Tired of Waiting (for Albacore?)

By Rich Holland (Pacific Coast Sportfishing) – Albacore! Once the driving force of Southern California sportfishing, albacore have been gone a long time from local and Baja banks. Gone so long that when bursting to tell the tale of an epic summer bite in Oregon after I got home last summer, it became apparent that any local angler in their 20’s didn’t even know what an albacore was.

Yes, an entire SoCal generation has gone without chasing albacore, longfin, albies, chicken of the sea, or whatever you wanted to call the tasty white meat tuna with impossibly long pectoral fins that the gun-blue and silver bodied fish use to literally glide thousands of miles around the Pacific. Yet it was also clear from social media that older and not-so-old SoCal anglers remembered the days when albacore fishing was king. They, too, had journeyed last summer to Northwest waters from California’s Fort Bragg and Shelter Cove, Oregon’s Brookings and Newport, and Washington’s Ilwaco and Westport and scored big on the longfin tuna.

Here’s Where You Can CATCH ALBACORE This Summer

They are going back. And so am I.

Here’s where, when and how we caught them.

Brookings, Oregon
Capt. Sam Stover pulled the charter boat Kraken up to the dock in Brookings-Harbor after taking our group on a successful lingcod and rockfish run to the Point St. George Reef Lighthouse, 12 miles south in California waters. Capt. Andy Martin, owner of the Kraken and Brookings Fishing Charters, soon found us with some highly anticipated good news.
“We’re a go for the albacore tomorrow!” said Martin, adding, “The boats are all leaving at 4 a.m.” Scramble time. Albacore gear poured down in carts as we took our gear and fish up to the truck. Go, go, go! Sleep a little.

Beat up, bedraggled, tired and excited, as ready as we would ever be, we were back on the Kraken way before the crack of dawn and passed the mothership Nauti-Lady, a 41-footer licensed for 26 anglers, deck lights on and the dock lines coming in. Then we trailed the lights of the other 29-foot twin outboard, heavy-hulled aluminums Miss Brooke, Papa B and Dash into the main channel of the Chetco River and across the bar. Earlier, Andy had explained where he hoped to find the mother lode. “The spot of good water 20 miles out looks isolated on the latest charts, so we’ll be heading up north about 35 miles to an area off Gold Beach where we have a pin on where some fish were caught. Then we’ll spread out and look for the albacore.”

By the time the Kraken got to the area, the seas and winds had both picked up. It was gusting up to 15 knots and the boats had scattered and radio communication was sketchy.
As the sun turned the wind chop golden, we could see albatross and shearwaters skimming the wake and waves. The more we could see as the sun came up, the water looked pretty good, too.
Albacore water is magical. Picture the purest blue that turns to a dense purple as it deepens. Find the water and the birds and the albacore will be there.
Deckhand Chris Cooke put out a couple hand lines and some feathers (plastic, tinsel, feather, vinyl etc. trolling lures) on four troll setups, too.
Patrick Bird and Patrick, Jr. eagle-eyed the rods in the holders and Brookings local Mark Gasich, an old friend invited by Andy to join us, tended to his Mexican flag (green, yellow, red) lure.
Soon Mark had a fish on that hit and pulled like an albacore. And fell off halfway to the boat. As we drifted, we slid over into dirty water. As Mark said, it might not have even been an albacore. I didn’t believe it. We just had to get into the really good water. We went looking.

Soon, a boat loomed on the horizon exactly in the direction the Nauti-Lady should be coming from. The tall antennas on the boat’s house sent and received us loud and clear and worked as a relay to the rest of the fleet.
Capt. Travis Sallander on Miss Brooke was on the fish, and both Capt. Mick Thomas on the Dash and Capt. Mike Brouillette on the Papa B were either in ‘em or on the way. Once Andy managed to get one of the busy captains to give him the complete lat/long numbers, we were on the way too. The water went from chlorophyll powder blue with a ton of birds and no fish to perfect and birds over fish.
Sam slowed down and in went the jigs. The starboard handline bounced tight and two trolling rigs doubled over. The deck was bloodied with all three albacore (so good to see after so long). Happy does not describe the feeling. More like building greed and exultation.

We could see boats in the distance, and the chatter sounded so good we kept the lures out of the water and ran to the meat of the matter. The albacore, as so often, definitely were concentrated in one area and they were hungry.
And they are extremely fun to catch on modern tackle. The same rig you would use to finesse fish for bluefin – and what Andy uses for Pacific halibut on trips both local and in Alaska – is perfect for trolling. That is, a strong, single speed 20- to 30-size casting reel packed with braid and a small diameter composite rod with a moderately fast tip and lifting power.

