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#31
08-19-2010, 05:28 AM
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Quote:
There was even a score sheet at the door to the salon, listing who was up, and who had already fished the kite, along with their results. I read that sheet on Wednesday morning when I was only a couple of people away from my turn (and most everybody had already had theirs). It made for interesting reading! There were only like 4-6 people who "timed out," even though they were keeping the rotation to 90-120 minutes. Quite a few people (eight, maybe?) had caught tuna, and the rest had lost fish. What you have to remember is that we had a few little hot streaks when the kite got bit three or four times in a half an hour, to be followed by not much at all. In any case, the kite was hottest on Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning, not coincidentally when the wind was at its most consistent. Starting Tuesday afternoon, the kite really began to taper off, with sporadic hits to make things interesting. You're right about the balloon, but as I recall it was more of a Keystone Cops thing than not being productive. People kept tangling the balloon line! Still, the balloon had a couple of hits. I just don't think anyone caught a fish on it. And as for being "right" about how to bait, hook, and put in, this is all hindsight. If I had been paying attention, I would have been "right" a lot sooner than the last bait on Wednesday afternoon! It was a pleasure meeting you and sharing the rail, Chris. I really hope we get a chance to do it again soon...in a hotter bite! 
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#32
08-19-2010, 07:48 AM
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Part VII Addendum: After Action Report
Now that I have some space between me and catching that fish, now that I have written it up, and in so doing forced myself to remember every detail, some last thoughts on my equipment, my fishing, and the Alijos Rocks. Equipment: I was under gunned...but it was my own fault! When I was recovering from that fight, and on into the next day, one thought that kept going through my head was that I had nearly been burned because I had, in a sense, brought a knife to a gun fight. In a way, that's true too. The rig I was using was only barely up to the task of catching that fish. But that wasn't the rig's fault, and for two reasons: 1. It was a 120lb fish, and I was using a 40lb rig. People have written here many times before that this is something that can be done, and now I have evidence to prove it. But come on...how much drag do you really want to put on your 40lb rig? 20lbs at the most? A fish that big and that angry, 19-20lbs of drag still equals a long fight, and a long fight means that a lot of things can go wrong. The truth is, it says an awful lot about my gear and my knots that nothing did go wrong. I may have brought a knife to a gun fight, but in the end, it turned out to be a damned fine knife! 2. How well any rig works is more about how the angler uses that gear than the gear itself. The most accurate expression of how I fought that fish has to be "operator error." All I really had going for me was a whole raft of stubborn determination...and the worst technique imaginable. I'm going to learn how to fish the rail properly for my next trip. When I do, I know that very same setup will be all I need to whip a fish of the same size in half the time. In the final analysis, the whole setup is really a 40lb rig. What I needed was a 50 or 60lb rig, set up to fish 40. Why? Because I really don't expect---most of the time!---to be catching fish larger than 80lbs on a 40lb setup. If I need to use 40 to catch a 120lb fish, I need a rig that is made to catch fish that big, even if I use lighter line on it. I don't know if that makes sense to anyone else here, but it's clear to me. Saltist Lever Drag reels... I have no complaints, just a single, small quibble. The reel worked like a champ for me. The drag was strong and smooth and held up well the entire fight. It may be lightweight, but it fights fish like a much heavier reel. Before I fish again, I want to make sure the drag washers are properly greased, because the reel really took (and stood up to!) some abuse. But I have no worries about that either. The one tiny little thing is that the drag ramps up steeply, and "strike" is pretty darned close to "full." I mentioned that in my description of the fight, I know, but it bears repeating. As we were heading out Sunday, I set the drag to 15lbs at strike. I then pushed it to full and only got about 18.2 lbs. The reel is supposed to have a wider range than that (17 at strike, 23 at full), but for fishing 40lb line, I didn't want strike to be heavier than 15. During the fight, though, I really wished I had 22lbs at strike! Again, though, that is more a function of the fish than the reel. Even on an 80 or 90lb fish, that reel would have owned it. It put out a lot of drag, given that it was set up to fish 40lbs. It's just that catching a fish that size on 40lb line is pushing that reel to its limit...pushing the inside of the envelope, if you will. Again, it says a lot about the reel that I did catch the fish, had no failures of any kind, and the reel was in perfect shape at the end of the fight, even if I wasn't. I'm Telling You, An OC Rod is a GOOD Rod! Just like the Saltist reel, the rod I was using was up to the task and then some. There are two reasons why it was the wrong rod for that fight: 1. It is probably just a hair light for a fish of that size. 2. Mine is not wrapped as a rail rod. But having said that, I am very, VERY happy with that rod. I believe that model is a fantastic 40lb rod. It's just that very few 40lb rods (again, like the reel) are honestly designed to catch 120lb tuna. Period. There were a lot of Seeker enthusiasts on the boat, of course. I used one (borrowed from Fishybuzz) for the very first time, and I came away truly impressed. They are fantastically strong rods...so much so that a rod Fishy uses for 50lbs (the one he loaned me) could easily be used by other anglers to fish 60. So yes, the Super Seeker I used to fish 50lbs had more lifting power than the OC Rod I used to fish 40lbs. I would have been astonished it that wasn't the case! But you know what? That OC rod is a damned fine rod, and the best deal I can imagine for the money. It is light and strong and forgiving, and it performed like a champ. Remember, I had to drag that fish back in from about 300 yards out, kicking and screaming, if you will, four different times. I put one HELL of a lot