Hello everyone; Well it’s an end to another great trip and year. The boat will be going into the shipyard in a couple of days, for it annual maintenance. We are moving north, and should arrive to San Diego around 06:00 to off load our catch. For our end of trip report:

Day 1. We departed Fisherman’s landing at 08:30 hours, headed to the bait barge, and loaded our tanks with prime Sardines and Mackerel. We cleared the point at 11:00 hours and headed for points south. With a crew of 8 and 24 happy anglers, we are hoping to catch Giant Yellowfin tuna and speedy Wahoo.

Day 2. With 15 knots of breeze, we are heading to Alijos rocks and hoping the water temp is up, so we can get busy with one of the fastest fish in the ocean. Roy gave an indef seminar on Wahoo fishing and what type of leaders they will need for fishing at Hurricane bank. After the seminar, the crew went to work getting everyone on the right track.

Day 3. We arrived to Alijos in the morning, the water temp was down, and no Wahoo to show. We did get a few Grouper and one Yellowtail, about 25 pounds.

Day 4. With the weather getting better, we manage to pick up a couple of open water Wahoo, in the 40 t0 50 pound range. Roy gave another seminar on how to fish Giant Yellowfin tuna.

Day 5. We arrived to the bank in the early afternoon, with good signs of fish on the bank. Roy decided where he wanted to drop the anchor, and it was game on. With only squid and sardines for the kite, there was not much action on the kite. We ended our day with 14 Yellowfin up to 185 pounds. Largest fish was caught by Eric Simonsen, with a 185 pound Yellowfin tuna, and no Wahoo for the day.

Day 6. Things are starting to look very good, with fish showing on the bank, and we ended our day with 36 Yellowfin, largest coming in at 264 pounds, and 8 Wahoo. Largest fish was caught by Guillermo Ruiz, on a live flying fish on the kite. We had many other fish in the 175 to 197 pounds. Largest bait fish was caught on a live puffer, caught by Steve “movie man” Franco.

Day 7. Our morning started at 03:00 hours, looking for flying fish. We made two tanks of flyers, and once we got the anchor down again, we started catching tuna. We caught fish on the live puffer, sardines, dead squid, and live skipjacks. It was a mixed catch of Yellowfin tuna. We ended our day with 25 Yellowfin and a handful of Wahoo. Most of the Yellowfin were in the 70 to 120 pound range, with the largest coming in at 234 pound, caught by David Thiessen.

Day 8. Weather is just beautiful, with flat seas, clear skies, and very warm. We needed to put two balloons on the kite just to fish them, and that was almost impossible to fly at times. We ended our day with 47 Yellowfin tuna (our best day of the trip) and 18 Wahoo. Largest fish was caught by Kevin Crow on the kite, on a live flying fish. The giant Yellowfin came in at 215 pounds.

Day 9. Weather continues to be excellent, with some rain in the afternoon, and a slight breeze (8 to 10 knots). After our excellent day of fishing yesterday, things cooled off some, with 18 Yellowfin and 18 Wahoo being landed today. The morning was a bit slow, with the afternoon coming on strong, with most of the action happening then. Largest fish today was caught by Willy Leung at 203 pounds, on the kite. We had a handful of Yellowfin over the 100 pound mark, the rest were in the 50 to 70 pound range.

Day 10. Wow, what a morning, it’s like someone just turned off the switch and all the fish went south for the day. At this time Roy was thinking about leaving for Clarion Island, but with time running out, he gave it until 10:30 hours, and we departed the bank and headed to the buffer zone. With only 3 Yellowfin and 7 Wahoo to show for our morning, it was time for change. Only one fish was over the 100 pound mark, the rest were 40 to 60 pounds. Off to Clarion Island.

Day 11. Arrive to Clarion at 06:30 hours. We made many stops on different bird schools, and it was tough to get a bite. To our surprise, while trolling for Yellowfin off-shore, we found a pack of Wahoo, and this would bring excitement to every one onboard. It’s what we needed from the long 188 mile ride from the bank. Once the smoke cleared we boated 28 Wahoo and 10 Yellowfin for our efforts, but the rest of the day was dead. After lunch we didn’t land a single fish. The move payed off, because the boat that was still at the bank only had 3 Yellowfin for the day, all under 70 pounds and no Wahoo. So with only a few ours left in the morning, we had a good night of rest and started early the next morning.

Day 12. After a good night sleep, we started our morning at 04:00 hours, stopping of schools of fish, but everything we hooked was a shark or attacked by the sharks, hoping this was just a night thing, but once the sun came up, you could look in the water and see sharks on both sides of the boat. Not the way we wanted to finish the trip out, but you win some, you lose some. We had a great time and that’s what counts. We departed at 09:30 hours and headed for home. Another great season, and another great year.

Final Fish Count:Yellowfin Tuna: 137 Wahoo: 86 4 Yellowfin over 200 pounds, and 12 between 180 to 197 pounds.

Jackpot Winners:
Steve Franco 197 Yellowfin Tuna, live puffer
David Thiessen 188.6 Yellowfin Tuna, live skipjack
Kevin Crow 187 Yellowfin Tuna, live skipjack

We are now moving up the line, and we just might have enough time to make one more stop. So until tomorrow, good luck and good fishing.