Double A Vaccine “First Shot”
Chartered and jumped on the American Angler aka Double A 1.5 May 7-9, 2021, 29 of us, for our first shot at the bluefin tuna. The Double A vaccine is imho proven better than Moderna, Pfizer and J&J by being 100% effective with only minor side effects of possible muscle aches, sore shoulders, bruising, exhaustion and irregular heart palpitations.
What makes this vaccine rise above the others starts at the landing. You walk upstairs to their office where Lori checks you in for all the standard stuff like ID, temperature check, licenses…Then you get your stateroom assignment and rods location assignment. It’s pretty cool when you don’t have to get on a boat like cattle and rush to find a bunk or spot on the rod rail. Your roommates and rodmates being assigned with no hassle works for me. As usual per departure times, five friends in three different cars were running a bit late fighting the 5 traffic south while twenty four of us had pre-boarded early on an already baited and fueled boat. How many have had a vaccine baited and fueled before your shot out the harbor? It was nice to skip the normally scheduled one hour commercial of fill the bait tank show. Back to my late friends, fortunately they were near Rosecrans or just exiting so two deckhands, like the pre-corona airport skycaps, had carts ready up top to load them up so they could check-in and quickly join the rest of us. Standard skycap fees are $5 per bag but AA’s standard practice is a no fee courtesy for all.
Conditions were forecasted to be bumpy til around the 8AM high tide and lo and behold the forecast was true. Leaving around 5:30PM, we made the 7.5 hour run to the west end of the W. Butterfly and the 157 joining a dozen strong fleet search party in this zone. On the way out we were served a deli buffet of meats, cheeses, and potato salad. Even on Sunday AM, the morning we returned, Josh fed us waffles and sausages! Back to our “ First Shot “, around 1:30AM, the AA Captain shuts the engine down which is my alarm clock to get my half asleep body to the deck. In the first minute of stopping, three of us were ready to start the day with a line of others joining us minutes later. JNo and I were the first of three to drop and then get bumped and bit. By 2:00AM we both landed our first BFT of the season, 60#ers. In the next hour, two more were landed. From 1:30AM to 8:30AM we made four moves and put 8 BFT into the RSW ranging from 50-119.5 #’s. From 8:30AM to 11:30AM we put another 7 down below ranging from 20-40#’s. Early morning bite resulted with 15 BFT in Zone 1 with six stops. We then made a two to three hour run to Zone 2 which was west of the 302. From approximately 2:00PM to 8:00PM, Captain Ray worked this zone hard for a daytime to sunset plunker bite with 34 bft caught ranging 20-40#’s. We were 9 shy of limits but grateful for the 49 now resting peacefully. Captain Ray says we’re running to Zone 3 and it’ll be about a two hour run so he sets a 10:00PM curfew of go big or go back to the barn. Some of the fleet are already in this zone and were having limited success, one or two here and there. I believe time flies faster on the water, so what seems like moments later, my adrenaline starts to pump as we see a half dozen of SD’s finest lit up and working this area. From 9:30PM to 10:05PM, Ray’s seeing nothing popping on the scanner nor worth dropping or stopping on in our last zone, so he makes the curfew call to breakdown and head for the barn. Kenny and others are cutting off FF’s (flatfalls), SK’s (Daiwa Saltiga slow pitch), KB’s (Kikkawa Brothers knife jig) and breaking down their night-bite terminal tackle. My heart’s pumping more adrenaline now, sensing Captain Ray’s really feeling the same, so I smile and tell Steve F, “let’s wait five (more) minutes”. Within 2-3 minutes, Captain Ray says he’s metering some fish and those or anyone who’s still rigged, to try here. A few of us drop and two rods bend, the triple digits type of bend that tests the backbone of rod and angler. Jeff is in the starboard stern corner pretty much pinned to the rail. He’s bit and hooked-set solid on a KB. BFT beast and Jeff were calmer now after a mean run, so he starts to slowly gain some line in low gear. Then the beast turns angrily and pulls him towards the port corner where many were working their jigs. Deckhand and Jeff yell for them to stop cranking but ears somehow don’t work so well in