SOA 3-day, July 5-8, 2024

[DFT]

thanks for the report PJ.  What kind and size of jigs are productive?

Short stubby jigs. The West Coast Jiggerz 350g HD jig has hooked the most fish. That jig had accounted for at least 10 bites last night.

Thanks.  Any fish caught on the eddie bomb?

[Crab Pot]

What DFT said!

And what color?

Steve

[pjstevko]

One or two on the Eddie bombs. A lot of jigs that caught fish were red in color. The 300g red rip roller was a hot jig

[DFT]

Very good information.   Thanks again.

[Brewcrafter]

Hit 'em hard tonight!  You folks are on the home stretch! - john

[Porthos]

I believe I finally finished a trip with the "That Guy" title!

Around 11PM Friday, was dropping Eddie bombs and knife jigs with a STAR DRAG, my 3.1:1 geared Daiwa 600H. Used a 20oz one on the first two stops:


...and that was a chore to retrieve. When the call went over the PA that, given current and wind were minimal, using lighter jigs were okay, I switched over to a 300? 350? gm jig.


It got picked up on the retrieve (may have even been on the drop, and I didn't feel it). Fought it using the rail, pump-and-retrieve, boat's roll...and it turn into show because 1) got into two tangles as I went up the starboard side up, around the anchor to the port bow and then back over to starboard bow, and 2) it was with the 600H ...and the handle became increasingly harder and harder to crank.  By the time someone yelled "deep color," it had been at least 30 mins since it started, and I was spent. I had no option but to hand it over Deckhand Carter. He brought it up to its final death spirals, and I took the rod back and got it to gaff.

Shortly afterwards, Alan grabbed both of my 600H rigs, and said "Wai, no more star drags--these are banished top-side. Go fish with my Mak16." The Master had spoken  ; he got no argument from me. Warren offered his TLD too but I had little energy to fish either, so I called it a night with the satisfaction of a good chance to being "THAT GUY" for trip.

For the remainder of the trip, I fly-lined the daytime with my other star drags and my spinners but nothing higher than 60lbs. Didn't even entertained the idea of setting up the 80lb rig with the unbanished 600H 80lb that was still in my stateroom. But, the BFT were being BFT, as Mark would say, and there was no chance to test whether I would fare any better on star drag at the lower line ratings.

Vu Huyhn managed to hook a foamer BFT with a popper on 65lb Stella that went around the boat at least once, becoming quite a show, and was then handed off back and forth to Deckhand Matt(?) for awhile before it snapped off on rudder. Tried a popper with my Quantum Cabo 120 but wasn't able to achieve the same cast distance as Vu got to get into the middle of any of the boils the SOA was sliding towards. C'est la vie...

Tried dropping down to the 120'-200' fish under the boat with Warren's TLD and a 16oz Eddie bomb but was quickly reminded by my still sore right arm that it was too soon to be doing much of that to any extent after the first night's shenanigans on the 600H. Hit the hay shortly after dinner, and woke up right before 1AM to try night dropping again, but once I saw the chaos of three BFT being hooked and fought simultaneously, I listened to the voice at the back of my mind that said "Don't need none of that," and went back downstairs to let my arm rest some more 'til morning.

Did more fly-lining on Sunday, but again, BFT were being BFT, so there was only one schoolie BFT landed for the entire boat, and that was at the ninth inning before Capt Evan called it a trip.

Back at the dock, my BFT weighted 106 lbs on H&M's scale...


Fisherman's Processing's scale read 104.4 lbs so splitting the difference for 105 lbs dressed. This would approximate to 115.5 lbs whole.

So...my night fishing for BFT old-school style is over and done with. The personal goal of landing a triple-digit-weight BFT on a SoCal trip with a star drag has been achieved. The reel held up just fine, though the same cannot be said of the operator.   Can now allow myself to graduate to 2-spd reels...on the upper end of my line-up.

Have now just under a year to decide which 2-spds they will be...

[Keta]

Nice report Wai.  The easy button is your friend.

