“I measure the success of my seasons, as much by what I’ve learned, as by what I’ve caught.” John Skinner, author & angler.
"Many men go fishing all their lives without knowing that is not fish that they are after." Henry David Thoreau
When you're traveling from a great distance to fish San Diego Long-Range, the deployment of equipment and resources need to be well planned. Over more than a decade of enjoying this incredible fishery, tactics had evolved & lessons learned. A friend from “Table 5” advised to consider Alaska Airlines, which has a great "sports equipment" policy. This allows for an angler to ship both a rod tube and a tackle box & only be charged for “one piece” of equipment. This not only cuts costs but reduces interaction with large shippers, who charge a significant premium to ship "oversized" equipment coast-to-coast. This is a big improvement over having to interact with them, both sending & receiving the equipment. Shipping most of the other stuff via USPS Quick Ship Boxes, allows for heavier items (lead, jigs, trolling lures and Wahoo bombs) to be sent at reasonable cost. A typical trip to San Diego trips will include 6 -7 of these boxes, shipped out a minimum of 14 days in advance.
While on the phone with a friend, who had very generously agreed to pick me up at the airport he asked: “did you check with the landing, to make sure all your stuff arrived?” Without a moment’s pause, I related that my boxes had for more than a dozen years, "always arrived without a hitch." (“Murphy” was laughing somewhere… )
After my friend drops me off at the hotel early in the afternoon, I make my way across the street to Fisherman's landing. Stopping by the front desk I head towards the package room with one of the guys from the counter. (We talked about fishing conditions and how helpful the staff has been over the years.) Immediately I spot one of my quick ship boxes & shortly thereafter the package with my jig box, both of which were shipped as a secondary batch. The first six boxes are nowhere to be found! We checked behind the counter, in the storage room & then head back to the front desk. It was odd that packages sent later had arrived, while six boxes shipped 5 days earlier had not… I remarked that on occasion things end up in the XL or overflow lockers & we go to check there. Nothing! Then I contact the business office to see if the first shipment of six boxes ended up there. Not a thing! Heading back to the desk, we do the entire drill over again as a sinking feeling begins to overtake my enthusiasm. Alternate scenarios abound. I begin to think of the emoji with the mushroom cloud vaporizing its head…
Since all of the missing boxes are USPS, a recommendation is made to check with the Point Loma PO. I head back to the hotel to get my file with the shipping receipts. There I discover that although I have the receipt for the Jig box & the USPS quick ship box I already have, the earlier shipment receipt for the six boxes is AWOL. Then I called a friend, who was in the know re: USPS & its procedures, but we made no progress. Getting back to the landing’s front desk I explained my dilemma & hoping to perhaps obtain the shipping receipt electronically.
The guy the computer was very helpful but could not locate a receipt numbers for the early shipment, using the reference number from the later shipment. He inquired: "were some of those packages heavy?" "Oh yeah": I responded explaining how neon pink HEAVY stickers were affixed to 3 of the boxes! He remarked to his boss that he very likely handled those boxes and places them in front of the package room… Still nothing could be located. So I'm off to the Point Loma PO.
In a remarkable stroke of luck the manager on duty at the PO recalled our conversation last year when, I was sending my equipment back to the East Coast. He tried to research off the number for the second shipment receipt, but we were dead in the water without the original numbers. Heading back to the hotel I try to assess what gear was missing and what it will mean to my 10 day trip. (It's the emoji with the mushroom cloud vaporizing its head.) I get on the phone with my wife and daughter and have them check for the missing receipt, which ultimately turns up in a pile of stuff left from thinning out my wallet pre-trip. Heading back to the landing desk we run the numbers on the computer with the manager looking on. The young guy who remembered the packages was super quick & we learned that three had indeed arrived & three were marked "in transit". By now it's 4 PM and the manager Tony says: "we checked everything, the business office, locker, the overflow locker, the mailroom & behind the counter storage. The only possibility left is that it may have been loaded on the boat." He gets on the satellite phone & after some conversation, Tony pulls the rabbit is out of the hat! The six boxes are all on board. Tons of kudos for Tony and a gratuity for all my friends the counter leaves me with my brain & trip fully intact.
