3/4 day Tuna on the Patroit

[etucker1959]

To say this isn't the best coastal Yellowtail year of my lifetime would be a understatement. Yet my fishing partner Glenn yearns for Tuna. He just doesn't understand this is the year of the Yellowtail and not Yellowfin Tuna!!!! However, he is such a good fishing partner I have to throw him a bone just out of Fairness. I've drug him on over 25 Yellowtail trips this year and only 1 Tuna trip with a mediocre result to boot. After Tuesday's real fun trip on the Spitfire my magic mirror said, "Thursday's afternoon run on the Southern Cal looks real good!!!" I reequipped myself with 4 more Amazon Local vouchers ($22 bucks apiece to ride the Southern Cal) and made 2 reservations for the Southern Cal on Thursday's afternoon run. We were all set to leave when I got reports that the Tuna had broken loose right off of Newport Beach!!! I also knew the majority of the Tuna there catching off of San Diego now are little footballs. I have a policy, "No Rat Yellowtail and no 5 pound Tuna!!!" So when I heard the Majority of these Newport fish were #20 plus pounds I felt I owed it to Glenn to give it a try. So I dumped our Southern Cal reservations and got ready for the Patroit and tuna fishing the following day. Low and behold my magic mirror was correct on the Southern Cal, 30 guy's caught 70 Yellowtail and I could have fished with DR. Boy sometimes I wish I could be more like a selfish Republican and only worry about myself!!!! lol

On to the fishing!!!

Sorry everybody this story is in 2 parts!!!!

[etucker1959]

To say this isn't the best coastal Yellowtail year of my lifetime would be a understatement. Yet my fishing partner Glenn yearns for Tuna. He just doesn't understand this is the year of the Yellowtail and not Yellowfin Tuna!!!! However, he is such a good fishing partner I have to throw him a bone just out of Fairness. I've drug him on over 25 Yellowtail trips this year and only 1 Tuna trip with a mediocre result to boot. After Tuesday real fun trip on the Spitfire my magic mirror said, "Thursday afternoon run on the Southern Cal looks real good!!!" I reequipped myself with 4 more Amazon Local vouchers ($22 bucks apiece to ride the Southern Cal) and made 2 reservations for the Southern Cal on Thursday afternoon run. We were all set to leave when I got reports that the Tuna had broken loose right off of Newport Beach!!! I also knew the majority of the Tuna there catching off of San Diego now are little footballs. I have a policy, "No Rat Yellowtail and no 5 pound Tuna!!!" So when I heard the Majority of these Newport fish were #20 plus pounds I felt I owed it to Glenn to give it a try. So I dumped my Southern Cal reservations and got ready for the Patroit and tuna fishing the following day. Low and behold my magic mirror was correct on the Southern Cal, 30 guy's caught 70 Yellowtail and I could have fished with DR. Boy sometimes I wish I could be more like a selfish Republican and only worry about myself!!!! lol

On to the fishing!!!

Part 2

Let me say a little bit about the boat and landing. First of all why some people think tuna fishing is the second coming of Christ I'll never know!!!! These Coastal Yellowtail is where it's at, their close and their cheap!!! $22 dollars and $3 for parking. This tuna trip cost $135 and $18 to park, it is Newport Beach though. lol The boat is very nice, actually one of the most comfortable boats I've fished on all year. Wide galley seating, clean head, huge space between the rail and the house and she's fast!!! I guess you do get what you pay for!!! lol The Captain was extremely nice and the crew was decent too. The Cheese burger didn't win any awards with me though and we had good bait. The seas were calm but the boat rides real nice, so you don't get that all beat up by the boat ride before you go fishing feeling. Once again you get what you pay for!!!! The tuna fishing the day before was outstanding, so I was hoping for a big haul!! It started off that way, our first and only good Kelp produced for us really good. 24 Yellowfin and about an equal number of Skipjack. Glenn and myself caught 3 nice Yellowfin (#22- #25) off this first kelp and 4 Skipjacks. A great start to the day, the problem was that was about it for the whole day. The whole boat after that caught 2 more Skippy's and 2 more football size Yellowfin. Glenn caught 1 of the 2 football size tuna to round out our total to 4 Yellowfin and 4 Skipjacks. He did win the JP so that helped out our bottom line a bit!!! So for the 40 guys on the boat they caught 26 Yellowfin and about an equal number of Skippy's. All the boats in the same area caught roughly the same amount of fish that day, so it didn't matter what boat you were on. In contrast the same boats the day before average 150 mixed tuna for the day. (quite a contrast) Hey that's fishing!!!!

Now for the most bizarre story of the day or even in my whole lifetime. While we were in that one good bite I heard someone dropped a expensive fishing pole over the side. I had know idea who did it, "I was concentrating on my fishing." My last big Yellowfin I caught put up a pretty good fight. So when they gaffed him and had him on the deck, the deckhand was nice enough to dig my expensive hook out of the fish for me. When he noticed another hook in the fish's mouth. Glenn said that's my hook and he was the one who dropped the $500 fishing pole over the side. They then felt tension on the line that was still in the water and you guessed it, "they pulled Glenn's fishing pole back on the boat!!!!" What makes the story even more bizzare, he didn't have a fish hooked when he dropped his pole over the side. So what happened was as Glenn's pole was sinking to Davey Jones locker, a fish bit his bait and got hooked and then continued to feed and eat my bait and then I was able to land the fish and get Glenn's pole back. Also what were the chances it would be me to save my fishing partners pole. This story is right out of Believe it or Not!!! But it really happened that way. Thank's again everyone for reading my story!!!!

[jaggerbub]

Great read! Way to save the day etucker!

[DockRat]

Pretty nice Tucky. Awesome rod story.
DR

[trail blazer]

Etuck I gotta say For someone who sucks so much,,lol You my friend have been putting up some great reports.

AND fantastic info about these cattle boats,,For that I gotta say Congrats! and THANK YOU for the great read and report.


T/B

[bachiboy]

Great report and congrats on the $500 fish!!!

Don

[Egster]

What a story!

So technically that's Glenn's fish since his line hooked it first. You just helped him reel it in, ha!

[TUNAVIC]

Wow,that's an awesome story,plus a few tuna pretty nice guys,Wtg!

Cya Tuna Vic