Loftus Martin 15 Dayer – Qualifier 105 8-23, 2010
Loftus Martin Charter:
My buddy Bryce and I decided to forego our fall 10 day trip to pursue bigger tuna so we opted for the Loftus Martin 15 dayer in January. Looked a bit iffy on the trip sailing but we got enough paying customers by November for us to get away from the dock.
John Loftus and Larry Martin are the charter masters and they put together very nice show with lots of schwag. Each angler gets 2 shirts, hat, and goodie bag, we had daily raffles on day 1-3 where everyone wins something plus a bonus raffle for some nice custom rods, reels or rod case. Also included was wine with each dinner, cases of bottled water, free refills of Maxima line and some nice trophies for the largest tuna and wahoo. All in all a nice deal and I would fish with these guys again. I lucked out and won the rod bag and Bryce won a Daiwa reel.
Chartermaster John and Larry with Jason
LM Schwag
Gear:
Unlike the fall trips, gearing up for this trip was a bit easier since we are only targeting big tuna and wahoo. I fish mostly Calstar rods with Shimano Trinidads and Tiagra reels, plus 2 Penn 50S’s. Without going into too much detail my rigs were: 40, 50 x 4, 60, 80, 100, 130 x 2 and a 150lb rig. I tossed in a 60 and 80lb rig at the last minute cuz some reports I had catches of medium grade tuna but in the end I never touched these outfits. Since I’ve done many 10 day trips, I didn’t need to buy much more tackle except heavier mono and fluoro leader material in 100 and 130lb flavor, a Sato Crimp kit, and extra crimps.
Day 0, 1/8/10
Departure day. Same story different year. Bryce picks me up at first light and we head down to the dock just to wait in line. Hurry up and wait. Parking was easy and only one other boat leaving that morning. We are both new to this charter group but I do see one familiar face, Gary aka Cowboy is fishing with us. He shares the 10 day charter we normally do on the 105. One passenger is missing at check in time but we get the word to him. We head for the bait dock while the MIA passenger is in transit. The late comer meets us at the receiver with a special package to be released at the Hurricane Bank and we head south once the slammer and deck tanks are full of dines. As we sail pass the Coronado Islands, one passenger asks if it’s always this rough on the ocean and all I can think is someone send a Mayday on Ch 16 because this dude is in trouble. It’s basically spring like flat calm conditions and I am sure it will not stay that nice for 15 days…and it didn’t.
Good Bye Pt Loma
Free Shuttle Service - We leave on Friday….. not Saturday!!
Day 1-3, 1/9/10 to 1/11/10
Well we are headed south to the Hurricane Bank. 4 days travel or approximately 1000 miles from SD so we have lots of down time. We spend the time eating, playing cards, watching movies and rigging up for wahoo and tuna. I spend my time getting tutored by Bryce on loop to loop connections, Sato crimping, and making up wind on leaders. Time well spent cuz I don’t have many friends who do this sort of stuff so it’s nice to have hands on instructions, get some confidence in these rigging techniques, and figure out some of the little things that make it easier.
Reports from other boats are that the current at the bank is not right for tuna but we hope it changes by the time we get there. Also it’s encouraging that the bank will have 2 days rest before we hit it so the skinnies will have time to gather up.
We troll from Cedros to the Hurricane without a single jig bite. Only saw 3 birds and no marine life for three days. Whats up with that, you would think we would get a skippie or Yellow Fin Tuna somewhere along the way.
Jig Buckets also make nice Seats
Bryce Rigging Up
Chef Chris and Chef Cappy kept us occupied
Rack of Lamb was best ever!!
Tools of the Trade. Silver and Gold is Standard Gear
Day 4, 1/12/10, Hurricane Bank
We get to the bank around 8am and start a troll around the high spot. We get some action on the skinnies and I hang one on my bait rig (CS 610, Tor 20, 40 lb mono, 40 lb wire leader, 4/0 j hook) but it spits the hook after a taking a typically hooie drag burning run. After a good look Capt Joe sets up the anchor and we start fishing. There are fair signs of big tuna around but the sharks and lack of current makes catching tough. My number gets pulled for first kite rotation so it’s not long before I am flying the double trouble sardine rig under the kite. My bait lasted a whole 30 seconds behind the stern before it’s blown up by a nice wahoo. Sweet, tag one skinnie. Tuna fishing is a different story, getting a sardine past the sharks is difficult. We do manage 4-5 nice tuna plus a handful of wahoo so hopefully tomorrow will be better.
