About 10 days ago, I invited my best friend to fish bluefin for the first time and we decided to head out on the San Diego. I was almost regretting the decision after seeing consecutive days of no bluefin but plenty of bonito. On Wednesday, my fears where comfirmed as I saw the majority of LR boats north of San Clemente. Oh well, a day out in the water tuna or no tuna is way better than staying on land. Sigining in on the table, I say to Riley (one of the crew), "ready for the bonito-fest!" and he mentions that on the way back the day before, they found the bluefin and that we were heading back that day.
We get underway and the weather was much better than I expected. Somewhat calm, with little wind and a light marine layer. Capt. Matt tells us that we are fishing a new zone with good signs. Sure enough, we pass right through the Coronados on a southerly direction. About 10mi out we start fishing and soon enough, we find a first school of bonito. I catch a nice size one and so does my friend so good practice and opportunity to get the first fish jitters out of the way if we manage to stop on bluefin.
After a bit more of driving, one of the trollers gets bit. We stop and a couple of biters and to our suprise these are yelllowfin and not bluefin. Wow, the first of the fleet? Nice aprox. 20lbs and we would end up catching several more.
We eventually find the first bluefin school and shortly, the yells of "boil on the corner" start coming. We catch one or two and we move on. Notice that we have a lot characters with no idea what they are doing, and worse telling the crew what to do. I always try to be a friend to everyone and help beginners with tips and help them navigate around and fish, and surprisingly, even I got called out for telling people to slide to the right side with five people with 90 degree angles from rod to line. Angles and tangles everywhere during the day and as the song says, "Clowns to the left of me, jokers on the right...Here I am, stuck in the middle with you". Enough about the jokers, you are here to find out what worked.
Next stop, and after going thorugh 10 baits, I finally find one that wants to really swim. 20 secondes latter, I get picked up and on my 40lb Fathom II setup and I throw the lever up, immediately followed by a 'snap' - what in the holy hell?!?!?! I look down to the reel and with the rush of adreline of trying to get my best friend and compadre his first bluefin, I went straight past Strike and into Full - you gotta be kidding me. This had never happened and I was bummed that I broke it off. Although, given the tough days of bluefin in local waters, I was beyond grateful to have had a shot at a bluefin.
Later in the afternoon, we find the first foamers and although we saw tons of them around, the bluefin were stuck in blufin mode. We get to another giant foamer and I'm at the bow with Fisher (crew) next to me with a clear popper and I have a Colt Sniper. We get close to them and we cast and on the retrieve, we get tangled up. Then, one of the craziest things as hundreds of blufin literally pass underneath the bow literally underneath us. We could have reached down and gaffed them....Meanwhile, he's trying to get us untangled and I'm sitting there in an excrutiating wait. Finally, we're free and he casts and gets bit, I then cast and nothing. Ugh, I felt like this was one of those trips where things are just not lining up.
I didn't let everything get to me and I remained optimistic as we were surrounded by breezers and foamers everywhere. Even if they were not in a biting mood, I was going to die on the rail trying to get my friend his first BFT. The tenacity is rewarded when I get picked up on the next stop, and this time I slowly ease the lever up to strike, making sure I don't repeate the earlier mistake. Fish is on, feels like a solid one and I hand it off to my friend. About 10-15 minutes later and he's got his bluefin!!! Not kidding, I was jumping up and down and I swear that I was happier than if I had caught the fish. I had already told him about eating the heart and he was real trooper and followed tradition.
The return back was a fun play by play recap of the day, knocking down beers (on my friend's tab, of course) and telling stories with new boat-friends.
What worked:
1. Flyline 40lb with #2 circle hook seemed to be what got bit the most
2. Several of us threw sniper-like jigs but didn't notice anybody get bit except for the clear popper
3. As always, both of my sardines that got bit were lively swimmers - change those baits!
4. Don't get rattled with the jokers and the clowns - adapt the gameplan. Fish the bow, or be strategic to try to avoid the trouble
5. Bring a big enough cooler for the big ones - I took the fish home as a 'passenger' in my car
The season is just getting started, guys....It's going to be a great one!
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