Well, we decided to go fishing. Wednesday, August 22, fifteen anglers anxiously awaited the return of the Cortez to Seaforth Landing in Mission Bay. It was about 8:30 when the Cortez finally tied up to the dock. Fishing was less than spectacular, so we guessed Rambo gave it his all and gave his anglers as much time as possible in the zone. The late return was not a problem, since the receiver was out of bait and the bait boat wasn't due until sometime around 11:00. We boarded, checked-in and set up our rods. I don't know when we finally got underway, since I went below and went to sleep. I do remember rocking and rolling all the way out. Out was around 90 miles. Rumor was that the bite was an afternoon thing which proved to be right. The fish came in two flurries, one on a kelp paddie where we got most of the yellowtail and ended in the afternoon with a spot of albacore that decided to chew. We decided to move inside for our second day, which turned out to be a long boat ride. To sum it up we spent a lot of time roaming around the ocean with a jig stop here and there, with couple of flurries. Final count was 36 albies, 1 dodo, 1 yft and 34 forkies. JP was taken by Shig Makino...
The June trip is in the bag. 18 apprehensive anglers left Long Beach Sportfishing aboard the Eldorado around 9:00 PM with Captain Eddie at the helm. Apprehensive, because word was going around that the weather had picked up and that wind and swell could be a problem, also heard on the way out was that the water at San Clemente had "turned over" meaning that the warm water trend had turned around and the water was now much cooler. We made our way to Catalina to make squid, didn't happen, the sea dogs kept them scattered. We departed Catalina around 2:30 AM and headed to San Clemente. The wind and swell made it difficult to anchor and the fish would not cooperate. We managed a few calicos and made a short move, a short move and a short move. The last move made the trip for many of us as the calico bass cooperated and ate some of our bait. I don't know the exact count but it wasn't too many. Norm provided the only excitement of the day by yo-yoing a yellowtail to bite, however, consistent with the day, he lost it to the sea dog. Jackpot was taken by 12 year old, Brian Bixler, one of my guests...
The May trip left Long Beach Sportfishing around 9:00 with 17 passengers onboard. Our hope was to find white seabass and yellowtail anxious to bite. The decision was made to bypass the bait receiver and head over to Catalina and make squid. The ride across the channel was a little bumpy, but not bad, after all we were on an 85' boat. I was out like a light, so I can't tell you what happened at Catalina, I woke up around 6:30 to find us on the backside of San Clemente Island. I heard that the squid did not cooperate and the crew had a tough time scooping any bait at all. We arrived at "The" spot to find about 6 boats there already on the prime spots. I'll just recap the day by saying, we made several moves to find a few yellows, calicos and the assorted nuisance fish, remarkably a sheephead took the jackpot, it was a monster. Incidentally, Dr. Dave Miura informed the members that this would be his last trip, we'll miss him. I for one, always checked his setup in the morning and copied his terminal tackle. Best guess is that Dave is about 85, I hope that I will able to fish the sportboats into my 80's. Here's the final count:
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The April trip started out a little bumpy and windy. We stopped and got a tank of sardines and proceeded to go to Catalina Island where the squid were scattered and not floating. We then went to SCI with high hopes of finding yellowtails. It was still windy and a little choppy. Luckily as the day went on the wind backed off and made it a comfortable day with an overcast sky. We had almost limits of rock fish, limits of salmon grouper and a few other miscellaneous fish. The yellows did not show for the fleet. Everyone had a chance to fill their bags. The cook made some great fish burritos for us at lunch. It was nice fishing on a big boat with lots of room! Come join us next month.
We got fish! Finally, it looks like the season has taken a positive turn. It wasn't limit fishing on all species, but we did get into a couple of real oldtime rippers... The trip started as usual, traffic, heat, crowded parking lot. When everyone was onboard and signed in, Rambo called us into the galley to give us the options. Go down the beach and catch small dorado and football yellowfin tuna. Go outside, get beat up and pluck the paddies, yellowtail and dorado. Run to the Cortez and chase the albacore that had been showing in the last week, weather iffy at best. Note "Cortez", uh US waters... A few didn't bring their California licenses, all right, I was one of them... Penalty $11.50 for a one day permit. The call was to run all night and most of the morning, something like 140 and chase the "chickens". We gave it a good shot only to pick up a few paddy forkies. We then decided to exercise our plan B, run back inside and chase the paddies. We ran all night back inside, down about 80 shut it down at 4:00a.m. A few of the hardcores got up and started soaking bait for a grand total of 0. Jim fired up the Cortez and we dropped the jigs in. Paddies provided most of the action kick out dorado from 6 to 25, and yellowtail 5 to 25+. Jackpot went to none other than Dr. Dave Miura with a monster YT, not bad for 85 years young. Final count, 20 flatheads, 15 yellowfin tuna and 100 forkies. Got back to Seaforth at 7:00p.m.
Our first tuna trip is in the books. Here's the tale. We arrived at Seaforth Landing around 6:30ish after the usual battle down the 405. Weather was warm and the Cortez was sitting at the dock, having returned that morning from a 1 1/2 day. We were ready to go, just waiting for a angler or two to show up. For future reference, Jim and his crew are ready to go as soon as everyone is there and signed in. The counts had been up and down but pretty bad in total. We were going to be the ones to break it wide open. After a short stop at the bait tank, we headed south. I was expecting smooth sailing from the reports that I had been reading on the National Weather Service website. As we cleared the light, my hope were dashed, it was a little bouncy to say the least. We proceeded to rock and roll south about 90 miles and dropped in the jigs at day break. We were in with the Mexican trawler fleet. Long story short, we had a few jig strikes and stopped on a few meter marks and paddies. Total for two days was about 12 albies, some fatties and some peanuts. We also managed a couple of yellowtail stops, maybe another dozen or so, 15# to 25# or so. If anyone heard the real count, let me know and I correct the numbers and sizes. 13 weary and disappointed anglers returned to Seaforth Landing around 8:30 on Friday evening.
Trip was horrible. We took a chance and went to SBI since they caught
WSB on Thursday. We were lucky enough to make some squid at Catalina. The
couple of boats that spent the night there caught fish early. We got there
around daylight and sat the entire day on a good spot. All we
got was 2 whitefish and a sculpin. Steve also sat for nothing as did all
of the other party boats that arrived after we did. Great fishing
weather, lousy catching!
The trip started off very well as we left the dock about 8:25 p.m. We
were able to snag the squid we needed at Catalina in less than an hour.
Tommy, the skipper, could not confirm any of the seabass reports floating
around. He checked with Steve who was also unable to verify any of the
reports. Both boats ended up at Clemente. Fishing was tough as there
was no current all day long. We did catch some nice rock fish but had to
work at that too! We did get some rain but the seas were great with very
little wind. When it wasn't raining, we had sunshine. Overall it was
a nice day.
Norm
Glenn's Report
The final trip of the year started out promising with the Outer Limit docking as we arrived. Nineteen anglers were unloading 145 yellowfin, 76 dorado and 19 yellowtail from a 2-day trip. With a light load of 11 anglers we set off at around 8 for the bait dock where we loaded up with anchovy size sardines. Not a good sign and cause for everyone to change their hooks to a smaller size. From then on it was a nice boat ride. Bait soaking started before daybreak on a meter mark, but nothing biting except squid. Around 6:30 we started trolling. Team 1 for � hour, then team 2, then team 3, and back to team1. On an on we trolled with only a few undersized yellowtail being caught at two stops. Between 5:00 and 1:30 we boated two keepers, a yellowfin and a skipjack, both by Glenn Watanabe. The yellowfin was on a jig and the skipjack was snagged � how pathetic. Not very often when one angler makes up the entire boat count. On the bright side, it was a beautiful day with the sun out and smooth seas. Sighting of several minke whales and one large whale (reportedly a blue) was the highlight of the day. Oh well, there�s always next year.
