Angler 8 Day, August 19-27

[Steve K]

24 anglers, 7 Crew. Ray Lopez at the wheel for this adventure, always seems to make good decisions, very competitive. First fished with Ray on an early October 10 day back in 2005. On deck, we had Kirk, Griffin, Barry and Jacob, in the galley Tom and Javier. Service was great as was the food.

I start my trip with a fairly long drive from Bishop, about 350 miles to my friend Joe’s house in Tierrasanta. 395 to Kramer Junction goes pretty smoothly but then it all turns to a bucket of crap. Miles of two lane up and over the hill to the south, about 30 miles, mostly no passing and then stoplight after stoplight until you get to Interstate 15. They’ve got a lot of guts calling that stretch a U.S. Highway. Road condition is not real smooth. Decided to take the alternate route back home, 210 over to the 14 and north through Mojave.

Arrived Joe’s house late afternoon on Thursday the 18th, settled in for a cocktail and dinner. Joe got me to Point Loma by 7:00 A.M. Friday morning for check in at the American Angler office with Lori. I seldom use the term the best, but can honestly say she is second to none. Eventually it was time for the Red Shirts to load our stuff into the carts and push them down the ramp for unloading into the hands of our crew. Found my favorite spot for my tackle bag and even found a place for my square milk crate with the four rocket launchers for 8’ rods. Off to the receivers for a good looking load of bait and we’re off.

Gotta go wash down my rods, get them ready for the next trip. More later…

 

[Tunahead]

Look forward to your trip report Steve

 

[Let em eat 74]

That’s it Steve?? Does that even qualify as a 2 pump chump?

 

[Steve K]

Let’s go South! Can’t tell you how glad I was to not be headed offshore to work on the night bite, either at the beginning of the trip. I like to fish when the Sun is up!

Alijos Rocks is our first destination. Arrival projected to be Sunday about Noon, later revised to right around 10:30. Nobody else there although there had been at least one boat out there fishing the Yellowfin and trying for the elusive Wahoo. Happy I was to have rigged a Captain Jimmy bomb with 18-22” of 130 lb fluorocarbon for Jose to throw. He put it to good use for, I believe his first Wahoo. We had a couple incidental catches on our first day there, straight tied to 40 lb fluorocarbon leaders while flylining for the Yellowfin. Couple of different grade fish, 8-10-12 pounds to release and the better grade to keep. Sizes? More on that later. Spent the night anchored up and got after it again the next day, Monday 8/22. A little more success on the Wahoo and we even had a troll stop for a Bingo of about five of those elusive, slimy bastards. Yellowfin fishing was again pretty good with several stops on those mixed schools. I think I finished up with 5 or 6 of the tuna. Towards the afternoon, Ray announced our next move and had the crew pull the anchor so we could be on our way in to the East. Next stop, somewhere on the Ridge. Stay tuned for some Yankin’ n Crankin’!

 

[Steve K]

Just a word about tackle. I had 30 and 40# flyline outfits rigged up with 25-30 ft fluorocarbon topshots. Size 1/0 Mustad 94251 NI is what I used on the 30# and I have a precious small handful of Charlie Brown Ringed Circle hooks, size 1/0. Thanks to Tim Turis for sharing with me. Fathom Lever Drag Two Speeds are my reels for 30-40# 15XN, 25N and 30. Got to fish a couple of used but new to me, 8’ Fishing Syndicate rods 800M 20-50 and 800H 30-60. Also an trusty old CJB65H Seeker Black Steel.

Also new, a rod I won on the July 3 day trip, a Phenix Axis 780 XH 30-80 that I fished with a Makaira 15TSEa and 50#. Great outfit.

 

[Steve K]

It’s now Tuesday 8/23. Arrived at the Ridge mid morning and Ray checked three spots on one of the high spots for Yellows, but found all small fish. Catch and release. Then, acting on a recommendation from the Excel, thank you Mike Ramirez, Ray told us we were going to make an 80 mile move up to Hippolito Bay where they had enjoyed success on better grade Yellowtail.

Wednesday we were up early after a peaceful night’s sleep on the anchor. I decided to see what was around, and made a drop with a Sumo jig, Chrome/Glow and I was rewarded with a nice Barracuda. Ray had the guys pull the hook and we were on the hunt. Didn’t take him long to find what he was looking for and he set up on a very nice school of better quality Yellows. I had that ugly old Tady 45 tied on my surface iron outfit and it was game on. I fish a Calstar 850H with a Penn Fathom II Star Drag reel, FTHII40SDP, 4.8:1 gears and a fairly long topshot of 40 lb mono. Here’s the jig, both sides, the one I’m still using and a new one for comparison.

That jig just gets bit. I harvested 13 Yellows, 10 of them on the iron. 3 on bait.
For bait, I used a 2/0 or 3/0 J hook on the 50 lb outfit with a 2 oz slider.

