4 Aces on The Monte Carlo Half-Day boat
After totally enjoying myself on the Southern Cal on Tuesday, I went to work on Wednesday with a full head of steam. I was able to check on the fish counts while I was in my office and they were slaying the big Yellowtail again!!!!! After getting some things accomplished, my right hand team member told me she needed Thursday off. No biggie, I can handle things myself on Thursday and wished her a good visit with her sister who was coming in from out of state. My big clients project then got postponed till Friday. Then my other client had to write a letter of intent for her project and wouldn't have it done till Thursday afternoon. That means I have Thursday morning off!!!! What's a fishermen to do??? I could just sleep in, or I could give those big Yellowtail another shot in the Horseshoe Kelp. Those who know me know, I didn't have a choice, but an obligation to do my duty as a fishermen to give those big Yellowtail Hell!!!!!
I felt a little guilty for not calling my good buddy Glenn to go on Tuesday's trip that was very successful. He picked up on the first ring and said, "what time to you want me ready???" I first said, "we have to find a boat with room on it," now that the cat is out of the bag on these Yellowtail. Every good boat is going to go out full, so this might be a tough one. I had him call, the Southern Cal and the Enterprise first to see if there were any spots available. Neither one of them had any spots available, now it's either the Monte Carlo or the Native Sun. He calls me back and say's their crowded but they do have space available. The wind has been blowing really hard the last two afternoons, so I opt for the Monte Carlo out of 22nd street landing. Glenn likes 22nd landing for he has made many friends there. Sure enough when we get there 3-4 people all want to talk to him, so he's already a happy camper and the boat hasn't even left the dock yet. lol
On to the fishing, we meet the bait boat half way down to the fishing grounds and got 1 full tank of sardines and 1 full tank of anchovy's. (that's the best bait we've had yet) As we are approaching the fishing grounds, I see what look like 100 little boats and every sport boat from miles around. I think to myself, it doesn't matter these things are biting full speed and everyone just wants to get in on the action. When we get to the massive fleet of boats, everyone is just floating around and no one is hooking up. I think O' Great they may not bite today. After driving around for about an hour, the captain say's were going to make a long drift and see what happens. Glenn and myself opt to fly line sardines with no weight, while everyone else on the boat (60 passengers) are mostly fishing the dropper loop rig or fishing with an egg sinker. I tell Glenn if any Yellowtail are swimming near the surface, the only baits their going to see are mine and his. He say's you're right!!!! On our 2nd drift, Glenn and myself have 2 baits swimming together and the Deckhand yells "Boils on the Starboard side!!!!" Right where our baits are swimming, I'm expecting to get picked up any second now and "NOTHING!!!!!" Man is this going to be one of those day's????? Glenn then yells, "FRESH ONE" and he's on!!!! Where's mine? (I'm thinking) My bait got completely ignored!!! Glenn lands his fish and it's a nice one!!!! (over 25 lbs) My bait is still swimming around out there, it's a good healthy bait because I feel it running all the time. Glenn then cast another bait off the stern and get's bit again!!! My bait is just having a merry ole time doing it's thing in the water. When finally it gets picked up by a Yellowtail, but it's a weird bite. It ran a little bit and stopped, I throw the reel in gear waiting for the line to go tight and nothing. Glenn say's to me as he fighting his fish, "you look like you're in strike mode?" (I am) I take about 4 cranks on the reel and the line goes tight and I swing hard. I yell, "Hook Up" and he takes off like a bat out of Hell. These things are tough, after a protracted struggle I get him in the boat. A nice #22 pounder, Glenn gets his 2nd fish and it's about the same size. The captain say's let's do it again, I cast my next bait off the starboard side and he swims away strong and deep. He get's picked up and eaten strong like he's suppose to do this time. I set the hook and the battle is on, this fish mostly stayed in the stern, kicking my butt the whole time. Once they gaffed it, it looks about the same size as Glenn's first fish. As I'm taking a little break, (recovering) Glenn get's bit again!!!! This time disaster strikes him, his fish runs into a skiffs anchor rope and he loses it. (bummer)
I do want to mention about the other 58 passengers, they were not doing a whole lot. Almost all of them are using the dropper loop rig and every once in awhile 2-3 of them would hook up and then they would lose their fare share of them. I think we landed about 15-20 Yellowtail for the trip. Not very good for 60 passengers!!! I don't think anyone landed more then 1 besides Glenn and myself. When it came to Jackpot time, that was a joke!!!! The Deckhand only weighed our 4 fish against each other!!!! In other words we weren't going to lose the Jackpot!!!! Glenn's first fish barely beat out my last fish, so we were keeping it all in the family!!! lol The deckhand then asked us, were all of our fish caught on the Fly line??? We told him yes, he said those were the first fly lined fish caught in a week on this boat. Wow I thought, we fished these things on 3 other boats since the beginning of last week and caught a bunch of them on the Fly Line. So why is no one doing that on this boat???? I have no idea!!! I later read today on 976-tuna, that some of the other boats got a pretty good whack on these things. So their not gone, just taking a little morning break I guess. Thanks for reading my story. I'm going to do a little catfishing this weekend, so I won't be fishing these Yellowtails again till next Tuesday at the earliest.
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Originally Posted by DockRat