of pressure on that rod---especially early in the fight while I was fresh---and it gave me all I could have asked for and more. Really! I'm keeping that rod, and I'm going to fish it...a lot. It is a fantastic 40lb rod for me, and I am going to use it at Guadalupe and at Cedros and offshore too. Anytime I want to fish 40lbs, and think think I might run into fish 40-80lbs, even up to 90 or 100lbs, I know I can count on that stick. Shameless Plug: Tony Hale (Toeknee on the message boards) is the proprietor of OC rods, and a great guy. His rods are quality products from top to bottom, well-conceived, well-designed, and well constructed, using top of the line components and materials. For anyone who is in the same boat I was...lots of enthusiasm, no gear...OC Rods are a fantastic place to start, especially for fishing 50lbs and under. His prices are more than fair, and his rods will catch you fish. If you are like me, and you need to begin assembling an arsenal of rigs as you expand your fishing, you really can't do better than OC, especially in this economy. Evidence? Hey, I used an OC rod to catch my biggest ever tuna. It was the wrong rod (a little too light, not configured to fish the rail), and I pushed it as hard as I possibly could. The rod did me proud, and that's good enough for me. Yes, I will buy other makes of rods. I really liked the Super Seeker I got to use this trip, and I like Calstar Grafighters as well. But you know what? I will buy more OC rods too. I Need More Gear!!! The gear I have is good! I like it, and will continue to use it. To fish the Rocks the way I want to, though, I think I need a 60lb rig, and maybe one more 50lb rig. If I go longer, I will need more and heavier gear. More importantly, I need my heavier rods to be wrapped as rail rods. Let me put it this way... - 'Lupe is a step up in fighting class from offshore (and a wonderful place to fish...hope they open it soon!). - Alijos is a step up in fighting class from 'Lupe. Each time I have taken a step up, I have discovered that my gear needed to be better. Catching small albacore on an overnight boat (my first San Diego trip in 2001) really only needed 20lb line. Catching yellowtail and yellowfin on a 3-day trip (2003, 2004) called for 30lb line and a somewhat better caliber of rod. Then I went to Guadalupe (2006). That was a different ballgame, even though I used 30lb gear. The good news is that the gear I used I borrowed from harddrive, and it was up to the task. By 2009, I started assembling my own gear (one paltry rig), but it was pretty stout, and served me well at Cedros. It turned out I was less well-prepared for the Rocks. That's the truth of it too: I am well-prepared to fish offshore, or to go to 'Lupe, Benitos, or Cedros. I have what I need to catch fish up to about 90 or 100 lbs, and I am well-armed for the 50-70lb class. What I need now is gear that is designed to fish lighter line (40, 50, 60lbs) for bigger fish. I don't have those setups yet, but I hope to add at least some of that for next year (assuming I get to fish next year!). The Rail Is My Friend! More than anything else, much more important than any of the other items on this list, I must learn to fish the rail effectively and well. There's just no other way. I plan to return to Alijos, and more than once. When I do, sooner or later I will find myself in the same position again, too big a fish on too light a rig. Or even any big fish on pretty much any rig. I no longer have the physical strength to manhandle a fish of that size to the boat. Well, I showed that I can get it to the boat, but I didn't have enough left to bring it to gaff. Knowing how to fish the rail changes everything. Next: On To Part VIII!
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#33
08-19-2010, 10:00 PM
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Part VIII: We're Going South? Huh?
Between myself and a few others, we really ruined Kevin's schedule. I know he wanted to troll around the Rocks a little bit more to see if the wahoo wanted to play...and he wanted to have a little daylight left for that. Then he wanted to get a head start on going to our next destination. It was a good ride from the Rocks, and Kevin would have honestly preferred to get there before daybreak. I'm sure he had reasons for this, and I'd probably have agreed with him had I known them. But I, for one, am very glad we didn't pull the anchor or leave the stones at 2:00, 2:30, or even 4:00. I was taking care of some urgent, unfinished business, and I really didn't care that the business in question very nearly finished me. For better or worse, it was almost 6:00 (or later) when Intrepid pulled the hook for the last time at Alijos, and we didn't even troll our way out. We had places to go, fish to catch, and we were late getting on our way. I'll give Kevin lots of credit for the entire trip, including this: I wasn't the only angler who wanted one last shot at a tuna. There were several people who hadn't had great trips so far, and if the bite was picking up somewhat, he wanted those people to score if possible. So with a steady pick on big fish, we waited awhile. Just before 2:00, Kevin even went around to a couple of people who (like me) were suffering, and gave us a tip: "There's a huge amount of bait sitting right under the boat, and when I start the engines, it's all going to get blown out under the stern by the prop wash. Whatever stays in our shadow will come out when we run up the anchor line. Lots of times, we get a big, wild burst of feeding fish when that happens. Be ready with a bait then, and you'll have a great chance to get hooked up." That was a very cool thing for him to do. Even with one foot out the door, he was going to do whatever it took to get his passengers on fish. Even though I was lucky enough to score an 11th hour tuna, I'm not going to forget that any time soon. As it turned out, that wasn't necessary. Plenty of people hooked up that afternoon, well after we supposed to be on our way. The deckies did a world class job getting as many of those fish on the deck as humanly possible, even though several of them were real toads. When the time finally came to pull the anchor, we didn't have any sad sacks standing there with baited rods waiting for the blow off. Kevin had finally told us to wind them in...we were headed out without further delay. By the way, there was indeed a blowout as we left our spot...maybe 20 big tuna rushed in to attack the bait...but only after the boat had moved away. There ARE Yellowtail At Other Places Besides Cedros... One thing that I didn't mention before was a brief conversation