Day 2 dawned bright and early and the boat was alive with anticipation of what lay ahead. Everyone wondered if we would hit alijos, the ridge, or go straight for the cows.
That afternoon Captain Andy Cates graced us with a wonderful talk about what lay ahead and what he suggested we do about.
After a quick recital of the processing options and a discussion of "Kill all the female dolphins" and all female fish for that matter we were on to tackle.
Bait rig: Stiff rod, 2 or 4 bait sabiki and at least an 8 oz sinker. Fish all around the boat space out and wind all the way up to the swivel. Bait would be made in Mag bay.
Live sardine rig: 40lb test - 50lb test no sinkers 3/0 cirle or J hooks. Fly line the bait.
No need for flouro but if you do use it rig same to same 40# to 40# and 50 to 50.
The trolling rules and methods were discussed. I'll save the details for another time.
Grouper rig: 100#test dropper loop.
Tuna: 5/0-6/0 tied striaght to 135# (sardines)
7/0-8/0 tied straight to 150# (mackeral)
Capt. suggested hooking baits behind the head and slow retrieving them.
Get fit for a harness of a belt, the boat provided them. I used Capt. Andy's. It was great.
He also explained the kite rotation and then told us we would be hitting the 13 spot first. The small tuna were going off, with a mixed bag of yt and dolphin.
Day 3 - Warm up round
We arrived at the ridge around 11am. There were several boats already there anchored and some smaller boats trolling. The trolling rigs were readied and team one went to bat. Some after a nice 40lb hoo was brought over the side. I started with wahoo iron and wasn't touched. All the guys flylining baits were on instantly with small yellowtails ~5lbs. I switched over too late as Capt Andy wanted to get away form these small fish and find some better action. I was blanked on my first fishing opportunity, I would not allow this to happen again.
After somemore fruitless trolling Capt. Andy decided to anchor up on what he said was a nice school of small yft. Man was he right. Not long after we anchored up I caught my first YFT about a 20lber.
I caught it on a flylined sardine on my torium 30 with 40 trilene big game. It was a blast!!! And per tradition I had the first time deckhand John remove the heart and I bit in.
Sadly I have no pictures of this but Mark from Charkbait does as does Steve the cook I think. When these pictures surface I will post them. I had blood on my face the rest of the day. I also donated my first YFT to the galley since I wanted to share this meaningful fish among my comrades.
I went on to catch 8-10 more Yft tuna between 15-30lbs, 2 YT between 5-10 lbs. (they were released), and too numerous too count skipjack tuna. Never in my wildest dreams would I imagine that I would be calling skippies trash fish becuase they were beating yft to the baits. I also gained some additional notoriety as the deck hand Joe went to hand line one of my skippies and the hook pulled as he went to hoist the fish. The hook hit him hard above the right eye. He was cut deep by this and I was jokingly blamed. I accepted my lumps and honestly felt bad for him. For those who don't know Joe, he is as hard working as they come and he has a great personality too. Sorry again Joe. I could have fished this way for the rest of the trip and considered it a great success. Little did I know what lay ahead, and if you had told me I would not have believed it.
Day 4 - The Cow pastures
That night we ran to Magdelana bay made bait for about 1.5 hours and then ran for the cows pastures. We arrived at the cow pastures just after grey light. Capt. Andy soon swung the boat on a school of tuna and I dropped my bait a nice mackeral over the side. I was fishign 135# and was quickly hooked up. The fish gave me a nice tug, but he ended up being just shy of 46 pounds back at the dock. Needless to say I was pumped.
After this stop we moved on to another spot and proceeded to start a long slow pick bite. The odd part was that all of the older guys were hooking up and nobody else. I mentioned this later on the trip and several others mentioned that they had noticed it too. Bucky was the man, winding in a 200+lb fish like it was a walleye. At 73 yo that is nothing to slouch at. The fish final quit so Capt. Andy made the move.
The next spot would change the psychology of the entire trip..... Bear in mind at this point I was now fishing 80# test on a 50 avet with a 3/0 circle mutut since I felt the fish might be line shy and I wanted that first bite badly.
The boat pulled to a slide at the next stop. As the baits began to flow the tuna changed thier mood. Within a matter of minutes 10-15 anglers were hooked up. It was just like the school went from one end of the boat to the other sucking down baits. I was one of the "lucky" ones and proceeded to the bow with everyone else to make macrame. The deck hands were doing there best and Capt. Andy was right there with them. Capt. began to tell us to start applying pressure to our fish, not just sit there. I did and prceded to pop my fish off, it was the small hook. Don't fish the 3/0 on the big fish not enough of a bite. I rerigged with another sardine this time on a 4/0 and procedded to hook up again. Soon after the battle began I lost my second fish. I was now 0 for 2 and again lost due to a pulled hook. Note fish nothing smaller than 5/0. I quickly rerigged this time with a 7/0 hook on 135# and cast out a mackeral. After a long soak, thinking I would never be bit again, fish on!!! I put the pressure on this fish and gained back a considerable amount of line. He was coming in when he decided to run for the stern, little did I know that another fish was running towards the bow and my line. After 2 seconds of contact my braided line snapped!!! I was pissed, frustrated, and crushed all at the same time. The fish that cut me off was attached to a TLD reel.
Note, DO NOT FISH COWS WITH PLASTIC REELS. Now 0 for 3 in the period of 30 minutes, I imagined I could not get another bite. I was deflated, without hope, crushed. I am no quitter, so I went to the loaner rod from the boat 150# on a whopper International II. I tied on a ringed 7/0 mutu, hooked a sardine through the nose and began to peel of line. The line was so thick and came off in huge coils. I pulled out extra slack to give the dine a chance to swim away from the boat and he did, he pulled like a champ. I still was empty after my three tastes of defeat. Amazingly though the coils began to strighted out before my eyes. My mind saw what was happening but did not believe it. I slammed the lever to strike, pointed the rod and turned the handle as fast as I could. All the while yelling "Fish ON!!!!" This fish had to come in. I was emotionally spent, I needed this fish...........
End of part 2.
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