Northern Tuna

Discussion related to commercial salmon trolling, boats, gear, fishing techniques, electronics, marketing, etc.
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Abundance
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Northern Tuna

Post by Abundance »

Talking with another fisherman about tuna fishing made me wonder about the possibilities up here. I've occasionally seen them skipping around in the later summer, particularly in Iphigenia Bay. I heard of multiple fisherman targeting them in the misty past out on the open sea off of Forester Island and longitudes southwest. I even saw a couple of small ones caught as a deckhand, although we always released them as we were uncertain of the legality. Can you imagine what you could sell a freezer hold of those things for on the street Ketchikan, Sitka or Juneau? I'm pretty sure that I could get as much as I asked. I read in Pacific Fishing that Canadian trollers where catching them in the Queen Charlotte's (okay, okay, Haida Gwaii). Just something to ponder on.
Garrett Hagen, F/V Abundance
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Re: Northern Tuna

Post by akfisher1978 »

If you ever catch one again Garrett make sure to keep it for yourself! Probably not a better fish in the world fresh! I have never caught Albacore but lots of Yellowfin I assume they are pretty much the same.
Abundance
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Re: Northern Tuna

Post by Abundance »

I know that I have loved all of the tuna that I have ever had, and do not intend to ever pass one up again. I doubt that even the most dour trooper in the state would turn one loose if he was fishing, hang the legality. I really have no idea if it is legal or illegal. I doubt that ADF&G ever thought about it before.
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Re: Northern Tuna

Post by akfisher1978 »

I agree! Not to jump on the Troopers again but I think that on most things that one does that a trooper would do off duty but love to lock us up!
islands50
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Re: Northern Tuna

Post by islands50 »

One would think that to sell those tuna, your dreaming about, would be a simple process, and or keep the odd one you catch..... permits are available, it is called an HMS permit, I think they cost about $35.00 give or take, you would already have the fishing licennce, now as far as selling them retail that you would have to take up with the state.
Jackson Combs
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Re: Northern Tuna

Post by Jackson Combs »

Yellowfin are different then Albacore, but fresh caught albacore is definitely one of my favorites. And tuna trolling is just plain fun fishing. I think as ocean conditions and temperatures change you northern guys will probably see more of them, along with humboldt squid. Both being big open access fisheries down here that guys are increasingly relying on. Marketing an Alaskan caught Albacore might give you some notoriety. :)
Jackson
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Re: Northern Tuna

Post by SilverT »

Islands50 is right about the Federal permit. It doesn't appear that the State addresses albacore on their website, but if you had the permit, you could sell to a processor. The processor has to fill out several Federal forms every time you make a landing and I doubt many would be prepared for it. My suspicion is that for personal use the State isn't going to care and that for retail they are going to want a piece of the pie. Perhaps they won't want to bother with it.

As far as making money, one of the largest tools used to find fish is satellite imagery of sea surface temperatures and the "structure" the temperature breaks create. Northern waters are so often obscured by cloud cover, preventing accurate readings, that it would seem to be difficult to find good concentrations of fish on a regular basis. Perhaps those that have been successful have other means, services or lots of partners. I suspect that they were just in the right place at the right time, but I could be wrong. It can be a long, long dry run (liquid Sahara) if you don't have the imagery.

We could take the abundant albacore and ship them to you for sale in AK and you could take the abundant coho and ship them to us in WA. About $1.00 / lb. shipping cost through Alaska Air, we call it a trade, triple the price for retail and achieve a similar outcome. Only as in to fishing as you are, you probably just want to go albacore fishing. I agree with Jackson and you never know until you try.

Lane
Abundance
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Re: Northern Tuna

Post by Abundance »