Norm's Report
Our Sept. 2 trip left the dock at 8:30 with a light load of 11 anglers.
The weather was wonderful. We had clear blue skies with just a little chop
at best. We shut down at 80 miles in the dark. Jim metered fish
under the boat and we tried chumming and fishing with no luck. Some squid
came up and a few caught a couple. Unfortunately the fish did not bite.
We saw lots of bait and fish in the water along with minke whales and a
huge blue whale. There were a number of small yellows that we released to
hopefully go back and grow bigger for the next few years. The only two
fish were one yellowfin tuna and 1 skippie caught by Glenn Watananbe. Poor
fishing but a wonderful boat ride.
Here are the dates for next years trip in SD. They are all Thurs/Fri.
7/13-14
8/10-11
9/7-8
The Kichigai anglers and their guests began assembling at Seaforth Landing around 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday evening. The Cortez was waiting at the dock, it was in early because Captain "Rambo" limited the boat on two stops on his previous trip. We were feeling pretty confident that we were in for a good trip, but alas, we are the Kichigai's. We left the dock, one short due to a last minute cancellation, around 9:00ish, headed to the bait receiver for a nice load of sardines. The ocean was smooth as we left Mission Bay and headed for points south. We arrived in the zone around 5:00 in the morning and Rambo started looking for meter marks. As daylight was beginning to break, Jim fired up the Cortez and called for the first set of trollers. Start reading last month's report for how it went. A few here and a few there was the script that we followed. We did manage a ripper in the morning and a ripper in the afternoon, we were confident that we would plug the boat on the second day. Day two never started, we trolled and trolled and trolled some more, chummed meter marks and stopped on meter marks with very little to show for it all. The fish are there but there is just too much bait in the water for them to want to eat our offerings. We ended the trip shortly after lunch and headed for the barn, well short of a boat limit, but I think most of the anglers had a respectable number of fish. Final count was 3 yellowfin tuna, 3 bluefin tuna and 94 alberts. JP was taken by Dave Jensen with a 38# albert. Again a good trip with a great group of guys and great food. Unfortunately, the cook Ken is leaving the Cortez to cook on the Royal Polaris.
Albacore were on the minds of all 16 anglers that assembled at Seaforth Landing for our first tuna trip of the season. The Cortez with Captain Jim "Rambo" Hughes was waiting for us as we all arrived from points north. Once again the traffic was #@%!... Reports had been good, weather HAD been nice and calm. There was a breeze blowing that was telling us we were going to be in for a rough ride. We left the dock around 9ish and headed for the bait receiver and picked up a mixed load of anchovies and some sizeable 'dines. Sadly, the bait was not in the greatest condition, but they would do. Well as luck would have it the Kichigai's bounced, rocked and rolled out to the fishing grounds. We arrived at the fishing grounds in the dark and sat until the gray light. A few of the hard cores had been soaking bait with not even a nibble. As it was getting light, Jim fired up the Cortez and called for the first set of trollers. It soon became one of those typical albacore trips; troll, stop, troll stop, a few bait fish would usually accompany the jig strike, not much more. However, we did manage a morning ripper that got everyone bit. I don't know, but either the longfins were extra tough or I'm getting a lot weaker. Chaos would best describe the scene on the deck, with the albies inflicting a lot of collateral damage, pulled hooks, saw offs and just break offs in general. I'd bet that most of us were batting less than .500 on hookups. Not a pretty sight. The afternoon turned out to be a real snoozer, we went through troll team after troll team with very few stops. I got some much needed rest. Day two, one of those epic bites, we had fish under the boat at daybreak. It completely broke loose, once again we probably lost more than we hooked, but we did the damage, Rambo shut us off at 7:00 a.m. we had a boat limit. We headed up the line looking for kelps, none found. 16 weary, battered anglers arrived at Seaforth Landing around 3:00 p.m. for the long trek home. Again, great camaraderie, good food and great fishing. JP was taken by Mike Shintaku. I won't mention the weather again.
Thursday evening, all ten anglers were at the dock early, obviously anxious to get underway. Weather was typical June gloom, we were expecting morning drizzle with the 4' to 6' swell and 1' to 2' wind chop. After a short wait, we all boarded, checked-in and started setting up our rods. A decision was made to make a run to San Clemente Island. After a pretty rough ride to the backside of SCI, we set the hook at daybreak and started a long day of soaking sardines. Steve told us most of the fish had been coming on the jig, both surface and yo-yo. The ten anglers started, split on strategy, so we had some trying jigs and some on bait. Steve would let us know when he was metering fish, which was often. It took awhile to get any of them to chew. I don't remember who got the first one to bite, but the day turned out to be a slow pick. The 'tails were active, boiling around the boat on a regular basis, the bites came in flurries with 3-4 going off together. The guys did a good job of landing the biters, loses were minimal. Guys did a good job of keeping lines clear and following their fish. The weather remained sloppy the whole trip and the ride home was bumpy. Final count was 29 forkies, a couple of snakes, couple of dogs(released) were hooked, as were a couple feathered flyers(released). Jackpot was taken by yours truly with a nice forkie, #20+, don't worry, it will grow over time... A good time was had by all.
There were 11 anglers on the trip since Dave was sick. We tried for a
number of hours to make squid at Catalina with no success. The light
boats did not get any either. We fished the backside most of the day. We
caught some assorted fish-white fish, calicos, rock fish, etc. Later
in the morning we saw some breezers and chased the yellowtail. Al Jackson
got 2 and my son JK got 2. I don't remember who got the 5th
one. We lost probably a dozen or more fish. I lost two, one in the
rocks and 1 in the kelp. Overall fishing was on the slow side but the
yellowtail made it fun. The weather was great with a flat ride home.
A vote was taken to go to San Clemente Island. Thirteen of us left Pierpoint
Landing a little before 9:00. It was a smooth ride to Catalina where we waited
in line to get squid from the light boat. We arrived at San Clemente just before
sunrise. Our first hook ups were some bat rays. We moved to another spot where
we caught a variety of fish. The conditions were good for yellowtail but they
never showed up. If you got past the blue perch you had a good chance of getting
a calico bass. A couple of the bass were in the 5 lbs class. Other fish caught
were sheepheads, whitefish and a variety of rockfish. The lone halibut was
caught by Howard Hada a guest of Norman and it won jackpot. We left a little
after 2:00 to flat calm seas. It was neat to some whales migrating. We arrived
back home a little before 8:30. A good time was had by all and new friendships
were made.
