7/22/07 Grande ole' time ---------- W/PICS
Alright Fella's as promised I'm back with my report. Met up with FunJunkie at his pad around 5:30pm on Saturday. Before we left for San Diego we stopped by in-n-out where I chomped down on a hamburger and out came my wisdom tooth. Uh-oh, I was afraid this was going to bother my fishing.
We got to Point Loma at around 8 pm. Dude, parking for Fisherman's, Sea Forth and Point Loma is friekin' packed on Saturday nights. Joe had to park at the holiday inn like a quarter mile away. I recommend you show up super early for future reference.
We boarded the Grande out of Point Loma and signed in by 10 pm. The overnight ticket costs $165 but they don't tell you that you gotta fork up $10 for your bunk, $5 for fuel, $5 for JP and a dollar if you want to be on the trolling rotation. Whatever, you already paid $165 whats another $21 right?
When I saw the boat... it truly was Grande. It's 88 feet long~! You can comfortably fit about 8 anglers on the stern. The bow is a little too high for my liking but none the less you can sprint about 20 steps from bow to stern. Yes, the Grande is truly Grande... EXCEPT the bunks. Oh my Goodness, they literally pack 48 people into two different sleeping quarters like sardines in a can~!! It got so uncomfortable at one point, I woke up and slept in the galley for an hour only to find 9 other guys snoring at the tables. On that note, the galley is exceptionally roomy (not as big as the native sun) but there are plenty of padded benches equipped with condiments on each table. The food scores a perfect 10. Nick the galley chef is second to none when it comes to breakfast plates. I actually ordered his golden brown hotstack of pancakes twice throughout the day. I hear the burgers are awesome and FJ said the Chicken quesadillas are Magnifico.
FJ and I wake up around 5:30 with high hopes for the day. We were located just east of the 60 bank. It's wierd. I wake up to see completely blue water and the suns not even out yet. Mind you, this is my first time in Mexican Water. The water was completely still all day. I mean like, lake water still. I was surprised that a couple of people got sick on this trip. The pictures below will confirm how calm it was today.
It was overcast throughout the day. We picked up Nice Dines and unusual sized anchovies. It's been a long time sinced I've seen chovies that were this big~! Perfect bait size.
Another thing that was friekin' awesome was the sea lions... there was not a single Dog in sight today~!! Not even ONE~! The only things that I saw that sparked interest were Dolphins that came right up to the boat, an occasional boil from the Albies but the most intriguing thing was the flying fish~! I always pictured them to just jump out of the water but these little guys actually fly and glide around like bats~!
Anyways, sorry to say but the fishing sucked. We had 42 people on board and there were only 16 Albies landed. I pulled in my first longfin on our 4th stop of the morning (9:30AM) fishing a blue mega bait flung out on the slide. As soon as it hit the water I felt a bump. I dropped it back down 5 feet and "WHIZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ" put it in gear and layed the wood on that chicken. The fight wasn't as bad as FJ made it out to be. I think Yellowtails fight harder but becuase there's kelp and an anchor involved in that. I started on the Starboard side toward the stern and had it gaffed mid-rail on the Starboard. The dude next to me hooked up at the same time and he landed his too.
There were a lot of people that tried and tried and tried their butts off but just couldn't get a bite. There were a lot of people on board and tangles were inevitable. This dude I met Zack. He was a guy that was at the rail the whole time but wasn't able to land an Albie... bless his heart, I was standing next to him practically the whole time too... Sorry Zack, next time huh? Well not to mention 18 other people who didn't hook up. Most people didn't even get a nibble.
In the end, I landed 1 Albacore tuna. I had fun though, an experience to remember.
FJ? well... I don't know... let's ask him. "Hey Joe, how'd you do?"
=P
Thanks for reading my report guys. Next Sunday 7-29-07 Davies Locker Freelance 3/4 Can anyone come?
P.S. My tooth didn't bother me at all.
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by k3vin_kim
