OHANA WEST PORT ALBACORE!!!

[mikeysm]

My penn albacore special worked flawlessly. You could here the drag working as the fish taking line. Smooth as glass

[Ryan W]

Good fishing with everyone! Glad everyone had a good time. All bites were on the chovies. Ron and I threw jigs for some short amounts of time and I didn't have a touch.

I even got to gaff an albacore with the rod in one hand and the gaff in the other. Always a good trip when the bite gets to that level. Even got to one point where we had 8 people fishing and all 8 hooked up.

Going with Dwight's brother this weekend if the weather holds. Right now looks about like what we had. Fan supposed to turn on sat afternoon

[Ryan W]

Forecast is getting better- sub 10 knots whole trip. Swells supposed to start at 9 @9s and drop to 5@ 10s. Not perfect but I will take it!

Space avail if anyone wants to jump on https://charterschedules.com/westport/requestTrip.php

[Crab Pot]

Forecast is getting better- sub 10 knots whole trip. Swells supposed to start at 9 @9s and drop to 5@ 10s. Not perfect but I will take it!

Space avail if anyone wants to jump on https://charterschedules.com/westport/requestTrip.php

BALLER!

Wish I was closer Ryan because I'd love to join you.

PM me your address, I'll send you the soft sided cooler back with some canned Albacore.

Good luck,

Steve

[El Pescador]

Alright Kidz, I finally have time to sit and post a few photos.  After this post, I'll work on the Albacore canning with my Portuguese Friends!

My loving wife drives me to HUGE Tomato grower Jim's home - at 4:30 AM just a short 7 minute ride.  Wait for JJ to get there, we load up and take off.

3 hours into the ride we drive past Mt. Shasta, slightly over 14,000' - and northeast about 70 miles is Lee's  home (Keta) - we send our thoughts to you sir.



I bumped into Ted while we were boarding the Tornado and he said we should all fill up with shaved ice.  We didn't hesitate to get ice since Ted's done this trip for over 10 years.



Here is our intended prey - Longfin Albacore.



On the boat, checking out the gear - our ONLY point of contact with our pelagic prey is this... a #4 J-hook with an attached ring.  This will catch 30+ lbs. albacore!!!!!



Rods & reels were 6 1/2' rods ALL with Accurate lever drag Fury 500 Reels with 50 lbs. braid and 25 lbs. mono.  This worked perfectly on our trip.



Here is our boat for the next 2 days and 2 nights - the Tornado - harbored in Westport, WA.



A shot of a few of us. Foreground Mike McGhee (Mikeysm), Ted with a killer hat he would NOT sell me, Huge Tomato Grower Jim, Steve (Crabpot) and Nick Poppen (Reelfishing Problems) - our Chartermaster after Ron offloaded this trip onto his shoulders.  Nick did a great job, and brought enough food on this trip to feed a local Coast Guard Cutter!!!!



This private boat arrived back at the dock while we were boarding, and they OFFLOADED 30" YellowTail!!!!!  Yellowtail NOT Yellow Fin Tuna!!!! 



Capt. Dwight gave us the Safely Talk, we set about to be underway, and here we are on the open ocean running out at 12 knots to look for the Albacore fishing grounds.  The first night, I have to say it was a bit spritzy with some side-to-side wave action. 



I use the GAIA app on my phone to GPS our location wherever I travel.  For most of our trip we were 50-70 miles offshore.



First morning after fishing some, Ted breaks out his Smoked Salmon w/bagels and cream cheese.  He forced one on me, and I enjoyed it!!!!  Absolutely delicious fishing meal.



here is a member of good standing, Rich, aka: scrinch, as he is known to Ron Jones, "The Professor" - I think you need to change your name to HOOVER, cause every time I passed him while fishing my fish, HE TOO HAD A FISH ON!!!!  A true gentleman to spend time with.



Fish caught after our first Bait Stop.



Steve!  You ARE holding the rod the right way, don't worry about it!!!!!!



On this trip I took so few photos, like the rest of us - I WAS FISHING!!!!  But for some reason my gear in the holder and took a few shots of Nick Poppen fishing.



Something happened and Nick's Crank arm and handle CAME OFF  HIS 500 Reel!!!!!!



here's a close up



Nick, mentally prepared, threw the crank arm and handle on the deck, laid the rod on the rail, and HAND LINED this fish to the boat, where the deckhand gaffed his hard fishing fish!!!!!  Nick, when you have time, we would LOVE to hear the Post Mordum on WHAT the heck happened here?  I looked at the crank arm, and the Handle Lock Screw (Set Screw) was screwed into the Crank Arm, but the Crank arm came off the reel!!!!

