4 Attachment(s)
late season yellowfin tuna and dorado
5 October Offshore Run
Hello FNN. Long time member here, haven’t posted in a while since the Army moved me to Hawaii. Had a week off of Army medicine life so I flew back to my heart and my home- good ole Southern California. Hit up some fishing buddies of mine and Jeff was quick to get a trip going. The crew for the trip Jeff, Jaime, Ryan, and yours truly Eric EARG. Some background info to put into perspective what this trip meant to me (skip this part if you aint about the touchy feelies)
Ryan - met this kid back in 1999 in high school and we’ve been fishing together ever since
Jeff - Started deep sea fishing with Jefe as my fishing mentor. Taught me everything I know about deep sea. Picked up 30 years of knowledge in 3 years fishing with him.
Jaime - bought some pole holders from him at SARL.
I meet up with the gang in San Diego at 0400. We launch from Shelter Island and pick up a scoop and a quarter of great quality sardines and head on off to the numbers where we got reports of recent action. 2 hour ride out and we reach the destination right at day break. Outriggers are set and we start off trolling 4 set ups on a calm autumn morning on the great blue. We troll around for a few hours while shooting the sh*t and catching up, recalling good ole times we had on the Kolomono. 0900 the first trollers get hit. Hook up! DOUBLE!!! I grab the first rod and start pumping. Not quite the weight I am looking for. Sure enough, to my disappointment I see a skipjack swim to the surface. Bump him in. I look over and the second troller brings up another skipjack. Then, over the portside we see a GIANT BOIL! YELLOWFIN TUNA!!! BOIL BOIL BOIL! The water erupts around us! I grab a bucket of chum and throw it over along with some fresh dines. Instant boils all around! “GET BAITS OUT THERE!”. Its nice and chaotic. Ryan throws a bait pole out and immediately gets picked up. A swing and FISH ON!!! Jeff throws a bait and immediately gets picked up! DOUBLE!!! I get a raked bait with no love. Jeff and Ryan make quick work of their football yellowfin tuna and we can’t get any more fish to play. Fish are boiling around and I’m burning bait throwing chum to keep them around but they won’t take anything with a hook on it. Chatter over the radio confirms the same. We drop down to 20, 15lb, fluoro. Still nothing! Eventually the fish sink out and we throw the trollers out and look for some more action. Off in the distance we spot a giant school of porpoise! We go wide open throttle to the dolphin and throw out the trollers. Not a minute in and HOOK UP!!! DOUBLE!!! TRIPLE!!!!!! A nicer grade of tuna hits the deck to 25 lbs. Rinse, wash, repeat! The next couple hours are a mix of singles, doubles, and bait fish in between. Nice and chaotic! The highlight for me is when I went to take a piss on the port side stern and as soon as I drop my shorts and start pissing the troll rod in front of me starts screaming. “HOOKUP!!! SH*T SH*T SH*T!!!” I literally got caught with my pants down and my weiner in my hands LOL. Still managed to get the fish though! Eventually the dolphin got sick of us trolling through them so they scattered. We picked up a 2 more yellowfin tuna and 1 nice dorado off of kelp paddies and that was a wrap!
Great Trip once again! Good to be back with my fishing crew! Thanks again Jeff for always putting us on fish! Til next time, EARG OUT!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btO17qqM5qc