The weather reports were ominous, 7'-9' swell and 10 kts of wind. We were expecting 11 anglers, but a couple of last minute cancellations left us with 9 anxious anglers. Fish reports were vague at best, a few white sea bass, a few yellowtail, a few calicos and a handful of rockfish. We tried to remain optimistic. We pushed off a little before 9:00 and headed off to Catalina. The channel was amazingly smooth, not the anticipated 9' swell. I slept the whole way, so I don't remember stopping at a light boat and certainly did not snag any squid, but the tanks were full when I woke up around 3:00 a.m. The rail was jammed with anglers, only a couple of us were still catching zzz's. I drank a cup of coffee and grabbed a rod, baited up and launched my first cast of the year. After picking out the resulting bird's nest, I settled in at the rail. I settled for about an hour without seeing anything come over the rail, so back to the bunk. I returned to the deck around daybreak to find the rail empty, all the early risers we now cuttin' some serious zzz's. A few of us were there for the gray no-bite. We spent a few hours drowning squid. Nada, zippo... Steve finally decide it wasn't going to bite, so we pulled anchor and made a short move. Slow, zippo, nada... We were fishing surface, middle and bottom to now avail. I decided enough was enough, I grabbed my jigstick 25#, 1 1/2 oz egg, red glass bead, swivel, about three feet of fluorocarbon and a 2/0 live bait hook and dropped it to the bottom. It was there about a minute and the line took off. At first, I didn't know what it was but soon figured out that it wasn't a calico bass. Running and taking line could only mean yellowtail. After a short exciting fight I bought a nice little forkie to gaff. A few others were hooked and landed from that group of breezers. We sat on the spot and were rewarded with periodic flurries of yellowtail. When that bite finally shut off, Steve made another move, slow, slow, slow. We ended up going back to the yellowtail spot and found them biting on the surface this time, albeit a smaller grade. We collected 25 or so for the day, one calico and one sandie. That first yellowtail stood up for the jackpot. Good camaraderie, smooth seas and a good start for 2005.
The Kichigai Anglers left with 18 passengers on the Cortez
Sept. 2 at 8:20 p.m. with high hopes. The Cortez had limits of
the big albacore by
10 a.m. that day so we were hopeful. The weather was typical albacore
weather, a little on the rough side. We had a few guys under the
weather. We started fishing in the dark around 85 miles. No fish
the first stop. We continued to look and finally found some that
wanted to
bite. We continued to find stops that yielded some fish but not
the type of stop we wanted. We never got that good stop. We ended
up with
63 albacore, four yellowfin that were nice size, 15-20 lbs, and
1 dorado. Overall it was a good one day trip with a great effort
from the
crew of the Cortez. We actually were out as far as 95 miles.
I had two yellowfin and 3 albacore along with 3 pesky skipjack.
It was frustrating that I was catching skipjack and others were
catching nice
albacore. Got them all on 40 lb. Trip was pretty good but they
need a lesson on gaffing! Glenn Watanabe took JP.
Thanks, Norm. This was the last trip of the 2004 season for the Kichigai Anglers. Hope to see you guys on some trips next year.
Seaforth Landing, Wednesday, August 11th. The Cortez got in around 8:00, we gave the crew some time to unload, fuel and clean the boat. We got on board and left the dock with 14 anxious anglers. The counts took a dip the last couple of weeks, so we were a little apprehensive. Jim gave us the briefing, we were going to go down the line about 90 miles and give it a try, many boats in that area were getting fish. The weather was cooperating, there was a little chop and some swell. We woke up in the zone, right in the middle of the fleet, the long range boats were fishing the same area. We tried to troll but didn't have much luck, we stopped on a meter mark and blammo, that was the trick. The rest of the stops were the same way, meter mark, get a few fish. This was how it happened the entire trip. The fish were the big variety of fat alberts. The first day ended with a bang, right at sunset we got a stop. A few of us managed to get a bait outside and all at once, three of us were bit, not the albie type. Two came in pretty quick, mine wouldn't budge and was taking line like gangbusters, I was fishing 30#. Long story short, after a hour plus, I had it at gaff, a nice bluefin about 50#. We ended the day with about 80 albies and 3 bft.
The next day followed the same pattern, fish the meter marks. We had several stops that got us to about 130 albacore and 25 bluefin and my lonesome yellowtail. We got back to Seaforth about 8:00, so judging from the run time, we were way down there. Again, food was excellent and great camaraderie. Oh, I took the JP with my big fat bluefin.
Thursday evening, Seaforth Landing. Just a word of advice, for those of you who have not been to Seaforth Landing, take some time and study the directions, we had several people who had difficulty finding the landing. Anyway, parking is great at Seaforth, plenty of space and it's free. Dan and I arrived around 6:30, after a very difficult drive from Torrance. Weather was nice, shorts and t-shirt temperature and the Cortez was at the dock. Another tip, eat before you get to Seaforth, there ain't much available and what is, is marginal.
The Cortez is advertised as 60' X 19', so just a tad smaller than the Fortune. It has plenty of fishing space, bow is open and it is easy to get around the anchor unassisted. The rail is on the low side all the way around the boat. The Cotez is clean and well maintained, two flushing toilets and a separate shower. Galley is clean and efficient. The Captain and crew are friendly and work hard. The food is excellent. Bunkroom has 23 bunks, some doubles, air conditioned and clean.
Everyone finally made it by 9:00, Jim is ready to leave when everyone is there, so in the future let's try to get there by 8:00. We left a little before 9:00, headed to the bait receiver which is a stone's throw from the dock. We got the safety briefing and the lowdown on what to expect for the next two days. We left the receiver with a nice load of 2/0 to 3/0 'dines. We were treated to Sea World's fireworks show to send us on our way. We cleared the light and headed southwest about 70 miles. We were in the zone around 4ish and sat waiting for daylight, right in the middle of the fleet. At daybreak we started trolling. On the Cortez, you use the boat rods for trolling, because when you get the troll fish in, fish and rod go into the kill box so the trollers can grab their bait rods and get into action. Don't bring a trolling rod on the Cortez, unless you want to see it get buried in albacore if we get into a ripper. Also, the Cortez encourages fishing the slide, which means everyone in the water at the jig strike, bait, rubber, what ever you do, get it in the water a soon as possible. We had a steady series of troll, stop, troll, most of the day. Every once in awhile we could get a few bait fish, but really couldn't get a ripper going. Just before dark, I was on the troll team that got us the ripper, I don't remember how many we got, but I think that got us to limit. Nice big fat albies, up to forty pounds, my guess. Weather cooperated for most of the trip, we had a little bounce on the first day but it laid down for day two.
The food. Ken, the cook is great. He says don't look at the menu; he'll make whatever you want as long as he has the ingredients. For breakfast, I saw a lot of breakfast burritos, looked good. I asked for French toast, I got two large slices with a side of bacon. Lunch special was a seafood linguine, with tomatoes and onions in a vinaigrette and fresh baked bread. Yes, I saw him knead the dough and put it in the oven. Afternoon snack was spareribs and veggies with dip and chips, just like the long rangers. Dinner was jambalaya and salad, with a dessert of of apple cobbler right out of the oven with ice cream, a taste of Ken's days in Baton Rouge. Excellent food and it is included in the price. Day two started with breakfast of your choice, I had pancakes and bacon, very good. Lunch was deep fried albacore, rice and mixed veggies. All meal portions are generous, I got by just fine, requesting a half-orders.
Day two, we moved inside to focus on kelp paddy yellowtail. We tried hard, but couldn't find a paddy that would bite. There was a lot of bait in the water that was keeping those forkies well fed. About noon, we called it a trip and headed back to the barn. Yoshi took JP, with a real fat albie. We were back at at Seaforth around 6:00, which made for a nice drive home. Final count was "full limit" on albacore and I think we had a dozen yellowtail, and Nakatani's monster blue shark.
Needless to say, I am voting to book the Cortez for next year's
San Diego trips.
Back home again, 22nd Street Landing, that is. Except this time the boat is the Truline. The boat is about 65' x 20', clean, plenty of bunks, lots of fishing space all around the boat, even up the side. The boat has a very low rail all the way around, galley is so-so, we've had better this season.