I'd had with Willy on Tuesday night in the salon after dinner. Willy told me that the plan was to head even further South once we left Alijos the next day, heading down to fish The Ridge. I was thinking it would be late afternoon when we did (and so it turned out to be!), but in any case I was surprised. I had thought the logical next move would be to Isla Cedros. Look at a map and Cedros made a lot of sense. It was a lot closer to San Diego, and thus much closer to Bluefin country. The boat would burn less fuel, and we'd have plenty of time to load up on yellows fishing a whole day there. Worst case scenario, we'd stay overnight if the bite there was off. And at the time we left San Diego, Cedros had been HOT! But apparently that wasn't what we were going to do. Instead we were going farther South to fish the Ridge, and there was at least one very good reason why: besides yellows, there was a chance at a lot of other species down there, and especially wahoo. When you read reports about the fish caught at Cedros, you begin and end with yellowtail. Oh you can catch other fish, including Halibut and White Seabass. In addition, Calico Bass and Bonita are around, and Barracuda too. But the reality is, boats go to Cedros to catch yellows, and everything else is pretty much by-catch. Granted, the yellows there are often pretty big, but not always. More to the point, while it seems like Cedros is always on, sometimes it isn't, and there are plenty of other places where you can catch big yellows too. At the Ridge, we would almost certainly catch a lot of yellows, but we also had a decent chance at wahoo, plus at least an outside chance of some early yellowfin (they normally get to the Ridge later, apparently, but warm water had been moving through). Halibut, White Seabass, Calico Bass, and especially Sheepshead were plentiful too. The downside was that this would be Intrepid's first trip to the Ridge this season, and no one knew what we would find. Another downside was that we would be farther away from the Bluefin schools (not that they had been biting anyway!), so we would probably have less of a chance to go for them on the way home. But you know what? That's why Kevin is the captain. To the Ridge we went. It would be a long ride... 15 Hours To Eat Up... It wasn't actually that bad a trip this time around, but we would be a little late getting where we wanted to be, due to our late departure from Alijos. Dinner was at 6:30, and they made it one call. They were planning to put the petal to the metal all night, and they wanted us fed and complacent while we traveled. I honestly can't remember what we had that night for dinner, except that I still couldn't eat it. Was that the night we had Rack of Lamb? Maybe so. I remember thinking that it really is an ironic world. I finally had a fish to really celebrate, the galley was serving something tasty, and I just had no appetite. I seem to remember getting a couple of bites in, with big waits in between, but I barely ate anything before I surrendered. I just wasn't hungry, and forcing myself to eat was making me feel nauseated. I left the table, visited the head, got a cigar from my room, and went upstairs to smoke. That, at least, was one of life's simple pleasures of which my Mexican digestive system did not rob me. I was up there alone that time, and I really did enjoy a solitary smoke for once. I remembered the fight that afternoon, and actually thought a little bit about how I would write it up. What did I really need to remember? Ironically, the one thing that I meant to remember is one thing I very nearly forgot: the head shakes that fish put on me. The violence coming up the line was ferocious and exhilarating. I honestly can't wait until I get the chance to feel it again! When my cigar was done, so was I. I headed down and took a shower, then hit the rack. Unfortunately, the salon was playing some movie or other, and quite loudly. I took the ship's entertainment in good part, and dozed lightly until the movie ended. Then I fell deeply asleep. I awoke once when JW came in, but immediately rolled back over. Later I had to take a midnight trip to the men's room, and managed to do so without waking JW. The next thing I knew, it was morning. We weren't there yet, of course, and I had slept late for once. I didn't wake up until Javier called breakfast, and I fell out of bed with the sleep still in my eyes. I think I'd been tired the night before! Once again, I couldn't eat breakfast, and this time it was (I think) Eggs Benedict, one of my very favorites. I couldn't even sit there. I had to get up and go after a couple of glasses of OJ. But at least Hector had my coffee, so I was good. The boat was good too. One of the things that went well for us was that we'd had a following sea on the way down, and we were going to get to our "spot" maybe an hour earlier than expected. That was still going to be a bit after 8:00 though. Nevertheless, the timing was good. By the time I'd finished my coffee and gotten dressed for the day's fishing, we were pretty close to wherever it was we were going. In about a half hour, we were there. Kevin called out to us that we would make a drift and see if anyone was home. The boat would be moving, so we shouldn't leave our yo-yo iron on the bottom to get snagged. Flylining was OK, and surface iron too. Dropper loops should wait, though, until we found a place to anchor up. I had been planning to try the dropper loop this morning, because that was one of my setups with which I had not caught any fish, and also because once upon a time I had been a pretty good bottom fisherman. I grew up on the Gulf of Mexico, and that was standard procedure for a lot of the fish we targeted there. One of the reels I'd bought for this trip was a Tiagra 30W LRS, and although I had used it to troll a little bit, I certainly had not been bit on it. I'd meant to use it to fish night dropper loop at Alijos, but I never felt well enough or motivated enough to try that. I was going to troll with it on the way home too, but this seemed like my last, best chance to do some dropper loop damage, and I was hoping for big yellowtail. One thing I mentioned before the trip was that I wasn't planning on tagging a lot of fish. I was guessing maybe four or five of each species, and I had wild dreams of four Bluefin and Five yellowfin, some albacore, and five big yellowtails. Man I was dreaming! All I had so far was three tagged tuna. I didn't even catch a yellowtail at the rocks. Now the chances at Bluefin and Albacore seemed iffy at best, and I wanted to DEFINITELY catch some yellows. Hence the dropper loop