Aztec 11/22-25
Day 1 -Sunday - Travel Day
I woke up excited to fish at 4am(no alarm) and hopped on the road down to San Diego. I showed up to Seaforth about 6am to sign in. Got to choose my bunk and got a number as #3 in the books. Phew made it... Figured it would be nice to show early and beat the crowd and get to know a few of the others. One thing to mention is we are the only boat heading out as the weather forecast isn’t looking great.(More on that later)...
Around 9 am, all 22 passengers have showed up and we board the Aztec with Captain Greg, chef Oat, deckhand Justin and a few whom I’m not too familiar with yet. My buddy Curt and Terry arrive where we catch up and quickly talk gear, have a beer and get excited to be out for the next 3 days on the water. About 2 hours pass and everyone is getting rigged up and doing the small groups thing and slowly getting to know each other. Nice way to start the trip and get into a groove of how we will operate. Capt Greg calls all into the galley where he makes a lengthy brief about only using 80# line or above and having drags set right.. Greg is a story teller! I love it... Chef Oat serves up some amazing fresh steak tacos for lunch and were back to more rigging and double checking the heavy setups.
Tacos. Perfect light lunch to get us going...
So far we had traveled up to the south tip of San Clemente Island looking for markings but nothing. Capt heads to the island to make some live flying fish for a bit and tells us to enjoy dinner while the crew nets them. Pasta and salad to pass the time.
8pm comes, the raiders lose the football game, and I decide to call it a night. Looks like we’re making the long push to Cortez or Tanner! No fishing on day 1 but we’re all still excited. Greg reminds us this is big bluefin or bust and we won’t be wasting any time looking for anything else. Got it...
Pasta and meat sauce with a delicious caesar salad.
Day 2 -Monday - Travel & Yellows
5am hits and I’m up. We are still searching up and down for the bluefin. At this time we had made it out to Tanner banks. Up and down, up and down and around we go. Searching for bluefin... that is how today will go... Everyone starts to roll out of bed around 530, recovering from the night before. A few beers to many for some so it’s nice to see everyone up and ready to get started.
The Swell
8-10 Foot seas, 20 knots of wind right on the bow. We are the only boat on the ocean. The boat usually travels about 10 knots, but as we head into it we are going about 4. Traveling 15 miles at what is now about 4 knots is no easy task. Hours passed as we continue to try to make the move. Watching waves lift us 12 feet up and down wasn’t exactly as fun as it looks. Water splashing on the deck and wind pushing us like a sail made everything from using the bathroom to stepping outside a mission on its own. How we were going to fish in this I had no idea. Holding onto everything we could, we battled it out and looked for somewhere to drop anchor for even the slightest break from the madness. Around 930am we made it to the high spot on Tanner, dropped the anchor and fished the high ground.
Fishing
Without the boat moving and only the 8 foot waves pushing us up and down now we felt more capable to fish, granted it still wasn’t what you would call comfortable. A few guys started double dropper loop rigs and the boat got about 20 white fish. After a while of that, the guys started changing it up and landing a handful of yellowtail on the Tady lures. Next up started to fly line where I landed a fat Bonita and then a few others landed more good grade yellowtail. About 3 hours of this went on before the birds came and started pulling every bait and line out of the water and we became frustrated. Having to pull your hook out of a seagull isn’t exactly fishing. Burgers were made for lunch, we lifted anchor and pushed south.
Fun sized Bonita caught on a 8 foot Phenix 808XHJ w/Torium 16Hg 50# Mono
We pushed south through the sunset looking for bluefin until dinner. About 7pm the boat dropped the sea anchor. Not much on the fish finder but I jumped up to my Talica 16ii setup and fished the flat-fall. About 30 minutes of nothing so sat down for a chicken and fried rice dinner alongside a carrot cake dessert. Stuffed and tired from working for fish all day, I decided to call it a night. 8pm came and just about everyone did the same. We will see how tomorrow looks where we won’t be battling the heavy wind and 10 foot of sickening swells. Hoping they finally fly the kite.
Day 3 - Tuesday - Target Bluefin
Heading north again... heading south. Heading west, heading east... All day searching and searching. Not much. Capt spotted a few small grade once where we stopped for about 15 minutes. Pulled up a few small grade Bonita and moved on. Back to searching. We searched all day and night and about 11pm came and nothing. Headed back to shore and called it a trip. Only so much ground one boat can cover when searching for these prize bluefin and this time was hard. Capt Greg worked hard for us and never gave up and that’s what counts. That’s fishing.
