sansou
09-06-2009, 03:53 PM
Shoved off at 3 a.m. out of SI onboard Webmaster Jeff's "F/V Keilani" (64 Glasspar he literally rebuilt every square inch himself!). Got what we considered a chinsy 1/2 scoop from Ebros (aka weekend holiday scoop).
Despite it being a holiday weekend, the donkey factor at the ramp wasn't as bad as we thought. I was worried about the traffic so as a precaution I rubber banded some chem lights on my 9 ft jig stick and put it in the rocket launcher.
Our game plan was to motor out to the 425, set trollers onway to the HB. Got to the 425, water was relatively flat, clean and 70 ish. Set a smorgasborg spread of 4, and low and behold, the bright green Zuker on the outrigger got bit with a small YFT, which I farmed right at the boat (we left it hanging while putting baits out, I think the hook wore a whole in his jaw). So much for the dark to dark, light to light theory... LOL
Eventually made it to the HB and saw an armada of PBers. Jeff opted to troll away from the crowd, and we were rewarded with finding a nice virgin paddy. Sure enough, we hooked up the minute our baits hit the water. Boils everywhere. It was a mad rush to get as many as we could as quickly as we could before the paddy got pressured (engine noise and people setting a drift 5 ft from a paddy). Before we knew it, we got company and the tuna sank. We landed 6 solid YFT on that paddy, with only I think 1 or 2 that were sub 20. The rest were solid 20s type fish.
As soon as the other boats rushed our paddy, the fish were spooked for us. We left and spent the day trolling and working whatever we could find. Toward the end of the day Jeff and I both farmed dorados. Jeff had hooked into a really big one, but it go away. No mammals today, and practically zero birds, and few jig strikes...it was all about finding a virgin paddy and keeping them around by chunking.
Plenty of fish metered deep, but I don't think anyone had consistant success on the jigs. We tried something different by fast trolling home, and got one more YFT on the cedar chavez. Motored in to the island middle grounds for a quick shot of YT (we did circles around the cattleboat "Indian" LOL), and got bit twice on a purple 111MR, but got shook off. Gave it a 1/2 hour of troll then called it quits. Drove the boat home, and this time I didn't manage to turn Jeff's truck & trailer in to a Uboat at the ramp.
Always a pleasure fishing with you Jeff, I always walk away learning something new about fishing, and again, another great day fishing aboard the F/V Keilani!
(Will get pics up shortly.)
Despite it being a holiday weekend, the donkey factor at the ramp wasn't as bad as we thought. I was worried about the traffic so as a precaution I rubber banded some chem lights on my 9 ft jig stick and put it in the rocket launcher.
Our game plan was to motor out to the 425, set trollers onway to the HB. Got to the 425, water was relatively flat, clean and 70 ish. Set a smorgasborg spread of 4, and low and behold, the bright green Zuker on the outrigger got bit with a small YFT, which I farmed right at the boat (we left it hanging while putting baits out, I think the hook wore a whole in his jaw). So much for the dark to dark, light to light theory... LOL
Eventually made it to the HB and saw an armada of PBers. Jeff opted to troll away from the crowd, and we were rewarded with finding a nice virgin paddy. Sure enough, we hooked up the minute our baits hit the water. Boils everywhere. It was a mad rush to get as many as we could as quickly as we could before the paddy got pressured (engine noise and people setting a drift 5 ft from a paddy). Before we knew it, we got company and the tuna sank. We landed 6 solid YFT on that paddy, with only I think 1 or 2 that were sub 20. The rest were solid 20s type fish.
As soon as the other boats rushed our paddy, the fish were spooked for us. We left and spent the day trolling and working whatever we could find. Toward the end of the day Jeff and I both farmed dorados. Jeff had hooked into a really big one, but it go away. No mammals today, and practically zero birds, and few jig strikes...it was all about finding a virgin paddy and keeping them around by chunking.
Plenty of fish metered deep, but I don't think anyone had consistant success on the jigs. We tried something different by fast trolling home, and got one more YFT on the cedar chavez. Motored in to the island middle grounds for a quick shot of YT (we did circles around the cattleboat "Indian" LOL), and got bit twice on a purple 111MR, but got shook off. Gave it a 1/2 hour of troll then called it quits. Drove the boat home, and this time I didn't manage to turn Jeff's truck & trailer in to a Uboat at the ramp.
Always a pleasure fishing with you Jeff, I always walk away learning something new about fishing, and again, another great day fishing aboard the F/V Keilani!
(Will get pics up shortly.)