plan. Except that we were going to drift, so no dropper loop either. I decided to flyline a bait and see what happened. The answer was, not much. The drift passed quickly, and a couple of people hooked up on the yo-yo, bringing up a couple of middling yellowtail. We went around again, and got very little. So Kevin said we were going to make a quick move, and so we did. That was only a 20 minute hop, and on that drift I decided to yo-yo. That time I was one of three to hook a yellow on my scrambled egg 6x, and when it came up it was a fair fish...maybe 14lbs? Neither the biggest nor the smallest caught thus far. Kevin said it looked like there was more life here and we would anchor up. As soon as he did, I dropped the yo-yo in again, and was rewarded with another strike...a few seconds later, the fish got off, but as I was reeling in, I got hit again, this time close to the surface. Another yellow, about the same size. When the fish came up, Kona Mike was unhooking it, and he pointed out that one of the points on my treble hook had broken off. He said it was fine to fish the way it was, but I had other jigs to use, and I remembered that I wanted to dropper loop this day. So I put away the yo-yo rod, and got out the big gun. Some people were making hay on the dropper loop too! There had been two better yellowtails caught, plus a couple of Calicos and quite a few sheepshead. I wasn't sure what was the difference between attracting the attention of a calico or a goat, and getting to a yellow, but I nose hooked a big sardine to my 4/0 Super Mutu and dropped it off the stern. All the way down to the bottom and a couple of cranks back up. Just a few seconds really, probably less than a minute, and my rod tip goes down. I pull back and just like that I'm on. It wasn't a strong fight, and I was fishing 80lb line, so I doubted it was any kind of yellow. Whatever it was, it wasn't especially big! I crank a bit, and up pops my first ever goat! IOt was a cool looking fish, and I bet it went 6-7 lbs. I didn't want it though...no way to bring it back to Mexico...so I gave it to the boat. I was going to go right back in then, but Mark The Human Hurricane had a backlash on his dropper loop rig, and seemed to be fighting it just a bit, so I put my rod down and went to help him. No, I wasn't being patronizing! I don't have the skills or the experience to teach anyonethe bright way to catch a tuna. I am a little better when it comes to yellowtail, but still not so much. When it comes to bottom fishing though...not rock cod drifting, but this kind of bottom fishing...I have plenty of experience. More than enough to help a kid out. I helped Mark pull out his backlash, and we sat there for a couple of minutes waiting to see if he would get bit. Nothing, though, so we wound him up. Sure enough, a bare hook. We baited him up, and I asked him if I could show him how I do it, and he agreed. We dropped the bait straight down, cranked u three with the rod tip pointed down to the water. "When you get a bite, I told him, you'll know it. We're using live bait, and it'll feel like something is trying to pull the rod out of your hands. When you do, the first thing you do is lift that rod tip UP and get that fish away from the bottom. Crank three or four times as quickly as you can, and then just fight the fish like normal. Most of the time, as long as you can get the fish away from the rocky bottom, you'll get it in the end. Just like that, I get a good pull on the line, and I lift up to set the hooks, and make 4-5 good fast cranks. Then I handed the rod to Mark and let him pull the fish in. It was a nice calico. We baited him up again and dropped him in. This time he was on the rod, and I was just standing there, encouraging him. In due course, he hooks up again, and pulls in another sheepshead. I think he tagged it because the deckies told him they are good to eat, but I could be wrong. The good news is that he now had the hang of the dropper loop, so I left him to it and went to get my rod again. Just then there was a big commotion at the back of the boat: JustJan had been hooked up with what she thought was a healthy yellow, but low and behold, she reeled up a damned nice White Seabass with its tongue sticking way out of its mouth. I admit, I didn't get the "big deal!" excitement, but then at that point I had neither caught nor eaten a WSB. "Cool," I thought, "Jan seems happy." I pin on a sardine, go right back to the middle of the stern, and drop in. Sure enough, now I backlash my reel. Not much, but it's annoying because the mono is loose anyway, and the backlash just keeps going. Finally I get the little loops out, and wind tight. Nothing. So I reel in. No bait. Okaaaaay... Another sardine, another drop. My weight hits the bottom and I wind up my three cranks, but almost instantly I get a really impressive pull on the line. In fact, it took me by surprise, because we hadn't seen any big yellows. "What is this? A Halibut? It feels heavy..." So I did what I have been taught to do...really lift the rod, get the fish off the bottom, and start cranking before it decides to dive into the rocks. Great plan of action except... "Whoa! I am not moving this fish!" Actually, I did...about a foot! I stole a crank then, and heaved up another foot. What the...? A couple more cranks, a couple more feet, and suddenly this fish is headed to the bottom again. "Oh my..." I've caught big fish off the bottom, and I've used 60 and 80lb line to do it. I've caught Goliath Grouper and Gag Grouper, Amberjack, and various types of sharks. Frankly, some of them did pull harder than this fish too, but I was really caught off balance this time. And when the fish actually started to take drag I was dumbfounded. I was using a heavy rig, a strong reel and a heck of a stout rod. I had the drag at about 30lbs, and suddenly this fish is taking line? OK, it only managed to pull about 8" of line, but I was astonished that it could get 8 microns. "Just what the heck is this?" OK, no more screwing around! I did some heaving and cranking and made a few yards. I guess we were fishing in about 140 feet of water (it wasn't deep), and I yanked on that fish, bringing it up a couple of feet at a time. It never took more line, and it only moved a few feet to Port, but it kept pulling pretty hard. And then suddenly it wasn't really pulling at all. It was still a heavy weight on my line, some 60-80 feet down, but now it was dead weight, spiraling up from the bottom...and I still had no idea what it was. Now I'm cranking it up, and low and behold it's a white seabass. It swims/floats a little more to Port, and just