Reports & Photos
8/19/09
Report from Palmas de Cortez - East Cape, Mexico
Attached are 2 pictures of the 40 Lb. yellowfin that crashed the Green Machine Meatball on our 2nd troll. Picture, Tuna #1, shows our boat in the background with the first days 14 tuna flags. As a reminder, the first 12 fish were all taken on quad hookups. Each hookup started with 1 or 2 of the meatballs or both. We were trolling the Green and Petrolero sets on the inside, with single 9" feathers on the outs. The 40 Lb tuna crashed through a school of footballs to take the Archer.
There is nothing like being GANG TACKLED! There were probably 15 boats working the same school and no one was hook'in up like we were. Actually, after the first hookup most of them started following us around!-Eric Langkusch
8/15/09
Report from East Coast - Toms Canyon
...As we were heading back up to the tip area we watched as our bars were getting boils all over them but nothing was sticking.... Speed up..... Slow down.... Turn.... Finally they stuck...
Ended up being two nice size long fin which made their way into the box.
We worked the same area for an hour or so but couldn't find any more... so we decided to head back towards home and see if we could come up with a BFT on the way in. We set up with the fleet just south of the Glory hole and spent an hour or so trying but we couldn't get anything to bite.
With the wind laying down and the sea flat as a lake (what a difference a couple of hours can make) We ran for the barn.
The Mahi hit a naked ballyhoo, the marlin was on a ballyhoo with a blue and white sea witch, and the tuna were on an Archer bar and a chugger with a ballyhoo. The tuna didn't have anything in their stomach.
All in all another great trip with some good friends... it doesn't get any better than that.
Ted White, NJ
8/13/09 Wahoo Report from Capt Clay Ching, Molokai HI Okay guys, here's the results of todays trip, day after the almost hurricane Felicia, nice water but fish weren't biting. I was the only boat that caught anything at the buoy, everyone left so before leaving I thought okay, let me try this new FatBoy DaisyBar with the nuclear squid behind it. I was almost a mile away from the buoy when my 80 went off and this Ono made its appearance. I was happy the bar worked, I can only imagine a day when the fish are really biting. 8/12/09 Yellowfin Report from the East Cape, Baja Wanted to let you know that the Meatballs did their job! On Saturday, we had 3 quad hookups of Yellowfin and each one started with a strike on the bars. Even had a 40 come from down bellow to take the chase. Sundays action slowed, but we still managed another 8 fish. -Eric 8/11/08 Albacore report from Washington Left the dock at 0645. Headed almost west 50 miles. Fished Fred Archer Bars and Cedar. Ran 4 rods and 2 handlines. Got bit on everyone. Prefered color seemed to be Purple. My son caught his first tuna! Stopped fishing after boating ten.... Was back and tied up at the fuel dock taking on $400 dollars worth of fuel at 4:30pm.. -Moe 8/7/09 Albacore report from Northwest Hey Fred The first trip this year, I couldn't get more then 2 lines out( both being your b/p meatbars) for 2 hrs, the fish just kept hitting them. We ended up with 38 fish, 6 over 30lbs!. Last trip, we got 26, with 3 fish at 25 pounds coming on the b/p meatball bars. One thing, I've been trying your monochromatic spread, but I have the best luck running mexican flag feather, dorado colored cedar plug chasebaits, along woth the b/p meatbars. What gives?? Also, using a cedar plug chase bait should only be tried by people wanting very violent tuna strikes!! Cheers Your loyal student Jason Frederickson 8/2/09 Oregon Tuna Classic Report from Team Runnin Down a Dream - Ilwaco Left the slip just before 5am and joined the cluster tryin to get out of the harbor. Finaly checked in and waited at the line for the shotgun start. Flare pops and we are off. We headed down south/west about 60 miles while most of the fleet headed North.
7/18/09 Oregon Tuna Classic - Newport Results Congratulations to team Offshore Adventure Charters on taking second place in the first tournament of the season in the Northwest. Long time customer Lee Putman was on the team and reports that while fishing was tough, the mighty MeatBall got the job done. Congrats also go out to bar-head Bud Hosner on team Seelicious for winning the Biggest Fish side pot. On a side note, THE biggest fish of the tournament was also taken on a SuperBar by Mike Potts, but unfortunately for Mike's team they were not signed up for the big fish side bet. SuperBars have won and placed in many of the Tuna tournaments in the NW in the past, and it appears we are off to a go start this year! Good luck to those of you fishing the upcoming Oregon and Washington tourneys. Photo of OTC Albies sent in by customer Chris Justice:
Gaffed our first Albie at about 8:30am. Got all our fish except I think 2 on The new FRED ARCHER LIGHTNINSQUID DAISYBARS.
We never did hit very warm water. We stayed in around 60 degree temp water. The plotter says 64 but is over by several degrees. Only had one boat fishing our area and I believe he was fishing out of Garibaldi Ore.
Seen a nice size tail/fin go through our spread and lots of Blues.We boated a total of 13. Lost 2 and had several nice drive bys. The bite was getting hot but we had to pick up and get back across the line by 4pm.
Picked up our lines at 1:30pm and hauled ass for the Columbia River. We crossed the checkout line with 12 minutes to spare.
Our combined weight for our five fish was 94lbs. I know one UNNAMED Wa team ( who we all know) that didn't buy into the largest fish and lost a $1,000. And no it wasn't us.
78 teams registered and 58 teams turned in fish. Total Tuna donated was over 5,000lbs to the local food bank.
Thanks to Harold,the OTC and FRED ARCHER for a great time.
7/04/09
Ono Report Capt Clay Ching, Molokai HI
Got to try the bars on the ledge today, and caught a Wahoo about 28 lbs on it. I think having more bars will definitely make a difference as no one else caught fish today in the area. I did catch one other barracuda on another lure in the spread but it wasn't behind the bar. I also was running my toad.
6/29/09
Good morning Fred and Chris.
I tried out the Spiders for the first time this weekend. Went out Sunday for some halibut and managed two decent fish at 15 and 24 pounds. The 15 pounder was the first fish I have caught on the Spider.
It was bit while being trolled with 3 of our traditional bounce ball rigs. The fact that only one out of four rigs (25%) that was being trolled was a Spider and that it caught 50% of the fish has begun to proves its effectiveness for me and my crew. I look forward to fishing Spiders more in the near future!
Todd Groessl
6/01/09
Tuna Report Capt Clay Ching, Molokai HI.
Aloha Fred, finally was able to go out and look for some tunas at this spot 18 miles out at sea, where there is a government buoy anchored which acts like a FAD.
I really wanted to see how the bar would work so I put it out and left it out. I tried different places in the wake to see where it would work the best too. I even put it on the rigger but didn't put it out very far.
Long story short is the black/purple MeatBal worked very well with a hot pink chase bait on it. As I came up to a pile of birds and a school of Skipjacks, it was the first one to take off, so did my handlines. I was tickled to see that it got a bite. I went back to the buoy and was watching the other boats, no one was catching anything.
Well guess what, the bar went off again with a 25 lb Yellowfin on it. Only thing it was hooked in the skin and not in the mouth. I think it crashed the bar and when turning, got hooked in the side right in the skin. It held all the way to the boat, where I had to gaff it to get it in.
All in all it was to me a very successful trip out, we ended up with about 350 lbs of fish, shared it with my two friends that came with me and had a great learning day to boot. How successful can only be determined by what things would be if I ran two of the same bars next time.
-Capt Clay