Everyone was onboard by about 8:00, there was a slight breeze blowing. Fishing reports were not exciting. We cast off and headed the bait receiver where we loaded two tanks with some nice 'dines. From there we headed out across the channel to Catalina to make squid. We hit Catalina around 12:00 and a few of us hit the decks with squid jigs. Nada, they swam by a couple of times but were not horny enough to attack our jigs. We gave up and headed to San Clemente. Interestingly, the weather reports were wrong again, we made the trip to Clemente with hardly a bump, so much for the 4' to 6' swell with 2' to 4' wind wave. Long story short, we bounced around the island picking up a few calicos here and there. On our final two stops, we made the trip, plenty of nice calicos, two white seabass and two yellowtail. JP went to Dave Miura's really nice yellowtail caught on 15# test, great job Dave! The fish were there, if we had more time we could have really improved our score. Water remained calm all the way home.
There we only 12 anglers on this trip, so far this year we have run short on every trip. It looks like we will have to select a smaller boat that will take 10-12 passengers so we won't lose so much money.
Berth 55 in Long Beach is the current home of the Tide Change, we thought we had arrived early and would be the first ones on the boat, but to my surprise, of course, Dave and Yoshi were already onboard and settled in. They tell me the boat was the New Hustler, so the old guys were already familiar with the boat. It is clean and appears to be well-maintained. It has a smallish bait tank, so in return you get a lot of deck space in the stern. Also, going up the rail to the bow there is a lot of room for getting by. Bunks are plentiful and clean, I think there are four that are called doubles.
Weather was warm and there was a breeze blowing, not a good sign. Fish reports for the day were disappointing at best. The white seabass are still missing from the counts. The plan was to head out and pick up some 'dines and head to Catalina for some squirts. We tied on squid jigs to make bait. We headed out with a tank of 'dines, clearing the light it got a little choppy. It was to be that way for the entire trip. In fact, it was down right sloppy coming home. I slept soundly expecting to wake up around midnight to make bait, surprisingly, I got to sleep until about 4:00, we were at Clemente. Long story short, we scratched around the island to unable to find current and a good biter. We hit several spots of good calico bass fishing. We ended up the day with a good number of quality calicos. Some of us scraped the bottom to add some variety to the take, johnnys, whitefish, sheephead and other rock dwellers.
One of the highlights of the trip was an airshow put on by a lone F-18, who was trying to convey the message that we needed to leave the area. We got buzzed several times, we pulled anchor and left the area. Like I said earlier, the trip home was downright miserable. Did I mention there were only 8 of us on this trip. JP went to chartermaster-baiter, Norm with the lone barracuda of the trip. Good food and camarderie as usual...
After winding through the back streets of Long Beach, everyone was at the dock by 8:30. The boat got in about 7:30ish, after a washdown they let us onboard. There were 14 paying passsengers anxious to hit the hit the high seas. The weather was overcast and a little breeze, I didn't know how breezy until we cleared the light, it was a little bouncy to say the least. Just how a boat handles weather is an important factor that we need to take into consideration when we get down to selecting a boat for next year. We stopped at Catalina for bait, Captain and crew were busy trying to get the squid to float to no avail. They were able to get a few in the net but not many. We then headed off to San Clemente, poked around a few of the spots but couldn't find a good biter. We pretty much scratched around picking up a few here and there, mostly rockfish. The last stop gave up the JP fish, a nice flattie caught by Clarence Gittings, good job, Clarence. The sun did come out but the wind never died down, which made for a bumpy ride home. All in all, a good trip, not many fish but a good outing, sure beats work... Refer to last month's pics, minus the white seabass.
This is going to be an interesting year. New boats, new landings, new food policy and so on and so on. Our first trip was on the Tracer out of Pierpoint Landing, for those of you not familiar with Long Beach, take a minute to glance at a map and make sure you know how to get to the landing. I heard many of our party say that they had been driving around trying to find the landing. That being said, I really don't know where to start. Upon arrival we were met by Steve Thompson, the Captain and his crew, the boat is smaller than what we were used to fishing on, but very adequate for the 13 anglers signed on for the trip. The boat is clean and quiet; my only complaint was the bunkroom. It is 8 double bunks, so a few of the more friendly guys had to double-up.
Enough of that, the weather was overcast and the sea was very
calm for the entire trip. We cast off at about nine o'clock with
a plan to hit Catalina for squid, which meant meeting a light
boat, not spending hours jigging squid and then head to San Clemente
and see what we could find. Mind you, this was the Tracer's first
trip of the season, so it would be exploratory at best. After
bunking down, I don't remember a whole heck of a lot about the
ride across the channel. I do remember the boat throttling back
and stopping, must have been at the light boat. The next thing
I remember was the boat throttling back and stopping to start
fishing about 4:00 at Clemente. From there we fished it hard for
a mixed bag of calicos, whitefish and assorted rock fish. Couldn't
find the elusive white sea bass. We made quite a few moves to
try to increase the quality and quantity of fish coming over the
rail. Be sure to include a shallow-water bottom rig in your arsenal
when you come on these spring trips Personally, I have a jigmaster
with some Power Pro super braid #60 fished on a Calstar 660H.
Bring some lead 4-8oz, some shrimp fly rigs and some heavy bottom
jigs. This will ensure you of a real variety of the tasty critters.
We ended the trip with 3 white sea bass (our last stop), 1 halibut,
some real quality calicos, white fish and a mess of treefish,
reds, johnny bass, and salmon grouper. We boated several lingcod
but none that we could keep. JP went to Bob Shintaku, with his
last stop wsb. Other notable catches we some very nice calicos
by Eric and Roy, Roy was the bassmaster for the trip and I got
the lone flatty for the trip.
Final note, the Tracer is a very nice boat, clean, fast and comfortable.
The Captain worked very hard to find fish for us, the crew was
attentive and knowledgeable and the galley was clean and food
couldn't be beat. We had a great trip. If the rest of the trips
are like this one, we should have an excellent year. Sign up soon
or you'll miss out on some great fishing.
We left the docks & bait wells late (I think it was after 11 PM when we left the wells). Steve said we're fishing close, within 60 miles, so practically all the boats left late. We loaded up on good sized dines and chovies. Enough for a 2 day trip. The next AM, before grey light, Steve said to get team 1 ready to troll. Only 2 members of the team were up, so I went below to wake-up the others. A few minutes later Steve slowed the boat and told us to drop in. There were only two of us ready....and as expected, we immediately hooked up. A few bait lines went in and we were soon in a sleepy eyed frenzy with a school of skippies (the deckhand kept reminding everyone that they taste like chicken to a cat). To Steve's credit, we didn't waste a lot of time fooling around with the skipjack. After it was clear nothing else was following, we continued the troll. I seem to recall Team 2 lit up after about 5 minutes, again skippies. Team 3 went the full 30 minutes plus, til the stern stunk and they begged to be kicked off. Team 4 lit up after about 10 minutes, again skippies, and we repeated this scenario for about an hour until Steve got some good marks on his screen. We chummed and soaked the area for 20-30 minutes, but the marks never came up, so we continued trolling. Somewhere along the line we picked up a few baby albies, about the size of the skipjack we were catching, until somone finally locked onto the right kind of fish. About a 35 pound Albie. It must have been sometime between 9:30-10:00 AM when Steve told the deck-hand to start throwing scoops. We we're very quickly into a nice blue-fin bite. For the next 1 to 1 1/2 hours we we're working a nice grade of Bluefin and Albacore. Between 30-40 lbs. These we're fairly picky bait fish. A long cast with a hot bait on #30 line seemed to be the ticket. If you were'nt bit within a few minutes, wind in, get a firm, slimy, swimmer from the deck hand on the bait well, cast off the stern as far as you could, or run up to the bow and cast.....bingo! Most of the fish were on fly line or at most, a 1/2 oz egg sinker. I don't think any were caught on plastic or iron (ask Dietrich), nothing on egg beaters (ask Glenn), and few, if any, on light line (ask Dave). They bit #40, but the bait swims better on #30.