My first skinnie of the trip.
Diego with a quality skin.
Dave with a hoo
Phil was getting it Done at the HB
Day 5, 1/13/10, Hurricane Bank
More sharks in the morning. Current still is going the wrong way and wind makes getting bait away from the boat tough. Losing lots of gear and it gets old quick. Mid afternoon Tiburon seem to back off and the tuna start to bite our hooks. My kite rotation comes up again and after soaking a dead flyer for 15 minutes or so, I see the marker take a sharp dip and it is game on. I wind down on the fish, set the hook...and hang on. A couple screaming runs on the boats kite gear and I get the tuna under control and start winding on the fish in low gear. It takes a while to get all the line in and it’s looking good, I am always gaining on the fish. The tuna is now straight down and tired. I get to the mono topshot so I know I am somewhere near deep color. I feel something hit my line once…..then again and again, then slack and nada. Arrrgh!!! Shark bit. I bring back nothing but a chafed leader. Based on the pull and other fish boated, I am guessing that fish was in the high 100lbs. That was it for me for the day. We did get a good shot in the evening and ended up with 36 tuna in the 100-200lb range. Bryce gets a nice one about 130lb on a sardine.
Kite – Before
Kite – Full Bendo and hanging on for my life.
Sometime in the afternoon I went up to the bow to cast for wahoo and see Loreto Joe pinned to the rail by something big. Its looks to be a big fish so I ask if he needs a hand but I don’t think it registers because I don’t get a response so I holler for Travis to come up to the bow. After some winding we see the fish at deep color. Not a tuna or marlin and not the brown sharks around the boat. It gets to color and it’s a BIG shark, not an open water shark but looks like a bottom dweller and 3-400 lbs. We gawk at it for a few minutes when the line finally breaks. No one could ID the shark on the spot but after some research and consult with a fellow fisheries biologist buddy at home, we think it was a Pacific Sleeper Shark.
In case if you’re wondering how many shark were around the bank, one morning I was eating some fruit for breakfast before day break and out of curiosity, tossed in a nickel size chunk of fruit overboard. It took about 15 seconds before shark came to sniff at the fruit. At night you could see 4-6 at any time cruising around the boat. Size ranged from 3- 7 ft. Hooked sharks were now coming up with 4-5 hooks in their grill.
Fireman Gary with a nice fish
Dave with a keeper
Evening bite
Day 6, 1/14/10, Hurricane Bank
Another day at the Bank. We have high hopes for another good evening bite but it never happens. Sharks are still around and eating up our gear. We get some more wahoo and tuna with a standout fish by Jason at 190lb. All in all very slow. Plan for tomorrow is to try the morning bite and if nothing develops, pickup make a troll around the bank for skinnies and head for Clarion Island.
Yellow Fin Tuna can’t Resist live fliers on the Kite Rig.
Jason’s 190
Day 7, 1/15/10, Leave Hurricane Bank
We get a nice tuna on the kite first thing but it’s macked up by a school of sharks so we are out of here. Before we pick up and troll around for skinnies we have a spreading of the ashes ceremony for a charter member who passed away last year. Irish does a great job with the memorial service; we toast the departed, spread the ashes, and then start our hunt for wahoo.
Saying goodbye to a friend, Tom, Irish, Larry and John
Takes about 25 minutes before we get a hookup. I am lucky to be near the stern with rod in hand so I slide a gold and orange knife jig behind the boat. Before the slide stops, I get hit but the hoo doesn’t stick so I flip my Trini 30 (on a CS 700H with 50 lb mono) in gear and wind like crazy. The skinnie hits my jig 3 times before it sticks and it is on. There are a couple more hoo hooked up so things get a little chaotic in the stern. I work my way to the port corner fighting my fish.
