| The Albacore Have Arrived |
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| The ALBACORE TUNA HAVE ARRIVED By Darold Givens Ken Bertelsen got his crew consisting of Jim Robinson, Darold Givens, Matt Plut and Eric Swanson to head to the tuna grounds, about 40-60 miles West of Half Moon Bay. It was still O-dark 30 and the water was like glass as Ken used the radar and observant deckhands to keep a sharp eye out for any obstructions in the water. We were short of where we had last heard of any tuna caught but the water temperature was near 60 degrees and it was a good place to start. The deckhands got six trolling rods into the water with different colored jigs to entice the fish. The out riggers were placed out the longest, about 100 pulls (about a foot per pull). The lines were placed shorter towards the center of the boat. This way the lines would be less likely to tangle when turning. The first albacore soon struck and the fight was on. The boat continued to troll at 7 knots per hour in case another fish would take the lure. Now the boat stops as one person fights the fish and the rest pull in the loose lines as someone tosses in live bait into the water to keep other tuna around the boat. Today we used live anchovy. After all the lines are in, we hook live anchovy to another rod and “live line” it into the water. The line is lighter and attached to a weight and is free wheeled down to allow the bait to swim freely, hopefully allowing a tuna to ‘take the bait’. If no takers take the bait, the live bait rigs are brought in and the boat starts trolling and the lures are placed back into the water. This happened several times and we were getting sometimes two or three hits on the lures. Jim Robinson was able to catch 2 live line fish with live bait. It was getting late and the fishing slowed down and we headed back to shore. It would take almost 3 hours to get back. On the way in, Eric and Matt expertly fillet the tuna and Jim and Darold packaged them, ready for the freezer. That day we put on 125 miles and Ken’s boat uses about .9 gals of diesel for every mile. You do the math at over $3. per gal. If you figured out how much every fish cost, no one would be fishing. It was a great time on the water with good companions and each took home some good eating. |