to infuriate me, gets tangled up in someone else' goat. But then I saw that the fish was already the next thing to dead. It's tongue was a full foot out of its mouth...the decrease in pressure ended the fight. I was totally ho-hum about it. I'd never caught a white seabass before, didn't have any reason to think it was anything special. The fish itself seemed pretty big...maybe a bit bigger than the one JustJan caught a minute or two before, but what do I know? Really, all I've seen are the photos people post on the boards showing the Seabass they've caught, and how the other posters congratulate them. But I'd been reading that this was a good year for Seabass, right? OK, so I caught one too... But damned if everyone else wasn't going nuts. "That's a HUGE Seabass, Rodless!" Even Kevin was showing some excitement: "That's a fish of a lifetime, my friend!" Huh? Really? Man was I slow to get with the program! Turns out that these ghosts are harder to catch than you might think, and that anything over 35lbs is a pretty good-sized one. Apparently, many anglers fish a lifetime and never break 40lbs on these. Ohhhhhhhh... Yeah, I got excited then. It wasn't like catching a big tuna...it was a 5 minute fight on 80lb line! But it was a big fish, and my first Seabass. After struggling so hard at the Rocks, for so long, before finally getting my break, it was a very welcome thing to be getting big into the action pretty much right away the next day. Of course the boat wanted pictures, and I got a few. Then they put the fish into the RSW, and I went back to fishing. Dropper Loop Is For The Goats...And The Calicos That was really the truth, too. I don't think I saw more than three yellows caught on the dropper loop all day, but you really couldn't count the sheepshead. Of course, many other anglers were foaming at the mouth then to get a Seabass, tying on those white jigs, and grabbing pieces of the frozen squid that Kevin put out then. They were all dying to get one, and in fact two more people did! Redbeard nailed one, maybe about 28 lbs, and then Luan Pham showed everyone how with the white jig and squid tentacles...the bait right on the bottom. His went close to 40 lbs I guess. After that, though, no more WSB, no more yellows. Not on the dropper loop. I bet you folks know how this is. I saw it hundreds of times growing up in Florida, and it seems to be the same in the Pacific. Once the bottom dwellers get fired up, it can be very hard to get your bait in front of the kind of fish you want to catch. In the Gulf of Mexico, with the Red Snapper closures, numbers in some spots went through the roof (even if, in this case, the closures really were necessary at the time). Grouper were open season though, and a lot of people wanted to catch them. The problem was, you couldn't get a bait past the snapper down to the grouper, unless it was a BIG bait, a whole live pinfish, perhaps. And if you used a bait that big, all you would catch was Goliath Grouper, the bullies of the reefs, and a protected species. The same kind of thing was happening here. There didn't seem to be that many yellows around, and they sure weren't hitting the dropper loop. The sheepshead and calico bass were too quick to eat the sardines. Oh the fishing was hot, of course...your bait wouldn't last even 30 seconds at the bottom. But there were no more Seabass, and no yellows either. I caught a goat, a calico, and another goat, and gave them all away. The Calico was a nice one, in the 6 lb range I guess, but I didn't want to waste a tag on it. I should have, though: harddrive loves Calico Bass, and I would have been happy to give it to him. It wasn't like I was short on tags... Anyway, after three small fish on big line, I put away the dropper loop. Instead, I took out my other 40lb stick, a Saltist 40 star drag, on another OC rod. This was a sweet setup, and perfect for yo-yo. I tied on a jig I've had for a couple of years and never used: a full-sized chrome and blue Sumo "blue mack attack" with the white luminescent back and the big treble hooks. I underhanded the jig out some 15 feet, let it sink to the bottom, and started cranking. WHACK!!! My jig got hit, but not eaten. I kept winding, but no love. Down again I went, and... WHACK!!! This time, whatever hit the jig stuck...a tiny little yellowtail, trying to eat a jig almost as big as it was. "Plunk!" went the baby back in the water, just as Kevin called us all in. In spite of the WSB, this spot just wasn't what we wanted. The water was dirty, and there weren't a lot of good yellows around, so we were going to make a move to another spot. The move would take about three hours and we weren't going to troll. The water was too cold for wahoo, and too dirty. So we should all have an early lunch, and then rest a bit. We should be where we were going by about 2:30. At that moment, Javier called lunch in 15 minutes, and just like that the boat was pulling the anchor... Next: Part VIII Concluded: There's NOTHING Like A Hot Bite... Photo: A Fishing Still Life: "Rodless_Jim, with Ghost" (Courtesy of the Intrepid Website)
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#34
08-20-2010, 07:19 AM
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For what it's worth, as I wrote early in the report, Fishy and I passed by the tailgate before the ST SaltyPup charter. That's where I met my roommate on our trip, JWFogg. But far beyond that, everybody I met there that evening was nice, and most were funny to boot. I haven't said this to anyone before now, but I made two decisions that night: 1. I really need to try to post a little more on this board, and get to know the people here. 2. If I ever get the chance, I definitely want to try to do a ST charter. It'll be hard, I know, but I want to see if I can. Maybe Harddrive and I can hop on one next Summer. Quote:
By now, though, you have read quite a lot of "what happened next," and I've even caught a fish or two. Was it worth the wait?  Quote:
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#35
08-21-2010, 08:44 AM
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Hey all, the weekend is upon me, and yesterday was a bear. I've started the next section, which is a big one, but it may not make it up until tomorrow night.
You all have a good weekend, be safe, and we'll move on with the story just as soon as I can. Outhouse and Fishordie, you guys have a fantastic trip, and come back to start your own in-depth report!
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#36
09-03-2010, 10:37 PM
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Part VIII (Concluded): The Ridge Comes to Life!