At 11:00 AM Steve said to, "wind them in, we have to start back, we've got a long way to go." I was a bit confused because the bite was still hot. The bluefin were still boiling about 50 yards off on our chum line...until the deckhand said we were over 90 miles out. How did that happen? Steve had his deckhand continue a chum for another 5-10 minutes until another boat showed up and we turned the spot over to them. So the trip was salvaged in that last hour and everyone took home fish. A few of us suicide trolled on the way back, and among the many skipjack, one very nice Yellowfin found it's way onto the boat. All-in-all a good trip. Plenty of food. Plenty of room with only 14 anglers. A few good fish to pull on.
August 22, 2003
Fisherman's Landing, boat, the Pacific Dawn, skipper, Pat Cavanaugh. Yes, we took a ride on a different boat. The gang was anxiously waiting at the dock for the boat to come in. The previous week had been pretty good, a mix of albacore and bluefin tuna. The report for the day was the fish were pretty scattered, either you got'em or you didn't. All 18 were present and we boarded the boat. Lesson learned, rod space is at a premium, no more than 5 rods each, tackle box space is limited, your tackle may be on the deck and it will get wet. On the plus side, the bunks are great and the bunk room is air conditioned and well lit. The deck is wide and there are no squeeze spots that I noticed, the rails are a little higher than I would prefer but workable. The boat is quiet and runs smooth. The boat is clean and well-maintained, deckhands are very good. My only other complaint is, the boat bounces around more than I like. Oh yeah, the food is pretty good too.
Fishing, you say? Well, we rode down the line about 80 miles and shut down until day break, this was the spot Pat wanted to start from. We gave the gray a good workout but no biters. we fired up the engines and started trolling and trolling and trolling and only showing a few skippie's for our best efforts. We did stop on a meter mark and got two small yellowfin. We made a move down the line, 96 miles according to my gps. Still no luck and time quickly vanishing. We were pretty bummed out. Pat got a call from the Legend, which had to start back to Seaforth, they were on a school that the Holiday gave to them, we slid in and took the school. We had about one hour to do some damage. It was 40# test time. No time to fool around with anything else. Rods went bendo and we were fishing. These were nice fish. I guess 30-40 bft. Dave Tanoura took the JP with a fat bft. We ended with 28 bft, 1 albie and the two yft. Oh yeah, we got back late after a long boat ride.
July 17-18, 2003
It was a hot humid Wednesday afternoon, traffic was a b*tch. We arrived in San Diego after a torturous three hour drive from Torrance. Fortunately, the boat was at the dock, no pun intended. The counts were good and we were excited. Check-in and departure were routine, quick stop at the bait receiver and we were gone, a clean 9:00 p.m. escape. Weather was overcast and the seas slightly bumpy at the Point, but smoothed out as we got further from civilization. We ran until about 6:00 a.m. Steve cut the engines back and called for team one. The first trollers were hardly in the water, I heard some didn't even get in, when I heard hook-up! I grabbed the first rod I could get my hands on and tossed a sluggo into the water, I got nailed on the drop. The school actually stayed with the boat for a little while, action was typical albacore, fast and furious. I think we fished them for two hours, I remember telling someone I chose my trolling jig for bright sun, because I didn't think that I would be trolling until mid morning. Team two started trolling around 8:00, I was right, mid morning, we actually all got in the water, I got hit at about the 15 minute mark, brought the school to the boat and I don't remember having to move after that. We stayed with the fish and had a steady 3 to 4 people hooked up at all times. I think we did move a couple of times, but we finished up by noon. I won't say how many or how far we were from the Point but as the report said, Full Limits. This was epic albacore fishing, good grade, up to 25, I'd say. Dave Miura took the jp with a nice fat albie, he does it with 15# test. Sashimi, courtesy of Tommy Dyo, Bob Shintaku's guest. Again, good food, good camaraderie and good fishing. Day two was spent offshore looking for the elusive bft, we didn't find them, nuff said.
I've been waiting for my fish to brine, now I've got them in the smoker, so I decided to push some pictures up to the website. While I was doing that, I figured out why I don't have any fish, I've got over 100 pictures of other people catching fish. I was taking pictures during the peak bite! Did I mention I came home with less than a 2 day limit.
June 13, 2003
We finally had our first trip for 2003, weather was cooperating. 18 anxious anglers showed up at 22nd Street Landing on Thursday evening, I knew this was going to be, at least, an eating trip when I saw all 18 show up loaded with goodies. We left the dock a little before 9:00, since all were accounted for. We already had squid onboard so we wouldn't be making bait. It was a straight shot to Catalina, a little bumpy at times but for the most part a pleasant ride over. I don't know exactly when we dropped anchor, but the usuals were out on deck when I decided to roll out of the bunk and that was around 2:00 a.m. We were anchored up in the middle of the west coast fleet, it looked like opening day at Crowley Lake. Sadly, the white sea bass were few and far between, I recall a number like 6 or 8 for the 18 aboard the Fortune, we added a few calico bass, barracuda and a few other bottom feeders. We made several stops trying to find the elusive wsb, to no avail. We got back to San Pedro around 7:00 p.m. JP was taken by Bob Shintaku, his late night wsb narrowly edged out Dave Miura's snagged wsb. I don't know who could be called the hot stick, since most were pretty cool. Maybe, Benson's guest from Taiwan, Joshua, he was lucky enough to get two wsb. Good trip, good food, good camaraderie and thanks to the guests, who kept us from losing money on the trip. Check the pictures.
May 16, 2003
Trip canceled, weather.
April 18, 2003
Trip canceled, weather, wind to 30 kts and swell 8' to 10'.
March 14, 2003
Trip canceled, mechanical problem.
The counts were up so everyone on the September 20th trip had high expectations. With four last minute add-ons, we ended up with 12 anglers leaving the dock at a little past 9 heading for the fishing grounds that were 85 miles out. Due to a problem with his knee, which may require surgery, Steve was unable to skipper this trip and probably the October trip too. We had heard that fishing was best early and scratchy late, which turned out to be right on. After a very smooth ride out, we started with a triple jig strike at around 6:45 and ended with 32 albies on the first stop. Fujio Masuda had the hot stick with 5 fish on the first stop. After that it was a jig strike and zero to maybe 5 fish. The boat finally limited out on the last jig strike at 12:45, when we had another triple hookup, with yours truly being the only one left out. Joe Akiyama won jackpot honors with a quality albie of about 25+ lbs. Amazingly with only 12 anglers, we had some of the most horrendous tangles that I've seen in years. Sometimes 4 or 5 lines were tangled - pretty sad when there's only 12 lines out at any time. Overall, it was an excellent trip with good fishing, terrific company, great weather and very smooth seas. Best wishes to Steve for a speedy recovery.
Addendum to Glenn's report: I found out that, several vehicles have been stolen from the overflow parking lot, including one of our member's car. If possible try to park in the main parking lot at H&M.