Crazy Wahoo Story: As I fight my hoo, Larry and Mordy are in the corner with me when I see a blur in my peripheral vision and hear a loud THUMP on the boat. Larry jumps back shaking his hand and I hear a loud splash. Turns out a skinnie chasing bait jumped 6-8ft out of the water hit the side of the boat, smacked Larry and fell back in. I landed my skin shortly there after and talked with Larry about what I think I just saw. Luckily Larry lost a bit of skin on one hand and that was it. I took a look at the rail and see fish slime and scales confirming the fish tale. I also gave some thanks to Mark S, a friend who I shared many days of rail time with and was the one who gave me the knife jig on one of our previous 10 day trips. I found out he passed away just before our trip and fished this jig in his honor. Hopefully he was smiling in heaven watching me bag one more skinnie.
Battle scars
After the smoke clears we continue trolling and get another stop. I fish the slide and make a cast or 2 for nothing. I’m about to rack my rod when I see someone get short bit so it looks like some skinnies are hanging around so I switch to my light bait rig. As I bait up and head to the bow and I pass Neil with a sardine that was just chomped in half by a hoo. What timing. I make an underhand cast and it takes 15 seconds before I feel my dine get picked up. Toss the reel in gear and wind wind wind. Neil returns to the bow and sees me with a big smile on my face and a bend in my rod as I wind on “his” skinnie. I wipe the sympathy tear out of my eyes and proceed to land another skin. After a couple tough days, it’s a great relief to tag 2 fish. That was it for the Hurricane. Capt Joe points the boat toward Clarion Island. Arrival time is first light tomorrow.
Wahoo slime and scales
Day 8, 1/16/10, Clarion Island
The Hurricane Bank and Clarion Island are both first visits for me so I was excited to see some new country. Previous reports had 60-100lb class tuna on the chew but disappear the next day so we went to see if a few days made a difference. We trolled some spots for some hits on wahoo. I get another wahoo on bait but we don’t get any big stops. On a couple stops we get school size tuna following the chum and I tag a couple tuna just so I have something to bring home. Tiger sharks quickly follow so we move on pretty quick. On one stop I hook a tiger and man completely different than the brown cousins. When I hooked him, he rips off 150 yds without missing a beat in one long run before he bites me off. We give it a couple hours but there is no sign of bigger fish so we start heading towards cow town. A few miles off the island Capt Joe spots some working birds. Tuna are under the birds but its only slightly better grade tuna, 25-30 lbers. We get a few and get back on course.
Day 9, 1/17/10, Travel Day
Travel day to Cowtown. We should be there around midnight. Encouraging reports of big tuna but looks like we are done fishing for hoos.
Strange things happen you when you let your dine rome at will.
Name that fish
Day 10, 1/18/10 Cow Town
We have beautiful flat calm conditions. We start soaking baits with better current. We start seeing 150-200lb tuna boiling on the chum on a regular basis but the tuna are hook shy. As was the case at HB, the tuna are feeding on krill and squid and only seem to eat chummed sardines. We do manage a handful of 140-240 lb class tuna. No wind meant no kites. With a bit more wind we could definitely have hooked a few more. After seeing a few guys pull on these big tuna with 100lb gear it’s obvious that 100lb is a bit light for serious cow killing, 130 lb gear is more like it.
I don’t get any bites but I do legitimately hook a large green sea turtle. That’s right! A TURTLE ate my sardine and swallowed my hook. I thought it was a shark cuz of the lame fight but as I ground it in, I see a big shell and 4 flippers. He was about the size of a garbage can lid. After some gawking we cut him loose. Yup, 1000 miles of travel and lots of $$ for no Cows or Super Cows but I add Tiger Sharks and Green Turtle to my list of catches. After what we saw, (tuna signs not the turtles), Capt Joe plans on staying another day.
Shark killer Jack with the target species
Loreto Joe, I couldn’t get him to turn and smile.
Fireman Gary showing good technique. The Rail is My Friend.
Day 11, 1/19/10 Cow Town
After seeing the action the day before, it looked to me like a quick hit at first light then no action until late afternoon so I made sure I was up early with a bait in the water. My plan worked out cuz my first bait got slurped up within 50 ft from the stern. Fishing a CS 765H with 130lb mono, 130 fluoro leader and a 5/0 Gorillas hook, it made short work of my first legit tuna, a smallish 80 lb Yellow Fin Tuna hooked perfectly in the corner of the mouth. Into the RSW he goes. Yeah!. We get one more fish and that’s it for the morning bite.
