Team Defiance Wins Again!!! Washington Tuna Classic

The seas were fantastic, the swell was big at times, but really spaced out and very smooth. I am so glad that the great call was made to go with the tournament, because with no wind, it was flatter and much smoother than Friday.

We started out by running out to 46.33 and 124.50. Just about as soon as we got there we saw jumpers almost immediately. We slid up and threw bait on them and had a bait stop that went for over 2 hrs. After a couple of hours we got a couple decent fish, and one 25# fish, but just didn't seem to be getting the size of fish we wanted. I made a call to leave a basically wide open bait stop to try and find some bigger fish. At the Garibaldi OTC event we got into a similar situation and caught a whole bunch of small fish, and I didn't want the same thing to happen again. So off we went.

We ran NW to around the 46.36 and 125.04 and hit a small school of jumpers with some bigger models in the school. We pulled two 30# fish out of that one stop. The fish were very skittish and it was difficult to keep a bait stop going. The two big fish were both caught on set-ups with 20# floro top shot and small hooks. We kept working that general area but we were having to throw so much bait that we ended up using all of our 6 scoops of bait! We had a 120 gallon bait tank on the 290 Guadalupe and the amount of bait we were able to chum definitely helped get the fish going. Almost all of the fish were vomiting bunches of bait fish as we got them close to the boat, so perhaps they had been gorging themselves all night.

We trolled some swim baits for a little while and caught one fish on a trolled swimbait and pulled a couple more with swimbaits while our fish was hanging. But that ended up being our only troll fish of the day.

We ended with 38 Albacore for the day and a five fish total of 130.40# We had two 30# fish. One team weighed a 33# but didn't enter the big fish pot. I knew the feeling as we didn't enter the big fish in Ilwaco when we had the big fish. But they did a real nice job.( I forgot their team name)

We had a Wounded Warrior named Greg on the boat with us. He was a trooper and caught one of the 30# fish. We also had two guys that work at the factory on their second Tuna Trips. Casey ( Lamination Superviser) and Dan ( Assembly Supervisor) and they did great as well. With two of our regular team members myself and Rob Sanford on the boat, we were a bit busy helping the greenhorns at times, but they performed awsome!

Garibaldi Oregon Tuna Classic Event

Well we didn't win the event, but we caught a lot of Tuna and made a respectable showing of ourselves. We just couldn't seem to find any big fish. We were able to comeback with 38 tuna, just not the big ones we were hoping for. The fish was donated to the Oregon Food Bank from the event, so our fish went to a good cause. It was a great event and certainly one that we recommend supporting. It was the last event of the year for the Oregon Tuna Classic , but the Washington Tuna Classic is this weekend on the 12th of September so please come and support this great event if you are able. Washington Tuna Classic .

Team Defiance is proud to be associated with all of these great events. You can follow all of the events here.

Team Defiance Fishing Trip 8-21 Ilwaco Wa

. It was a great day on the ocean. Lots of Jumpers and puddlers. It was completely a Live Bait game. Getting the fish to hit the trolled gear was tough. So Bring your live bait game. But with lots of live bait, it is wide open. We fished around 46.09 and 124.45. We never left this area. Good Temp 61.5 and real drastic blue water break in the area. We put 24 Tuna in the box by about 1:30 and then ran in to do some Salmon fishing. Very good size Silvers outside of the Columbia right now. A couple of 15lb fish and lots of 10-12 lb fish. We limited in about 1 1/2 hours and headed for the barn. Great day on the water. The Bar was a little sporty, but as soon as we hit the Astoria canyon, flat water , greasy smooth. It was a truly great day, with fast and furious action. The Pilothouse Boat was great and kept us dry throughout the day. The Columbia Bar was very nasty going out and pretty rough coming in. But the Defiance 250 Ex gobbled up the big seas and got us comfortably to the fishing grounds and back.

Team Defiance Wins Oregon Tuna Classic Ilwaco Event

Congrats to the guys on the Defiance Fishing Team. Here is a copy and past from another site.


