On the Excel motoring north as I type this. Ill keep itshort as the fishing was overall rather poor for a fall 8 day. I thought Iwould post some tips that may help some of you BDers make your efforts count onany trips this fall. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com
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OK, just a brief overview, we covered LOTs of water for verylittle in fishing productivity. Lots of trolling hits but the darn fish wouldscoot after getting 1-2 hook-ups on megabaits and the like. Vast majority ofYFT were small footballs. Dorado were often mixed in on trolling, also rathersmall. We did venture WAAAY out there for 3 monster dorado (40-50ish pounds),but caught nothing else for that day. I went to bat on the troll with boat gearand had two wahoo hook ups = two marauder malfunctions, a broken crimp (lostthe marauder) AND a hook that brook at the swivel. Talk about bad luck! Ivenever even heard of marauders breaking. So, tip #1, ensure your trolling gear isat 110% shape. The pinks with blacks seem to be getting bit well. Dorado color too.The Yellowfin were liking the zucchini colors. <o></o>
Yellowtail fishing was good, mostly yo-yo but I got about12+ tails on the surface plug. When the fishing did slow, the dorado color wasreally producing. THeres tip #2. <o></o>
Bait situation was precarious, all the boats, (local and LR)are having trouble with this. We had some cured on board, but we had to startusing it sparingly through out the trip. <o></o>
We spent one day at Alijo s Rocks and caught about 15 hoos.Water was gorgeous and full of bait. We did not get a jig strike for 3-4 hoursand when we did it was game on hoos for about 3 minutes. I was on the bow, oursurface jigs were getting chased and then I watched a 35+ pound hoo glide inon top of my Tony the Tiger 6xJR and chomp on it. Amazing! It was like slowmotion action. The jig caught perfectly in the corner of the mouth. We gotabout 5 hoos off that, got another strike for 4 (got a 2<sup>nd</sup> hoo on asilver and purple raider) and then picked off 1-2s for the next 5 hours. Notuna were seen. Very little wire was used, in fact, no hoos on jigs were caughtusing wire to my knowledge. Gold color seemed very productive, raiders seemedlike the hot ticket. Theres tip #3.<o></o>
Alright, nothing else much to report, we hit a few morespots for small footballs on megabaits and few dodos. We finished up a quick bite of nice paddygrade dodos around the trip, but like the other bites, it was very short lived.My next long range trip Im gonna dish out some hate and discontent on thesefish! Man it was slow!<o></o>
Crew and food was great, to be expected on the Excel. I got hooked on the bottom with my jig and spent 10 minutes trying to bounce it out. MIke Ramirez comes over, has it for barely a minute and hands me my rod witht he jig swinging free as a loose balloon. Dang! Crew was excellent with tangles, just wished we had more fish to get hung up on. Hopefullythe fishing will pick up with more wahoo and tuna moving into the rocks this fall.
fficeffice" /><o></o>OK, just a brief overview, we covered LOTs of water for verylittle in fishing productivity. Lots of trolling hits but the darn fish wouldscoot after getting 1-2 hook-ups on megabaits and the like. Vast majority ofYFT were small footballs. Dorado were often mixed in on trolling, also rathersmall. We did venture WAAAY out there for 3 monster dorado (40-50ish pounds),but caught nothing else for that day. I went to bat on the troll with boat gearand had two wahoo hook ups = two marauder malfunctions, a broken crimp (lostthe marauder) AND a hook that brook at the swivel. Talk about bad luck! Ivenever even heard of marauders breaking. So, tip #1, ensure your trolling gear isat 110% shape. The pinks with blacks seem to be getting bit well. Dorado color too.The Yellowfin were liking the zucchini colors. <o
></o>Yellowtail fishing was good, mostly yo-yo but I got about12+ tails on the surface plug. When the fishing did slow, the dorado color wasreally producing. THeres tip #2. <o
></o>Bait situation was precarious, all the boats, (local and LR)are having trouble with this. We had some cured on board, but we had to startusing it sparingly through out the trip. <o
></o>We spent one day at Alijo s Rocks and caught about 15 hoos.Water was gorgeous and full of bait. We did not get a jig strike for 3-4 hoursand when we did it was game on hoos for about 3 minutes. I was on the bow, oursurface jigs were getting chased and then I watched a 35+ pound hoo glide inon top of my Tony the Tiger 6xJR and chomp on it. Amazing! It was like slowmotion action. The jig caught perfectly in the corner of the mouth. We gotabout 5 hoos off that, got another strike for 4 (got a 2<sup>nd</sup> hoo on asilver and purple raider) and then picked off 1-2s for the next 5 hours. Notuna were seen. Very little wire was used, in fact, no hoos on jigs were caughtusing wire to my knowledge. Gold color seemed very productive, raiders seemedlike the hot ticket. Theres tip #3.<o
></o>Alright, nothing else much to report, we hit a few morespots for small footballs on megabaits and few dodos. We finished up a quick bite of nice paddygrade dodos around the trip, but like the other bites, it was very short lived.My next long range trip Im gonna dish out some hate and discontent on thesefish! Man it was slow!<o
></o>Crew and food was great, to be expected on the Excel. I got hooked on the bottom with my jig and spent 10 minutes trying to bounce it out. MIke Ramirez comes over, has it for barely a minute and hands me my rod witht he jig swinging free as a loose balloon. Dang! Crew was excellent with tangles, just wished we had more fish to get hung up on. Hopefullythe fishing will pick up with more wahoo and tuna moving into the rocks this fall.
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