Offshore Tomahawk 8/8-8/10

[Dbado1]

Headed out with Mike Loust and company on the Tomahawk for an extended 1.5 on Sunday and we slayed em!!! 91 BFT and 14 YFT.
Capt. Loust is relentless! They guy is super motivated which is contagious. His crew was great and the Chef (yes, CHEF) was amazing.
What worked:
Listening to what Loust said to use and spending time at the rail!
At night all kinds of jigs worked...FF, Knife, RR....I used a 200 gram Nomad Buffalo in red/glow zebra with a 7/0 assist on top and bottom which accounted for three fish. My rig was a acid wrapped Thrasher TR FM 7'6" H with a Penn Fathom 2 40NLD2 wearing 80# braid to 15' of 150# Jinkai mono tied with a Spangler knot to a solid ring on the jig. In the day... fly line rigs consisted mostly of light rigs using 25/30# flouro to a hook as small as a #4. Small reels like Penn Fathom 15 or Avet SX seemed to be the ticket.
The biggest factor was RAIL TIME! If you spent the time you caught fish.
You have all seen pictures of 30-70 BFT so I'm not going to post any here.
The only con on the trip was the sucky bunks on the Tomahawk....

 

[Dream to fish]

Nice! What was the average size fish being landed on the 15/SX size reals?

 

[dctalk523]

 

[Tunahead]

Great report and info. WHAT? No pics, no Bloody Decks???
The gang likes pics here.FYI

 

[mike82]

BS without pics!

 

[tunakillerjoe1]

"Acid wrapped"? What is this? I thought that stuff was gone after the 70's! How do you keep it from washing off? Thanks for the report! Nice work!

 

[hucklongfin]

Sucky bunks? I was only on the Tomahawk once but recall the bunks being bigger than average.

 

[Ahkhuang]

Thanks for the report.

 

[ksquared]

Sucky bunks? I was only on the Tomahawk once but recall the bunks being bigger than average.

I was also on the boat and it was a great trip. The captain, crew, and chef were incredible and worked hard to get us fish. It was also a good group on board that got along. No burgers were served, but I'll take street tacos and pork tenderloin with an orange chili sauce any day of the week.

Not sure if Dbado1 was in the miniature bunk, but I was. It was so small, that I couldn't turn on my side. The ceiling was no joke 4 inches from my face. I ended up sleeping in the galley with my son. I was told they recently put in a third row of bottom bunks near the steps. The other bunks looked decent though.

I would fish the boat again, but have to make sure I'm not in one of those mini-bunks again.

Here are a couple of pictures to make the report legit.

 

[Dbado1]

The fish ranged from 30-70#s. The Avet SX and Penn 15 sized reels did fine on this size of fish.
Huck, the bunks are long enough but three high open room (no state rooms). I had a top bunk and it was a pain getting in and out of it with the ceiling in my face. I heard many guys complain about them. Some couldn't get in to their bunk and just slept in the galley. Middle bunk was the only way to go.
Also, as already stated in many other posts....Mark your line!!!! Super important. Do it to 400 feet.
Joe1, lol. The acid wrapped rod performed perfectly! This was my first attempt at wrapping a spiral concept. Had a lot of comments. Most were like, " what the hell is wrong with your rod"! Pretty funny!

 

[short-range]

Mike Loust is a rock star on this BFT bite!

Sorry I had to do it ..... lol

 

[hucklongfin]

The fish ranged from 30-70#s. The Avet SX and Penn 15 sized reels did fine on this size of fish.
Huck, the bunks are long enough but three high open room (no state rooms). I had a top bunk and it was a pain getting in and out of it with the ceiling in my face. I heard many guys complain about them. Some couldn't get in to their bunk and just slept in the galley. Middle bunk was the only way to go.
Also, as already stated in many other posts....Mark your line!!!! Super important. Do it to 400 feet.
Joe1, lol. The acid wrapped rod performed perfectly! This was my first attempt at wrapping a spiral concept. Had a lot of comments. Most were like, " what the hell is wrong with your rod"! Pretty funny!

I was in a middle bunk! I've had comments from the peanut gallery when using my acid wrapped rods... wrapped by J.Akuhed who coined the term.

 

[Titan]

I was on that trip too. It was awesome. Mike has a great sense of humor too. His banter on the intercom was hilarious. The crew were top notch, That pork loin was the bomb!

Two of my fish came on a 300 gram H4L Goober jig:

Goober Flutter Jig / Slow Pitch Jig – Poppers, Vertical and Slow Pitch Jigs

www.h4ltackle.com

Daytime fishing was a waste of time. The best action came at night.

I thought the bunks were fine. I had a top row one by the stairs. I only wish the damn AC wasn't blowing in my face.

 

[Olddog8]

I was on the trip with my long time fishing buddy too. Captain Mike was great, very entertaining, most of the crew were green (new), trip was good overall. Top bunk I had was big but didn't spend enough time in it (zombie Bluefin fishing through the night).

I used an MXJ Raptor with 30lb leader and #1 circle hook for daylight Flyline fishing. I hooked 4 on it, landed 2. One I lost in a tangle and one basically spooled me. 2nd Captain Frank stopped on a foamer off Torrey Pines, all the fish I saw were the 20 to 30lb models, went with the 30lb, got picked up in seconds and watched half my line disappear. At 3/4 of my spool left I started going past strike to full, with only a few wraps left I decided to thumb it before I was spooled and couldn't fish anymore. I preset my drag at 12lbs (strike) and couldn't slow the fish down at full drag. Frank checked my drag and said "damn", then told me he had marked some bigger fish under the small ones. So the small reels and 20 to 30lb was fine most of the time, bigger fish are still around.

Night time jig fishing with 30 people was a cluster f... the first night, second night was better and I hooked 3 more.

 

[aguachico]

Mxj is a small reel. Sounds looked you hooked larger model.

 

[Dbado1]

Yes, the first night jigging was a cluster! There were some epic tangles on this trip!! I stayed out of them and mostly fished the bow. I witnessed some very odd "technique" on this trip that had the same guy involved in most of the tangled messes.

 

[IBGoose]

I've never fished the Tomahawk and am considering changing that status. My balance is real bad and of course I don't dig crowds anymore than anyone else. Boat looks small for the load. Is it? How's it handle swells? Thanks!