Toronado 10-19-2013

[E.A.R.G.]

buddy John got married. few of us got together to celebrate his last fishing day ever!

hit up the toronado leaving friday night fishing saturday. 14, ultra limited load, with 5 or so crew members. my group consisted of 5 of us, 2 were complete newbies, first cattle boat ever, and 1 was on his first overnighter ever.

met up at 8 pm, boat left the dock around 9. the dreamer had a good float going at cat so we scooched on in and had a nice go at the bait filling up all the tanks and then some in less than 20 minutes.

and off to clemente.

we hit clemente by 5 am and we were fishing the cove at dark and gray bite with little to show. by 9 am we had only 1 cuda and 1 bonito landed. Morale was pretty low.

then at 9 am Earl the pearl hooked up and landed the first Yellowtail of the trip. a small 7lb ish yellowtail but that was all the hope we needed. all the lines went back out and then the bite went WFO!

couldn't keep the lines in the water! It was as wide as it gets for about a half an hour and then just like that, the bite shut off. we had a couple other goes going with 2-5 hanging but nothing like that first half hour.

i was running around untangling my buddies' lines and re rigging and hook & passing but still managed to land 4 schoolie size yellows. the other 4 buddies were able to deck 1 each so all in our group caught at least one!

super stoked about the newbies getting yellows. 2 of them had them passed by me and a fellow passenger.


about the crew, chowder in the galley makes the best Breakfast burrito you'll ever get on a moo moo. imho.

didn't like how one of the deckhands fished the whole time though. At one point he was the one and only solo hook up and there were people on the boat who hadn't caught one. people were yelling at him to pass it, but he posted up in the bow and brought the fish in himself. I don't see that normally in san diego overnighter trips. I was talking to a deckhand on the new lo an the other day who said he's still never caught a bluefin in his life because the captain doesn't allow the crew to land one unless every passenger has landed one. fortunately, a paying passenger who works as a deckhand on the chief hooked and passed to the last member of my group who hadn't landed a yellow. hats off to him!

other than that the trip was top notch! yellows in october, what more could I ask for?!?



wicked float!
http://i422.photobucket.com/albums/pp304/ericchungw/IMG_2631_zps58da5741.jpg (http://s422.photobucket.com/user/ericchungw/media/IMG_2631_zps58da5741.jpg.html)


great weather!
http://i422.photobucket.com/albums/pp304/ericchungw/IMG_2647_zps0df593f6.jpg (http://s422.photobucket.com/user/ericchungw/media/IMG_2647_zps0df593f6.jpg.html)


three heart eaters
http://i422.photobucket.com/albums/pp304/ericchungw/IMG_2645_zpsf13079f5.jpg (http://s422.photobucket.com/user/ericchungw/media/IMG_2645_zpsf13079f5.jpg.html)




as good as the season ever was!!
http://i422.photobucket.com/albums/pp304/ericchungw/IMG_2648_zpsc5bd83f7.jpg (http://s422.photobucket.com/user/ericchungw/media/IMG_2648_zpsc5bd83f7.jpg.html)




http://i422.photobucket.com/albums/pp304/ericchungw/IMG_2653_zpsc1fbea3f.jpg (http://s422.photobucket.com/user/ericchungw/media/IMG_2653_zpsc1fbea3f.jpg.html)




his fishing days are over!
http://i422.photobucket.com/albums/pp304/ericchungw/IMG_2660_zpsd0fb21ae.jpg (http://s422.photobucket.com/user/ericchungw/media/IMG_2660_zpsd0fb21ae.jpg.html)

[Jig-Guy]

Deck hands fishing while they should be taking care of paying customers. That is why when it has happened while I was on a cattle and the boat captain let this go on I have never been back.:Finger: If you say anything about this on some other sites the folks always tell you to go purchase your own boat. I do not agree since most trips on over nights, 1 1/2 day or 2 1/2 day trips can cost up to $500.00 with food, fish cleaning & tips. Every one is a jerk if they do not tip! Should you tip the deck hand fishing when the deck hand should be helping the paying customers (dumb newbies):???: Win the jackpot and give the money to the crew that was fishing when they should be doing customer service,
I'm not in any jackpots anymore:Bug Eyes: Just my thoughts:Soap Box:.

I am glad you folks caught some fish. A smile on a newbies face for catching a fish is what the boat & crew is paid for. No smiles no more newbies will be on your boat. Heck look at all the boat that are not making trips at this time. Customers with money are hard to find in late October. I still enjoy my cattle boat rides and will keep going on them.:Group Hug:

[jaggerbub]

I agree that deckhands should tend to paying customers first.... I was on the boat out of H&M last month on a 2.5 day trip and we were all p-o'd at the crew. The galley only holds about 12 fishermen so half of the guys went in first while the others waited to eat. Well, half of the deckhands decided they were hungry and chose to sit down and eat with the paying customers so those seats were now spoken for. We paid $550 each for the trip and had to wait on the crew to eat... Not cool in my book.

Not only that, but the crew decided to sleep in the next morning while the captain started to troll. Only one deckhand was up when we started the troll. About 15 minutes later, that deckhand also decided to hit the bunk as well. All the guys started to jokingly vote eachother to man the gaffs if we got fish on the troll. Somebody finally complained and the captain got them out of bed. Worst crew I've ever been with. I'll never step foot on that boat again...

Congrats to your buddy, and kudos to the "chief deckhand " who handed off a fish to a newbie.

[jae4323]

Oh GOSH!!!! I feel like slapping myself for choosing to watch the Dodgers lose instead of heading out on this trip!
I honestly didn't think they were going to head out since the online ticket sales stated they had "35 out of 35 tickets available".


Congrats on your catch.

[Ifishtoolittle]

Sounds and looks like you had a killer trip. WTG! That boat, the Toronado, well... it's not my most favorite boat. I made a snark comment on the quality of the operation years ago and got flamed alive over it. lol never again!

I'll tell you what though, the cook on the Toronado made the best steak that I've ever had.

[etucker1959]

Sounds and looks like you had a killer trip. WTG! That boat, the Toronado, well... it's not my most favorite boat. I made a snark comment on the quality of the operation years ago and got flamed alive over it. lol never again!

I'll tell you what though, the cook on the Toronado made the best steak that I've ever had.
Party boats are like pizza, none of them are bad, some are just better then others. If you would have put it like that, maybe you wouldn't have gotten flamed so much. lol For me personally it's all about the fish counts, who's hot and who's not. I don't care if the devil is driving the boat, put me on the fish and I go home happy!!!!!!! In case anyone is wondering who was hot up here this year, Thunderbird all the way!!!!!!!!

[Ifishtoolittle]

Party boats are like pizza, none of them are bad, some are just better then others. If you would have put it like that, maybe you wouldn't have gotten flamed so much. lol Me personally is all about the fish counts, who's hot and who's not. I don't care if the devil is driving the boat, put me on the fish and I go home happy!!!!!!! In case anyone is wondering who was hot up here this year, Thunderbird all the way!!!!!!!!

True, true. The problem was that we weren't really put on much fish and most of our catches were baked in the sun pretty badly. lol I'll tell you, I never knew rockfish could ever taste sour.
Anyways, I'm not going to revive old news. That was just my experience with the boat and I wasn't very good. End.

[webmaster]

Great job Eric. I'm glad you got on the right boat this time! Mama must be happy.:Razz:

[troutdog]

Looks like a great trip, wtg EARG!


TD

[skildfisher]

nice yellows