August 23, 2002 Glenn Nakatani's report:
Our August trip started with all 18 anglers
having very high expectations. The Board at H & M showed 1800+
albacore and 500+ bluefin for the night before, so how could we
miss? The first bad sign came when we found absolute clear conditions
with a full moon shining brightly. Our second bad sign came when
the CherokeeGeisha returned with only 60 fish (41 anglers), but
we reasoned that it was due to the cattle boat conditions. Then
Steve brought us into the galley and explained that the fish had
moved and that our chances weren't looking good. He said that
we could go west and look for bluefins or go down the beach and
look for albacore. Either way, he expected jig and 1 or 2 fish
and fish under kelp paddies. Sure enough, most of the stops resulted
in 1- 5 fish, with the exception of one paddy where 27 firecracker
yellowtails were taken in a frenzy of action. We ended up with
a little over 1 albacore per rod, 33 yellowtail (5 or 6 in the
20lb range) and 1 smallish bluefin. Ernie took jackpot honors
with a good size albacore. It seems that most of my bait carried
a "do not bite" sign on them, so some of the better
anglers, the Shintaku brothers to mention a couple, went home
with a decent take. Thank goodness for the good company and delicious
food (Dave brought some dynamite onigiri), or else this would
have been a disastrous trip.
H&M Landing San Diego, July 24. The Fortune is in early, around 8 ish, we have 15 passengers anxiously waiting to board, where is #16? We get aboard and depart, still no sign of #16. We make a stop at the bait tank for 'chovs and 'dines. Decide 4's for the 'chovs and 2/0 for the 'dines, start with 20# and have a 30# ready with 2/0's. We clear the point, skies overcast and weather on the warmish side. We are anticipating a bumpy ride, due to hurricanes Douglas and Elida sliding out west across the Hurricane Bank, south and west of Cabo. The ride out wasn't too bad, but the weather did pick up as the day wore on. Oh, the fishing? It was again, typical troll, stop, troll, stop ad nauseam. Few bait fish, a good producer was rubber. In fact, out of my eight, two troll, one bait and five on the rubber. What kind and color? Almost anything dropped on the slide, I was using a bass slug, kinda clear grayish with metal flakes, I think it's called a jerkit. I recall the fish coming to the boat once. That was day one, day two was an entirely different story, we might of, as well have been fishing in a toilet, it stunk. Total for the day was crap. Total for the trip, about 100 and something longfins and a few kelp paddy forkies. Not a disaster, but day two could have provided a bit more action. We called it a trip around noon and headed for the barn. JP was taken by Glenn Nakatani, a last minute replacement for a cancellation. Fish were in the 15-20# range for the most part. 'chov the bait of choice. Sorry, no pics, these fast flurries don't give me much of a chance to grab the camera. Again, good camaraderie and good junk food.
Tip from Steve on these tuna trips: when you're on a fish, give the deckhands three calls, "deep color" when you first see your fish, "color" when the fish is clearly visible and "gaff", when the fish is near the surface and close to being "laid out". This will help the deckhands assess the situation when we are in a WFO bite.
San Clemente Island was our destination for the second trip in a row. With no live squid available we went with a tank full of great sardines. The weather was great but fishing was tough. We had 1/2 limits of calicos, some barries, sheephead, four yellowtail and a few other assorted fish. Several large fish were lost in the weeds. Again the food and camaraderie were great!
San Clemente Island was our destination after getting a load
of squid from a seiner. Weather was great all day with calm seas.
The only problem was that there was very little current if any
all day which made fishing tough. No seabass were hooked or landed
on this trip. We had some success with the Calico Bass with one
weighing 5 lbs. We probably averaged 3 around for the trip. 1
10# halibut was landed by Rob. Several other types of fishes were
also landed. We did chase the yellows for a while with lots of
fished metered but not anxious to eat our baits. We finally got
one when Rob hooked one while trolling his
jig as we moved. Yoshi also got one that he snagged! At the end
of the day we had 7 yellows up to 26 lbs. Tough fishing but everyone
was happy that they got to take fresh fish home for dinner.
For the second trip in a row we left with questionable skies
and seas. We did get rained on as we fished in the early morning
but had flat seas. It was also warmer than the last trip. We started
trying to make squid around 11 p.m. with no luck. Around midnight
we found a couple of boats that were hooking some fish. We slid
in and anchored up and were soon getting bit on frozen squid.
By 2 a.m. we had limits of fish from 20-35 pounds. Steve asked
us to help him try to get some bait. We
ended up trying to jig squid for 2 1/2 hours with some success.
The squid at 5:30 decided to float and the bait tanks were soon
filled. We were back to the docks at 9 a.m. The highlight of the
trip had to be seeing 88 year old Fred hooking and landing one
of the first seabass on the boat. Way to go Fred! He's still got
the touch. His pictures are posted with his grandson Eric.
March 29, 2002- Thursday evening, people arriving at the boat are reporting that they had encountered drizzles to downpours on their drives to San Pedro, a slight drizzle is falling as we prepare to depart. We are 12 anglers preparing for white sea bass, yellowtail and calico bass. We get a couple of walk-ons to help pay the charter, so we're off with 14 paying customers. There is quite a commotion going on in the harbor, smoke, boats running around and lights pointing in every direction, Greg informs us that they are shooting a movie. We clear the light and the sea is pretty smooth, not like glass but pretty flat. I hear that the plan is to go by Catalina and see what's going on and pick up some squirts. Eats are looking good this trip, Yoshi's chicken, spam musubi, donuts, muffins, burritos, nuts, candy bars, fried chicken, apples, sushi, you know the usual over-abundance. We all hit the bunks. I feel Steve cut back the engines around 11:30 and go upstairs to see where we are, we're just motoring around looking for the squirts. Soon we're all up snagging the squid, they just don't want to come up. Finally, they do come up and we're able to crowd about 10-12 scoops. We make a short move and push up to the beach next to the Aztec. You all know how fishing for WSB is more waiting than fishing. We wait and wait and wait, make a couple of moves and finally come back to where the Aztec was, they limited out. Steve says don't worry, yesterday they bit around 9:30. Again, we wait. 9:15, 9:20, 9:25, 9:30, fish on, another, another. To make a long story short, they made several passes and shortly we had limits, from just legals to the 38# JP fish taken by Eric, Roger's guest. After that exciting flurry, we moved and tried the calicos, after a short try we decided to head home. We hit the dock at 2:00. Another great WSB trip, now for some real good eating...
September 28-29, 2001- Thursday evening, with 18 passengers on board, we were all looking forward to a great couple of days of fishing. Hurricane Juliette was still hanging out down around Cabo, the reports were that the one-time category 4 was fizzing out and should not affect the local waters until Monday, if at all. We got a good load of nice chovs and dines. I hit the sack and never quite fell asleep, it was bouncy from the git-go. We rocked and rolled down the line some 80+ clicks. Team one threw out the jigs and it wasn't long before my jig got nailed. A small albie tuna. Got some bait fish. That first stop was to be the pattern of the entire morning. Troll, stop, troll, stop. Amazingly, no team got tossed for exceeding the 30 minute time limit, some got close, but we never pulled a team. By noon, Steve was ready to pull the plug, concern for the passengers, the crew and the boat were all part of the equation. The guys still wanted to fish, so being a good sport, Steve agreed to make it a day and a half trip, meaning we start back at sundown. By then, we had limits of albies, a trio of bluefin, some do-do's and a few forkies. We had dinner and most of us hit the sack. Got back to the Point around 2 a.m. in heavy fog, I mean pea-soup heavy. I was in the wheelhouse watching Steve skillfully steer his way down the channel around small boats and buoys. Bob Shintaku took the JP with a nice albie. Sorry, no action pictures, I was too busy just holding on. It was a real puker!
