Pacific Voyager Trip 25- 9 August

[Crab Pot]

Got home this morning at 0220.

What a trip, not so much for the fishing but for what we endured.

After this trip I'm confident I cannot get seasick...

Unfortunately, some of my friends got really sick.

First thing Captain Mark said to us as we boarded the boat was "hope you brought your seasick meds because it is blowing out there".

Ominous warning of what was to come.

Being hardy Nor. Cal. Fishermen, we said bring it, a vote was taken, and we set sail to Cortez Bank after taking on bait.

I got to my traditional rack, port side bow bottom, made my bed and went top side to catch up with friends. Everyone knows everyone so it was nice to catch up. Few beers, a snack or two latter, and an awesome sunset, I called it and hit the rack. And that's when it started, and it didn't end till yesterday.

We started getting slammed, I'm talking 5-8 foot elevation changes every 4-6 seconds. While I was awake, I pinned my knees to the top rack so I could read because we were bouncing around so much.

Once I finally feel asleep, I was rudely awaked by an airborne sensation and a slam. My buddy above me almost was thrown from his rack. This happened multiple times and only got worse when we dropped the hook prior to the sun coming up. To my surprise when it was lite enough to see the whole fleet was there, had to have been 20-30 boats sharing the misery.

Day One Cortez Bank:

Captain Mark decided to take us off the hook because he was concerned someone was going to get hurt and take a fall, there were already a couple guys hanging over the rail putting down an impressive chum, and once the hook was up things got much better. 

We started fly lining some premium sardines on the drift and some of the guys were getting bit by 8–30-pound grade Bluefin and landing them. Try as I might I never got picked up. Around noon Capt. Mark decided to pull the plug on Cortez to take shelter a SCI Chine Point, and no one mined! Those were the only Bluefin of the trip, never counted them but it was less than 10.

Got to China Point around dinner time and everyone was glad to be walking without holding on to something. To kill time some of the guys made bait, squid mostly, while others put a hurting on the local Callico Bass population.

Day Two-Four:

The plan was still Bluefin, so we voted to head north of SCI to get away from the wind. However, that wasn't ever going to happen and around noon we turned around and headed back to China Point. We stuck to the leeward side of the island in shallow water and searched for Yellowtail, which we found, but they were only biting on 20–25-pound floro and as soon as they hit into the rocks they went. A lot of fish sawed us off, but some were landed. We anchored off Pyramid Head and never left till we headed back to port.

I decided to stick to 40 pound floro and managed to stick three "blind" YT's. That was my trip.

No night time BF Cow jigging.

My Jigmaster 500 I got from Randy put in most of the work.

I had my Jigmaster 506 that I bought from Jason as well but it was my 20 pound kit and was just too light for this trip.

We did get some excitement when the USS Nimitz showed up on Monday. Latter that evening while putting a smack down on the Callico's we heard a load boom, followed by another a few minutes later. I've been to SCI many times but that was the first time the Navy bombed it while we were there. No warning either. After sunset, another boom went off and I could barely make out an F-18 streaking over the top off the island. Kind of made my trip actually.

I remembered to bring one of my AT.com stickers and got permission to add it to the collection in the galley window.

I'd like to thank my sponsors (LOL):

Pro Challenger
Cortez Conversions
Vintage Offshore Tackle

When we returned to Seaforth I got cell signal and was catching up with my wife.

She follows Seaforth and said the other boats crushed the Dorado. I was skeptical and what I saw on the beach were a ton of sub 24" Dorado's getting off loaded.

Till next year!

[JasonGotaProblem]

Glad to see my old beast aint gonna be a shelf queen. Thanks for the report and the pics.

[steelfish]

dang, I was starting to get seasick just for reading     

thanks for the report compadre

[Bill B]

Tough trip for sure.  Glad everyone made it home safe.  Bill

[Vintage Offshore Tackle]

Thanks for the great report and photos Steve.  You made us feel like we were there with you.

I felt seasick just reading about your ride out the first night and snapping around on the anchor like a yo-yo when you reached the bank.  I never would have made it out if my bunk!

[Crab Pot]

My Buddy just sent me this.

It's the first bomb going off at San Clemente Island.

[Bryan Young]

Wow. Thanks for taking me along for the ride without getting seasick.

[JasonGotaProblem]

So is the rod pic mirrored or is everyone on the boat fishing lefty?

[Crab Pot]

No it's right handed, I wanted show off Alan Cheu's (Pro Challenger) power handle and star drag.

I may not have caught many fish but a few of us caught a wicked case of COVID.

Been down hard since Thursday evening.