Next chapter, Carnage and Chaos on Dorado!

 

[woodfish330]

..... SORRY GUYS.....Steve K's wife just told him he had 8 days of "HONEY DUES" to pay.... and who told him HE was a "Journalist"??.... lol.

He'll be back..... when he's done.

 

[picasso]

 

[Steve K]

Whew, been bouncing around, (as well as an old fart like me can bounce)

Rods cleaned up, reels, too, just need a drop of oil here and there. Liking the bigger knob on the FTH40NLD2 and the FTHII40SDP vs the smaller knobs on the 15-25-30 LD reels. Might look into that. Even made a quick tour of the tackle bag, the tray of jigs mostly. Slight revisions on which jigs and bombs to take as well as how many of each. As I discovered after the July trips, best time to get ready for the next trip is right after you return from one.

Where were we, let’s see, finished up on the Yellowtail and headed offshore looking for Dorado. Ray spotted paddy after paddy that were either dry (no fish) or corroded with release size Dorado and Rat Yellowtail. Eventually he found what he had been looking for and it was game on! The Dodos charged the boat and Pandemonium pretty adequately described what happened. Tangles and cutoffs were rampant. I had my 30# rig get cut off and then one of the 40# rigs got thrashEd, too. I’m usually pretty good at reading the situation and reacting accordingly, but not this time. I went semi brain dead and kept fishing in the stern where it was simply chaotic.

There were some smaller Yellowfin mixed in and I got pick up twice by those smaller tuna. Bounced them got back into the fray on the stern instead of realizing the fish were all around the boat and I would have faired better from the bow. Notes taken, lesson learned. When the dust had settled the box was full and there were some nice 15+ pound bulls in the mix. Limits being what they are, Ray made the decision to call it on the Dorado and to finish up somewhere closer to home. We were well south of Punta Eugenia and Ray pointed the bow north to get us in position to take advantage of some fair sized Yellowfin with a few Bluefin mixed in.

 

[Yellowtail Dan]

Sounds like a great trip so far. It sucks to hit traffic heading down on a long drive.

 

[captain94704]

Excellent report, can’t wait to see the ending, hope it ends well.

 

[Steve K]

So, Thursday 8/25 was a travel day, Ray had a lot of miles to cover to get back home. Friday, last fishing day of the trip, what’s left? I mean we already have a great catch of Yellowfin, a few Wahoo and probably limits of Yellowtail chilling in the RSW holds. Should mention, I don’t think any of the other boats take better care of the catch than the crew of the American Angler.

So, what is there left for us to do? Hold my Beer. A few miles south of the Coronados, the fleet is experiencing excellent catching on some good quality Yellowfin and a few Bluefin as well. We started fishing them and I quickly had four of these nice fish tagged and chilling. Decided to switch it up a bit and fish the new 50 lb outfit, 3/0 or 4/0 Charlie Brown and got myself a nice little Mackerel to pin on, hoping for a bigger Bluefin. Long soaked it for quite a while and finally got picked up. About the same grade as the rest of the Yellowfin we had been catching. And that was the end of the catching for me. Ray took off to put us in position to peacefully enjoy a great dinner, main course, Prime Rib. Broke them all down, rinsed the reels and bundled up the rods, handed them up to the upper deck and stacked them with the rest of the bundles, showered up and grabbed a Gin and Tonic. The crew scrubbed the boat, and Ray dropped anchor in the lee of North Island and after dinner was all wrapped up he put us on course for the Point.

Woke up inside the Bay at Oh Four O’Clock. The “Oh” is for “Oh, my God, it’s early!” Traditional final breakfast of Waffles and Sausage, and at 5:00, we were tied up. Unloading of gear and passengers went smoothly. Then, Ray moved the boat over to the main pier to offload the fish into the dock carts so teams of two could push them up to the sorting area on the concrete where the Red Shirts had cones 1-24 spread out for the sorting process. I really didn’t think I had a contender for Jackpot so, I was pretty much done, adventure complete.

Thanks for looking

 

[CI_SeaWolf]

Sounds like a fun trip, glad you guys go into the tuna on the way home.

 

[fishe]

Great report and all the details.
Thanks

 

[Abusaade]

Great trip . Thanks for sharing

 

[Tunahead]

..... SORRY GUYS.....Steve K's wife just told him he had 8 days of "HONEY DUES" to pay.... and who told him HE was a "Journalist"??.... lol.

He'll be back..... when he's done.

WOW that sucks.

 

[Tunahead]

Great added reports!

 

[Sailing La Reina]

Thanks for your report Steve. It’s really hard to write a report right after you’re off the boat. There’s so much to do and so much to recover from. The way you kept coming back to add to report was an inspiration to us all.