Friday ended up being a really tough day, most guys we talked to were lucky if they brought home anything, save a few yellowtail. Conditions were perfect and the fish were everywhere, but didn't cooperate. We managed one 30# bluefin a mile away from the fleet at the 425 on a few breaking fish that stuck with us for 10 minutes. Another boat nearby managed to troll up 6 yellowfin, all blind, single strikes with no followups on bait. For some reason we couldn't get bit on the troll, even though we were trolling in the exact same zone as the guys who got 6.
The afternoon was much more interesting, though less productive. Everyone was calling out non-biting breezers several miles west of the islands so we went to investigate and found a dozen bird schools working spots of fish. We tried several with no luck before finding a massive spot that was probably 500' x 500' and went 100' deep on the sonar. They were so dense on the surface that it was easy to follow the school and determine their direction. We ran ahead of them, shut down and literally watched them swim under the boat while throwing all manner of jigs and flylining baits. We could see 1.5"-2" bait in the water and they must have been keyed in on that small stuff, but we dropped down to 28g snipers and they wouldn't even look at it. The school stayed together and we setup on them 20 times over 3 hours and never got bit. I assumed that we would eventually get one if we kept trying, but that's bluefin fishing. Oddly, our fun was put to an abrupt end when the San Diego chased down the school from behind, ran full throttle into the middle of the fish 100 yards from where we were waiting for the school to come to us. They brailed bait and a bunch of 80-100# pound fish came up and put on quite a show for a few minutes, but no one on the San Diego hooked up and the school scattered. Practically, it was a fun show to watch and I'm glad they gave us an excuse to give up, but it didn't seem like a very good way to catch fish. We tried to hail the San Diego to give them the speed and heading of the school so they could setup on them, but I don't know what channels they monitor. I wasn't about the tie up 16 to talk about fish, so does anyone know if there's a VHF channel that the cattle boats are on so that we can work with them? Also, if a breezer isn't biting, is it ever productive to run into the middle of it and start brailing bait? Does the chaos of breaking up a school ever get them in a biting mood? I consider the San Diego to be a really great operation and driving into the middle of a breezer seemed odd, but that boat catches far more fish than I do so maybe that's a legit technique?
In summary, I spent 3 hours learning that there are schools of fish that just will not eat anything with a hook. I had never had a school of tuna give me so many opportunities to setup on them as they slowly swam by, and I had previously assumed that in such a situation I would certainly be able to catch something. I'd say that we had fish within casting range for 2.5 hours of the 3 hours that we followed them around. If you're out there and find a nice school of fish and they don't bite after several attempts, it might be wise to bail and find another school. In hindsight, we should have left after our 10th attempt because we were drained and low on bait and probably drove past 30 spots of fish on the way home and didn't have the energy to stop. Also, it might be time to invest in a bluewater speargun. The local fishing is going to be amazing if this volume of fish ever starts biting consistently! Until then, it's probably worth heading further south to the 425 where the fish aren't putting on a show but are much more willing to bite.
The afternoon was much more interesting, though less productive. Everyone was calling out non-biting breezers several miles west of the islands so we went to investigate and found a dozen bird schools working spots of fish. We tried several with no luck before finding a massive spot that was probably 500' x 500' and went 100' deep on the sonar. They were so dense on the surface that it was easy to follow the school and determine their direction. We ran ahead of them, shut down and literally watched them swim under the boat while throwing all manner of jigs and flylining baits. We could see 1.5"-2" bait in the water and they must have been keyed in on that small stuff, but we dropped down to 28g snipers and they wouldn't even look at it. The school stayed together and we setup on them 20 times over 3 hours and never got bit. I assumed that we would eventually get one if we kept trying, but that's bluefin fishing. Oddly, our fun was put to an abrupt end when the San Diego chased down the school from behind, ran full throttle into the middle of the fish 100 yards from where we were waiting for the school to come to us. They brailed bait and a bunch of 80-100# pound fish came up and put on quite a show for a few minutes, but no one on the San Diego hooked up and the school scattered. Practically, it was a fun show to watch and I'm glad they gave us an excuse to give up, but it didn't seem like a very good way to catch fish. We tried to hail the San Diego to give them the speed and heading of the school so they could setup on them, but I don't know what channels they monitor. I wasn't about the tie up 16 to talk about fish, so does anyone know if there's a VHF channel that the cattle boats are on so that we can work with them? Also, if a breezer isn't biting, is it ever productive to run into the middle of it and start brailing bait? Does the chaos of breaking up a school ever get them in a biting mood? I consider the San Diego to be a really great operation and driving into the middle of a breezer seemed odd, but that boat catches far more fish than I do so maybe that's a legit technique?
In summary, I spent 3 hours learning that there are schools of fish that just will not eat anything with a hook. I had never had a school of tuna give me so many opportunities to setup on them as they slowly swam by, and I had previously assumed that in such a situation I would certainly be able to catch something. I'd say that we had fish within casting range for 2.5 hours of the 3 hours that we followed them around. If you're out there and find a nice school of fish and they don't bite after several attempts, it might be wise to bail and find another school. In hindsight, we should have left after our 10th attempt because we were drained and low on bait and probably drove past 30 spots of fish on the way home and didn't have the energy to stop. Also, it might be time to invest in a bluewater speargun. The local fishing is going to be amazing if this volume of fish ever starts biting consistently! Until then, it's probably worth heading further south to the 425 where the fish aren't putting on a show but are much more willing to bite.