Yours truly with one of MANY fish I caught.  LOVED this type of fishing, and we are all talking about booking another trip in Fall 2025.



and a HUGE shoutout to John (Brewcrafter) for him making it happen for us to enjoy a case of the BJ's beer.  TANK YOU so much for your work effort and generosity.  And I've NVR met John, I PM'd him and he did all the heavy lifting.  My only job was to drive 4 miles to a Local BJ's Brewhouse and have the GM hand me a case of FREE BEER!!!!  Can life be any better???!!!!





here is how we start trolling.



4 rods out, the middle stern rods are out about 50' using hoochies or a cedar plug.  The side rods are out about 80'.  Once the reel clicker goes off, someone closest to the rod hooked up, plays the fish, 3 other guys bring in the other 3 trolling rods, and the rest of us, the 2 deckhands and the Capt. all jump into gear, doing a side gill hookset with the feisty bait, and throw it over the side and start feeding line to the fish.  It's a thing of beauty to see.

Ron Jones is TRYING to do a rod test, and see if HE can get a 180-degree bend while fighting a fish.  Ron, you are so close butt NO CIGAR!!!!





Bloody Decks is the name of our game!!!!



Our last bait stop, EPIC finish to a great day on the PNW waters!!!!



Ryan asked me to take his photo with our mess of fish.  Ryan, you are another great guy to fish with, I'll see you next year.



IN fact, fishing with experienced fishermen, we had SO FEW tangles, when we did the deckhand would cut the limp line, and it was back to FISH ON!!!!

Sunset of the first day of fishing, the Capt. called out for all gear to be brought up, we are DONE, the hull is filled with fish, and we are heading home.



Custom (THINK Cortez Conversions) Penn 500 reels are what is needed.  Again, Nick what happened to your handle?



We had 2 great deckhands.  And Ted!!!!



Sunlight at the second day, getting past the bar into the harbor, good sized waves. And Yeah!!!  Quite a number of jokes about "passing the BAR!!!".



A truly great trip, everyone was prepped to fish and knew what they were doing.  Thanks all, and the boat capt. - Dwight and the deck hands.  See you all next year.

Your roving reporter signing OFF...

Wayne

[Donnyboat]

Nice report roving reporter, good memories ay, cheers don.

[Maxed Out]

Nice job on report and pics Wayne !!

[Cortez_Conversions]

Looks like the handle nut broke. Is the threaded half still in the gear sleeve?
I've done this once on the bench trying to get the nut aligned with the locking screw. The handle screw is brass and will stretch to failure. I replace them often, just for this reason.

[redsetta]

Great report Wayne - stoked for you guys!

[Rocket Dog]

Looks like the handle nut broke. Is the threaded half still in the gear sleeve?
I've done this once on the bench trying to get the nut aligned with the locking screw. The handle screw is brass and will stretch to failure. I replace them often, just for this reason.

Tom, Is brass the only way to go on the nuts cap screws?

[Ryan W]

Good fishing with everyone, see you next year!

--RW

[ReelFishingProblems]

So there I was, a fish in the line with one hand and a disconnected handle in the other.

What happened:
The handle nut popped out of the gear sleeve while the handle lock screw was still in place. The inside of the gear sleeve was stripped and the outside was rounded. The inside of the gear sleeve hole on the blade was rounded out as well.

The blade was originally a very tight fit on the sleeve and I must not have done my due diligence in assuring a proper fit. My guess is I didn't seat the handle fully and the handle nut was not screwed in deep enough. While it was as tight as I could get it with the wrench it must have been the problem. Nothing else makes sense.

There was no damage to any of the other internals.

I chock it up to operator error.

[Rocket Dog]

Ahh, thank you for the postmortem and a good reminder double check all the connections. It appears that a SS selve would have helped in this situation.

[jurelometer]

May not have been an assembly issue.  That gear sleeve to handle junction is the weakest link on a Jigmaster with a stock brass gear sleeve.

Once the handle/sleeve junction rounds out, that lock screw ensures that you will be continuously tightening the brass handle nut as you wind under load, so it would eventually break like this.

A stainless gear sleeve is the key upgrade.  A stainless handle arm would be stronger (but heavier).  A stainless nut would be nice too.  Don't remember if it is an oddball thread side, so not sure how easy it would be to come up with something from an off the shelf bolt and a bit of grinding. 

But the gear sleeve upgrade is the key.  Might be all that is needed before you hit the new weak link (bridge post flex causes gear shredding).  Making other parts stronger  that are not the weakest link doesn't always buy you much.

-J

[Cortez_Conversions]

Thanks for letting us know what happened!