Dave's Adventures

David(KillerBeee)

This weeks report is taken from my good friend Tommy Donlin who fished his boat as Team Defiance The Usual Suspects along side us on Team Defiance The Gun Slinger.

We had a blast in Ilwaco and really hit the jackpot with our big fish was well as number of fish.

Thanks to Bo Palmer, owner of Defiance boats, Tom, Steve, and Jason on my crew. Also thanks to Tommy, Darryl, Arvin, Brett, and Andy on Tommy's crew.

For anyone that is not aware, the Oregon Tuna Classic is charity tournament that donates food and money to the local food banks. Our goal is to catch the 5 largest albacore tuna each day. It was a great weekend and a most worthy cause.

Dave

If you would have told me a week ago that both TEAM DEFIANCE boats would be in the top 5 after two days of fishing, with one boat leading the points race by 20 lbs and in a good position to fight for rights to head to CABO SAN LUCAS for the IGFA WORLD FISHING CHAMPIONSHIP, I would be pragmatically optimistic and reserved. But if you would have also told me that TEAM DEFIANCE would catch the largest fish both days, the largest albacore ever seen in an OTC or WTC event, a BLUEFIN TUNA, and a collective 174 fish, I would tell you YOU'RE OFF YOUR ROCKER!

Well....YOU'LL NEVER GUESS WHAT HAPPENED!!!

THERE I WAS....

With two killer crews on the team boats, we were bound to have a good trip. We arrived thursday afternoon to load with ice and bait and put the boats in the slips. The OTC had a new format this year. They consolidated the events from 4 events to two events and made the Ilwaco and Garibaldi events 2 day events, effectively cancelling the Charleston and Newport/Depoe Bay portion of the tournament. This bodes well for us who hale from the Seattle/Port Orchard region.

Friday's new format had a "leave when you want" rule with no captain's meeting but a "lines in" time of 7:30AM. We departed the dock around 5:30AM and headed offshore to arrive at our destination 10 minutes before 7:30AM. We floated around as we readied our troll gear and put in at the mark. We did not even have time to deploy the outriggers and we were bit on the QCOVE TNT Spreader Bar trailing a Ballyhood Albacore Allstar in Purple/Black. We converted to bait and Arvin hooked up immediately. This fish was little more squirrely though, running up to the bow, down through the screws, back out, and diving underneath the boat. As I grab the gaff, two more guys hook up. Arvin calls "color" and then starts studdering...

"COLOR....UM...UMMMMMM. THIS FISH HAS SHORT FINS. IT DOESN'T HAVE LONGFINS...UMMMM......SHORT FINS MEANS BLUEFIN!!!!! HELL YEAAAAA!"

After this fight it was easy to see why bluefin are king of the tuna family. This little 14 lb. bluefin tuna put up the fight of a 25lb. plus albie and didn't do death circles at the side of the boat.

SASHIMI TIME RIGHT OFF THE BAT!

After putting a few on board, we were back on the hunt.

Many thanks to John for running to Oysterville and transporting bait down for Friday's tourney. The bait was a little beat up, but well worth the $40 per scoop!

As the sun went higher in the sky, the heat was turned up on the tuna bite as well and it went WFO for us and the other Team Defiance Boat (GUNSLINGER).

We were so busy, that blood and salt covered cell phones had to do the job of picture taking. Excuse the fuzz...

Bo and his crew aboard GUNSLINGER were doing the same en route to a 60 fish day...

Friday was WFO in the morning with jumpers everywhere and plenty of opportunity to whack and stack. The bite died for us around noon and never really picked back up.

Kraii with the Columbia River Bait Company really hooked us up for Saturday. He went out and caught some chovies just for all the tuna fishermen in Ilwaco! Thanks Kraii!

The bait on saturday survived a lot better for us. As I have told people, Defiance boats are built around the bait tank and bait is vital to our operation. We arrived at the bait receiver early saturday morning and I am glad we did! The line stacked up after 5AM and boats clogged the marina.

We headed out to the start line and held our position until the countdown.

With the flare from the Coast Guard 47', we were off to the races. Thousands of horsepower were UNLEASHED in a mad dash to get out in front and avoid the washing machine produced by the fleet. We broke loose and were well on our way to the destination, cruising btwn 25 and 30 knots.

Our destination was close (35 miles) and we started off hunting jumpers on Lake Pacific. The fish were a little more skittish than the previous day, but still willing.

MY FAVORITE COLOR....

The fish were sounding well in advance of our approach so we had to deploy some special hardware....the SALAS 7X SURFACE IRON. With one 50-60 yard cast, Arvin reached out and landed his jig in the middle of albies blitzing the surface. 2 cranks and an Albie swung and missed the jig but didn't lose it. He followed the jig with another albie on his "6" and a few more cranks resulted in..............

HOOK UP!!!!!

Arvin brought the school the boat and MADNESS ensued. Like fishing in a trout pound, except with high quality lean SILVER BULLETS eating the gelcoat off the bottom of the boat and kissing the PROPS!

We stayed in the kill zone all day with GUNSLINGER, who saw much of the same, including a 40 LB. Albacore (officially weighed in the next day after being bled at 39.15 lbs)

Steve caught the leviathon, but these pics just do not do the fishes size justice. It was HUUUUUGEE. Like show and tell, everybody had to get their pic with it.

After things slowed down a bit, we had to switch out our troll gear. After two rotations, they really started going bonkers on the Ballyhood Rip Lippers and Albacore Allstars in PINK and WHITE. The birds were even interested in the jigs and we could see why. The fish were puking up squid, one after the other.

And thats not all they puked up. They also offered up a 16" mackeral or sardine and a ribbon fish that was just a little bit longer!

We had a great day and put some serious poundage on the boat for the second day in a row.

Sunday we woke up and cleaned our 66 fish before the awards ceremony. Shortly after 11AM we headed over for some phenomenal food and some great company. We watched as the fish were weighed in and we saw how the numbers fell...

DAY 1:

DAY 2:

BOOYAH! Team Defiance earned biggest fish both days, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place finishes over two days of fishing, with a 1st and 5th overall finish. WHAT A GREAT RIDE! Many thanks to the great guys on board that made this all possible! You gotta have solid fishermen to make it happen and WE DID!