Of course, Mark’s old school gold reel and troll rod monofilament setup worked too.
The Birds perched over their chosen setups, and they didn’t have to wait long.
Several times, all six lines in the water loaded up with albies – first two or three fish would stick, then a couple more as Sam throttled back a bit, then the last one or two.
Never less than three. A handful were “peanuts,” a term for albies under 10 pounds, but most were the good grade that fill the freezer.
We took turns bouncing the handline fish over the rail and if there was a reel with the clicker still singing, you’d grab that.
Better still, if fish were still hanging – and 15- to 20-pound albacore hit hard and pull hard enough for some good strong runs – it was time to reach for a drop-back bait.

To this writer, nothing is more fun than a swimbait, and Mark and I had some classic Channel Island ‘Chovie Fish Traps with us. It’s always a good sign when you can see free swimmers and followers flashing behind the boat.
The first cast got bumped. I wound it faster and watched a beautiful bright-eyed albacore line up and blast the lure at the surface 20 feet off the stern.
A tight drag on the Trinidad 20 with 50-pound braid and a 40-pound Seaguar leader resulted in a marlin-like head shake and it looked like the fish would come right up at the side of the Kraken – the crystal blue water illuminates the fish.
In a wink, the longfin put its head down and dove deep into the cobalt darkness. Back came the fish wings spread and circling. One more sidewise dash and the 20-plus pounder was done.
Then Pat Jr. Landed a trolled fish just about as big and Mark’s similarly-sized albie spit a swimbait right at the gaff.
Slice, bleed, ice, repeat. It was the same for the entire squadron of five vessels. Run and gun and get it done.
“We have enough ice and space left to do another pass,” said Sam. “Unless you guys have had enough and want to head back.”
“I want to make another pass,” said the senior Patrick in his Irish brogue. We did, and we caught. On the way back, Patrick explained his thinking.

“You know, you get into a special day of fishing and you know you have caught enough. Still, you just don’t want it to end.”
Brookings is a large town located a short drive north of the California border on Hwy 101. Summer tourists pour through for the old growth redwood groves and stunning coastline. Anglers head to Brookings Harbor at the mouth of the Chetco River. There is a small airport in Crescent City below the border and a major airport in Medford a bit more than two hours from the coast on Hwy 199.
Ever since our small group of family and friends started doing summer trips to Brookings with Andy Martin’s operation instead of Alaska, albacore have always been a possibility.

Not a given. We pick a week when regulations say just about any briny fish is fair game. Albies were caught the week before and the week after, or two weeks later. Or the wind blew hard outside the protected inner waters.
Targeting albacore calls for more flexibility, said Martin.
The season in the Brookings area is roughly late July to mid-September, with August the most reliable.
“On the southern Oregon coast, you can’t really pick a week a long time in advance and expect to catch albacore,” noted Martin. “We do it off a call list. We watch the water temps and charts and wait for the weather to align. We’re lucky because the Chetco River Bar is one of the easiest to get across in Oregon. Our goal is a dozen trips a year and that’s it. Lots of times we send all five boats out, as the guys who have booked other trips usually opt in. If the albacore fishing is really good, we’ll cancel the other trips and go straight albacore.
“To me, it seems the abundance of albacore off the southern Oregon coast is just getting better and better; the abundance of bait fish is better, so I think it is just going to get better,” Martin added. “Our catch rate is certainly getting better. The charts, the sonar, communication technology are so much better – we know the next day where fish have been caught – and because people, especially the private boats, have figured out how to catch them.
“More so, I think there is simply more albacore.”

To book a trip with Brookings Fishing Charters, call (541) 813-1082.