These days I usually build in 24 hours to deal with the time-consuming unpacking, assessing, managing & redeploying equipment. Then I'm off to visiting various tackle shops, the liquor store, Target & Cosco to get gifts for the crew. The entire time consuming tackle redeployment goes out the window, but everything else including dinner with fellow passengers moves forward. The office helpfully has the six boxes retrieved back to the dock, while we all line up for check in. All of the redeployment happens on-the-fly, while lining up with everyone else's baggage & equipment. The final laughable indignity happens as I'm unpacking and repacking everything to go on board, when the packages are massively strafed by an offending seagull!
10/23 Lining up for the redshirts is normally a enjoyable activity reconnecting with lots of anglers who shared the rail together for years & getting to know some of the more recent additions to the passenger list. While I am busy with my gear, I keep one ear attuned to the conversation. Scuttlebutt is discussed at length. We perusing this year's itinerary, lamenting the size of Wahoo reported, whether we will fish for BFT early, at the end of the trip or, at all. Projections are made about the captain’s choice of venues, contrasting reports of recent trips, as well as information gleaned from anglers with "good Intel".
Our crew for the trip includes Justin Fleck as Capt., Mike Ramirez - second Capt., deckhands are the always motivated Vance, high-energy Will, young Chase and new man Kiel. Although new to XL, he was quite experienced and helpful. Our very talented returning Chef was Richard & his assistant was Ulysses.
We eventually cast off & headed over to the bait receivers. Richard our Chef served up a snack of banana cake & fresh fruit. PIX! Passengers stowed gear & racked their rods. The crew and Capt. loaded bait over 2 hrs.
For those who were observant, (passengers, pelicans & egrets)
the process was notable, for the size of the sardines that were loaded for the first 1.5hrs. Also notable, but curious, was a batch of smaller ‘dines that followed. We headed out of the harbor & the “order of operations” was established. The captain would be in touch with the other long-range boats to gather “intel” to determine out destination. Roundabout dinnertime we were told that we would make a run to Alijos Rocks and bank. For us, the possibility to target BFT would not arrive until we headed back north. While this plan of action had been SOP in past Colonello 10 days, some were hoping for an early shot at the BFT early.
10/24 Most of us use the day to rig, catch up with old friends, make new ones & socialize. With a 13 rod quiver, the opportunity is always appreciated.
The vast majority of my setups are spectra, FG’ed to short (3-7ft.) fluorocarbon top shots, San Diego jammed to a ringed hook. My Mak SAa 30 II was rigged with 25 feet of 200 pound mono as a shock leader. The Avet HX Raptor with 100 Fluro & held in reserve for final rigging. One for bait & the other for 400 + g knife jigs. My Mac SEa 20 became a dedicated Wahoo troller, with 25 feet of 100 pound mono, double San Diego jammed to the swivel of a 275 pound cable, rigged by SquidCo to a JRI Hooker Intruder.
Mike V, a tenacious and talented angler who can never get enough time wetting a line, got the okay to “speed troll” some feathers, as we headed south. This resulted in a couple of Dorado’s that afternoon, that were donated to the galley. Richard prepared a fantastic dinner of roasted pork loin with garlic mashed potatoes & string beans followed by scoop of mint ice cream, with a brownie.
Captain reports hearing that some Wahoo have been tagged & a nice grade of yellowtail had been put in the RSW, with local mackerel for bait.
10/25 Vance gives a tackle seminar after breakfast & covers fly line, light sinker rig and dropper loop. He strongly encourages using 1/0 or 2/0 circle hooks. Everyone gets their final rigging in order & deckhands assist. We troll our way down to the rocks & arrive about noon. Richard prepared a fantastic shrimp lo-mein for lunch. Shortly thereafter captain calls for sardines to be thrown in "twos & threes" and the action begins. It somewhat of a plunker bite with Dorado 3 to 15 pounds & mixed yellowtail 5 to 20 pounds, with some lucky anglers landing +25 pound fish. We move & periodically put out the troller's for Wahoo but only get a couple of “WeeHoo”. As this was our first day of fishing & my freezer well-stocked with tuna all of my fishing was catch and release. PIX! Figuring that we would have ample opportunity for a better grade of Dorado & considering the Mexican regulations, I would reserve for larger fish. Many folks opted to tag some of these and everyone was stoked to put a bend in their rods. Richard prepares marinated flank steak for dinner with a Fleck family potato recipe, which turned out to be quite tasty! Capt. informs us that were going to fish for mackerel after dinner, so that we can be ready for YT fishing after midnight on Alijos bank. Sabki fishing is often a situation where some enjoy complaining about having to make bait, unavoidable snafus & others enjoy the catching. It took us a while to make enough bait & even when cautioned to "spread out" the inevitable entanglements developed. Once we had enough bait we slid over to use the macks on the yellows. Many of us finished from 10 PM to 12 PM with only one small yellowtail to show for it. Several went to bed or dozed in the galley or on deck chairs.
