Sea Adventure 80 2.5 Day Trip
Went on the Sea Adventure 2.5 day trip leaving H&M landing Tuesday night at 7:00 pm. with Scott Mc Daniels as skipper. After the usual Coast Guard speech and instructions for the trip we got our bait and headed out west for the schools of yellowfin that the fleet was picking off of for the past week. Come morning and time to start fishing I noticed the deck hand that was on top of the bait tanks was skimming off the dead sardines by the hand net full at a time because they were dying off faster than sh__.
Scott was metering lots of fish but only a few small 8-12 lb yellowfin were being landed. by 2:00 in the afternoon all the bait was barely swimming or dead and maybe a total of 16 yellowfin were landed. So it was either go back to the bait barge back in SD or catch the rest of the bait ourselves. All of the paying fishermen were up very late that evening and into the morning catching small mackerel using sebiki rigs, which many of us didn't think was right since we paid for so many scoops of bait when leaving the bait barge. After catching what they said was enough bait for the second day of fishing we went out looking for the big Bluefin. Since just about the whole SD fleet was catching limits of yellowfin and our boat had a total of 16-20 yft for the first day, Scott always kept up with the "Go Team Go" sayings and putting the sonar and electronics noises on the PA to keep everyone excited about catching tuna. He even said we need a sacrifice to do a Mohawk haircut on to make the fish bite, so two guys said ok and got their mohawks done right on deck. I didn't think that was necessary because tuna fishing is always hit or miss, but the bait selection from the start of the trip is where I feel it all started.
After making our own bait into about 3:00am, we started off in search of the Bluefin. I ended up catching two 40 lb class bluefins and 3 yellowfins from 12-30 lbs.
Then after we got back into the landing, there was discrepancies in the bags of fish that were filleted on the boat. A couple of guys were missing fish that they had caught and paid the fee for fileting, and another paid for extra belly sections that others didn't want to keep, then he never received them.
I don't know if I ever want to get on this boat to fish again. Too many discrepancies, and to boot, if you were one of the first to make a reservation on this trip, there was only the Mexican Permit fee that was extra for the cost of the trip. Then later in July they had a "meal plan" for another $90, plus the definite fuel surcharge. Since a buddy booked this trip after I did in late June, neither of us had to pay for the meal plan like everyone else onboard.
The only way I saw this trip being successful was that I was able to catch what I wanted, which was the two nice sized Bluefin.
TTFM