July 26-27, 2001 - San Diego and two-day tuna time! All 18 fisherman were at the docks at the right time, but the boat was late, duh. Got on board, signed in and headed to the receiver, got two tanks of 'chovs and two tanks of 'dines. Weather was great and the seas calm, in spite of Dahlia spinning around down south. Ran most of the night, started fishing around fifty to eighty south. It was the usual, troll, stop, troll, stop. We hit a few paddies for some 'tails. Stopped on a meter mark of the "right kind" had a nice mix of albies and bluefin, nice grade of fish overall. Team one was unusually lame this trip, failing on several attempts, needless to say, I was one of the four. Second day was the slow pick day, it was tough, we had boiling fish, not many biters. To get bit, many of us went to 15 and 20. We had several anglers go around the boat, three times or more fighting quality bluefin on 20# test. The second day left some anglers fish less, we made the trip on day one. I got lucky and took the jackpot with my first-day bluefin that went 40+. We ended the trip with 90+ albacore, 37 bluefin and 10 or so, yellowtail. The albies and the bluefin were all good quality fish. Tip of the day, fluorocarbon and lite wire circle hooks. I found that many of my fish bit, far from the boat and the circles did my job.
May 11, 2001 -We finally made it out of the harbor! The season has begun. Before we left, we got the Steve speech, this time however, there was no decision to make. It was more like, here's the game plan. Everyone was fishing Catalina and they were stacking up on the two places where the white sea bass were being caught and there was very little action of anything in the whole eastern pacific. So, we're going to Catalina to make squid and when we have enough, we're heading to Santa Barbara Island, where there would be less pressure. So, with squid rigs tied on, we headed to Santa Catalina Island under clear skies and greasy-flat seas, this was a no Bonine trip. We arrived on the backside a little after midnight and did not have to snag the squirts, we found a light boat and got our squid, from there we started the two hour run to SBI. We arrived around four and set up with the fleet, Outer Limits, Legacy, First String, Tide Change, Freedom, Big Game 90 and a private boat or two. The season started with a sculpin, I believe, and some other denizens of the deep, the first "right kind?" was my rod bender that turned out to be a 4' leopard shark, blaaah. After a few more false starts, Fred, Ernie Holmes' guest, gets bit, I'm thinking, bat ray, bang, my rod goes off, he moves up the rail on one side and I move up the rail on the other side, as I'm going, I turn to the stern and I saw every rod bendo. I kept right on going towards the bow. My fish came up quickly, just a little guy, but legal. Fred's was a toad, about 40 ish. When I got back to the stern about half were still on. Result was Kichigai 8, sea bass 8, I was told several got off. That was about it for SBI, we spent the rest of the day, drowning squid, eating and sleeping. We made a late afternoon move to Catalina for one last effort, result one halibut. JP and hot stick award goes to KA Pres, Roy Yoshida, who nailed a 42+ WSB and a 20+ flattie at Catalina. Another good, not great Kichigai trip in the books and as always, good food and camaraderie. Join us for the next trip, on June 15th.
April 13, 2001 -Gadzooks, canceled again! Aw, we're just waitin' for the fish to start bitin', yeah right...
March 9, 2001-Canceled, gale force winds, 11'-13' swell.
October 20, 2000-Canceled.
September 22,23 2000-No report, I heard it was pretty wide open for the yellow fin, lots of dorado; few anglers, ouch...
September 8, 2000-No Report, I heard it was not a good trip...
August 25-26, 2000-It was a dark and stormy night... Not really, it was pretty nice, Steve called us together for the usual, "its been pretty scratchy out there the past few days" speech. Most of us voted to stay short, for small fish, variety and better weather instead of the "maybe some albacore and don't even think about bluefin and you're going to get beat up, if we go outside." But as he often does, Steve offered up, "we can go outside and see what's there and come inside if we don't get bit". They don't call us Kichigai for nothing. We headed for the bait receiver and loaded up with some decent sardines for a change, about 3/0 to 4/0 size. We cleared the point and headed for wherever, the sea was a little bouncy and my experiment of "not wearing a patch" was giving me second thoughts. We ended up riding all night and most of the morning, went through three trolling teams before we finally got a stop. It was one of those days where you troll, stop, troll, stop, troll, stop. We did manage to get the fish to the boat a few times and stopped on meter marks a couple of times and through all of that, wound up with about 70 albies and a couple of bluefin, if memory serves me correctly. Steve parked the boat for the night on a meter mark and we hoped they would still be there in the morning. We were down the line a few clicks past 100 and a little you know where. And yes, it was sloppy but showing signs of laying down.
Some of the hardcore stayed up and caught squid, which were abundant, I heard they filled a trash can with the oversized squirts. Morning brought a few of us out of the bunks before daylight, to shake out the cobwebs and prepare for the gray bite. Shig Makino had to ruin the morning by hooking an albacore and the resulting commotion brought the sleepers charging out of the bunks. I decided that breakfast was the better option, since Shig's fish seemed to be a stray. Until, I saw Nakatani running down the rail, I slammed my last piece of French toast, to see the beginnings of an epic BFT bite that was to last the morning. Epic in the sense that we never left the sea anchor, we got BFT and Longfins and a couple of Bigeye. The BFT went WFO and your bait wouldn't last 5 seconds, there were free swimmers all over. As often happens, the bite outlasted the bait and we shut down at 8:00 in the morning or there abouts, when we handed the school off to the Topgun. We heard our final count was 1 hundred and fmphsty or there abouts. Jackpot went to Dan Taketa's 50# Bigeye. So much for "scratchy on the outside" and the weather laid down for a nice (long) ride home.
August 11, 2000-I don't think we got any pictures this last trip....which is too bad because there were some really good shots to be had. Anyway, I'll give you my recollection of the trip, although I was drugged with a combination of bonine & transderm scop, so it's a recollection between yawns. Bob S.
We arrived at the docks on Thursday evening with a stiff wind
blowing and boats returning early because of the rough seas. The
Indian just returned from a two day with limits of Yellowtail
and 2 albacore. The albies were picked up 140 miles south on day-1
in snotty seas. The YT were picked up at the Coronados on day-2
after the skipper decided to haul back inside to more fishable
conditions. So it didn't bode well when Steve called us together
for a vote. He said it was very rough 70 miles out, where the
tuna were. We would catch them, but maybe not all of us, but we
would probably pay a price for them. Or, we could fish the Coronados
were the boats limited on YT. I noticed all the "young guys"
voted for the Coronados and the "old guys" voted for
tuna. The tuna's had it, so with some trepidation about what lay
ahead, we hit the receivers for 1 tank of large dines and 3 tanks
of chovies. It was rocky on the way out, but not as bad as expected.
At around 5:30 the skipper eased the engines back, and woke up
a few hardcores, who dragged themselves up to the deck. Someone
dropped in a trolling jig, and before it even cleared the backwash,
we had hookup! Mild pandemonium followed with most guys waking
up to the sweet frantic sound of thumping tails on the deck. I
think we picked up 18 fish (Yellowfin and Albies) before we "officially"
got started. Troll team 1 came on and lasted a solid 60 seconds
before we hooked up again. This stop was good for another dozen.
The fish bit both dines and anchovies. Some nice albies in the
30# range hit the deck. Light line (#20 or less) was more successful
than heavy (#30-40). This routine went on for another set or two,
and was followed be that familiar long period of scratch &
drought. Sometime around late morning we trolled into a few strands
of kelp that held a nice school of YT. We picked up a dozen+ YT
and a some albies, then went through another drought. At around
1:30 Steve slowed the engines, got on the intercom and said to
start a brill and man the troll lines. Within 5 seconds we were
into a solid boil. This was what we'd been looking for all day.
