Jackpot Jimmy
09-26-2011, 10:09 PM
Over the weekend I hopped on a two day charter on the Fury out of Dana Wharf Sportfishing. I went on this trip last year and I had a blast, so I was really looking forward to this year’s trip. Our original departure time was set for 10pm, but just in case we were going to run long, the time was bumped up an hour.
I was the first down there so to kill time I had dinner at the deli to kill some time, and then I gathered my gear and got in line. Others started rolling in as departure time approached and we shot the breeze while we waited for the boat to get in. I knew most of the people on this trip, some of which were on last year’s trip – a great bunch of people, a few who I’ve known since I was six years old. Even the captain’s wife Cathy came along on this trip, but unfortunately his daughter Cari couldn’t make it, but all of us missed her! Anyway, the guys who came off the Fury’s overnight charter said that bass fishing was okay at Clemente – they ended up with 85 bass. The crew got the boat all cleaned up and they called us down.
After getting settled in, Captain Rick Doesburg welcomed us aboard and gave us our options for the trip, of which we had three: 1, we could go to Clemente but we would be limited to the frontside on the first day as the navy would be shutting down the back and bass fishing was okay but no yellows to speak of; 2, we could go down to the tuna pens but fishing down there was slow that day, but the day before the bluefin bit pretty well in the afternoon – and then we would fish Clemente the second day; or 3, heading to the Tanner or Cortes with the last report being that the Thunderbird had four yellows out there a week prior. It was a reluctant unanimous decision to head for the tuna pens, and while we quickly headed out to get bait so we could leave as soon as possible to travel 95 miles to the tuna pens, Second Captain Skip Driggers gave us the required safety speech per USCG regulations and introduced us to the rest of our crew, consisting of Tyler Rich, Kane Shanahan, and Brian Pifer. After loading up bait, we headed out, and I headed for my bunk.
After a great night’s sleep, I woke up just before gray light and had breakfast. We arrived at the pens a little while later and started a drift. (Just to have a frame of reference, we were about 30 to 35 miles off Ensenada). The name of the game in the morning was just hopping back and forth about the two remaining pens that were there. In the morning the pens were three miles apart and then the tug boats moved them while they were feeding, so by the end of the day I think they were shorter. We were marking fish the whole morning but only a few were willing to bite, and only two were landed. The ones that were lost were due to hooks pulling, the reason being the bluefin were hook shy and we had to use small, lighter wire hooks to get bit. My rig of choice was 15 pound test with 20 pound Seaguar Fluorocarbon and a #1 Mustad 9174 hook.
As for the Mexican tug boat workers, they were very friendly and waved to us and cheered when they saw that we were hooked up. A couple of guys came up in a little red inflatable and asked for a case of beer as they were having their Sunday BBQ on the tug boat. Ricky obliged and the two men were on their way. We saw them later in the day along with others huddled up on the bow having their BBQ.
In the afternoon Ricky was seeing more and more fish on the sonar, and I finally got bit and the fish took me to the bow. These fish are very squirrely so you have to baby them for all they’re worth, and that’s what I did the best I could. It gave a final run and got its tail wrapped up on my fluorocarbon, and it came up after that and felt the gaff. My first bluefin tuna!
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/007-67.jpg
They asked if it was my first bluefin and I said yes. The heart was ripped out and I ate it. Actually, it’s not bad if you like sashimi. After washing it down with a soda I was back to fishing.
On the second drift I hooked up again, and this one seemed like a bigger fish. But after a while something seemed wrong as I couldn’t gain on it; the fight was a stalemate at that point. Then the fish stripped off about 70 yards of line, and it became a stalemate again, and the increasingly fast drift didn’t help at all. It felt like “fighting” the bottom on a rockfish drift, with the line slowly going out. I was “fighting” the fish in such a position that my back was pretty sore afterward. I was almost at the end of my spool when Ricky decided to chase it down, and I headed for the bow as we followed the fish.