10/26 Awakened in the galley, I shuffled on deck about 3 AM & saw 3 anglers there. Wayne had taken a folding chair and was sitting fishing the rail via dropper loop. I set up in the starboard corner. About 45 min. later Wayne gets bit and is into a nice YT. He quickly gets the greenback off the bottom and encounters some squirrely behavior about halfway up. He winds furiously, but by the time he boats the fish a grinner has bit tail off of a 30+ yellow! He donates what's left to the galley. A little later Shannon N brings a nice grade YT to the gaff. A friend catches a really nice sized Skullpin. Then Steve (one of 3 this year) who's new to the trip, also tags his first YT and is very jazzed! I'm using my classic dropper loop set up, which is an old SS 6465 HX that was refinished by Rod wrapper extraordinaire Jim Trelikes some years ago. It is paired with an Accurate BX 2 600 spooled with JB HC 80 pound, FG’ed to 80 pound mono with a surgeons loop to the 7/0 Owner Muto, via a San Diego Jam. Using a tip from last year’s charter master John Carlson, I used on a old snap swivel salvaged from a discarded Sabiki rig. Using this to secure my 16 oz sinker, ensures that if snared in the rocks it would simply straighten the wire clip rather than lose the entire rig. It's then a simple matter to fix the clip and added a new sinker. Around 4:30 AM I pin on a medium-size mack & drop down. Touching bottom I retrieved two revolutions and slowly angle my rod tip up and down. Soon I feel that mackerel reacting to something and I'm quickly bit. Angling the rod against the rail and cranking for all I am worth results in a beautiful arc, screaming drag & the mossback heading south and portside. Keeping the SS 6465 bent, I wind tenaciously until I get deep color. Kyle is there with the gaff and a nice 25-ish YT is tagged and in the box.
Ten -15 min. later I rinse and repeat, landing my second 25-30 lb greenback on deck. The grade is good and I race inside to quickly alert several slumbering friends, as to what's happening on deck. Perhaps now there are 8 to 10 anglers on deck and I drop back down. The yellows really like those fresh mackerel and 10 min. later I'm bent almost double on another small freight, train! This results in a nice 30 - 35-ish YT. Fist bumps and hand slaps down the line, along with kudos for rousing my friends. (Later, I also get a pile of “ear excrement” for not dashing further below decks to roust another dreaming angler… ) The bite continues until sharks interrupt the action. I hooked up with a really nice bendo, but I end up bit off by a hammerhead. Others got “ripped off’ by a marauding Mako. Len D, Paul W and Larry all tag some nice grade YT. As gray light becomes sunup the action slows. The Capt. assigned trolling team # 1, for HOO in the stern, as we motor our way back to Alijo's rocks. Around 10 AM we are trolling Alijos, John N, Erric T & Ron H land the first 3 Wahoo of the trip.
We alternate between tuna stops & Wahoo trolling. I tag single mid grade Dorado, for the RSW after sending several neck ties back to grow up.
We continue to pick through smaller grade Dorado/tuna & David L (aka Ducky), Chuck C & Mike V catch a few of the better grade between 25-45 lbs. (I take a one better grade tuna perhaps 20 lbs.) Plenty of 10-15 grade tuna were taken by anglers for the table. Although lots of stops were made, it was difficult to locate a consistently better grade of fish.
TBC below....
"Many men go fishing all their lives without knowing that is not fish that they are after." Henry David Thoreau
When you're traveling from a great distance to fish San Diego Long-Range, the deployment of equipment and resources need to be well planned. Over more than a decade of enjoying this incredible fishery, tactics had evolved & lessons learned. A friend from “Table 5” advised to consider Alaska Airlines, which has a great "sports equipment" policy. This allows for an angler to ship both a rod tube and a tackle box & only be charged for “one piece” of equipment. This not only cuts costs but reduces interaction with large shippers, who charge a significant premium to ship "oversized" equipment coast-to-coast. This is a big improvement over having to interact with them, both sending & receiving the equipment. Shipping most of the other stuff via USPS Quick Ship Boxes, allows for heavier items (lead, jigs, trolling lures and Wahoo bombs) to be sent at reasonable cost. A typical trip to San Diego trips will include 6 -7 of these boxes, shipped out a minimum of 14 days in advance.