We were headed to a different spot on the Ridge, and it wasn't close. They called lunch a little early, I guess, maybe to get us all inside while the boat made tracks. But there was no way around it, it was going to be the better part of three more hours before we did any more fishing. My story continued to be the same: no appetite, and a visit to the head after lunch. It was almost to the point where I wasn't noticing the annoyance. Strange how you can manage to accustom yourself to almost anything at times! The biggest issue for me had already manifested itself: I felt weak. I was eating a lemon drop every few hours...drinking some OJ or making myself swallow a slice of bacon in the morning, a bite of fish during the afternoon snack. But all in all, I really wasn't eating much of anything, and too much of what I did eat was sugar-based. Not good for me... I don't remember what lunch was, but I do remember that the boat showed Avatar after lunch. I didn't watch the first half of the movie, because I was feeling a bit run down. I thought a nap would help, and I tried, even though I had never seen the movie. The sound was too loud though...I dozed through about half, and then decided to give up. I came out into the salon and watched the second half. Great movie, of course... I guess it's no surprise that, even with the debilitating physical ailments, I was still in a good mood. I had caught a damned big tuna the day before, and out of the blue I had hauled in a damned good WSB this morning. I had two smallish schoolie yellowtail in the hold, and I didn't think I would have too much trouble catching a couple more. I only wanted to tag five anyway. Maybe I would keep more if they continued to be so small. Most of all, my digestive "issues" were manageable, and seemed not to be getting any worse. Given my circumstances, I counted that as a blessing. All I could have asked for at that point was a hot bite and some fun fishing... The Move Proves Anti-climactic...Or Not! The combination of lunch and a long movie pretty much got us where Kevin wanted to go. I think he was taking us to a cluster of little high spots close together, looking for the right combination of clean water and biting fish. Don't ask me where we were though, because I have no idea...just somewhere on the Ridge. In any case, it wasn't long after Avatar's closing credits that we got to the first spot, and Kevin set us up for a drift. He said that the water looked better here, and there was life on the meter, so we would give it a try. I had already put away the dropper loop. I like yo-yo'ing an awful lot, and it had already proven productive. "Three more yellows at least," I thought... So we drifted, and I yo-yo'ed. Successfully, too. It wasn't a hot drift for the boat, but I managed to hook and boat three yellows just on that one drift. One of them was small and I had Kona Mike release it, but the other two were the size we were seeing, 12-14lbs, so I tagged them and went back to fishing. By the time I tagged the second one, we had drifted over whatever structure Kevin was looking at, and he took us around for another pass. This drift was less eventful, though I yo-yo'ed up one more middling yellow. That gave me five tagged for the trip, but after fishing the Salt Mine the year before, these seemed awfully small. On the spot, with so few tuna in the hold, I decided I could stand to tag a couple more yellows, and hopefully bigger ones. By the way, it was during these drifts that I was trying to figure out the mechanics of fishing the rail. I have to say, it's hard to really feel how that is supposed to work catching small yellows on 40lb gear. They were literally 1/10th the size of the tuna that kicked my butt, and barely pulled hard enough for the exercise to be helpful. A big part of that is that I have caught a heck of a lot of fish in my life with the butt of the rod in my rod belt, lifting up and cranking down. That is how I learned, it is a habit very well ingrained, and thus hard to break. A couple of times I caught myself just hauling those fish out of the water, and had to make myself stop and use the rail...with inconsistent results. That's when Terry_CA gave me something else to think about... Who is Terry_CA? A good guy, for one thing. He works for California Fish & Game, and has a position of responsibility in his church. He has a wry sense of humor, a sudden and unexpected smile, and just about the best attitude you could ask for on a fishing trip. It was a joy sharing the rail with him, and he was by no means the only person on board like that. Terry is an AVID freshwater bass fisherman. It is (as far as I can tell) his passion, and he is a master at it. He really knows how to underhand flip a bait and he makes it look as easy as pie. Now I've done a fair amount of bass fishing myself, and in the hot Summer months we'd do plenty of flipping too. From a bass boat, flipping into the Hydrilla, I'm pretty good. I can drop a weedless jig (not what we mean on the West coast when we say jig) in the crack between two rafts of weeds, and tease a bass to hit it from out of the shadows. But that was a long time ago for me, and Terry is better at that than I ever was. And even though he doesn't get to go on many trips, he fishes the rail like a champ. Terry knows how. Anyway, Terry saw me fighting a fish with the rod on the rail, the butt under my right arm, turning the crank with my right hand. Yes, some people do it that way (Wahoodad is one of them!), and it gives you really good leverage to turn the handle. You use your forearm and elbow like a piston, and if you have the timing right you can really crank the handle fast that way too. But it seems like most other people who crank with their right hands hold the rod under their left arms. This gives you a different kind of leverage (again, on the reel), and if you know how to do it right, lets you expend less energy turning the crank. Your forearm is virtually perpendicular to the rod, and the movement is just circular around the periphery of the reel. Terry spotted me with the rod butt under my right arm, and very kindly pointed out that I would probably have less trouble if I held the butt under the other arm. You know what? He may be right too. I think my problem is different, though, and will only be solved through lots of time and practice. My issue is that I really have trouble with my left hand holding the reel. That's really the key, after all. You're not holding the rod with your hands, you're just using your underarm and the rail as a fulcrum. That's puts the most leverage on the rod itself. But how do you keep the rod from twisting, especially when you're trying to make cranks? The answer is that you hold the rod steady by holding the reel in your left hand. And I stink at that. Harddrive tells me that part of my problem when I was on the big tuna was the size of the reel. I have short, stubby fingers, but the palms of my hands are pretty damned big, and the Saltist 40 is a pretty small reel. It really is, in fact...part of the reason why people doubt its strength and durability. I learned to my everlasting joy that the Saltist is a damned fine reel, strong and durable, while at the same time quite light. The drags are good, the two-speed wonderful...and the profile only about half the width you'd expect. Can any of you all palm a basketball? Really palm it? I cannot...a soccer ball is as big as I can grab that way. But I imagine it's the same feeling. Ever wondered how it feels for an NBA player---a 7' center---to palm the ball? Or for an NFL quarterback to hold a football? I always imagined the ball must feel like a toy in their hand, fingers reaching more than halfway around the ball, virtually hiding it from sight. That's how the reel felt in my hand when I was trying to fish the rail. And I discovered something I would have never expected: when you're talking about a mechanical device with moving parts such as a fishing reel, it's not at all like holding a ball...your fingers can really get in the way. I discovered that I couldn't