I think that the permit would apply to federal waters around here, and if I ever found a bunch of tuna to spark my interest I might duck in a little closer to shore and give the state managers a call about their opinion. I don't think that the processors would know what to do, but getting into tuna would be something that they would very much be interested in. I found an old article in in a Kodiak newspaper about a tuna caught in the Alaska Peninsula in 1958. I actually think that out farther in the Gulf of Alaska, out in the open Pacific, a person would find quite a few. I hear stories from the cross Gulf tugboats about the amazing things they see out there. In where we usually fish salmon, the water is quite a bit colder than the rest of the coast because of runoff from the Coast Range mountain icepack and glaciers. The runoff is largely exhausted by late August and into September, allowing the hot ocean current to move close to shore. That's my theory at least, as that is when the biggest numbers of blue sharks and sometimes considerable schools of tuna show up off of the capes. I am pretty sure the last school that I saw, in fall 2010, by Timbered Island, were yellowfin. There were a lot of them feeding on the surface. I have heard multiple stories of people from Wrangell and Petersburg targeting them in the past. Discussing this with my Dad last night, he mentioned one longtime fisherman who was headed down to Mexico to go tuna fishing from here some decades ago. He got out to someplace far out offshore from Forester Island, and decided that the water looked like tuna water. He plugged his boat with tuna and returned to Ketchikan, never even getting to Canadian waters. Stories like that are what keep me interested. I am almost certain that I could get at least $20.00 lb. for fresh Alaskan tuna on the streets of the capital in Juneau. A bit less for frozen. Most fish are very hard to sell on the street in SE Alaska because the general populace has freezers full of their own salmon and crab at any given moment. SE Alaskans eat seafood like lower 48er's eat cheeseburgers. Something for you tuna fisherman to think about. Some people travel down south to offload their last load of frozen salmon for twice what they could get up here. I'm sure you could do the same heading the opposite direction.
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Re: Northern Tuna

Post by FV_Wild_Card »

Something like 20-25 years ago when I was a little kid living in Port Protection, a big troller came through selling tuna in the fall.
islands50
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Re: Northern Tuna

Post by islands50 »

One thing I have learned about Tuna is, uselly the distance off shore, you generaly have to travel to find them, and water temps are critical.

Spoke to a couple of my local fish mongers here in town, they seemed to be intrested in having some local boats bringing them in, one is a shrimper himself, conseration started off bad as he thought I was sport fishing and trying to sell, the charter catch untill, I explained what I was doing. At least I make a couple more contacts, and got a few more names to talk to
Abundance
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Re: Northern Tuna

Post by Abundance »

Where do tuna fishermen find the water temp satellite photos? I found some on http://www.ospo.noaa.gov/Products/ocean ... index.html. The big troller you remember, Wild Card, might be the one that I have heard stories about. Did you guys buy any?
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Re: Northern Tuna

Post by Jackson Combs »

Jackson
Abundance
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Re: Northern Tuna

Post by Abundance »

Hey, thank you. I was really just curious. Knowing the water temp lines would probably be a help fishing open ocean salmon in the early summer too.
Garrett Hagen, F/V Abundance
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Re: Northern Tuna

Post by FV_Wild_Card »

Yeah, my parents were pretty excited about it and bought a whole bunch. I'm sure the old man remembers who it was, I'll ask him.
latitudes
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Re: Northern Tuna

Post by latitudes »

Not sure how tuna work up there, but I have chased a bunch of them down here in WA sport fishing. All of ours are albi's with an occasional yellow tail thrown in (which isn't even a tuna, but very good to eat). Water temp breaks are key and they seem to like water over 60 f. Also look at the plankton photos and see where there is a break between high plankton and the blue water. The edge, on the blue water side seems to be where they like it. I've never fished them commercially, but hear it's a kick when you're in them.
Abundance
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Re: Northern Tuna

Post by Abundance »

While the few we pulled aboard years ago were albacore, I am pretty certain that the school I saw outside of PoW a few years back were yellow tail. Even I can tell that they have a very distinctive look. Last year a fisherman fishing around Alice Rocks, not very far from where I saw my school, saw what he thought at first where little yellow alligators. It took him a while to realize what he was looking at. Like I said, we are off to the side of the main Gulf currents a bit, and in fact are linked to a slightly different chunk of water than you guys are. We sometimes get all sorts of odd tropical fish swept through here. About seven or eight years ago, I saw a pelagic sunfish out in front of Timbered Island. We use those clear/murky hot/cold water lines to fish salmon too. But I can see Haida Gwaii from PoW. IF the Canadians can fish them there, they should be out past Forester Island somewhere.
Garrett Hagen, F/V Abundance
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Re: Northern Tuna

Post by FV_Wild_Card »

It was a guy coming up from wash/oregon.
Abundance
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Re: Northern Tuna

Post by Abundance »

That's actually good to see. As I mentioned earlier, I think that coming up here with a final load was a smart idea on his part. I am sure they didn't lay in his hold very long at all!
Garrett Hagen, F/V Abundance
Abundance
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Re: Northern Tuna

Post by Abundance »

I just talked to a troller this morning who said that when he was growing up in Petersburg in the 50's-60's, there where two large trollers that would go out off of Cape Ommaney past the thousand fathom line and load up on tuna. He couldn't remember the details, just being a little kid at the time, but they seemed to wait until the main salmon season had passed and the water warmed up out there. He said that they kept doing this until the tuna stopped coming this far north. I think that pattern might be changing again.
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