While on the phone with a friend, who had very generously agreed to pick me up at the airport he asked: “did you check with the landing, to make sure all your stuff arrived?” Without a moment’s pause, I related that my boxes had for more than a dozen years, "always arrived without a hitch." (“Murphy” was laughing somewhere… )
After my friend drops me off at the hotel early in the afternoon, I make my way across the street to Fisherman's landing. Stopping by the front desk I head towards the package room with one of the guys from the counter. (We talked about fishing conditions and how helpful the staff has been over the years.) Immediately I spot one of my quick ship boxes & shortly thereafter the package with my jig box, both of which were shipped as a secondary batch. The first six boxes are nowhere to be found! We checked behind the counter, in the storage room & then head back to the front desk. It was odd that packages sent later had arrived, while six boxes shipped 5 days earlier had not… I remarked that on occasion things end up in the XL or overflow lockers & we go to check there. Nothing! Then I contact the business office to see if the first shipment of six boxes ended up there. Not a thing! Heading back to the desk, we do the entire drill over again as a sinking feeling begins to overtake my enthusiasm. Alternate scenarios abound. I begin to think of the emoji with the mushroom cloud vaporizing its head…
Since all of the missing boxes are USPS, a recommendation is made to check with the Point Loma PO. I head back to the hotel to get my file with the shipping receipts. There I discover that although I have the receipt for the Jig box & the USPS quick ship box I already have, the earlier shipment receipt for the six boxes is AWOL. Then I called a friend, who was in the know re: USPS & its procedures, but we made no progress. Getting back to the landing’s front desk I explained my dilemma & hoping to perhaps obtain the shipping receipt electronically.
The guy the computer was very helpful but could not locate a receipt numbers for the early shipment, using the reference number from the later shipment. He inquired: "were some of those packages heavy?" "Oh yeah": I responded explaining how neon pink HEAVY stickers were affixed to 3 of the boxes! He remarked to his boss that he very likely handled those boxes and places them in front of the package room… Still nothing could be located. So I'm off to the Point Loma PO.
In a remarkable stroke of luck the manager on duty at the PO recalled our conversation last year when, I was sending my equipment back to the East Coast. He tried to research off the number for the second shipment receipt, but we were dead in the water without the original numbers. Heading back to the hotel I try to assess what gear was missing and what it will mean to my 10 day trip. (It's the emoji with the mushroom cloud vaporizing its head.) I get on the phone with my wife and daughter and have them check for the missing receipt, which ultimately turns up in a pile of stuff left from thinning out my wallet pre-trip. Heading back to the landing desk we run the numbers on the computer with the manager looking on. The young guy who remembered the packages was super quick & we learned that three had indeed arrived & three were marked "in transit". By now it's 4 PM and the manager Tony says: "we checked everything, the business office, locker, the overflow locker, the mailroom & behind the counter storage. The only possibility left is that it may have been loaded on the boat." He gets on the satellite phone & after some conversation, Tony pulls the rabbit is out of the hat! The six boxes are all on board. Tons of kudos for Tony and a gratuity for all my friends the counter leaves me with my brain & trip fully intact.
These days I usually build in 24 hours to deal with the time-consuming unpacking, assessing, managing & redeploying equipment. Then I'm off to visiting various tackle shops, the liquor store, Target & Cosco to get gifts for the crew. The entire time consuming tackle redeployment goes out the window, but everything else including dinner with fellow passengers moves forward. The office helpfully has the six boxes retrieved back to the dock, while we all line up for check in. All of the redeployment happens on-the-fly, while lining up with everyone else's baggage & equipment. The final laughable indignity happens as I'm unpacking and repacking everything to go on board, when the packages are massively strafed by an offending seagull!
10/23 Lining up for the redshirts is normally a enjoyable activity reconnecting with lots of anglers who shared the rail together for years & getting to know some of the more recent additions to the passenger list. While I am busy with my gear, I keep one ear attuned to the conversation. Scuttlebutt is discussed at length. We perusing this year's itinerary, lamenting the size of Wahoo reported, whether we will fish for BFT early, at the end of the trip or, at all. Projections are made about the captain’s choice of venues, contrasting reports of recent trips, as well as information gleaned from anglers with "good Intel".