chaos. And in less than a blink of an eye he’s sawed off…JNo on the other hand is fortunately running away from the stern chaos and headed for the bow. After about a fifteen to twenty minute battle JNo lands his second 100#er, 116#’s per scale. Everyone’s hearts pumping with adrenaline now so we make another small move east away from the fleet. Within 5-10 minutes, Captain Ray slows the engine down and says a few fish are here, looks like another wolf pack so he tells the boys to brail bait. Seconds later I think he said to “Empty the tank!’ or “They’re charging the boat, it’s going to happen for sure!” Anyway what he said didn’t matter, bluefin bedlam erupted. Almost anything dropped in the water got bit, especially the KB’s and everyone on deck was bent around the boat. I had a 30-40#er flat on the surface and was yelling “color” for several minutes but by the time someone was free to gaff, my hook got unbuttoned. The deckhand said, “Sorry” as we looked at my fish sink away but I smiled and replied “no problem”. Seconds later I was bit, bent again and landed two more. Captain Ray called in the fleet to our massive honey hole and we took off dragging and trolling two unlanded 50#ers still hooked but got pulled as we sped off. Isn’t there a fisherman’s law against that like improper catch and release? Yes, we were all screaming "Stop" but forgot that ears are designed not to work well in chaos. We left around midnight and heard reports the next morning that the bite lasted until 1AM. Captain Ray and the AA hit a ninth inning walk off grand slam out of the park! And we were blessed with front row seats…
JNo was high stick with six fish and jackpot winner with BFT ranging from 40-119.5#’s all caught on KB’s. Seven of us landed four each while the rest landed 1-3 each. Some of our anglers were in lala land already and missed the unbelievable pandemonium of the ninth inning…Approximately 50% of our catch were on KB’s(150-250g), 25% on FF’s/SK’s(80-300g) and 25% on sinker rigs (1/0-3/0, 6oz) and flylined bait (#2-1/0, 40# fc). What’s wild is that you fish KB’s with 80-100# fluoro at night and the same 80-!00# fluoro setup during the day. And it still works. Captain Ray grabbed a random rod off the rail rigged with a KB just to see, test and feel it’s action. On his first drop at around 3PM, he hooked a 50#er and handed it off as he shooked his head in wonder on the way back to the wheelhouse. KB’s are not easy to find, almost like finding bluefin that wanna bite but here’s one way since many have already asked.
FACEBOOK: JAMES KIKKAWA INSTAGRAM: WEST_COAST_JIGGERZ
After my “First Shot” of the season, I’m wondering when I can take my “Second Shot” and looking forward to the Boosters too! The First Rule of offshore fishing is not catching, it’s getting home safely. Besides the Double A vaccine, I did get my second shot of Pfizer too last month so my hope and prayer is that you do as well and get home safely. He is good.
Chartered and jumped on the American Angler aka Double A 1.5 May 7-9, 2021, 29 of us, for our first shot at the bluefin tuna. The Double A vaccine is imho proven better than Moderna, Pfizer and J&J by being 100% effective with only minor side effects of possible muscle aches, sore shoulders, bruising, exhaustion and irregular heart palpitations.
What makes this vaccine rise above the others starts at the landing. You walk upstairs to their office where Lori checks you in for all the standard stuff like ID, temperature check, licenses…Then you get your stateroom assignment and rods location assignment. It’s pretty cool when you don’t have to get on a boat like cattle and rush to find a bunk or spot on the rod rail. Your roommates and rodmates being assigned with no hassle works for me. As usual per departure times, five friends in three different cars were running a bit late fighting the 5 traffic south while twenty four of us had pre-boarded early on an already baited and fueled boat. How many have had a vaccine baited and fueled before your shot out the harbor? It was nice to skip the normally scheduled one hour commercial of fill the bait tank show. Back to my late friends, fortunately they were near Rosecrans or just exiting so two deckhands, like the pre-corona airport skycaps, had carts ready up top to load them up so they could check-in and quickly join the rest of us. Standard skycap fees are $5 per bag but AA’s standard practice is a no fee courtesy for all.