Going into the RSW.
As daylight breaks it looks like the school has moved off the bank so Joe decides to pick up and look around. The AA is also in the area and we both start looking. After some looking the AA is nice enough to let us slide in on a school of med grade tuna that are sticking with them but the fish don’t hang around for the pass off. It’s not looking good but after 20-25 minutes we are seeing boils and I mean big boils. Not 50-80 lbs tuna but 150-200lbers so we soak and drift. I get picked up on a long soak and it is on!!! Once the tuna settles down I put my rod on the rail and grind away in low gear. I get the fish to deep color, color, then gaffs come out. Steady pressure and gaining line….I can count the circles now, 3, 2 ….one more and it is dead. Fish is ½ circle away from gaff and boink, my 5/0 hook pulls free. AIIIIEEEEE!!! Timmy tells me that was about a 150lber. That one will haunt me for a long long time. Can’t think of anything different I would do as far as pulling. The bright spot was that I was using a new 7465H that I built last year with a TI30 and 100lb line. Very impressed with this blank as a rail rod, fast action with lots of backbone. A few casts later I hook another fish but the leader must have got sideways in its mouth cuz its only on for a few minutes before it chews through 100lb fluoro leader material, could also have been a shark cuz it didn’t fight like a tuna.
Day 12, 1/20/10 Cow Town
We have half a morning to catch a few more before we end the fishing. Conditions totally different, breezy and overcast and just the beginning of the storm headed our way. Looks like albacore weather. We find a pod of porpoise and get a quick stop on school size tuna then they sink out. I thought we would chase them again but we drift along seeing if something develops. Takes some time but Gary hangs a cow and fights it for quite a while on 100lb gear. Unfortunately his spectra breaks at a weak spot after a long battle. For the last 2 days, the crew has been making efforts to help get some folks on bigger fish. Today Cal is soaking a sardine on under a helium balloon and it gets boiled on late in the morning. He hands off the rod to Bryce and he proceeds to put some hurt on the tuna and lands a very nice 150lb tuna which is the last fish of the trip. Soon afterwards guys start breaking down gear. Before we depart, we call over the AA and pass them our leftover sardines then head north for home.
Diego pulling on a good one, unfortunately my batts fizzled after this photo. Jiro keeping a close eye.
Bryce in the Bow with Capt Cal
Bryce with Cal and Tommie
Last fish of the trip and into the RSW.
Passing off a Box of cured Dines to the AA
Day 13 -16
Rest of the trip is spent heading home into the big storm. Conditions are definitely something out of the Deadliest Catch but not too bad since the wind is SW so its pushing us along. As the storm gets closer the wind switches to the west and things start getting rocking and rollin. I know some people aren’t big fans of the 105 but I was sure glad to be on this boat in bad weather. Ride was not all that bad in snotty weather. Even a sit down dinner was manageable. As it got nastier, Capt Joe decides its best to hide behind Cedros and let the storm pass. 16 hrs later we are back on the way. Some folks wanted to fish for Yellowtail while at Cedros but wind was still up and drifts would have been difficult.
Happy B Day Cappy!!
YUM!
We arrive at PL Sat night and spend the night tied up. Capt Joe lets us load our cars with gear that night so we have less to do Sunday morning. Sunday morning we are up at 5am and pushing gear up the dock by 6am and done sorting fish by 8am. I don’t have any contenders but it looks like a 236 is JP and a tie for 2nd and 3rd with fish at 202. I think there was at least one bigger fish but it was not in JP or gill and gutted for the RSW on the water.
Gear Guide: I built 3 heavy tuna rods (7465h, 765h, and 6463xxx) over the last few years. I got a chance to finally pull on something with the first two and pleased how they performed. The 7465H definitely is a nice rail rod. I think I need one more to cover my quiver of heavy rods and will wait and see if any deals on these blanks pop up at the Fred Ho show. I had some concerns that my Ti30 may not be enough for fishing cows but it handled the 150lb I battled quite well and I am thinking of buying another 30 or maybe 50 size reel. Not sure yet.
