Legend 2-Day Trip Report 8/16/06

[Squid_King]

We departed Seaforth Landing at 9:30 PM, Wednesday 8/16/06 on-board the "Legend" for a 2-day, United Rods sponsored fishing trip. My friend and Tuna fishing mentor Steve had booked this trip way in advance. I was fortunate to get on it myself, and only because of a last minute cancellation. Tuna fishing had been sporadic at best lately; with an occasional school of football size Yellow Fin Tuna (Yellow Fin Tuna) being stumbled upon. However, Dorados (Dodos) and Yellow Tails (Yellowtail) were still being caught abundantly.fficeffice" />

Day One:

Shawn (Captain/Owner of the Legend) shut off the boat's engines at 2:30 AM. At " rel="lytebox[posts]">

Day Two:
Got a few more hours of sleep than the night before despite relentless nasal rendered performance of a couple zonked-out passengers. No "gray light" bite, and by 6:00 AM, off we went dragging our Tuna jigs in search of Yellow Fin Tuna and/or kelp paddies. Around 8:00 AM, I got a fairly nice size Dodo on bait, probably a 20 pounder. The occurrence of paddies seemed to be less numerous then the previous day, but around 9:00 AM, Shawn (Captain/Owner of the Legend) noticed a paddy along with a couple of swimming fins sticking out of the water. Upon closer look we determined that those were Marlins. Everybody threw a sardine on the Port side of the boat towards them. Then, all hell broke loose. The fish decided to feed on several of our soaking bait simultaneously. Mine got picked up as well as 7 other guys beside me. Shawn screamed: "Set the hook!” Having been very gentle on chewing Dodos and Yellowtail up to now with great success, I was finally able to “swing” it à la Wide Open Albacore fishing. Yeah! I was on, along with the other hooked-up guys. The pissed-off fish took off towards the Stern and kept going. You should have seen the mayhem of tight lines tangled with loose lines, screaming deckhands and Captain, not to mentioned excited "Yahooing" fishermen. Within 15 seconds, my line went limp. I was able to retrieve it with the bare hook at the end. There was a note attached to it. It said: "Thanks for the snack, better luck next time!” I was amazed just to get my line back intact. However, 2 guys were still hooked up to the 2 Carps, and hanging on for dear life at the stern. After a few minutes of futility, the Crew took over for the overwhelmed anglers lucky enough to still be hooked up. The first fish broke the line as they tried to gaffe him after 30 minutes of fighting. The second fish fought for about an hour. Finally, he too snapped the line at the gaffe. Of course the whole boat had quit fishing as instructed by the Crew to minimize mishaps with hooked Marlins and loose lines. Nobody seemed to mind and we all followed the action like a bunch of paparazzi. It was really exciting to say the least, to see this awesome fish jump out of the water, shaking its bill trying to lose the hook.
After a few minutes to recover from the excitement, we proceeded to look for paddies as fishing time was running short. Around 11:00 AM, we stopped on a moderate size piece of lettuce. My first bait hits the water, my line got missed up -- mild bird's nest...Reel-in, stick another bait on, cast out...Lame bait -- damn thing don't want to swim away from the boat..."Fresh one!" being screamed left and right of me, at least 5 guys bent over by now...Reel-in again, get another bait, cast out...Lethargic bait, but It's too late to re-bait now, might risk missing the bite completely... Let it soak and relax at the rail...Soak, soak, soak, pick up the loose line, Bam! Fish on! Whoa, this thing is taking line…It’s heading for the weeds, the spool is down to 1/2 capacity, stick your thumb on it, ouch! 3^rd Degree burn for sure... Shawn besides me barks: "Don't put your thumb on the spool, let him run, that's a nice size fish". Within 15 minutes, the thing was gaffed over the rail. It was a good size Yellow Tail, probably went 25 pounds, I’m guessing. It turned out to be the Jackpot fish for Day Two.

[Cast Gold]

Spend more time at the bait tank. Pick the one that's the hardest to catch.

[Dos Locos]

I guess they did put Humpty Dumpty back together again......

Nice fish dude

[Squid_King]

She's as good as new. Shawn is as explossive as ever, but he's growing on me. One thing for sure -- he fishes hard!

[Lamna]

You forgot the day 1 report?

Good job

[Kelp King]

Why did they clip the tail if it wasn't a troll fish? To be a contender in the JP im guessing? Nice report. any more pictures?

[Captain Curt]

I'd like to see the first day report myself. Who was on the boat representing Hastings? Did they have a rod give-away? What kind of rods did they give away? What was you guys finial fish count?

Curtis........

The boat Hanna.......

[mklassen]

I was also on the boat (see report in long-range). Nanette (sp?) and a guy were representing Hastings (GUSA) and they gave away two rods (I think graphite usa ones) as well as loaned fifteen 30-40 lb GUSA rods with Accurate reels. T-shirts/hats and Gamakatsu hooks to everyone. The boats total was 170-180 fish, even dodos and yellows.

[Squid_King]

They Clipeped the Tails of all the Day 2 catch (none were caught on the Troll) because they had forgotten to clip the whole fish from day 1 still in the hole.
Day 1 of the report got "truncated" when I posted it. I'm new to posting on this site, but I suspect that the original report was a bit lenghty. I'll try posting again with just Day 1.

[Squid_King]

Day One:
The captain driving the boat shut off the engines at 2:30 AM. At "gray light", a dozen anglers were fly-lining sardines without success. At 6:00 AM we were dragging Tuna feathers en route to our first kelp paddy. My first dodo was on the deck at 7:00 AM, the second came at 7:45 AM, the 3rd at 8:30 AM. Although we were paddy-hopping most of the time, we came across free-swimming Dodos occasionally and managed to hook up a couple on the troll. Except for a few dry paddies, most stops throughout the morning were productive. On a couple of occasions, we stopped at a floating giant patch of lettuce, which yielded many Dodos mixed in with Yellowtail. The afternoon fishing was pretty slow, and the evening bite unexceptional. Yellow Fin Tuna were “no-show”. I ended up with 5 Dodos and 1 Yellowtail for the day. As usual, Steve had a shit-load of fish to his credit, and the word traveled fast around the boat. A lot of envious anglers became his instant friend trying to extract his fishing "secrets". I alternated between 30# and 40# string throughout the day, with a 3 foot or so leader of fluorcarbon of the same size. On the advise of the crew and after consulting with Steve, I switched away from circle hooks and had fairly good results with straight J-hooks. Although there were numerous tangles, I did not "farm" any fish. I think I must finally be getting the hang at hooking Dodos and Yellowtail. I also tossed some Iron off of the bow with Steve, determined to try the YoYo technique on this trip but I got zero hit.

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[medunn16]

What's going on here????

[Timob]

I can just mentally see Shawn and the crew during the marlin ordeal, and it isn't pleasant. I have been on many trips with Shawn and know the intensity.