Full Speed Fishing on the Royal Polaris, 10/24/06-11/03/06

[mrcake]

Full Speed Fishing on the Royal Polaris, 10/24/06-11/03/06.
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A whole year of preparation and anticipation leading up to this trip was absolutely unbearable for most of us first-timers on a 10 day.

Everyone started lining up Tuesday morning with their carts full of gear, waiting to board the boat. We checked out the piles of fish being unloaded from the previous trip, visited the tackle shop for last minute purchases and hit the canteen for a liquid breakfast. The boat was loaded by number, and the anxious anglers jockeyed for prime tackle box placement on the deck. I’d like to personally thank Mark Hilliard (Cortez 22) for his helpful tips, and suggested spot for my box. I got on the boat and immediately asked Daryl for permission to put my box where Mark suggested (permission granted). Some of the old salts protested that it was in the way, but I think they were just jealous. I had easy access to my gear for the whole trip.



Bye-bye land!



Some of the local wildlife hitch-hiked onto the boat.





Our Captain for the trip was Billy Santiago, crew: Daryl, Eddie, Bill, Ryan, Patrick and chefs Jim & Kenny. Billy gave us a ‘what to expect’ for the trip, and we were initially slated for some yellowtail fishing the next morning. That plan changed fairly quickly, as reports filtered in from Hurricane Bank. The captain informed everyone that afternoon that we had a window of opportunity to travel down for the big cows, and it took 3 rounds of votes before everyone agreed it was the thing to do. Cow Town, here we come! Well, it was not to be. Another hurricane sparked up and headed towards Hurricane Bank, go figure. Billy made the tough call to turn tail and head for Alijos Rocks. We learned later that 25 foot seas and stiff winds hit the area that we would have been fishing. Great call by Billy, and kudos to him for laying his reputation on the line for the chance at the bank.

The commute time was a bit of a blur for some of us, and the tabs were marking up fast.

Long posing.



JL and Tim Sr.



Chuck from the mid-west getting ‘Freshie!’ (he called out, “Freshie!” – every time he hooked up).



Dan and Sully enjoying the flat seas.




I got a little antsy, and wanted to test out my new custom Finseeker Super-Seeker rod. Marlin are fast swimmers, aren’t they? What the hell, I’ll give it a shot.




We arrived at Alijos just before sunrise on the 26^th.




ffice:smarttags" />Aram with his first yellowtail.



Fishing was slow on the anchor, so we went on the troll for wahoo. That didn’t pan out very well, so the captain headed for the kelp paddies. We stopped during the night to catch a ton of squid and some flying fish. Didn’t get any shots, but here is how they rig the flying fish for the kite.




Booty nailed a nice wahoo with his home-made bomb.



My dodo got mauled by a shark or wahoo.



We had dolphin hanging out at the bow for quite a while.



We fishing at the ‘13’ on the Ridge at anchor for some yellowtail and yellowfin action. They went on the chew very early in the AM. I caught my first-ever yellowtail, and I think this is Long’s first as well. The rest of the days blended together, so picture details from here on out.




Sully bent on the port.


It was pure craziness in the evening, WFO. The yellowtail were in a feeding frenzy, and slammed the iron with a vengeance. Those fish sure can pull!

Booty laughed at my setup and gave me some pointers, and Ryan thankfully set me up right and taught me the technique to slay. 6x jr., cast out and let it drop to the bottom and reel up fast 20 cranks, drop back down and crank again.





I took a lot of shit for sitting on my pole for the yellowtail, but after boxing lots of them - I was whooped!



My fattest yellowtail of the trip, she put up a great battle.



Booty with a yellow-bendo.




The eight of us Full Speeders shared dinners together. I must admit that we were the ‘entertainment’ on the boat that was full of mostly old timers that had been fishing the Koike trip for years. Several times I overheard the old fellers making comments about us “boys”. Hopefully we showed the old salts that fishing is suppose to be fun, and the trip should be spent at the rail – not on the bench or in the galley watching movies. We went on about our business, despite the scowls….























Proof that Booty really does drink beer sometimes.





Me with another dodo.



The trigger fish can be a pesky nuisance.



Ryan on the left, Dan on the right.



Dan was soaking a whole weighted and ridge skippy-al-la-Big D. He was fly lining the thing for quite some time. His efforts sure paid off!!





There were a few seines offshore looking for schoolie tuna.



Me, hooked up with my first-ever hoo on the troll. Thanks to Big D, for many of these awesome shots!



My second hoo on a Burn’s Bomb ripping line, at the gaff and over the rail.