I won't go into all the details of the bite....it's like any wide
open bite. It would have been nice to have a camera though (worth
a thousand words). We were within about a dozen short of full
albie limits when the bite tapered off. I heard Steve say, "O.K.,
you guys are happy. Now make me happy. Get me a full limit."
Well the fish
gods must heard his plea and smiled on us that day, because the
fish came back and we filled out the limit. Steve finally had
to shut us off. We started back sometime between 2:30-3:00, and
left behind a sea of boiling fish.
July 28-29, 2000-H&M Landing, San Diego, our first tuna trip and first two day trip of 2000. The counts have been spotty and very few bluefin showing, add to that hurricane Daniel moving off to the west and tropical depression Emilia spinning around near Cabo, I was cautiously optimistic. We left around 9:00ish, headed to the bait receiver and found that bait was being rationed and the 'dines in bad shape and pinhead 'choves not much better. We shoved off and ran until 4:00ish and shut down, right in the middle of the San Diego fleet. Most were still asleep when a couple of us hardcore types hooked up at the gray. The longfins found us and were eager to bite. I think that was a 15 to 20 fish opening. We started trolling and the morning continued at a troll, stop, few bait fish. This continued throughout the morning. Things really died during the midday, we had to time-out several of the trolling teams(Larry Tan).
The late afternoon brought hungry fish around again, we actually got fish to the boat and had a plunker. We had several good stops and were going through the bait. We were down to bloody nosed, scaleless 'dines and 'choves that were swimming sideways.
Yeah, it was a little rough and rolly, bait was bad, but in spite of all that, We were reported as 17 passengers-limits of albacore.
Tip of the trip-bring light line 15-20#, small hooks 4-1/0 for the 'choves, fluorocarbon leaders 15-20#. I think it made a difference on those plunkers. Small trolling jigs, I used the green and purple in the morning and an all white when the sun broke through, zucchinis were also working. I got one fish on a #5 Ironman in chrome and blue mackerel, on the drop.
By the way, jackpot was taken by Larry Tan, hey what happened to all of your sinkers?
July 14, 2000-Trip canceled, blown head on the Fortune.
June 16, 2000-After making a decision to fish Santa Catalina island, we left the dock around 8:30, stopped at the bait receiver for sardines and a bit of squid. We only got a couple of scoops of squid, so we all rigged up to prepare to make squid at the island. Weather was windy and the full moon was rising in the east, word was that the white sea bass had been WFO at the island so everyone was enthusiastic. We cleared the light and everyone hit the bunks, knowing that we would be up around midnight to catch squid. Water was pretty smooth in spite of the wind, I only remember a couple of rough spots crossing the channel.
Upon arrival at the island, we drove around looking for a good spot of squid, a few of us snagged a few in a couple of spots. We were still looking when the Aztec called us in and gave us some of theirs, with that done we pulled off and left the lights on and got the squid to float for us. The decks scooped for what seemed hours, I think they filled every available spot, including their bunks with squid. You're probably wondering why I'm spending so much space reporting on this stuff. Well...
Fishing was tough. The white sea bass only made one brief appearance all morning and six hit the decks. We also got some excitement from some bat rays and black sea bass. Later in the morning we pulled back and managed another sea bass and a couple of nice yellowtail. I also saw a few barracuda, a halibut, several calico bass and even a couple of mackerel come on board and that was the extent of the fishing. Yoshi, again was the hot stick, 2 WSB, jackpot and a nice yellowtail. It must be that collection of Trinidad reels he uses.
We got back to the dock at 6:00. Again, good camaraderie and plenty of food. One final thing, don't forget to move your car from the loading zone, it can be an expensive place to park...
May 19, 2000-Friday's trip started about 8:45 p.m. on Thursday evening under a rising full moon. The word was, that the white seabass were going crazy at Rocky Point, also that the squid were floating there too. It was decided that we would run up the line to the Redondo Beach area and check it out and at least make our squid there. We did get our squid there along with a bunch of other boats. Fishing turned out to be a bust, with betrays providing the excitement. The squid making was slow and tedious, but the crew stuck with it and filled our bait tanks, most of us had hit the bunks before the deckhands finished with the squid.
You could not have had better weather, clear Thursday evening, the sea had a little swell and plenty of wind driven chop, not too bad. With our tanks full of squid we headed to Catalina to try out the white sea bass, we got to the fishing grounds and lined up with the other boats already there. Steve really hit the right spot, because we really whacked the WSB, we limited the boat and were out of there by 6:30 a.m. Some guy named Alan grabbed the jackpot with a 28# WSB, his first WSB ever. We left the spot to go look for yellowtail. We made several stops over the balance of the day with limited success. Calico bass were again the mainstays, with a few barracuda scattered in the mix, I also saw a sheephead come over the rail. The yellowtail gave us the slip and we wound up the day without any in our sacks. Again, phenomenal WSB bite. We arrived back at 6:00ish.
April 21, 2000-We left 22nd St Landing at a little before 9:00 p.m. on Thursday evening, with a very light load of 12 fishermen. Sky was clear with just a little chill in the air, water in the channel was very smooth. We were all told to rig up to make squid at Catalina and then we would head off to San Clemente, Steve felt that the bite at Catalina was unpredictable and we would have a better chance to score yellowtail at Clemente. Arriving at Catalina around 11:30 we searched around for squid on this side without much luck, so we went to the backside and picked up squid from a light boat. That being done, we headed off to Clemente.
My recollection is, that we got there sometime around 4:00 a.m., with many anglers starting to fish in the dark. The first fish to come up were calico bass which set the tone for the balance of the day. The yellowtail and white sea bass would not cooperate so most of us stayed with the calicos. A steady drizzle with bursts of wind, provided an additional test of character. A few highlights were provided by; Roy Yoshida and some batrays, which earned him the title of "Batman", Shig Jhono fought an epic battle with a black sea bass, which was released, Ben Murata got the only 'tail of the trip and yours truly, fooled the jackpot winning, 7.4 lb. bonito which just edged out Ben's 'tail. The Bone grabbed my favorite lure, a #2 Ironman in blue and white. We got back to the dock around 8:00 p.m. Plenty of good food and camaraderie.
March 17, 2000-The first trip of 2000 is under our belts. We(18 anglers) left San Pedro around 9:00 on Thursday evening, clear skies and smooth water, with a few bumps now and then. We decided to go to San Clemente to fish for white sea bass, made a quick stop at Catalina to snag some squid. The squid were cooperating by jumping on our jigs, I should remind everyone to invest in a few squid jigs and some Yozuri style bait rigs, oh yeah, be sure to bring them. There are times when the only bait we have is what we make the night before. On Thursday night, the Conquest called us in to a huge mass of squid that they got to float, it was an amazing sight to see. The deckhands were able to scoop the squirts without a crowder. With the bait tanks loaded we headed off to San Clemente. We arrived around 4:00 am and started fishing soon as the anchor was set.
The fishing was just that, fishing, not catching. We did manage one white sea bass, caught by Bob Shintaku, check next week's Western Outdoors News, it should be the Whopper of the Week for 22nd Street Landing. The balance of the trip was spent moving from spot to spot on the Island looking for signs of life and current. We did manage to scratch some calico bass, blue perch and some whitefish. The last stop made the trip for many of us, the calicos decide to cooperate, Steve stayed with them to last possible minute and we started for home around 3:00 and got in around 8:00. Again, great food and camaraderie.