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/Cindy2.jpg
I was pretty worn out at this point, so I just put my rod on the rail and started winding, and the load got heavier but it was steadily coming up, and we finally got it to gaff.
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/008-60.jpg
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/Cindy1.jpg
It turns out that I somehow hooked the fish right in its side. What a pain in the *** that was…
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/009-54.jpg
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/010-52.jpg
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/012-39.jpg
…but nonetheless I was happy to get the fish. After apologizing to everybody, we headed back to the pen to start another drift. It was then that the fishing really picked up, even as the wind was blowing and the water was getting rougher. I got a couple more and other started hooking up consistently too. It seemed that the people getting bit the best were using fluorocarbon. We had a pretty consistent bite even as the sun went down, and then the fish weren’t line shy anymore as a couple of fish were landed on 30 and 40 pound test. I couldn’t get a bite on the heavy line so I opted to fish straight 20 pound test. I got hooked up a couple times on this set up and lost both of them – one to a pulled hook and the other broke off right at color. Soon after it got dark the fish stopped biting, Ricky decided to call it a day and head for Clemente.
We ended up with 28 fish for our efforts. The ones that we lost were mostly due to pulled hooks than the fish biting through the line. The fluorocarbon definitely helped during the day, but in more ways than one as it offers great abrasion resistance. We were using five to seven inch sardines for bait on the small hooks so we had to let the fish eat the bait for a while. Once we got hooked up, we couldn’t horse them in or do any short pumping.
I went six for ten on the bluefin tuna on this trip – the high stick on the trip! Three of the four I lost were due to pulled hooks, but I wasn’t horsing them in – I guess they just got hooked barely and found a way to get away. But I really can’t complain after landing as many as I did. I couldn’t have done it without the great crew on the Fury!
Back to the trip…Ricky said he would take it easy on the way to Clemente as there was no rush to get there. Skip then started dinner and Tyler and Brian broke the fish out of the hold and weighed up jackpot. A few of us took some quick pictures and then headed into the galley to have some dinner.
Sorry as some of these are blurry. The rough weather certainly didn’t help the picture taking process.
Two of My Bluefin
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/015-33.jpg
Brian, Me, and Tyler
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/016-25.jpg
Cindy with a Nice Bluefin
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/Cindy3.jpg
Rachelle with Her Very First Bluefin!
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/Cindy4.jpg
Chartermaster Mike Shaw with Rachelle
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/017-23.jpg
Bluefin Shots…
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/019-12.jpg
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/020-13.jpg
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/021-11.jpg
Brian and Tyler Weighing Up JP
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/023-9.jpg
I’m not sure who won the jackpot but whoever it was I’m sure JP went to the crew. Anyways most of us settled in for dinner. I was feeling a little queasy but I had a little bit of dinner and then I decided to turn in for the night.
My bunk was right by the entrance to the bunkroom right at deck level, right by the engine room door. I woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of the engine, louder than usual as the door was open. I didn’t think much of it and after a trip to the head I fell back asleep. I woke up a little before 7am and got up to find that the engine room door being open a long time was nothing, but later on a pipe cracked due to the rough weather and sprung a leak, causing us to take on a little water. It was under control but as it’s better to be safe than sorry, Ricky decided to head into port to get it fixed up. I got up at about 7am and found this out, and we were about two hours out from Dana Point. We got our stuff together and enjoyed the ride back to port, chatting and reflecting on the trip. Mike Shaw our chartermaster talked to Ricky and he ended up giving us compensation for the lost second day, which we all appreciated very much.
I’d like to thank Ricky, Skip, Tyler, Kane, and Brian for having us aboard – you guys are awesome! I can’t wait to come back for another trip with you guys and for next year aboard another world-famous Mike Shaw trip.