find a comfortable way to hold the reel. With the rod butt under my right arm, it was a little easier, I'm not sure why. And in any case, I was really uncomfortable either way. If I paid attention to the attitude of the rod, or to how I was turning the crank, the fingers on my left hand would curl around the reel and get in the way. If I paid attention to my hands, I wasn't watching the fish, or timing the rocking of the boat. This is all stuff that has been second nature to me since I was about six years old...but I never tried to use the rail before. Everything felt backwards! And in this instance, I guess my learning curve is very shallow... Terry noticed that I was uncomfortable with what I was trying to do, and offered me a sound piece of advice. I could see that he wasn't sure he should, that maybe I would ignore him or be offended, but neither was true. I was happy for the advice! I'm going to try both ways assiduously, and try to figure out which way suits me better. But until I can figure out how to palm a reel with my Neanderthal left hand, I am going to continue to be the poster child for how not to fish the rail... In any case, it was at that moment---I stopped using the rail, put the butt of the rod in my belt, and cranked that puppy in---that Kevin called us in. One more little move, to the other side of the structure. There was life around...maybe we could get a better bite going. I love it when the fish compete! The move was a short one...ten minutes at the most. When we got there, Kevin somehow knew that we were there. We didn't make a drift, he just jockeyed us into position and dropped the anchor. The chum line started again, and we started fishing again. A couple of people got hooked up right away, but that wasn't a surprise. My first retrieve from the bottom did not result in any kind of bite. That was the only time at that stop that I put a lure in the water and did not get hooked up...and I think just about everyone on the boat could say the same thing. I don't know what the switch is that turns on a hot yellowtail bite. I know it has something to do with the fish competing for food. They are opportunistic feeders, and when they collectively sense the opportunity for a big feed, they go directly into attack mode. It is literally a feeding frenzy, and as long as they are in frenzy mode, they will hit anything that hits the water...instantly. That is exactly what happened... Kevin took over the bait tank. Javier and Hector came out of the galley. Wahoodad put away his rod and grabbed a gaff...and the boat went nuts. Me, I caught another fish on the yo-yo iron, and then promptly put that away. Titan had loaned me a long rod for the trip, and I hadn't had a good opportunity to use it. I had a Salas 7x in "brown sardine" (a.k.a. bird sh*t) already tied on. I went to the bow, and proceeded to amuse myself. My first cast was a horrendous backlash, and it took Kona Mike's help to pull it out. That was embarrassing, and a first for me. Oh, I am an expert at backlashing reels! But I have always been able to pull them out myself. This time, I really couldn't. ASIDE: Jim, next time you loan me a reel, will you please show me how to cast it? When the line was free, I cranked up from the bottom...and got bit. It was smallish, and I let it go. The next several casts went well, and every single one came back with a yellowtail on the end. Watching the fish blow up on the lure was thrilling and fascinating and just about the most fun you can legally have on a sport boat. I must have caught 18 or 20 fish, one after the other. Two more I tagged, giving me eight in the hold. Quite a few I released. The other three or four were decent sized, but I already had all I wanted, so I gave them to the boat. There came a point then where I suddenly fell out of my fish-catching trance. I was ready to wind up and throw, but I suddenly decided not to. The thing that caught my attention was that I hadn't taken very many photos thus far on the trip. I had promised Outhouse I would, and I had sincerely meant to. But I hadn't done quite enough catching to that point, and I had spent most of my time at the rail, with a rod in my hands rather than a camera. Now was the perfect time to shoot some pics... ASIDE: I have posted quite a few pics this far in this report, but many (if not most) of them were shot by other people. Brad_G and JWFogg were both gracious enough to send me electronic copies of their pics, and a lot of what you've seen so far were theirs. A few more of the pics that accompany the rest of this report are mine, but even so, both of those two (and others) beat the heck out of me with a digital camera this trip. Oh well...there's always something you could have done better each trip, right? I wasn't the first angler to put up his rod. JWFogg was already up on the sundeck shooting pics, and he had better determination than I did...as far as I know, he was never even tempted to go pick up a rod again. He was in photojournalist mode, period. There were others too, maybe four of five. I guess I was one of about six or seven anglers who were having as much fun watching (and fliming!) everyone else catching fish as they would have been catching fish themselves. Hey, if we were talking about 20+ lb fish, I'd have kept going on the catch and release. If I had had a 20lb setup, I might have switched to that and kept fishing too. But most all I had was in the 40 and 50lb class, and these fish just weren't big enough to make that much of a fight. So I hung up my stick and started shooting. There was a lot to see too. DirtyGirl and Garrett were fighting fish and laughing, Cong Vu and Luan Pham, Just Jan and Frank, damned near everyone, each doing their own thing and catching yellowtail. Fishybuzz was throwing a popper on one of his spinning rigs and laughing himself silly as the fish exploded on it. Later, I saw Half Day showing DirtyGirl (and then Garrett) how to work the popper too. I admit, it was fun to watch! Albacore11 and Redbeard were doing serious damage. I'm not sure how well either of them did at the Rocks, but they were just hammering the yellows, with big smiles on their faces. Boltar really was a little ray of sunshine, and taking his frustrations out now. Mark the Human Hurricane was in heaven, catching yellowtail until his arms ached, and Brad_G was a picture illustration of nachas just watching his son. It was a ZOO people. Kevin was just brailing bait, and the deck was just covered in fish and blood. The holds were jammed, and trash cans filled, and the bite never let up. Not even a little bit. One hour...two hours...a little more. And one by one all of the anglers finally stopped of their own volition. We had absolutely full limits of yellowtail, all caught in about three hours, and we were done. Kevin called everyone in, and the deckies started to drop countless fish into the holds. We were done fishing for the day, Kevin said, and done with the Ridge too. For that matter, we were well and truly done with yellowtail. We still had two days to fish, so it was time to head North and see if we could get the Bluefin and Albacore to bite... Next: Part IX: Birthday Cake and Timing is Everything... Photos: 1. Fishy and friends...a bent rail! 2. Terry_CA on the spinner 3. Brad_G knows how! 4. Mother-son tag team... 5. Cong Vu demonstrates how to use the rail Vietnamese style
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#37
09-04-2010, 07:48 AM
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More Photos from the 22nd...
1. Smile David! It's July 22nd, and you're catching fish! 2. Garrett knows how to use the rail! 3. Mark does too! 4. Intrepid really knows how to show a girl a good time, right Jan? 5. Two of the best trip mates you'll ever find: JWFogg and Silent Jim.
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#38
09-04-2010, 08:01 AM
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And More...
1. Terry_CA gets some! 2. DirtyGirl prosecutes a yellow... 3. Frank experiments with a Loooooong stick... 4. Lou knows how! 5. Miles REALLY knows how!
