I heard early Friday morning my dream had come true!
I was on standby for this trip since sometime in the spring, and someone couldn't make it... my number was up. I'd just gotten off a tuna trip on Monday, so I had all my gear packed for tuna and just needed to add a couple of topshots and I was ready to go!
Got to the landing and boarded for an 8:30 departure. Set up a couple of outfits and went to bed, only to be woke up a few minutes later to come up for the safety speach... Doh! We had Captain Jeff, and Second Captain Dave, Shawn on deck, and Steve in the galley, on deck, and behind the camera!
We were heading to the banks, probably Tanner. Freedom had done well there on an overnight Friday - 86 bluefin for 26 anglers. I went to sleep with visions of bluefin dancing in my head!!
It was a pretty lumpy ride out, but I always slepp ok on the boat... The crew rousted us as daylight to jig for macks... we knew about this and had rigged for it. All we could come up with was some small brown bottom fish, looked like sugar bass, and some macks (spanish?) the size of the chovies! The Tru-Line pulled in a ways behind us, the Freedom anchored in between. We got 5-6 decent macks, but then Jeff started metering larger fish, possible yellows, on the bottom, and we all dropped our dropper loops rigged from the night before. Nothing.
Then there was something crashing on the surface, Capt. Jeff suggested someone fly line some baits. I hooked up! It was quite exciting, and I had the first fish to boat, after a fairly decent fight... Jeff gaffed it.. and I was SO dissappointed to see stripes! Bonita, he was big, long, skinny, and probably over 10 pounds. I gave it to one of the other passengers.
More hook ups, more bonito. A few people switched back to dropper loop setup. One of our guests on the trip, Tom, hooked into something that looked like the right kind on a dropper, and it broke him off in the rocks. Then I hooked up again on something bigger on the surface. Capt. Dave was up and following me around with it, declaring it looked like the right kind! Up in the bow, I got it to color. "Yup! Its what we're looking for!" Dave declared, and gaffed my est. 15# bluefin! Our first of the day.
We hoped it was the start of something wonderful, but it wasn't... we picked at them all day. More bonito, a bluefin or two...
The rough ride had taken a tole on our bait. The
Freedom was on an overnight, and when they gave up to head in they dropped off some more sardines for us. The crew hooked and handed some fish, spreading the joy so that eventually nearly everyone had a fish on the boat, and I think everyone at least had a chance to pull on one, even if they didn't get it to the boat.
I hooked seal (yup, they were way out there, mostly interested in our bait, fortunately...) that kind of messed up the line on my 25#, my go to outfit for the day. Next cast I birdnested badly, and finished messing up the line the seal hadn't messed up. I swithed to 30# and wasn't getting bit, the dines were tired and couldn't pull it, so I dropped reluctantly down to 20#. (Thank you KennyMac, for talking me into taking it!!!)
Steve saw me hook into my second fish for the day, and got his camara and mine and took some pictures (and some video, I think). He said it was a big one, although I thought it only looked and seemed so on the lighter line. I told Steve he was gonna spool me...
I pulled up hard, and eventually he slowed down and I started getting some line back. After what seemed like forever, and several swaps back and forth under the anchor line, Jeff gaffed him in the bow. Steve declare again it would be JP. He was right. Crew estimated him at about 25#.
Mike just put a new X-wrap on this rod, and its as good as new... I love it! Look at the bend in that pink and yellow rod... a real fish killer!!!!
I caught one more on the 20# setup after that one, about a 20# fish, to make
3 Blue Fin Tuna for the day for me!
Hot stick was Pat Knox, with I think 6 of them. He's sneak off to the bow and come back with another fish. Pretty soon everyone was following him to the bow, but I guess they never figgered out what he was doing.............!!!
It was a tough day. The bite shut down when we had only a few pieces of useful bait left. Jeff decided to take a run to an end or Cortez to see if we could get some rock fish to fill in a little in some of the guys sacks.
After a wonderful sauteed chicken dinner, we headed back to the barn. We got back to 22nd Street around 5:00 AM.
Total fish count:
17 Blue Fin Tuna (1 about 25#, 4 around 20#, the rest about 15#)
35 bonito (probably all over 8# with a few to 15#)
50 whitefish
3 sheephead (two huge ones!!)
1 lingcod (first drop at Cortez, way to go Steve!)
20 Rockfish
2 sculpin (big ones!)
2 tree fish
Sorry, I didn't take ANY pictures. Steve took the three here with my camera.
As always, I enjoyed my day on the water.
The Outider crew could not be any better! Whatever you need, they are right there! Food, water, drinks, help with knots, bait, etc., they were helping people tie on floro, hooks, hand offs, whatever it took to make sure we had as much fun as they could possible make it!
Just another great trip on the Outrider! I'll be out on another club trip... in two weeks, guys! I can't wait!
Outrider Trip, Challengers Angling Club - 9/6/08 
Great report and pictures, Pam.
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