cappo
08-04-2009, 10:33 AM
I got a chance to jump aboard DavidE’s yearly charter on the Orion out of Seaforth. This was a 2.5 day trip. Several other FNN’ers were on the trip, which included Dean Hall, Jimmy, Nick Lam, Pineapple Express and DavidE as Charter Master. Drove down to SD with Jimmy and had some grub at the café. We waited for the others to arrive. Once we all grouped we waited and waited for the Orion to dock. We watched all other trips depart. Growing anxious we finally see them coming into the harbor. Capt. Bryan came down and gave us our options. We can stay close and battle it out with the rest of the fleet or we can run down 120 miles or so and look for the mother of all paddys. We all agreed to go search for the lost Kelp City of El Dorado. We loaded up and got bait and we were off.
Day 1.
It was flat and calm. Looked like a lake. You can spot paddys miles away. Hit a few with no one home. After several tries at them Jimmy was the first to hookup. None of us were ready for these brutes. He ended up losing it to the kelp. These fish were bruisers, or as GD would say, Mean.
We hit many paddys through out the day, few people already had two or three yellows (Dean, jimmy). While others had none (me). Yoyo Master Pineapple Express put on a fishing clinic up in the bow. I tried it for a bit but mostly to take notes from him. That guy is a slayer. The highlight of the day was a gentleman tossin an iron in the bow. Gets a birdsnest and of course hookups. It was a Mako about 80-90#s. Deckies quickly gaff it and decapitate it. Amazing how it still thrashes around minutes after losing its head. After several patties the Capt. had it with us. Instructed the deckies not to put out any bait until we were right on the patty. Several anglers would always cast too early and waist bait. Kinda sucked watching the paddy get closer and closer and no bait in sight. Later in the day we finally get some jig strikes. Some nicer Yellowfin Tunas come over the rail. I think we got one baitfish, not sure. We do the troll rotation and get some good counts on the yft. I finally put a fish on the board, but it’s a troll fish. Oh well. We all had our dinner and layed down and called it a day.
Day 2.
Conditions were bad. The lake we were once on has turned into 8-10ft swells. I thought I heard some Bon Jovi playing in the background like on Deadliest catch. The boat gets up to a nice paddy and Capt. is yelling that theres fish all over the place. I’m too lazy and still in the bunk. I can hear others yelling hookup over and over. Ugh not motivated. They do another drift, I finally decided to get up. Dam it missed the bite. LOL. We continue heading south and its difficult finding paddys in the swells. But amazingly they find them. Some are loaded some aren’t. We had a good amount of yellows at this point. I finally put two on the boat. Woo hoo. On the troll again we start loading up on YFT again. I landed one on an anchovie. Another guy lands a toad 40#. Nice job! We have a few bait fish on each jig strike. Some long trolls that day but it paid off. The highlight of the day was watching Spencer pull on a nice yellow. We all gather around and watch him get worked by this fish. We were all busting up cuz he had the rod butt right on his junk. This guy must have had balls of steel. Even the capt. came down for a good laugh. LOL.
The ride home was about 15hrs or so. Arrived at the landing around 11AM. Unloaded our gear and took an FNN group pic. Overall we put up some good counts in such crappy conditions. Some guys did really well, some did OK. It was a great trip, with a great group of guys. The boat is awesome with an excellent crew. I believe we ended up with 50+ YFT and 60+ yellows and a few Dorado. Hope I get another chance to get on David’s charters. Hope others have some pics and more stories to add to this. Once again I had a blast fishing with all of you.
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e290/cappo5150/Orion/IMGP2513.jpg
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e290/cappo5150/Orion/IMGP2516.jpg
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e290/cappo5150/Orion/IMGP2519.jpg
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http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e290/cappo5150/Orion/IMGP2541.jpg
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e290/cappo5150/Orion/IMGP2545.jpg
Day 1.
It was flat and calm. Looked like a lake. You can spot paddys miles away. Hit a few with no one home. After several tries at them Jimmy was the first to hookup. None of us were ready for these brutes. He ended up losing it to the kelp. These fish were bruisers, or as GD would say, Mean.
We hit many paddys through out the day, few people already had two or three yellows (Dean, jimmy). While others had none (me). Yoyo Master Pineapple Express put on a fishing clinic up in the bow. I tried it for a bit but mostly to take notes from him. That guy is a slayer. The highlight of the day was a gentleman tossin an iron in the bow. Gets a birdsnest and of course hookups. It was a Mako about 80-90#s. Deckies quickly gaff it and decapitate it. Amazing how it still thrashes around minutes after losing its head. After several patties the Capt. had it with us. Instructed the deckies not to put out any bait until we were right on the patty. Several anglers would always cast too early and waist bait. Kinda sucked watching the paddy get closer and closer and no bait in sight. Later in the day we finally get some jig strikes. Some nicer Yellowfin Tunas come over the rail. I think we got one baitfish, not sure. We do the troll rotation and get some good counts on the yft. I finally put a fish on the board, but it’s a troll fish. Oh well. We all had our dinner and layed down and called it a day.
Day 2.
Conditions were bad. The lake we were once on has turned into 8-10ft swells. I thought I heard some Bon Jovi playing in the background like on Deadliest catch. The boat gets up to a nice paddy and Capt. is yelling that theres fish all over the place. I’m too lazy and still in the bunk. I can hear others yelling hookup over and over. Ugh not motivated. They do another drift, I finally decided to get up. Dam it missed the bite. LOL. We continue heading south and its difficult finding paddys in the swells. But amazingly they find them. Some are loaded some aren’t. We had a good amount of yellows at this point. I finally put two on the boat. Woo hoo. On the troll again we start loading up on YFT again. I landed one on an anchovie. Another guy lands a toad 40#. Nice job! We have a few bait fish on each jig strike. Some long trolls that day but it paid off. The highlight of the day was watching Spencer pull on a nice yellow. We all gather around and watch him get worked by this fish. We were all busting up cuz he had the rod butt right on his junk. This guy must have had balls of steel. Even the capt. came down for a good laugh. LOL.
The ride home was about 15hrs or so. Arrived at the landing around 11AM. Unloaded our gear and took an FNN group pic. Overall we put up some good counts in such crappy conditions. Some guys did really well, some did OK. It was a great trip, with a great group of guys. The boat is awesome with an excellent crew. I believe we ended up with 50+ YFT and 60+ yellows and a few Dorado. Hope I get another chance to get on David’s charters. Hope others have some pics and more stories to add to this. Once again I had a blast fishing with all of you.
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e290/cappo5150/Orion/IMGP2513.jpg
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e290/cappo5150/Orion/IMGP2516.jpg
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