Cherry report, 7/3, 150 slugs all around, and my PB
I've been working on my skipjack for the last 6 months and finally took it fishing for the first time on 7/3. The goal was to head to the 150, check it out and then head west and south to look for kelps.
Launched at 8am and got to nachos for a healthy scoop of nice dines and minimacs. They looks really good and we didn't have a single one roll on us all day. The sky was a bit hazy with a marine layer in. Pointed the boat towards the 150 and we set our course. A few miles out I could already see the fleet. When we got to the site, there were roughly 70+ boats including the monte carlo on the hook. We joined the pack and started the drift. For the crew, it was 3 of us who have put our blood sweat and tears into rebuilding the skippy.
The dines went out and we started the wait game. We were fishing 20-30lb flouro with fly lined dines. One dropper loop ( never bit all day). We soaked for about an hour with no bites and no hookups to be seen.
We decided to make a move to check our the surrounding area and motored off. We didn't see any action going on, no working birds, so we moved back to the 150, but this time away from the fleet. We started our drift, and i decided to just lay down a bit. after about 30 minutes, i look up and see a boat next to us hooked up. I yell to my crew, someones hooked up so i jumped up and decided to switch my bait out to a freshy. As i'm reeling in my dine, it gets heavy, i wind down and fish on.
It was just a straight bruiser and decided to peel off maybe a hundred yards of line. I finally slow him down and the game is on. I pump a few times, he takes line a few times. This went back and forth for about 20 min and i finally started to get line in. I see my leader come in, a flash, and I yell for the gaff. A clean jerk and the gaff is sunk. High fives all around, and I popped my boats cherry. It felt good as catching a huge tail makes it all worth it.
The slug must have been around 25-30 pounds and beauty, my new PB. Threw him in the cooler and back in the game.
It was still slow all around for the next few hours. At around 11, my buddy said to me, " give me some of your lucky mojo" and right when he said that, his line got tight, he set the hooked. My other buddy, then sees his line screaming, he sets the hook and we have a double on the boat. We fight these 2, going over and under. 1st fish to color, perfect gaff to the head, 2nd fish after 5 min came to color and next thing we see is a flash of brown. Damn seal comes and bites the yellow and the line is peeling... we hold strong and luckily the seal looses the fish. My friend pumps fast, we get it to color and another gaff. We now all have 1 and the relief is good. High fives, a few beers and we reset.
As we are catching, the fleet sees us and little by little, we have boats all around us. It's ok, as we are all on the board. We see two other boats hook up around us. We reset our fish and play the wait game. At around 1, my rod and my friends both get bit.
I made a mistake and didn't properly set the hook. I put a mini mac on this time which is much larger then the dine and didn't switch out the hooks. The hook pulls as there just wasnt enough hook sticking out. My buddy fights his and another gaff shot.
4 for the day. At around 2 we call it as the wind picks up and never had a chance to leave the 150. All the tails were pigs. Nice and fat, loaded with roe. I'm 6'4", Looking to the next outing!
It was an amazing day on the water. The 150 looked slow as we really didn't see any one else hook up. We moved away from the fleet and that's what got us hooked.
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Originally Posted by webmaster