Our crew for the trip includes Justin Fleck as Capt., Mike Ramirez - second Capt., deckhands are the always motivated Vance, high-energy Will, young Chase and new man Kiel. Although new to XL, he was quite experienced and helpful. Our very talented returning Chef was Richard & his assistant was Ulysses.
We eventually cast off & headed over to the bait receivers. Richard our Chef served up a snack of banana cake & fresh fruit. PIX! Passengers stowed gear & racked their rods. The crew and Capt. loaded bait over 2 hrs.
10/24 Most of us use the day to rig, catch up with old friends, make new ones & socialize. With a 13 rod quiver, the opportunity is always appreciated.
Mike V, a tenacious and talented angler who can never get enough time wetting a line, got the okay to “speed troll” some feathers, as we headed south. This resulted in a couple of Dorado’s that afternoon, that were donated to the galley. Richard prepared a fantastic dinner of roasted pork loin with garlic mashed potatoes & string beans followed by scoop of mint ice cream, with a brownie.
10/25 Vance gives a tackle seminar after breakfast & covers fly line, light sinker rig and dropper loop. He strongly encourages using 1/0 or 2/0 circle hooks. Everyone gets their final rigging in order & deckhands assist. We troll our way down to the rocks & arrive about noon. Richard prepared a fantastic shrimp lo-mein for lunch. Shortly thereafter captain calls for sardines to be thrown in "twos & threes" and the action begins. It somewhat of a plunker bite with Dorado 3 to 15 pounds & mixed yellowtail 5 to 20 pounds, with some lucky anglers landing +25 pound fish. We move & periodically put out the troller's for Wahoo but only get a couple of “WeeHoo”. As this was our first day of fishing & my freezer well-stocked with tuna all of my fishing was catch and release. PIX! Figuring that we would have ample opportunity for a better grade of Dorado & considering the Mexican regulations, I would reserve for larger fish. Many folks opted to tag some of these and everyone was stoked to put a bend in their rods. Richard prepares marinated flank steak for dinner with a Fleck family potato recipe, which turned out to be quite tasty! Capt. informs us that were going to fish for mackerel after dinner, so that we can be ready for YT fishing after midnight on Alijos bank. Sabki fishing is often a situation where some enjoy complaining about having to make bait, unavoidable snafus & others enjoy the catching. It took us a while to make enough bait & even when cautioned to "spread out" the inevitable entanglements developed. Once we had enough bait we slid over to use the macks on the yellows. Many of us finished from 10 PM to 12 PM with only one small yellowtail to show for it. Several went to bed or dozed in the galley or on deck chairs.
10/26 Awakened in the galley, I shuffled on deck about 3 AM & saw 3 anglers there. Wayne had taken a folding chair and was sitting fishing the rail via dropper loop. I set up in the starboard corner. About 45 min. later Wayne gets bit and is into a nice YT. He quickly gets the greenback off the bottom and encounters some squirrely behavior about halfway up. He winds furiously, but by the time he boats the fish a grinner has bit tail off of a 30+ yellow! He donates what's left to the galley. A little later Shannon N brings a nice grade YT to the gaff. A friend catches a really nice sized Skullpin. Then Steve (one of 3 this year) who's new to the trip, also tags his first YT and is very jazzed! I'm using my classic dropper loop set up, which is an old SS 6465 HX that was refinished by Rod wrapper extraordinaire Jim Trelikes some years ago. It is paired with an Accurate BX 2 600 spooled with JB HC 80 pound, FG’ed to 80 pound mono with a surgeons loop to the 7/0 Owner Muto, via a San Diego Jam. Using a tip from last year’s charter master John Carlson, I used on a old snap swivel salvaged from a discarded Sabiki rig. Using this to secure my 16 oz sinker, ensures that if snared in the rocks it would simply straighten the wire clip rather than lose the entire rig. It's then a simple matter to fix the clip and added a new sinker. Around 4:30 AM I pin on a medium-size mack & drop down. Touching bottom I retrieved two revolutions and slowly angle my rod tip up and down. Soon I feel that mackerel reacting to something and I'm quickly bit. Angling the rod against the rail and cranking for all I am worth results in a beautiful arc, screaming drag & the mossback heading south and portside. Keeping the SS 6465 bent, I wind tenaciously until I get deep color. Kyle is there with the gaff and a nice 25-ish YT is tagged and in the box.
TBC below....
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. Safe travels home!
