Whale of a tale!

Discussion related to commercial salmon trolling, boats, gear, fishing techniques, electronics, marketing, etc.
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bodegacowboy
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Whale of a tale!

Post by bodegacowboy »

So, this is my first post and it might as be a doozy! I bought my first commercial boat about 2-1/2 months ago, 27' Farallon. Dropped in a new engine, rigged with gurdies, davits , etc. It's been fishing pretty good and we're holding our own.
So the last two weekends have been extremely slow (yeah I have a real job during the week). We decided we'd go look offshore towards Cordell Banks out of Bodega bay on an overnight trip this last weekend. Weather is good, plenty of food, fuel, bait, all the safety equipment. We're heading out, find beautiful brown water, balls of Krill in about 55 Fathoms, drop in the port heavy, start to drop in the starboard, springs start pumping on the port, nice 20lb fish, man we're in em! Trolled that area for two hours for nothing, so we turned the boat and kept trolling off shore. As we near Cordell Banks, we start seeing whales, and more whales. Pretty soon you can not look in any direction and not see a whale! lot's of porpoise too, some riding with the boat. Well I look over the port side and a huge whale surfaces and dives 50' from the boat, I swear he sprayed us when he spouted! Holy crap! What I didn't realize is he dove under the boat. I looked over and saw teh starboard heavy start pumping,said "there's a fish", then the springs expanded about 4' , we knew instantly this is not good. The tag line severed instantly and my brand new wire began singing off the spool at an alarming rate, didn't know the gurdies could spin that fast! It stopped for a few seconds so I tried to lift with the Hydraulics, got about 10' and it took off again! This time it kept going till it got to my backing. I was wondering how the pull wire strap would work as backing when I put it on, and it held great! The wire finally parted at about the 400' mark, so I got back a little. Lost a lead and my gear, but everything else stayed in tact! Boy it was hard to just stand back and watch as events unfolded, i could imagine it would be pretty easy to loose a finger or two if I tried to intervine, which was my natural reaction.
Anyway's that's my first story and I'm sticking to it!
Mike
Abundance
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Re: Whale of a tale!

Post by Abundance »

I am shocked that I haven't hit a whale yet. They have gone under my boat often enough. My Dad lost a line to one earlier this year. I know a guy who lost his hayrack, mast and poles to one. Heck of a first story!
Garrett Hagen, F/V Abundance
Scotthmt
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Re: Whale of a tale!

Post by Scotthmt »

Wow that's scary, I was out of hmb on the opener and we had whales under us and it was a very nervous feeling, we snagged the bottom on a pinnacle and busted off a 50, watching the stick bend down and boat list over was pretty damn scary too.
Salty
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Re: Whale of a tale!

Post by Salty »

Only one hook up in nearly 40 years of trolling. Amazing how effective they are at avoiding our gear. Spooked me a few times though.
Fishnmike
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Re: Whale of a tale!

Post by Fishnmike »

A sports guy out of Moss Landing hung his four downriggers on a whale about a month ago. Lost all four downriggers!
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