Like bdubs73, I jumped at the chance to try out the AA on their 2nd of 2 last minute 2-day trips. Well run boat, but was a little crowded with 30 anglers, but we managed 31 quality tuna with a lot of hard work. I saw one fish at the dock around 45# & one at 50#, but the others all ranged from 80# up. A lot of 95-105#. JP was 175’ish, secdond JP around 165. It’s tough now fishing all day and all night. Fishing started out slow. I think we had one on the boat before dark on day 1 (but 4 were lost). We started picking them off at night, mostly on knife jigs (250-300 grams). I finally hooked one on the bow middle of the night, but like was crossing another hooked fish, so deckhand had to grab it from me while the fish was on it's first run. Fish was off when he handed the rod back. Bad timing. We had a few stops with 2 or 3 hookups, but often only 1 landed. I think we had 11’ish fish on by morning.
Daytime fishing on day 2 was a slow pick. Some fish were caught on colt-snipers (esp. Katy Perry, and a few on the Katy Perry colored standard flat fall), but most of the daytime fish were on new or traditional sinker rigs. A lot of us tried fly lining. Great large dines, but no one hooked anything on the fly line. I eventually decided to try the new sinker rig. Tied 60# mainline directly onto hook (1/0 ringed Owner). I tied 8# line to ring, with 8 oz sinker. I forgot and had a regular nose hooked bait. It was early evening on day 2 when three of us who had all been skunked, were all fishing the new drop shot sinker rig all got bit at the same time. We landed all 3. The other two had heavier line to weights and they both hooked bait from bottom up. Mine weighed just over 100lbs & I have to say it kicked my but even though I thought I was well set up with a Diana Satliga LD40 2SPD and a Phenix HAZ 720 X2H 7’2” rail rod.
A few more fish were caught on jigs in the dark before we had to head back around 1:00 am. Skipper said there are massive schools of fish. We were about 12 miles outside of Ensenada with the entire fleet.
Overall, a lot of work but was worth it given the quality of the fish.
Captain crew, and cooks were great. Very nice, positive, & helpful team. Bonus was an AA 100 lb crew T-shirt, and I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed the perfectly cooked 10-oz filet mignon for dinner last night.
Sorry for the big pic.
Daytime fishing on day 2 was a slow pick. Some fish were caught on colt-snipers (esp. Katy Perry, and a few on the Katy Perry colored standard flat fall), but most of the daytime fish were on new or traditional sinker rigs. A lot of us tried fly lining. Great large dines, but no one hooked anything on the fly line. I eventually decided to try the new sinker rig. Tied 60# mainline directly onto hook (1/0 ringed Owner). I tied 8# line to ring, with 8 oz sinker. I forgot and had a regular nose hooked bait. It was early evening on day 2 when three of us who had all been skunked, were all fishing the new drop shot sinker rig all got bit at the same time. We landed all 3. The other two had heavier line to weights and they both hooked bait from bottom up. Mine weighed just over 100lbs & I have to say it kicked my but even though I thought I was well set up with a Diana Satliga LD40 2SPD and a Phenix HAZ 720 X2H 7’2” rail rod.
A few more fish were caught on jigs in the dark before we had to head back around 1:00 am. Skipper said there are massive schools of fish. We were about 12 miles outside of Ensenada with the entire fleet.
Overall, a lot of work but was worth it given the quality of the fish.
Captain crew, and cooks were great. Very nice, positive, & helpful team. Bonus was an AA 100 lb crew T-shirt, and I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed the perfectly cooked 10-oz filet mignon for dinner last night.
Sorry for the big pic.