Conditions were forecasted to be bumpy til around the 8AM high tide and lo and behold the forecast was true. Leaving around 5:30PM, we made the 7.5 hour run to the west end of the W. Butterfly and the 157 joining a dozen strong fleet search party in this zone. On the way out we were served a deli buffet of meats, cheeses, and potato salad. Even on Sunday AM, the morning we returned, Josh fed us waffles and sausages! Back to our “ First Shot “, around 1:30AM, the AA Captain shuts the engine down which is my alarm clock to get my half asleep body to the deck. In the first minute of stopping, three of us were ready to start the day with a line of others joining us minutes later. JNo and I were the first of three to drop and then get bumped and bit. By 2:00AM we both landed our first BFT of the season, 60#ers. In the next hour, two more were landed. From 1:30AM to 8:30AM we made four moves and put 8 BFT into the RSW ranging from 50-119.5 #’s. From 8:30AM to 11:30AM we put another 7 down below ranging from 20-40#’s. Early morning bite resulted with 15 BFT in Zone 1 with six stops. We then made a two to three hour run to Zone 2 which was west of the 302. From approximately 2:00PM to 8:00PM, Captain Ray worked this zone hard for a daytime to sunset plunker bite with 34 bft caught ranging 20-40#’s. We were 9 shy of limits but grateful for the 49 now resting peacefully. Captain Ray says we’re running to Zone 3 and it’ll be about a two hour run so he sets a 10:00PM curfew of go big or go back to the barn. Some of the fleet are already in this zone and were having limited success, one or two here and there. I believe time flies faster on the water, so what seems like moments later, my adrenaline starts to pump as we see a half dozen of SD’s finest lit up and working this area. From 9:30PM to 10:05PM, Ray’s seeing nothing popping on the scanner nor worth dropping or stopping on in our last zone, so he makes the curfew call to breakdown and head for the barn. Kenny and others are cutting off FF’s (flatfalls), SK’s (Daiwa Saltiga slow pitch), KB’s (Kikkawa Brothers knife jig) and breaking down their night-bite terminal tackle. My heart’s pumping more adrenaline now, sensing Captain Ray’s really feeling the same, so I smile and tell Steve F, “let’s wait five (more) minutes”. Within 2-3 minutes, Captain Ray says he’s metering some fish and those or anyone who’s still rigged, to try here. A few of us drop and two rods bend, the triple digits type of bend that tests the backbone of rod and angler. Jeff is in the starboard stern corner pretty much pinned to the rail. He’s bit and hooked-set solid on a KB. BFT beast and Jeff were calmer now after a mean run, so he starts to slowly gain some line in low gear. Then the beast turns angrily and pulls him towards the port corner where many were working their jigs. Deckhand and Jeff yell for them to stop cranking but ears somehow don’t work so well in chaos. And in less than a blink of an eye he’s sawed off…JNo on the other hand is fortunately running away from the stern chaos and headed for the bow. After about a fifteen to twenty minute battle JNo lands his second 100#er, 116#’s per scale. Everyone’s hearts pumping with adrenaline now so we make another small move east away from the fleet. Within 5-10 minutes, Captain Ray slows the engine down and says a few fish are here, looks like another wolf pack so he tells the boys to brail bait. Seconds later I think he said to “Empty the tank!’ or “They’re charging the boat, it’s going to happen for sure!” Anyway what he said didn’t matter, bluefin bedlam erupted. Almost anything dropped in the water got bit, especially the KB’s and everyone on deck was bent around the boat. I had a 30-40#er flat on the surface and was yelling “color” for several minutes but by the time someone was free to gaff, my hook got unbuttoned. The deckhand said, “Sorry” as we looked at my fish sink away but I smiled and replied “no problem”. Seconds later I was bit, bent again and landed two more. Captain Ray called in the fleet to our massive honey hole and we took off dragging and trolling two unlanded 50#ers still hooked but got pulled as we sped off. Isn’t there a fisherman’s law against that like improper catch and release? Yes, we were all screaming "Stop" but forgot that ears are designed not to work well in chaos. We left around midnight and heard reports the next morning that the bite lasted until 1AM. Captain Ray and the AA hit a ninth inning walk off grand slam out of the park! And we were blessed with front row seats…
JNo was high stick with six fish and jackpot winner with BFT ranging from 40-119.5#’s all caught on KB’s. Seven of us landed four each while the rest landed 1-3 each. Some of our anglers were in lala land already and missed the unbelievable pandemonium of the ninth inning…Approximately 50% of our catch were on KB’s(150-250g), 25% on FF’s/SK’s(80-300g) and 25% on sinker rigs (1/0-3/0, 6oz) and flylined bait (#2-1/0, 40# fc). What’s wild is that you fish KB’s with 80-100# fluoro at night and the same 80-!00# fluoro setup during the day. And it still works. Captain Ray grabbed a random rod off the rail rigged with a KB just to see, test and feel it’s action. On his first drop at around 3PM, he hooked a 50#er and handed it off as he shooked his head in wonder on the way back to the wheelhouse. KB’s are not easy to find, almost like finding bluefin that wanna bite but here’s one way since many have already asked.
FACEBOOK: JAMES KIKKAWA INSTAGRAM: WEST_COAST_JIGGERZ
After my “First Shot” of the season, I’m wondering when I can take my “Second Shot” and looking forward to the Boosters too! The First Rule of offshore fishing is not catching, it’s getting home safely. Besides the Double A vaccine, I did get my second shot of Pfizer too last month so my hope and prayer is that you do as well and get home safely. He is good.
what a great read and thanks for all of the pics. Got me so excited to go fishing that I just booked a trip on the AA for May 24-26! Screw the full moon.....
