Here’s a report from my first 5 day LR trip aboard the Royal Polaris.
Short Version:
Day 1: Long ride to the Albacore grounds. 2 fish 25-30#.
Day 2: Slow fishing on the Albacore grounds. 23 fish 25-35#
Day 3: Long ride to Cedros, some small paddy fish released. 1 or 2 nice fish.
Day 4: WFO Yellow Tail fishing! 232 fish 20-40#, 1 fish 52# (jackpot)
Day 5 Long ride home. Rockfish.
Long Version:
Day 1: I left on Friday, August 31st for the landing. Upon boarding I saw my friend Reid, whom I did not know was on this trip. I was stoked to see him.
We took off around 10 am under sunny skies and great weather with Frank LoPreste at the helm. We loaded some crappy deans and were off to the Albacore grounds. Reports were of slow fishing. Everyone geared up to fish the albies on the ride out.
We arrived at the fishing grounds, some 80 to 90 miles west of San Diego at around 6:30 pm. Weather was a little snotty with 15 mph winds and 3 to 4 seas. The jigs go in and we started looking. We stopped on some marks, but they wouldn’t bite. We repeated this until it was dark and boated like 1 or 2 fish.
Day 2: We stayed overnight on the albacore grounds in hopes of a good bite the next day. It didn’t happen. We stopped on meter marks and breaking fish all day for 2 and 3 fish, big stop was for 6 bait fish. There were plenty of fish out there, but they didn’t want to die.
Frank was calling it out on the PA, “We just ran over 3 boat lengths of fish, the meter is completely full. I wish you could see this. They’re under the boat, they’re just sitting there.” We waited in anticipation that this was the one, never happened. I got 1 early in the am, 28# albie.
We left for points south as dinner was served. Frank came down at dinner and gave us the scoop. We were headed for Cedros some 350 miles away! I was hoping we would head to Guadalupe, that’s where I really wanted to go. Due to slow albie fishing, and reports of slow fishing at the ‘Lupe, Frank said we need to put some fish on the boat and Cedros was the best shot. Reports were of WFO fishing on a nice grade of Yellowtail.
Day 3: Woke up to sunny skies and flat seas. We looked for kelp paddies on the way down. First few we stopped on gave up like 2 Yellowtail that were busted off. We stopped on a few that had small 5# Dorado and 7# Yellowtail. It was fun to break up the ride and pull on some small fish, most were released. There was 1 very nice mahi around 25 # class and a few Yellowtail boated.
It was a relaxing day, pull on some fish, enjoy the awesome weather, make some new friends, drink a few beers and hang out.
Day 4: Woke up at 3am to load the tanks with mackerel. The sunrise was outstanding.
We looked around and anchored up in a promising area. Chum was tossed off the stern and fish began to boil. Pretty soon a few hookups. Reid is on.
I finally get a bait to swim and I’m on.
Boat my first 25# class Yellowtail.
We fished here for another 20 minutes; I fished my long rod on the bow with a few others, lots of cuda and a few Yellowtail. There were a few lost hookups due to structure; the fish knew how to bust them off if they got the chance. Pulled the hook and went looking. I think we got 22 fish 20-30#.
Move to a spot on the beach in about 40’ of water.
Here’s where it went WFO for 3 hours. There was Yellowtail boiling around the boat for hours. Frank was on the bait tank throwing bait and calling the play by play.
It was awesome fishing on the nice grade of Yellowtail. I boated 14, lost 2. Most fish were on the macs some were on deans. I got one on the 7x surface iron and my 90J, which was a blast.
We finished up with around 232 Yellowtail. We made another move to drift for some halibut before dark. We boated a few more Yellowtail and 9 halibut. We had some dinner and turned the boat north towards San Diego.
Day 5: We stopped on a reef to make some drops for rockfish while we waited to see if the fog would burn off so we could move inside at a shot at some WSB. The fog stuck around so we called it a trip and headed home.
It was a killer trip, the crew was excellent, very professional and fun to hang out with. The chefs were outstanding keeping us well fed throughout the trip. I met some new friends and got to pull on a bunch of nice yellows on a sunny day in Baja. It was a blast!
SNEEKEE qote baxter black Its guts and love and glory 1 mortals chance at fame his legacy is rodeo and cowboy is his name
YOU GUYS are going to give me lung cancer if you don't start getting on some fish. What are we going to eat this friday? Smokin the "JUMBO" and 'Ol lady popping is getting old. YOU LOUSE !!!
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