Brandon Hayward gave some tips on bluefin tuna fishing a while back. He listed “light line, small hooks, hot baits” as the way of getting bit the best while fishing these school sized bluefin tuna. This ran through my head the whole day, and it paid off in spades. It’s beyond the truth – it’s the gospel according to the ways of the angler.
I was the first down there so to kill time I had dinner at the deli to kill some time, and then I gathered my gear and got in line. Others started rolling in as departure time approached and we shot the breeze while we waited for the boat to get in. I knew most of the people on this trip, some of which were on last year’s trip – a great bunch of people, a few who I’ve known since I was six years old. Even the captain’s wife Cathy came along on this trip, but unfortunately his daughter Cari couldn’t make it, but all of us missed her! Anyway, the guys who came off the Fury’s overnight charter said that bass fishing was okay at Clemente – they ended up with 85 bass. The crew got the boat all cleaned up and they called us down.
After getting settled in, Captain Rick Doesburg welcomed us aboard and gave us our options for the trip, of which we had three: 1, we could go to Clemente but we would be limited to the frontside on the first day as the navy would be shutting down the back and bass fishing was okay but no yellows to speak of; 2, we could go down to the tuna pens but fishing down there was slow that day, but the day before the bluefin bit pretty well in the afternoon – and then we would fish Clemente the second day; or 3, heading to the Tanner or Cortes with the last report being that the Thunderbird had four yellows out there a week prior. It was a reluctant unanimous decision to head for the tuna pens, and while we quickly headed out to get bait so we could leave as soon as possible to travel 95 miles to the tuna pens, Second Captain Skip Driggers gave us the required safety speech per USCG regulations and introduced us to the rest of our crew, consisting of Tyler Rich, Kane Shanahan, and Brian Pifer. After loading up bait, we headed out, and I headed for my bunk.
After a great night’s sleep, I woke up just before gray light and had breakfast. We arrived at the pens a little while later and started a drift. (Just to have a frame of reference, we were about 30 to 35 miles off Ensenada). The name of the game in the morning was just hopping back and forth about the two remaining pens that were there. In the morning the pens were three miles apart and then the tug boats moved them while they were feeding, so by the end of the day I think they were shorter. We were marking fish the whole morning but only a few were willing to bite, and only two were landed. The ones that were lost were due to hooks pulling, the reason being the bluefin were hook shy and we had to use small, lighter wire hooks to get bit. My rig of choice was 15 pound test with 20 pound Seaguar Fluorocarbon and a #1 Mustad 9174 hook.
As for the Mexican tug boat workers, they were very friendly and waved to us and cheered when they saw that we were hooked up. A couple of guys came up in a little red inflatable and asked for a case of beer as they were having their Sunday BBQ on the tug boat. Ricky obliged and the two men were on their way. We saw them later in the day along with others huddled up on the bow having their BBQ.
In the afternoon Ricky was seeing more and more fish on the sonar, and I finally got bit and the fish took me to the bow. These fish are very squirrely so you have to baby them for all they’re worth, and that’s what I did the best I could. It gave a final run and got its tail wrapped up on my fluorocarbon, and it came up after that and felt the gaff. My first bluefin tuna!
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/007-67.jpg
They asked if it was my first bluefin and I said yes. The heart was ripped out and I ate it. Actually, it’s not bad if you like sashimi. After washing it down with a soda I was back to fishing.
On the second drift I hooked up again, and this one seemed like a bigger fish. But after a while something seemed wrong as I couldn’t gain on it; the fight was a stalemate at that point. Then the fish stripped off about 70 yards of line, and it became a stalemate again, and the increasingly fast drift didn’t help at all. It felt like “fighting” the bottom on a rockfish drift, with the line slowly going out. I was “fighting” the fish in such a position that my back was pretty sore afterward. I was almost at the end of my spool when Ricky decided to chase it down, and I headed for the bow as we followed the fish.
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/Cindy2.jpg
I was pretty worn out at this point, so I just put my rod on the rail and started winding, and the load got heavier but it was steadily coming up, and we finally got it to gaff.