Well we prefished for the tournament and invited Dave "Killerbee" along with us. It was great to have him on the boat with us. Great fisherman and a great guy. If you ever need to fill a seat, keep Dave at the top of your list.

Most of the pics and the video are from Friday. We were to busy being serious on Saturday to try and shoot video. But it was fun to try out our new underwater camera. We ran North on Friday and Saturday. On Friday we fished 46.25 x 125.06. Thanks to Salt Patrol for calling us in on a nice bite he had going on Friday. We fished there for a little while, and after we filled our boat and verified where the fish were, we headed in to fish the CR buoy for some Salmon. It was lights out Silvers. We fished for about an hour and caught some really nice silvers and a couple small Kings. But then it was time to Cark Tuna, clean salmon and get ready for the Captains meeting.

We headed out on Saturday Morning to the same spot, and wouldn't you know it, Dirty Green water. We hooked up a couple of fish, but it was really dirty, so we picked up and ran west. Found a really nice Blue- Green Line at about 46.24 and 125.09 and had a couple real nice bait stops. After fishing there for a while, we started trolling again and finished off at 46.22 and 125.15. Another really nice bait stop. Almost all of our fish were from Bait stops. We had one double hook-up and the rest were singles. Just baiting them up, we did throw some Iron as well, and caught a few fish on Iron. One of our Big ones was on Iron. But almost all of our fish we weighed were on live bait. The bait was large and active and worked real well for us. At 1:30 we left a wide open bait stop and headed for home. It was really tough to leave that many fish.

We crossed the line at about 3:40 with 20 minutes to spare.

Just wanted to thank all of the Volunteers that put this great event together. I know how much work these things are. A great group of fisherman. And really a great attitude among all. It was really a great time. I am also posting a video of some of our fishing from the Friday before the event. Hope the numbers are helpful.

Go get em Guys!

Here is the Video Link
Team Defiance Oregon Tuna Classic

230 mile trip in 290 Guadalupe

I decided to fly down to San Diego to fish the Bloodydecks- Yellowtail Shootout Tournament. A boat builder has to do some R&D work once in a while.

So we left on Friday night, right after the captains meeting and drove up to Dana Point, CA where the boat was located and headed out for Catalina Island at around midnight. We tanked up with a couple scoops of live sardines on one side of the 115 Gallon bait tank, and then headed to Catalina managing about 10knts. Going much faster at night is not safe, even with the Radar and full electronics package that we had. By about 3:00 am we arrived at Catalina and found the squid boat and tanked up with a couple scoops of live squid in the other side of the tank. We are now officially prepared to slay some Yellowtail.

Lines in at 5:30 am sharp. Only a few boats around us, and no action for anyone. It was not very fishy and no life to be seen so we headed out after a couple hours of catching Barracuda and Bonito with no Yellowtail to be found.

So we headed around to the back side of the island, but by now the gray light bite is over, and we get no love their either. Tons of huge Calico Bass and large sheepshead, but not the kind that we are looking for. So we decide to pull up and run to San Clemente Island.

After a 30 mile run to San Clemente, we decided to run up the backside, another 30 miles or so and began fishing with similar results. Then we try the front side, no love.

We decided to head back checking paddies on the way back to see if they are holding any fish. We are not expecting a tournament winner from these paddies, but atleast a respectable fish to weigh in. But all of the paddies are empty.

So we decided to pull up, light up the twin 250 Yamaha four strokes and blaze back to San Diego, where the weigh in is and try to catch some fish at La Jolla, right outside of San Diego before the weigh in. Needless to say, we are bummed out as we arrive at La Jolla. After 230 Miles of running and gunning, catching everything except what we needed to, finally back to San Diego and our last shot to save our day. We arrived at about 4:00 pm. Two hours before weigh in. And after an hour or so fishing I get hit, and this time the fight is on. It turned out to be the wrong kind again, but the fishing went wide open so we kept fishing and found a few more of these toads. We didn't get to weigh a fish, but a day that was shaping up to be one of the worst days fishing I have ever had turned into one of the best right at the very end of our long voyage.

See video here! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWMnc5cwtIk