Back And Out
Independence skipper Jeff DeBuys posted November 28:
“We unloaded the beautiful catch from Stan Vandenburg‘s 13-day trip and tallied up 12 cows and lots and lots of quality tuna for everyone. The jackpot winners are: 1st place Jeff Larson 270 pounds, 2nd place Bob Riddle 264.7 pounds, 3rd place Alex Romans 235 pounds. In no particular order the following anglers also caught cows: Mike Smith 209 pounds, Robert Worthington 207, David Echeverria 212, Johnny Jones 225, Dave Sokoloff 203, Tyrone Burton 225, Chris Johnston 240, Tim Moreno 240,Abraham Feltus 202. We want to thank Stan for everything and thank everyone who made the trip a huge success.
We departed on 15-day Sav-On Tackle trip this morning with a very eager and well equipped group of guys. We will report back when we have something.”
Rooster Winners
Andy Cates brought Red Rooster III home to H&M Landing November 26 after a 12/15-day flyback trip to Clarion Island, where his anglers accounted for 240 yellowfin tuna and 20 wahoo during the Accurate Fishing Products-sponsored adventure.
1st place jackpot: 333.4-pound yellowfin tuna, Charlie Martinez of Lakewood, CO
2nd place jackpot: 236-pound yellowfin tuna, David Brilhante, San Diego
3rd place jackpot: 226.4-pound yellowfin tuna, Tom Allen, Anchorage, AK
Trolling jackpot: 122.2-pound yellowfin tuna, Joe Chinovsky of Culver City
Other cows were decked by the following anglers: Miles Yamaguchi, 223 pounds; Robert Zane, 218, 210; Donna Manuszak, 215.8; Tim Coomes, 209.6; Gary Teraoka, 206.6; Joe Chinovsky, 201 pounds.
On November 30, Cates posted:
Good evening folks, we made an afternoon stop and picked up 55 wahoo, and a few for the galley. That really worked out well. The guys all had a shot and some great action for about three hours. We are back on course and headed south. We are going to start at the Island and should be there before daylight day after tomorrow.” Also headed south, Mike Ramirez reported catching wahoo at Alijos Rocks the same day. The Independence appeared to be just behind the Rooster and Excel, also approaching the deep southern zone.
Roy Rose Remembers
“I like fishing yellowtail the best. This is probably because when I was little kid, growing up fishing on half-day boats with my dad, yellowtail was the number one prized fish. It’s a very good fighting fish; it’s a very good eating fish, and when you get on the right batch, they’re usually a pretty good size. It’s fun to come across a school of good-sized yellows, like 25 to 50-pounders. When they’re that big, I like catching them on the surface iron. There’s nothing like casting a 10 foot jig stick with 50-pound test line, a 7X light jig, and landing your line within 5 feet of a boil within 5 seconds and knowing you have a 98% chance of hooking and landing that fish. To me that’s the ultimate. Just to be able to sit there and read the birds and fire that jig and hand it off to people is a lot of fun. “Another way I like to get them is flylining big mackerel. There’s nothing like being anchored up some place like Chester’s Rock, or the 5 Fathom Spot at Cedros, where all the 35 to 50-pound yellows are blowing out on big mackerel. The bigger the mackerel, the faster you get bit. The guys using 60 to 80-pound get dragged up and down the rail, and it’s a lot of fun to watch. “Another very effective way is deep-water yoyo fishing. Dropper loops are my least favorite way to fish yellowtail. 95% of the time, if you can get them on the dropper loop, you can get them on the yo-yo. To me, the dropper loop is not that exciting. Catching them on lures and fly-line baits are my favorite. Lures are my number one favorite; big baits, second. For me, any time you can catch any fish on a lure, it just means that much more.”
