NWWC TUNA REPORT: Green-water hawg hits deck off Garibaldi ...
NEW July 20, 2009 / 3:30 p.m

GARIBALDI, Ore. - The blue water off the Oregon coast has moved offshore more than 40 miles, but that doesn't mean the albacore have gone with it. 

With a favorable forecast predicted for Saturday, I was able to reschedule a day of 'bucking hay' and rounded up a crew with my good friend Tom VanderPlaat and his future son-in-law, Chris.  We pulled into Garibaldi at 4:45 and it wasn't a minute too soon, since a precession of coho anglers pulled in immediately after us and backed the ramp up to the road. 

We headed across a smooth bar, dropped the crab pots, aimed the boat West and hit the throttle ... then immediately pulled the throttle back.  The ocean wasn't rough, but it wasn't smooth either, and we made an average of 16 knots west.

Go green: Things didn't start looking "fishy" 'til we hit the 124 45 line (approximately 33 nautical miles from shore). We put some clones out and proceeded to troll west at 8 knots.  We had water temperature (60-degrees), we had birds, we had debris in the water, but we didn't have the blue water that us albacore fisherman crave - in fact the water was still very, very green. I realized that blue water was probably outside of my range and that we would just have to pursue these tuna in the green water. 

With that decided, we deployed some diving Rapalas (Max Rap 20s) and some swimbaits (5-inch 'Chovie Fish Traps). It didn't take long before a Rapala got bit and line was screaming off the reel.  We let Chris take this fish, since it was his first tuna ever! 

It was taking Chris a little longer than normal to battle this a, even with plenty of motivational harassment.  It become obvious why this fish was being so stubborn once the fish was within sight: It was a H-O-G! 

The next 30seconds were occupied by all of us looking at the largest albacore any of us had ever seen, swimming in a circle just under the surface. After we snapped out of our daze, Chris raised the rod and I gaffed the fish. Once the fish was on deck we realized that this was a true definition of a "Green Water Hog", weighing in at 40-pounds!

Heeere, piggy piggy!: Once the fish was cooling in the fish box we started the troll again only to discover that an unattended swim bait rod had picked up another fish during the battle with 'The Hog'.  The next few hours were filled with singles, doubles, triples and one quad ... though not all the fish were landed, we still headed home with an abundance of tuna. 

We all got a little surprise pulling the Crab pots: 22 keepers! Some were legal, some were "dinner plates" and some were "Crabosauruses"!!!

Tom and I opted out of fishing the Newport leg of the Oregon Tuna Classic this Saturday, but we will be participating in the upcoming tournaments.  So if you see us stop short of the blue water during a tournament, it's not to fish for coho!

-Andy Schneider