Tunaslam
12-01-2015, 03:08 PM
Sorry for the late post, as I was exhausted after spending most of the day at the Coliseum Saturday and fishing Sunday, and too busy at work yesterday.
There were reports of Yellowfin Tuna off the West End of Catalina, and in the gap between Palos Verdes and Catalina. Marlin boats were complaining about not being able to catch Marlin because of the pesky Tuna attacking their lures, nice problem to have? Also the Indian out of Redondo caught 39 Yellowfin Tuna Friday. We were a bit disappointed that there were no new reports on Saturday.
So I went Fishing Sun.-11-29-15 with Lal on his boat the “Rubber Ducky”. We launched out of Davies, in Long Beach, and cleared the harbor by 5:45 am. We stopped at Nachos and picked up a fantastic scoop of small, medium and larger slimy green sardines! The seas had a good bump to them with 8 to 10 knots of winds running offshore, so they were at our back, negating the nippy chill in the air.
Lal worked outside about ten miles on a heading somewhat towards the middle of the island, and then ran slightly parallel to the coast for five miles until we pointed the boat directly towards the west end of Catalina. We found 65.5 degree water, with lots of birds and some porpoise. We put in the trollers at about 20 miles offshore. None of the porpoise schools we found were holding.
Most of the Kelp Paddies were completely empty, a few had Micro Yellowtail on them. Some five miles from the west end we saw splashing in the distance and it looked really good. There were porpoise working a Kelp Paddy with several seals. Although we didn’t meter any bait the porpoise were really feeding on something, as were the seals. We soaked baits for a while and even the Pursuit ran up to us and took a look at all the activity. They quickly left without stopping, so their meter was empty as well.
We continued trolling until we got five miles beyond the island and five miles north of the west end where we ran into a 3 degree temperature change within a mile. Unfortunately it was in the wrong direction, dropped to 62.1 and changed color to a grey/green. We ran back to the island and towards San Clemente, as did the Pursuit. However the water temp only returned to 63.5 before we turned around and made our way to fish the island.
We stopped at west cove and caught a half dozen 4 to 5 pound Bonito, fun but not what we wanted. With still some wind and significant swell activity we did not want to work our way down the backside of the island, so we went to the front side and decided it was still Tuna as our targeted species. We ran hard for about 7 miles until we again found 65+ degree water and it quickly cleared up as well. We trolled and trolled getting to the other side of the Isthmus before pointing the boat home.
Probably some ten miles off the island we stopped on a garage size paddy, loaded with birds, bait and micro tails, yet no Tuna. We could pull off a Jonathan! The wind was backing way off and the seas were greasing up. Darn, great conditions, incredible bait and no fish! We pulled in the trollers at 1:30 pm and headed toward the green buoy where some recent catches of Tails had been reported. Unfortunately a monster knot head seal destroyed every bait we tossed and so we gave up! We did have some good meter marks. I through iron for a short while to no avail.
On the trailer at 3:30 pm after covering 92 miles.
Thanks Lal, the Ducky will rise again!
Happy Holidays everyone!
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas at the Visser’s:
http://i1091.photobucket.com/albums/i394/tunaslam/Christmas/100_4293_zpsenplsmly.jpg
http://i1091.photobucket.com/albums/i394/tunaslam/Christmas/100_4299_zpsp0m43md2.jpg
http://i1091.photobucket.com/albums/i394/tunaslam/Christmas/100_4295_zpsrqlqdnvt.jpg
http://i1091.photobucket.com/albums/i394/tunaslam/Christmas/100_4300_zpsstyeipai.jpg
Off the record.
This is a picture of my wife Sheryl of 46 years and I at the USC Tailgate party on Campus Saturday. We started the day off with morning Bloody Mary's and then Champagne, appropriate for the Victory celebration after USC crushed their arch Rival UCLA in the Coliseum. We enjoyed an awesome Breakfast Buffet that included Maple sugar coated bacon, sausage, home fried potatoes, cheese potato casserole, a variety of Quiche selections, and much more. We brought Lil's Smokie Pigs in a blanket for an appetizer, which was quickly consumed along with the many other dips and chips available.
