| Fish and Rough water on the BigGame 90
Just returned from a 4.5 day trip on the Big Game 90. Only my second offshore trip, the previous being a 1.5 day for albies in September. Nice, solid, seaworthy older boat with an experienced, quality crew and great skipper (Mike). Very limited load of only 16 anglers, so there was plenty of room to fish the rails.
We left before the ugly weather moved in on Wednesday afternoon, heading south. Drove South all afternoon. Caught the first sunset picture.
Thursday seas were fairly calm, with morning sun and clouds in the west.
First fish were 10 lb class Yellow Fin Tuna off the troll about 8:30am. Spotty fishing all morning on periodic troll fish and a few paddies. Around noon, we started finding several paddies loaded with micro-Yellowtail (1-2 lbers). I counted 11 caught myself (all released to grow up), along with numerous 2-8 lb bonito. In fact, the bonnies were consistant and plentiful the whole trip, getting to be quite the bother when targetting other species. We must have caught and released a couple hundred on the trip.
On the third paddy, I caught my first decent yellow among the midgets. A little later, got knocked down on a jig for my first Yellow Fin Tuna, then caught my fist dorado later in the afternoon off a paddy stop. Ended up with 3 troll fish (24 lb. Yellow Fin Tuna, 12 lb. Yellowtail, and 10 lb Dorado). We were trolling in 30 minute shifts of 4, and I caught a couple of other shifts as guys would decide they would rather have a beer or play cards.
The bigger Yellow Fin Tuna was caught right before dark on a triple hook-up on the troll.
The boat continued south to Cedros Island (300+ nm from San Diego), where we arrived about 6 am Friday. At that point we found out that a number of the other San Diego boats had turned back home due to the building seas and winds.
Cedros brought a few nice-sized Yellowtail in 120 feet early, and then some smaller ones (12-15 lb) on a paddy off the south end in the early afternoon. The wind and seas started get strong around 3 pm, so we hunkered down for the night in the lee of the island. The Vagabond was finishing up an 8 day at Cedros, spent the night, then sailed off into the maelstrom at first light. I hear they only made 4 knots into the swell for the whole day, but that's their story for someone to tell.
Fishing Saturday morning was pretty dead... calicos and bonita, so we decided to head north. Just before leaving the island's lee, the skipper stopped on some Yellowtail meter marks, and to let the galley serve lunch. We pulled a number of quality 20-40 lb Yellowtail off the bottom until about 2:30pm. I caught a nice 25 lb fish during the stop.
The rest of the afternoon and up to about midnight were spent in 25+ kt wind and 10 ft seas (with those periodic 25 ft sets!) I admit it... it shook me up pretty good. The guys were all pretty subdued. Steak and baked potatoes were served for dinner by turning downwind and runign with the swell for an hour. I don't think many plates were finished.
The ride was crap until about midnight or 1, when it seemed to start to lay down. Sunday greeted us with calm seas and slight breeze... perfect for paddy-hopping. But, we were at least 10 hours behind schedule, so we mostly drove north. Had a coouple of quick 15 or 20 minute stops, but nothing significant to report. Nice to fish in the calm, though.
Arrived at H&M at 2am Monday. Total counts-
154 gamefish (42 dodo, 56 Yellowtail, 56 Yellow Fin Tuna), plus 7 ling, 5 calico, 4 big whitefish, 2 sheephead, 11 bonita- kept, 4 sculpin, 3 sandbass) I figure we also caught another 100 baby Yellowtail, and somewhere around 200 bonnies that were released.
My personal count was 7 Yellowtail, 4 Yellow Fin Tuna, 4 dodo (first on dodo, and Yellow Fin Tuna). Good trip, could have had more fish, and much calmer ocean. Very good boat.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it![/font]
__________________
I've got it all wrong... I mean the "work 5 days and play 2 days" thing
Last edited by JimmH; Oct-08-2007 at 05:27 PM.
Reason: Bad spelling due to fatigue
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