3 day on the Pacific Voyager 8/29-8/31

[MarkT]

We left Sunday the 29th at 9pm. Come the dawn we were below San Clemente Island with every sport boat in SoCal. I counted over 40!  It was windy and rough. We had a slow pick on BFT. You had to go pretty light with small hooks to get bit and use light drag to not pull the small hooks. I got bit in the afternoon on a Mac and an hour and a half later decked an 80#er. I got it on 30# and a 1/0 hook. It took me around the boat 7 times, 4 of which went under the anchor line. It got attacked by a big hammerhead shark just as it was getting gaffed. The deckie whacked it with the gaff and "Stumpy" came on board missing his tail!
Wind layed off later in the day and wasn't a factor on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The next day the Navy ordered all the boats to clear the area because they had a couple of cruisers that were going to do some missile practice.  We moved up the inside of the island for some Calico fishing. It was as wide open as you'll ever see with bass fighting for the baits. I caught several on the same Sardine and some on dead 'dines I picked up from the deck. I caught 20 in 15 minutes. We left soon after, Capt said we came for big fish, not bass.  We headed down to the 43 spot. We tried for a sundown bite but it didn't happen. We spent the night there and the 3rd day as well. Only one fish caught on the 3rd day. A 156# BFT on 50# with a flat fall. It took him 2 1/2 hours to land it!

I had a couple of pulled hooks or chew offs so the opportunities were there. I was happy with stumpy! My prior best fish was 60# so I bettered that by at least 20#.

Counts for the 18 anglers on board were 3 YFT and 38 BFT. The YFT were small. Most BFT were 15-30 with a few 40-50, 2 80-90 and the 156.

[Dominick]

come on Mark.  If there are no pictures it did not happen.  Dominick

[Shark Hunter]

It is always nice to top your best.

[MarkT]

I don't have any pictures. I'm hoping some will show up on Facebook.