Cerdros/Alijos 7 day

[JGB]

Well Were back and done cutting and canning a smorgasbord of a catch ( Yellow Fin, Yellow Tail, Sheep Head, Albacore).
Gary and I fished a 7 day on the royal Star (Doi trip). Two days cruise to Alijos on increasingly choppy/windy seas and Joining the Shogun.

A great trip! Alan should be up for some great fishing as the conditions continue to just get better.
Gary and I were testing out some new gear - Okuma Makira 10 II, 15II and Cedros 80 spinning set up on Okuma Nomad travel rods.
The Makiras are sweet very robust with great drags and great ca stability. Man are they easy to crank. you could just about wind in 50#+ yellow Fin and 25# YT in low gear with the rod on the rail. Those going with Tani on the Intrepid might want to sneak a test run on the Makira 10 II on a Nomad rod complements of Tani.

Spinning for YT and YF was indeed challenging. You have to keep the rod off the rail and you must use rod pumping technique to gain line as the Cedros 80 is a high speed reel. Just fantastic for trowing jigs and swim baits to boils as well as live bait into the wind. It has it's place - one just needs to understand the limitations and learn a new fishing style.

Had a tough time the first half day for Yellow Fin and finally broke the ice with a decent 50#+ kite fish. I just could not get my fly lined baits to swim. The next day the mojo was on and I could do no wrong. Fly lined baits swam well and put 13 Yellow fin in the box ranging from 50# to 80#. We called it quits around 4pm with white capping winds and steep swell and headed off to Cedros. Just a tough cruise up hill with waves crashing over the bow with some of it reaching the stern. I hid out for a day and a half doing my best to not get sick. thankfully the seas and wind settled down as we approached Cedros. We spent 1 day + fishing a fantastic Yellow tail bite (15-30#) taking everything from Iron to fly lined bait. We managed 20 in the box with some nice Calico and SheepHead for lunch.
Headed out to check out the Blue Fin and Albacore bite around 150 miles out from SD. Lots of boils and shools feeding on the surface. Fish were spooky allowing us to only  take a fish or 2 from a stop. Last stop and we hit it a wide open albacore bite (20-40#) and putting over 50 in the boat in around 15 min time (Gary and I managed 6 at the stop). What a great way to put the icing on the trip. Flat seas and just a breeze blowing - a cool 70 degrees outside.

Things that were hot and worked:
Jigs worked well for the young men who could keep up the hard work (both yell fin and yellow tail - fried egg worked well as well as blue/white)
Flylined bait with no weight or uo to 1 oz. Key was to keep contact with your bait and not let a lot of bow form in your line.
Flylined bait needed sharp tugs to keep them going the rolling the spool back and forth did not produce. Grabbing the line and jerking it with your finger  was the ticket.
At Extended stops or at anchor some were doing really well with 'flylined' baits with 4 oz. It seemed the fish were collecting deep under or near the boat to pick up the injured used baits.

Gary and I used short tops (25') of Blackwater on 50# spectra  with tops of 35# and 40# with 2/0 J hooks. Our baits were for the most part Butt hooked. Hook sets were simple slowly increase the drag style and resulted in 80% or better being hooked in the corner of the mouth.

A Great Time,
Jim and Gary