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/008-60.jpg
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/Cindy1.jpg
It turns out that I somehow hooked the fish right in its side. What a pain in the *** that was…
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/009-54.jpg
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/010-52.jpg
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/012-39.jpg
…but nonetheless I was happy to get the fish. After apologizing to everybody, we headed back to the pen to start another drift. It was then that the fishing really picked up, even as the wind was blowing and the water was getting rougher. I got a couple more and other started hooking up consistently too. It seemed that the people getting bit the best were using fluorocarbon. We had a pretty consistent bite even as the sun went down, and then the fish weren’t line shy anymore as a couple of fish were landed on 30 and 40 pound test. I couldn’t get a bite on the heavy line so I opted to fish straight 20 pound test. I got hooked up a couple times on this set up and lost both of them – one to a pulled hook and the other broke off right at color. Soon after it got dark the fish stopped biting, Ricky decided to call it a day and head for Clemente.
We ended up with 28 fish for our efforts. The ones that we lost were mostly due to pulled hooks than the fish biting through the line. The fluorocarbon definitely helped during the day, but in more ways than one as it offers great abrasion resistance. We were using five to seven inch sardines for bait on the small hooks so we had to let the fish eat the bait for a while. Once we got hooked up, we couldn’t horse them in or do any short pumping.
I went six for ten on the bluefin tuna on this trip – the high stick on the trip! Three of the four I lost were due to pulled hooks, but I wasn’t horsing them in – I guess they just got hooked barely and found a way to get away. But I really can’t complain after landing as many as I did. I couldn’t have done it without the great crew on the Fury!
Back to the trip…Ricky said he would take it easy on the way to Clemente as there was no rush to get there. Skip then started dinner and Tyler and Brian broke the fish out of the hold and weighed up jackpot. A few of us took some quick pictures and then headed into the galley to have some dinner.
Sorry as some of these are blurry. The rough weather certainly didn’t help the picture taking process.
Two of My Bluefin
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/015-33.jpg
Brian, Me, and Tyler
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/016-25.jpg
Cindy with a Nice Bluefin
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/Cindy3.jpg
Rachelle with Her Very First Bluefin!
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/Cindy4.jpg
Chartermaster Mike Shaw with Rachelle
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/017-23.jpg
Bluefin Shots…
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/019-12.jpg
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/020-13.jpg
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/021-11.jpg
Brian and Tyler Weighing Up JP
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/023-9.jpg
I’m not sure who won the jackpot but whoever it was I’m sure JP went to the crew. Anyways most of us settled in for dinner. I was feeling a little queasy but I had a little bit of dinner and then I decided to turn in for the night.
My bunk was right by the entrance to the bunkroom right at deck level, right by the engine room door. I woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of the engine, louder than usual as the door was open. I didn’t think much of it and after a trip to the head I fell back asleep. I woke up a little before 7am and got up to find that the engine room door being open a long time was nothing, but later on a pipe cracked due to the rough weather and sprung a leak, causing us to take on a little water. It was under control but as it’s better to be safe than sorry, Ricky decided to head into port to get it fixed up. I got up at about 7am and found this out, and we were about two hours out from Dana Point. We got our stuff together and enjoyed the ride back to port, chatting and reflecting on the trip. Mike Shaw our chartermaster talked to Ricky and he ended up giving us compensation for the lost second day, which we all appreciated very much.
I’d like to thank Ricky, Skip, Tyler, Kane, and Brian for having us aboard – you guys are awesome! I can’t wait to come back for another trip with you guys and for next year aboard another world-famous Mike Shaw trip.
Brandon Hayward gave some tips on bluefin tuna fishing a while back. He listed “light line, small hooks, hot baits” as the way of getting bit the best while fishing these school sized bluefin tuna. This ran through my head the whole day, and it paid off in spades. It’s beyond the truth – it’s the gospel according to the ways of the angler.