started throwing back the small ones (30-35#) we got another big one and a medium. the bite shut off about 11:30 or so. We had our 9 and threw back a dozen. There was a lot of night life around the boat: The whales, flying fish, some kind of trigger fish, tinker mackerel (I caught a couple on saki rig), a puffer fish, a small school of little mahi, squid (foul hooked one with sabiki, tried squid jigs that they avoided, even deep). Kenny caught a 6 ft. hammerhead shark that got a leader release by Phil, he fought it on a Talica 10. We pot hopped on the way back and put 18 Mahi in the box, about a half dozen were gaffers. No deep drop for tiles due to lack of wind or tide. I did catch a little tunny, so we did have the bait. Best fishing trip I have ever been on, it was a real pleasure to fish with Kenny and to be shown how to catch em by Captain Phil.