Good Fortune on the Tuna scene.
If you haven't already guessed, "I love to go fishing a lot." (I'm also not that picky on what kind of fishing I do.) The only thing I ask for is too catch something on every trip I go on. So on this year's ocean scene, I was kinda picky on what trips I would go on. Because if the ocean scene wasn't to my liking, there was always plenty of freshwater options that would do nicely. So when it came to this year's Tuna thing, I felt like Goldie Locks and the 3 Bears. The Big mean BFT were here almost all year. (too big) The traditional summer months brought in the YFT in mass quantity's but they were on the smaller side. (less then 10 lbs on the average) (too small) Neither of those opportunity's had much appeal to me. About 6 weeks ago the right size Tuna showed up and now I'm interested!!! BFT 18-30 lbs and YFT 15-50lbs. We got our feet wet last month with a couple of nice BFT and some pretty nice Yellowtail at the Coronado Islands. Now it was time to go on an off shore trip.
Well I was doing another Goldie Locks thing again. I wanted nice weather with a light load of passengers to go along with good fishing. Good Luck in finding that!!! I found plenty of biting fish, unfortunately it was in either snotty weather or a big passenger load or both! Finally I found what I was looking for, biting fish, limited passenger load (18) and nice weather. The boat was the Fortune now running out 22nd Street landing in San Pedro. If you never fished on the Fortune you're missing a nice opportunity. Clean Boat with nice sleeping accommodations (you would appreciate that if you ever slept in the 3rd or 4th high bunk on the Freedom) and lot's bait. 4 tanks and a slammer!!! Plus the willingness to put some live squid on the boat. (BFT love squid)
On to the fishing!!
The Fortune is willing to make the 99 mile run to the 60 mile bank where all the Jumbo BFT were being caught. But it really slowed down there in the last couple of day's and better fishing was 20 miles north of that on the BFT and the YFT. We started at day light chasing the pony's and the YFT. After a couple hours of that with no reaction from the Tuna we headed off in a different direction. It didn't take long before we found a bird school with some BFT under them. I was the second person to get bit on the boat because I'm faster then most people at getting my bait in the water first! The Tuna took the bait rather squirrel, hit it, drop it, stop it, run slowly!!! After I got him in a up and down position, disaster struck and I pulled the hook right before deep color. I told myself, "I'm going to really let the next one choke it down before I set the hook on him." On the slide I got bit on #30 pound line. Now they were boiling around the boat and it took some patience to get bit. Now I went to the super secret rig!!! (last time I described it, some comedian said everyone knows that rig) Yea right!!! In theory they might, but I have not seen anyone but me fish that set up in the last 2 years on all the boats I was on since that comment. (Everyone is in love with Spectra and a Floro leader.) Here is the super secret rig. #20 pound pink Ande line, with a #20 Floro leader, on a number 1 flyliner ringed hook. (I swear by that rig) You still have to pick a good hot bait and cast it off on a good spot on the boat. I saw the Tuna were boiling just outside of where everyone baits were, straight back in the stern. So I threw a good bait as far as I could straight off the middle of the stern. I got picked up quickly and this time I let him choke it down. I set the hook and landed him about 10 minutes later. A nice #20 lbs BFT.
Next up was a Kelp paddy.
I know from experience the captain can meter ahead and see if there is any Tuna hanging around it. So when the Captain said, "reel in the trollers we are going to stop on this one." (I knew it had Tuna underneath it!) I wasn't going to wait for every Tom Dick and Harry to cast out at the same time. (I was going to get the jump on them and cast first) I did and a bird nabbed my bait as soon as it hit the water. So I had to grab another bait. In the mean time, I hear, hook up, fresh one, I'm bit on a YFT. I threw a good bait out and it swims for the bow. It's a good swimmer so I just let him go. There was some boils up in the bow, so I'm still expecting to get bit. Sure enough I get bit way out there, but he's putting up a real good fight. I know he's not a 15-20 pound YFT. Sure enough after a long fight, a #30 BFT comes up dead tired. He's gaffed and I'm still seeing some boils in the bow, so that's where I make my next cast. I instantly got picked up by a #20 Yellowfin, I made quick work on him. Boy there is a big difference on how hard a BFT fights compared to a YFT.
In the afternoon it was just 1 fish here 2 fish there and I didn't get anymore bites. So I decided to change it up and use the Live squid we had on the boat. I fished a big hook (2 squids on the hook) and a 3/4 ounce sliding weight. The next stop we had only 1 fish caught and it was a BFT on a live squid. It was getting late and the Captain said, "this is our last stop before we have to head home." So I fished the squid and I got bit and quickly landed another #20 BFT. I was already limited out on the BFT, so I gave it to a friend of mine on the boat. The boat total for the day was 14 YFT and 21 BFT for 18 anglers. I ended up hooking 5 Tuna and landing 4. 3 BFT and 1 YFT. The weather was great all day, till we got about half way home. It was rough for a couple of hours stretch till we got to Catalina Island and then it was nice again. That's probably it for me on the Tuna for the year, but Trout season starts at Lake Wohlford on Dec 9. Start looking for my reports after that!!!