We are hoping for a victory against Stanford this Saturday in the PAC 12 Championship game, so that we can plan a trip New Year’s Day to the Rose Parade and Rosebowl. Fight on! Go Trojans and congrats to Clay Helton who became the permanent Head Coach.
http://i1091.photobucket.com/albums/i394/tunaslam/Christmas/IMG_0749_zpsbltl65v9.jpg
Hook up! Cory
There were reports of Yellowfin Tuna off the West End of Catalina, and in the gap between Palos Verdes and Catalina. Marlin boats were complaining about not being able to catch Marlin because of the pesky Tuna attacking their lures, nice problem to have? Also the Indian out of Redondo caught 39 Yellowfin Tuna Friday. We were a bit disappointed that there were no new reports on Saturday.
So I went Fishing Sun.-11-29-15 with Lal on his boat the “Rubber Ducky”. We launched out of Davies, in Long Beach, and cleared the harbor by 5:45 am. We stopped at Nachos and picked up a fantastic scoop of small, medium and larger slimy green sardines! The seas had a good bump to them with 8 to 10 knots of winds running offshore, so they were at our back, negating the nippy chill in the air.
Lal worked outside about ten miles on a heading somewhat towards the middle of the island, and then ran slightly parallel to the coast for five miles until we pointed the boat directly towards the west end of Catalina. We found 65.5 degree water, with lots of birds and some porpoise. We put in the trollers at about 20 miles offshore. None of the porpoise schools we found were holding.
Most of the Kelp Paddies were completely empty, a few had Micro Yellowtail on them. Some five miles from the west end we saw splashing in the distance and it looked really good. There were porpoise working a Kelp Paddy with several seals. Although we didn’t meter any bait the porpoise were really feeding on something, as were the seals. We soaked baits for a while and even the Pursuit ran up to us and took a look at all the activity. They quickly left without stopping, so their meter was empty as well.
We continued trolling until we got five miles beyond the island and five miles north of the west end where we ran into a 3 degree temperature change within a mile. Unfortunately it was in the wrong direction, dropped to 62.1 and changed color to a grey/green. We ran back to the island and towards San Clemente, as did the Pursuit. However the water temp only returned to 63.5 before we turned around and made our way to fish the island.
We stopped at west cove and caught a half dozen 4 to 5 pound Bonito, fun but not what we wanted. With still some wind and significant swell activity we did not want to work our way down the backside of the island, so we went to the front side and decided it was still Tuna as our targeted species. We ran hard for about 7 miles until we again found 65+ degree water and it quickly cleared up as well. We trolled and trolled getting to the other side of the Isthmus before pointing the boat home.
Probably some ten miles off the island we stopped on a garage size paddy, loaded with birds, bait and micro tails, yet no Tuna. We could pull off a Jonathan! The wind was backing way off and the seas were greasing up. Darn, great conditions, incredible bait and no fish! We pulled in the trollers at 1:30 pm and headed toward the green buoy where some recent catches of Tails had been reported. Unfortunately a monster knot head seal destroyed every bait we tossed and so we gave up! We did have some good meter marks. I through iron for a short while to no avail.
On the trailer at 3:30 pm after covering 92 miles.
Thanks Lal, the Ducky will rise again!
Happy Holidays everyone!
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas at the Visser’s:
http://i1091.photobucket.com/albums/i394/tunaslam/Christmas/100_4293_zpsenplsmly.jpg
http://i1091.photobucket.com/albums/i394/tunaslam/Christmas/100_4299_zpsp0m43md2.jpg
http://i1091.photobucket.com/albums/i394/tunaslam/Christmas/100_4295_zpsrqlqdnvt.jpg
http://i1091.photobucket.com/albums/i394/tunaslam/Christmas/100_4300_zpsstyeipai.jpg
Off the record.
This is a picture of my wife Sheryl of 46 years and I at the USC Tailgate party on Campus Saturday. We started the day off with morning Bloody Mary's and then Champagne, appropriate for the Victory celebration after USC crushed their arch Rival UCLA in the Coliseum. We enjoyed an awesome Breakfast Buffet that included Maple sugar coated bacon, sausage, home fried potatoes, cheese potato casserole, a variety of Quiche selections, and much more. We brought Lil's Smokie Pigs in a blanket for an appetizer, which was quickly consumed along with the many other dips and chips available.
We are hoping for a victory against Stanford this Saturday in the PAC 12 Championship game, so that we can plan a trip New Year’s Day to the Rose Parade and Rosebowl. Fight on! Go Trojans and congrats to Clay Helton who became the permanent Head Coach.
http://i1091.photobucket.com/albums/i394/tunaslam/Christmas/IMG_0749_zpsbltl65v9.jpg
Hook up! Cory