Fort Bragg, California

Capt. Brandon Hayward is best known these days for his and his fellow Bight
Sportfishing captains’ white seabass and bluefin tuna catches. What you might not know
is Hayward was working the deck of Ray Sobiek’s Producer when the albacore returned to
San Diego in 1997 and rode out the last San Diego surge of albacore working on the
Excel until August of 2005.
Always looking to be on the front edge of the fishing curve, Brandon and crew jumped
into Northwest albacore action last summer, trailering boats up for charters out of Fort
Bragg. Hayward’s new cat-hull might be the vessel this summer.
“I talked with Pete Grosbeck before I went up and what he told me is that it’s the same
as albacore fishing anywhere – it’s all about the water structure,” said Hayward. “What I
learned was that going up in September was on the late side, the season gets going in
August.
“We caught the albacore just like we catch them here, mostly on Rapalas and feathers,”
he noted. “We were late – I heard it’s different farther north – so we worked hard
running and looking for loose jumpers and that kind of thing.”
Hayward’s customers are encouraged to fly into Santa Rosa (there are flights from both
Burbank and San Diego), rent a car and take the short scenic drive through wine country
up to the edge of the Lost Coast.
“Fort Bragg is a great harbor , it reminds me of New England with little seafood
restaurants, nice places to stay and processors right there. I really enjoy it,” said
Brandon. “If you want to bring your own boat, slips are dirt cheap, and there is an easily
accessible launch ramp. There’s no live bait, so bring some salted an – chovies or
whatever.”
Bigger tuna also move into rich Northwest waters.
“We missed the bigeye tuna that Pete Grosbeck and his buddies got,” Hayward. “They
caught them on the MadMacs just like we catch bluefin down here. They were staying
out all night fishing late afternoon and early morning.
“While we were in Fort Bragg, down the line blue – fin tuna were jumping and boiling on
smelt outside the kelp line in 90 feet of water . One fisherman I talked to was catching
100 pounders just a few miles below the harbor,” Brandon added. “We kept running
outside for albacore.
“I wonder which way a boat would have headed if that was the case 20 years ago when
the albacore were still around San Diego?”

Ilwaco, Washington

As noted, this is not the first point in time albacore have abandoned the waters of
Southern California and Baja California. The way to satisfy albacore lust was to head way
up north to Westport, Washington, where a lot of albacore boats have been built in the
Westport Shipyard (now Westport Yachts).
Andy Martin’s Nauti-Lady is a Westport that he bought in Ilwaco. Ilwaco, Washington, is
a harbor town tucked up behind Cape Disappointment at the mouth of the Columbia
River.
Ilwaco is where Lawrence “Squig” Quigley of Fishworks headed last summer in late
August to fish for albacore with Capt. Shawn Trowbridge, Ryan Herzog and his son
Shawn, Jr. Trowbridge is a name familiar to many who have fished out of San Diego. He purchased
the Tracer in 2022 after it had been moved to Ilwaco to be fished commercially
(unsuccessfully) and completely refitted the 55-foot vessel into a luxury six-pack. Shawn
renamed the converted boat Legendz.
“Originally it was a Westport called the Aurora and brought down to San Diego and
named the Tracer,” said Trowbridge. “After it moved back north it had been trashed and
left at the dock for three years. It made more sense to buy it for the hull rather than
buy a new boat. The Legendz is more like a yacht now.”
A yacht with modern sonar and two 30-scoop bait wells.
“Not many boats up here have more than a 5-scoop bait tank and except for one
commercial boat, I believe we’re the only boat in the harbor with sonar,” said Trowbridge.
“It’s pretty easy to find fish up here, mainly bird schools. We’ll troll some, but once it’s
August and the albacore are on the birds, it’s one-stop shopping.
“We’ve never had a trip with less than eight to 10 fish per rod,” he added. Shawn also
noted that all of his business comes from “down there.”
“We caught 68 albacore in a day-and-a-half fishing 30 miles out, it was crazy” said
Fishworks’ Squig after his trip from down there to up there. “The anchovies were huge; I
have never seen them that big. There’s a live bait receiver in the harbor and a fish
processor right near the docks.”
“What we have our customers do is hop on a plane that gets in early to Portland, about 9
or so, and we shuttle them to the boat, leave the dock at noon and we get in a solid five
hours of fishing 25 to 40 miles out,” explained Trowbridge. “Then it’s dinner, the
customers sleep, get up early and do the gray bite thing, and we’re usually on way the
home by 9 or 10 with all the fish we need. We have a nice hotel nearby that most people
stay at while their fish are processed. In the morning, they pick up their fish, we take
them to the airport and pick up the next group.
“We do that from August through September. The lightest line we fish with is 30-pound,
and I use a Talica with 80 and horse ‘em! We have all the gear – Accurates, Talicas,
Fathoms – so just bring clothes. Some stay for a while on Long Beach Peninsula, it’s a
vacation spot.
“My biggest problem is we run out of groups after Labor Day and in Sep – tember the fish
are all bigger. My son and I had 39 one day by ourselves, and you can’t bounce those
fish, so you have to take the time to gaf f them. I’m getting too old to catch all those
fish in one day. The plan is to pass the operation on to my son.”