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#39
09-04-2010, 08:12 AM
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And Just a Few More at the End and in the Aftermath...
1. Terry_CA has a big stick too! His is white! 2. See? Fishing IS a spectator sport! Silent Jim, Willy, and Garrett watch some of the action late. 3. Yeah, we caught a FEW fish... 4. Father and son afternoon trolling rotation. 5. Luan, Jesus, and Cong bask in the golden glow of a seriously hot yellowtail bite...
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#40
09-06-2010, 04:37 PM
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Part IX: We Celebrate a Birthday and Do a LOT of Traveling...
Fishing ended that Thursday afternoon around 5:00, I guess. I wasn't wearing a watch, and I didn't know at the time at what hour the sun was going down at that latitude at that time of year, but we trolled our way off the Ridge for about an hour, and then wound in the Marauders for the last time with the sun still in the sky. We still had two more days scheduled to fish, but already folks were breaking down some of the heavy artillery. The trip home had begun... Who Is The Birthday Boy Tonight? One thing I forgot to mention earlier on is that we had three birthdays on the boat, and they were on consecutive days. I don't remember if it was Brad_G on the 20th and Ken the Bushman on the 21st, or the other way around. I know that for each of them Javier made a cake, and we sang happy birthday. For those who appreciate a good dig, Brad hadn't yet escaped teasing for the Great Pecan Caper. The birthday cake Javier made for him was absolutely studded with toasted pecans, and of course Javier had to tell the story once again. Have I mentioned that Brad takes more than his fair share of good-natured ribbing with a very good grace? I wish I could laugh at myself that well. But in reality, he is a great shipmate, a fine angler, and---as became apparent on this trip---a good and loving father. Mark, you may not get this for a long time still, but You are a very lucky young man, luckier than you realize! All of this, however, is prelude to what was meant to be a true punking. You see, September 22nd happens to be Fishybuzz' birthday... ASIDE: Those who may have wondered at the caption I put on one of the recent photos, that is why. Fishy was fishing---and catching fish---on his birthday. Not bad for a 60-something Chinese dewdrop fairy... Dinner passed in relative quiet. We all had a lot to talk about and laugh about. A lot of people had caught a lot of fish...in fact everyone had caught all the yellowtail they wanted, and most had caught more. We were heading for the offshore grounds to see if we could find a cherry to put on top of the cake, but we'd already had a great trip, a fun trip, and even those who'd had a hard time at the Rock were loosey goosey now. Fish in the hold, and good food on the table. A bottle or two of good wine also popped and everyone enjoyed their dinner...except me. I still couldn't eat. I think that night I ate a bite of whatever it was, and that's it. Then it was time for dessert, and along came Javier's "birthday boy" speech. I don't recall exactly what he said, but he was going the extra mile. It was only when he was halfway through that I remembered... On the day we boarded, I had passed along two messages, appealing for a good laugh. First I gave Kevin a kilo bag of carmelized pecans with which to torture Brad...I have already related that story. Maybe you had to be there, but it was awfully funny when it happened, and Kevin and Brad were the two people laughing the loudest. But then I spoke to Javier, and let him know that Fishybuzz' birthday was the 22nd. They way the chef smiled then, I knew he would do something special for David that night. And so he did... Fishy's cake wasn't a cake. God knows no one was about to take a bite of it. It had a candle, certainly...we sang Happy Birthday, and Fishy blew it out. But the "cake" was made of raw ground beef, very painstakingly decorated (Romo had actually dissected many tuna to find a seahorse in one of the stomachs...that had been very carefully preserved, and was a part of the cake's garnish). But the form of the cake was simply impossible to either believe or describe. I don't think I can put it into words myself...I'll have to let the photo speak for itself. ASIDE: Those who can't wait, go ahead and scroll to the bottom. We'll wait a minute for you to see, laugh, and come back... Suffice it to say, it is one of the very best laughs I've ever had on a fishing boat. A Long Journey to an Uncertain Destination... We were in travel mode even before dinner, of course. Kevin has asked us all to stay inside after the trolling ended, so that they could put the boat back in order. They must have washed enough yellowtail blood off the deck to make every shark on the Ridge have a conniption. It was at this point that I discovered one of the great values of having JWFogg along. That afternoon before dinner, We were treated to a concert DVD: Carlos Santana. But that was only the beginning of JW's little bag of tricks... Most of the rest of the trip included a lot of traveling, and JW had music to keep us sane all the way through. We saw a couple of different Clapton videos, an Eagles reunion concert, and even a Crosby, Stills, and Nash reunion. Some seriously good vibes. JW really impressed me when, after he and I had had a discussion about Clapton's time with Blind Faith (Slowhand playing Rock and Roll rather than the Blues, plus Stevie Winwood and his ego), JW reached into the music wallet, and came out with what really must be one of the rarest videos I can imagine: a live concert recording of Blind Faith! I'm telling you, the best roommate I could have asked for. In any case, there was nothing more to report for that day. We traveled North on the way to Bluefin country, which was a long, long ways away... We Arrive at Our Destination, Wave at it, and Keep Right on Going! You all may remember that one of my goals for the trip was to catch a bluefin. We took a damned good shot at some on the way South, too! I can't complain that the fish didn't want to bite. Well, now we were headed towards an area we'd scouted before, Kevin had a really good idea where to find the fish...if we could just get on them, maybe things would be different. The bad news was that when we awoke on Friday morning, we weren't nearly as far North as we'd hoped we'd be when we'd gone to sleep the night before. We were fighting a nasty downhill current, plus a bit of wind. We knew it wasn't peachy even the night before...the crew asked us to stay off the fishing deck, and I was pretty careful going upstairs for a smoke. Well, when breakfast was called, we were still hours South of where we wanted to be, and no easy way to make up the distance except pound our way North... Next: Part IX (Continued): The Pacific is BIG Ocean When You're Bucking the Current...
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