Day 1 -Sunday - Travel Day
I woke up excited to fish at 4am(no alarm) and hopped on the road down to San Diego. I showed up to Seaforth about 6am to sign in. Got to choose my bunk and got a number as #3 in the books. Phew made it... Figured it would be nice to show early and beat the crowd and get to know a few of the others. One thing to mention is we are the only boat heading out as the weather forecast isn’t looking great.(More on that later)...
Around 9 am, all 22 passengers have showed up and we board the Aztec with Captain Greg, chef Oat, deckhand Justin and a few whom I’m not too familiar with yet. My buddy Curt and Terry arrive where we catch up and quickly talk gear, have a beer and get excited to be out for the next 3 days on the water. About 2 hours pass and everyone is getting rigged up and doing the small groups thing and slowly getting to know each other. Nice way to start the trip and get into a groove of how we will operate. Capt Greg calls all into the galley where he makes a lengthy brief about only using 80# line or above and having drags set right.. Greg is a story teller! I love it... Chef Oat serves up some amazing fresh steak tacos for lunch and were back to more rigging and double checking the heavy setups.
Tacos. Perfect light lunch to get us going...
So far we had traveled up to the south tip of San Clemente Island looking for markings but nothing. Capt heads to the island to make some live flying fish for a bit and tells us to enjoy dinner while the crew nets them. Pasta and salad to pass the time.
8pm comes, the raiders lose the football game, and I decide to call it a night. Looks like we’re making the long push to Cortez or Tanner! No fishing on day 1 but we’re all still excited. Greg reminds us this is big bluefin or bust and we won’t be wasting any time looking for anything else. Got it...
Pasta and meat sauce with a delicious caesar salad.
Day 2 -Monday - Travel & Yellows
5am hits and I’m up. We are still searching up and down for the bluefin. At this time we had made it out to Tanner banks. Up and down, up and down and around we go. Searching for bluefin... that is how today will go... Everyone starts to roll out of bed around 530, recovering from the night before. A few beers to many for some so it’s nice to see everyone up and ready to get started.
The Swell
8-10 Foot seas, 20 knots of wind right on the bow. We are the only boat on the ocean. The boat usually travels about 10 knots, but as we head into it we are going about 4. Traveling 15 miles at what is now about 4 knots is no easy task. Hours passed as we continue to try to make the move. Watching waves lift us 12 feet up and down wasn’t exactly as fun as it looks. Water splashing on the deck and wind pushing us like a sail made everything from using the bathroom to stepping outside a mission on its own. How we were going to fish in this I had no idea. Holding onto everything we could, we battled it out and looked for somewhere to drop anchor for even the slightest break from the madness. Around 930am we made it to the high spot on Tanner, dropped the anchor and fished the high ground.
Fishing
Without the boat moving and only the 8 foot waves pushing us up and down now we felt more capable to fish, granted it still wasn’t what you would call comfortable. A few guys started double dropper loop rigs and the boat got about 20 white fish. After a while of that, the guys started changing it up and landing a handful of yellowtail on the Tady lures. Next up started to fly line where I landed a fat Bonita and then a few others landed more good grade yellowtail. About 3 hours of this went on before the birds came and started pulling every bait and line out of the water and we became frustrated. Having to pull your hook out of a seagull isn’t exactly fishing. Burgers were made for lunch, we lifted anchor and pushed south.
Fun sized Bonita caught on a 8 foot Phenix 808XHJ w/Torium 16Hg 50# Mono
We pushed south through the sunset looking for bluefin until dinner. About 7pm the boat dropped the sea anchor. Not much on the fish finder but I jumped up to my Talica 16ii setup and fished the flat-fall. About 30 minutes of nothing so sat down for a chicken and fried rice dinner alongside a carrot cake dessert. Stuffed and tired from working for fish all day, I decided to call it a night. 8pm came and just about everyone did the same. We will see how tomorrow looks where we won’t be battling the heavy wind and 10 foot of sickening swells. Hoping they finally fly the kite.
Day 3 - Tuesday - Target Bluefin
Heading north again... heading south. Heading west, heading east... All day searching and searching. Not much. Capt spotted a few small grade once where we stopped for about 15 minutes. Pulled up a few small grade Bonita and moved on. Back to searching. We searched all day and night and about 11pm came and nothing. Headed back to shore and called it a trip. Only so much ground one boat can cover when searching for these prize bluefin and this time was hard. Capt Greg worked hard for us and never gave up and that’s what counts. That’s fishing.
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