My third hoo was a scrapper! Everyone was face to the wind on the starboard at a paddy stop, some hooked up with dodos. I tossed the bomb off the port stern, and hooked into a hoo. She ripped line to port, back across the stern and darted up the starboard wrapping lines the whole way. Ryan definitely saved my fish by cutting lines, sorry to the folks that lost their gear.



During the periods of slow trolling offshore, folks slipped in a nap here and there.
Chilly B in his favorite spot.



Aram kicking it on the deck, Freshie had just finished tea-bagging him.



Long passed out in a puddle of his own bodily fluid.





Here is Baitfinger bringing in his hoo.






Eddie in the birdcage searching for kelp paddies.



Hanging on the upper deck at sunset.





A nice fish count for the days effort trolling offshore. We rolled on one paddy that was about 8ft across. Bill was tossing bait, and Capt Billy pulled the troll lines around it. Next thing you know, there are dodos leaping out of the water toward the boat. Craziest thing I’ve seen in a long time! Almost everyone was hooked up. Fish were hitting the deck flopping left and right, blood everywhere! Fish swimming back and forth by the boat, just waiting for their turn to get hooked. It was total mayhem. We boxed 53 fish in very short order, like within 30 minutes! 118 dodos for the day, and 25 wahoo.

















The yellowfin at the 23 on the ridge was WFO, and we had a friggin blast catching the footballs. Here is Booty using the light tackle.






Some flying fish.




Robert having a great time.




Mike Long bendo with the spinner.



Sully giving his rendition of ‘Mr. Hat’.




My biggest tuna for the trip, caught on an Avet SX with 30lb spectra/40lb flouro.



This was the second turtle that was hooked and released unharmed.



The top count ‘I think’ was at the 23. The bottom was our second attempt of finding kelps that were holding fish offshore. It was a bit slow, so the beer count went up again.



A pretty little calico.







Here is the little Mexican village that we stopped at on the way up the line for more beer and cigs. Can’t thank the folks enough for running it out to us.




Sunset by the village.



The first half of our catch, that came out of the deep freeze hold. The rest of the fish were in the RSW (refrigerated salt water) hold, and loaded right into carts back at the dock.



Here is Capt. Billy Santiago at the weigh-in.




Scotty with the clipboard. She is a very nice lady.




There was one aspect of the trip that I was not prepared for, that others did not mention when providing advice. Be prepared to spend 10 days with some people that do not like you, no matter how hard you try to win them over. Maybe it was the age or experience gap, I do not know. Some of the guys would not say a word to us ‘boys’. You know what? Fuck them if they do not know how to have a good time. And yes, I will say that publicly. I don’t care who the hell you are, or what you do. Life is too short to be an angry asshole. It was a pleasure to out-fish their sorry asses….. !

There were a lot of ‘firsts’ for me on this trip:
My first ever Yellowtail
The first ever Wahoo, and 3 of them to boot!
The first time I’ve seen dorado storm the boat like a pack of wild dogs in heat.
The first time fishing a WFO yellowfin, yellowtail, and dorado bite.

This was the trip of a lifetime, even though I heard from the regulars that the fishing was ‘slow’ for a ten day. Billy and the crew worked very hard for us, and I cannot thank them enough for their hospitality and professionalism. The food was great, and I gained about 15lbs! We sure felt pampered.

Thanks to Booty for organizing this trip and talking me into it. Thanks to the rest of you guys for one hell of a good time, it was a friggin blast!

[halibutslayerII]

Great pics..... Great trip....

[sdangler]

Great report and pics. Good on you guys to make a scratch trip into a good time.

Mark

[cappo]

awesome report and pics. Glad u had a blast.

[medunn16]

Looks like you guy's had an awesome trip!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[wils]

Great report and pictures of your fantastic trip!

[Carcharodon]

WOW! Very nice pictorial and congrats on the fish!

[chevypickle23]

I am so jealous that trip looked amazing nice job

[Alter Ego]

Looks like you had a great trip, regardless of the other's perceptions. I've been the "red-headed step child" on a charter before, but was usually able to make friends. Sounds like it was a tough crowd.

[paddler]

Thanks for the report. Looks like you guys had a great time.

Mark

[SICK FISH]

Great report !~

SICK FISH

[bullyo]

there is and has been a problem with a small minority of fisherman. there are some who think they are know it all fucks. if your reels arent as expensive as theirs or you have not learned all the lingo then you must be inferior. but the best thing you can do is outfish their gold reel with a penn 500. fuck all know it all fishing fucks who give the sport, or the majority of the people who participate in it, a bad
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