A trip to remember

[JT FISHJUNKY]

Last weekend 9/21 we were invited on a very special fishing trip. We fished on the Bettina Lee, a 50 ft Mikelson out of Huntington harbor.





There was 8 of us on the boat for the weekend. Andrew and Bettina, the owners along with their two kids Andrew and Christopher. In addition to myself and my friend Shea, we were joined by Joe and Karl. Karl owns the boat Topless.


Shea was filming for an episode of Inside Sportfishing that is going to air this weekend.




We headed over to Catalina Saturday afternoon. On our way over we found a pretty good spot of Dolphin working the bait balls around Avalon Bank.


We couldn’t resist and made a few passes through the dolphin. We hooked one solid fish but never landed it. Made our way in to Avalon for a relaxing evening.




Got on it early Sunday. The plan was to head towards the 209 and look for the dolphin.
Saw a Marlin shortly after leaving the can about ½ mile in front of Avalon. We tried to bait her but couldn’t get her to bite.






Fished a few paddies for nothing.






We found the dolphin outside of the 209 but there were also about 50 other boats doing the same thing. Saw a few nice yellowfin hooked but we didn’t have any luck.

The captain made the decision to leave the area to go find our own. A difficult decision to make and it paid off big time!! We worked out towards the Mackeral bank and found another giant spot of dolphin. No more than 5-7 boats on the spot and everybody was working together.

We fished the dolphin along with with the Amigo , the Ultra and one of the Bongo’s boats along with a couple other private boats.


Andrew was the first to hook up!







The boys could fish!!


Andrew







Christopher






Dad and the boys







All the fish were nice grade,




Karl








We landed 6 Yellowfin all at about 30lbs. We had some talent on the boat but still lost a lot of fish. Most of the fish were caught on the slide.
We used 4 oz weights to get the baits down and that seemed to work pretty good.


Kind of interesting how we all met. Karl and Joe were in the boat topless, and Shea and I were in our 19 ft Mako when Betina was attacked by the Great White Shark back in June.
Andrew put together the trip as a thank you to the 4 of us for helping out on that crazy day .

When we were getting on the boat there was a reminder of the day we all met. The Kayak that Bettina was in that the Great White shark hit was on the dock. You could still see the teeth marks.





I am thinking he lost a tooth on this one




Many thanks to Andrew and Bettina and the family for inviting us along for a weekend we will never forget!!!

[russ88]

I'll be recording this weekend episode of Inside sportfishing. Awesome report!!!!

[Ifishtoolittle]

That first one had a pretty nasty gaff job, anyways nice job on the fish guys!

[lizzay]

Great story, a good deed will go a long way forever. Nice job on the fish.

[Jbro]

i was in Avalon the weekend that happened and it was big news. Great on the spot help men. You deserve a good day on the water for helping a fellow boater especially in that circ. Those teeth marks are a good reminder that we are not at the top of the food chain when ever we enter the water.

[arctic]

congrats there, way to slay those yellows. i bet they gave hela fight there especially with the kids

[Trout Nine]

Nice catch WTG on the YFT

T9

[lurk 182]

that's what we call deluxe accomodations around here. what a trip. nice pics too. anybody else need some assistance in exchange for tuna trips? i'm your huckleberry. i saw that albacore episode of Inside a couple weeks ago. more bendo action that i've seen stuffed into thirty minutes in a long time. tell Shea he's set the bar pretty high with that one. looking forward to Sunday.

[JapanRon]

Hi JT FISHJUNKIE,

Nice job on the report and pics. Looks like a nice grade of fish by going your own way a bit from the 209.

GWS vs Kayak ...... Don't need to flip a coin on this one !! ha ha ha

Thanks ...... appreciated,

JapanRon

[TroutOnly]

KARL ACTUALLY CATCHING,,,,LOL,,WAY TO GO JT AND KARL AND CREW,,,,t/o