I am still a fan of J hooks and used Owner Gorilla and VMC Tuna Tamers. I know others like circles but I am fine with J’s. I did observe more than a few EC 2005 get bent and straightened but these were kite rig hooks so its possible these hooks are just not meant for the heavy kite rigs. After a few days the crew switched the sardine kite rig to EC 113 mags hooks with better luck. I wish I could find these hooks but I don’t see them much anywhere. Gary had the hot hand on big tuna and was fishing a 4/0 Super Mutu. Maybe next time I am struggling I will downsize one hook size.
EC 9/0 Kite Rigs
EC L113 7/0, bent but held up to a 240lber
Flyline baits under a balloon was new to me and it proved a good technique when there was no current, at least for others. Besides the kite, the balloon rigs accounted for most of the tuna we caught at the Hurricane. They also led to some Grade A-1 tangles for those who didn’t stay on top of their baits. In cow town we had good current and they were not necessary IMO. The few that floated balloons behind the boat made fishing tougher on everyone else and basically shut down one side of the stern cuz the flyliners would get tangled in the balloon rigs when the breeze pushed the balloons around. Also it seemed like the same 4-5 tanglers were always in the spectra/mono gillnet club. Helloooooo!!!!
Wahoo fishing was disappointing but I still managed my fair share. Marauders in the standard purp/black and orange/black produced the most of the troll. When they came to the boat, a few were taken on the tinsel bombs, green or purple skirts seemed to get bit but live sardines did just as good. If I didn’t get bit on the slide I would switch to a bait rig and get a bait in the water off the bow. Some guys also fished iron with some success.
Lastly, my friend Conway Bowman gave me some fishing shirts from Columbia to try out. They are long sleeve with a vented back and made for warm weather fishing. A bit upscale from my beat up faded fishing T shirts but I was impressed and will bring it on the longer trips. I wore one shirt for 4 days and with a quick hand wash/rinse when it got heavy with salt and fish slime it was good to go the next day. The most appealing thing is that if I get a couple of these shirts then I don’t have to pack as many “fishing” shirts.
Summary
Well it was a tough trip for sure. Seems like we missed the bite by a few days at each location. Fish were definitely there with huge tuna boiling around the Hurricane and Cow Town but we only had one afternoon when they really bit. As Capt Joe told us, it was just a matter of when the bite goes off and judging by past and present reports, it did go off just not when we were there. I was hoping we would stop at Roca Partida since other boats hadn’t been there but we went from Clarion straight to Cow Town. Boat count was something like 110 Yellow Fin Tuna, 40 hoos, 7 dodos, 12 misc. Tuna ranged from 20-240 lbs. I think we got 5-6 cows with the other fish in the 100-190 range. My bag was 6-7 tuna with only one worth mentioning, 4 skinnies, and 1 sea turtle (released) and some other junk fish released (rainbow runners and Chopas). Larry spent some time bottom fishing for sculpin and we had a nice lunch with those fillets.
Crew was the best I’ve seen in a while with some returning alumni. Cal, Jiro, Tommie, Timmie and Travis make up a solid crew for Capt Joe. Chris and Cappy kept us fat and happy in the galley. Besides the dinners, other standout meals was their grilled wahoo fish lunch and later a killer wahoo chowder. When the deck got crazy they were not afraid to jump in and grab a gaff or lend a hand.
As we got closer to Port, Diego asked me if I was ready to get off the boat. I smiled and said Hell I am ready to go back out and do it all over again and I was serious.
Bryce left me a voicemail last Tuesday on my way home from work and he said reality sucks and wished he was back on the rollie pollie seas fishing…. I smiled and said Amen Brotha!! My first 15 dayer was a great learning experience and I ready for another trip but will probably have to default to a 10 dayer this year due to $$ issues and save up for 2012.
Gary aka Cowboy watching another Long Range sunset.
Q105 traditional last dinner. Bryce, Tom, John, Alan and Larry
Chartermaster in Deep Reflection. GOOD NIGHT NOW!!
Note: Picked up my fillets from Mario today and came away with 3 coolers of fillets. Not a great score but plenty to last me the year and have some for family and friends.
Photo Credits:
Alan Monji, Bryce Nakasato, Gary Schall, John Loftus, Jason Noah.
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