Albacore Tuna Season 2009 DONE!

Best Season Ever

This was the best year ever for the Harvester Albacore fishing. We landed 4600 fish in 36 days on the ocean averaging 16lbs each for nearly 47,000 lbs. Pretty incredible for our small boat since last year we only landed 1600 fish for the whole season. What made the difference?

The Weather!

This July was the clear and calm nearly all month. It was an amazing month with very little wind so it was no problem fishing so we got a lot more days on the Ocean than we did last year and we found the tuna big time. As you get later into the season you have to change your strategy to find the tuna. In the early part of the Summer, when the tuna are moving in they follow the warm currents so you can have a pretty good idea where they will be. They’re here in the summer to put on weight so early on they’re always biting so its just a matter of finding the warm waters and trolling a pattern through it.

Later on it gets more interesting. As the Albacore get fat they tend to school up and herd bait fish near the surface and spend a lot of time jumping out of the water — so we call them ‘Jumper Schools’.

Video: jumper school albacore tuna boil

Video: Landing Two Albacore

High Jumpers aren’t on the bite. When they’re jumping and feeding they’re not getting fully out of the water since they’re focusing on bait fish. When they’re jumping high out of the water flashing their bellies (for fun??) they’re not eating so you aren’t likely to be on a big catch.

Video: Albacore Tuna Jumper School w/birds

Video: Albacore jumper school approach and score

Follow the Birds because they feed on the bait fish that get herded by the Albacore and flocks of birds make finding an active jumper school easier. Tuna that aren’t feeding won’t have as many birds around them, so follow the birds to find Albacore late in the season. Later in the season the fish will come on and off the bite more often too. Most of the time we catch them at daylight in the morning and just before dark. Whole areas will go off the bite at the same time, kind of like the fish declare lunchtime over all at once, which makes for some frustrating fishing.

Fall fishing is pretty boring compared to the beginning of the season where its not uncommon to get 400+ fish days, while 100 fish days are great at the end of the season. We spend a lot of time wondering around the ocean looking for birds and jumping schools and yacking on the radio with the other captains & hoping for a few bites.

We packed it in for the 2009 Albacore Season after only catching 12 fish last trip — but it was a GREAT ONE!

Now we’ll be doing a little open access black cod (they allow 900 pounds 3 times every 2 months) and then get ready for Dungeness. We’ll spend the whole month of November preparing the 300 crab traps and putting all the big hydraulics back on the boat and take some time off for family & fun before the crab grind begins again.

Thanks for all the support!

Harvester Captain & Crew