[Shark Hunter]

Great job Wai!

[ReelFishingProblems]

Wai, thanks for the great story! Wish I was there to witness all of it.

[pjstevko]

Wai, thanks for the great story! Wish I was there to witness all of it.

It was a battle for the ages

[pjstevko]

It was a great trip with even better company. The fishing was tough but the weather was amazing. The captains and crew worked their butts off to find us fish but as the saying going,  the bluefin were being bluefin. The cooks kept us well fed which we needed to fish through the nights. 

I arrived at the hotel on Thursday afternoon and found Alan making up 200# jig leaders by the pool with a bottle of tequila at the ready.  We chatted for a bit and then I took a stroll down the docks and wandered through the tackle shops. I checked into my room and unloaded all my gear as I don't like leaving it in my truck overnight.  I took a couple reels over to H&M tackle shop to get some fresh braid put on then walked over to Miguel's to meet the crew for dinner.

The was about 8 of us at dinner and the fishing stories were flowing about as fast as the drinks.  I enjoyed a shrimp quesadilla with a virgin mango margarita. It was great as always. Once the crew bellied up to the bar for shots I left and headed back to my room to get some gear together to fish the docks. I used a 4 piece travel rod and a small spinner with a 4" swimbaits to try to entice something to bite.  I walked the entire boardwalk hitting every dock that wasn't locked and only had one hit. Just after dark I was fishing a dock and Rick called me over to a boat that had underwater lights on and said he saw something decent swim through so I pitched my swimbait into the dark water and the second it entered the lit up water it got smashed! I pulled the fish up onto the dock, snapped a couple pics and released.  After much deliberation and consulting others it was determined to be a shorting corvina. The skunk was of the trip and I got to cross another fish off my life list. After that success I headed back to the room and proceeded to mount the reels to my rods and set the drags with a scale. Bedtime....

[foakes]

Thanks for the good reports and accounts, Wai & PJ!

Best, Fred

[pjstevko]

Friday morning I get up early to grab a coffee and check out the boats unloading. Decent amounts of good sized fish are offloaded and the intel was its all a night bite,  don't even bother being awake during the day.  The 1.5 day boats that stayed local had 20-50 lb fish while the longer 3 day boats had the biggun's over 100 lbs. Guess I know were were headed.  Met the group at Dennys for breakfast and shared the intel over pancakes and coffee. At 9 we load up the dock carts with way to much gear and wait to board at 10. Alan being the well organized charter master he is has name tags with tags numbers on them,  rod spots assigned, state rooms assigned and tackle stations labeled. No need to fight for any space for any of your gear! We board at 10 and people start setting up their gear. I did most of it the night before so all I had to do was tie on leaders/jigs and I was ready.  We bait up the boat with good looking sardines and hit the galley for the safety meeting.  Evan is the captain this trip and gave a very detailed safety briefing and laid out the game plan.  We're headed to Clemente to target the big fish and will be there by 10:30pm so Evan told everyone to rig up, eat lunch and get some rest so we have the energy to fish all night.  After hearing the plan I rigged up an Eddie bomb on my Mak20/Viper setup and a WCJ 350-HD on my Mak16/PCH741XXXH setup and layed down for a late afternoon nap.  I tried to sleep but couldn't so I just layed there anyway. Got up around 6:30 for dinner and layed down again until 10pm.

Up and ready for action just as we arrived on scene. The details of the first night are fuzzy as I fished all night from 10-6:30am. Several big fish were landed throughout the night by multiple people. With no wind or current I was using my Mak 16 setup since it's way lighter/easier to handle. Around 11:30 I get hit on the retrieve and the rod doubles over and the drag starts singing, it's a good one! I start gaining line and after 15 I'm at my 50' topshot but once the fish sees the boat he takes off again and I have to start all over again. I manage to get him to within 100' of the boat after getting in several tangles and all of a sudden the line goes slack, HE GONE! I feel in and find he bite through the 180# flouro leader 2" above the crimp, oh well, at least I can reuse the leader.

I tie on another leader with a WCJ HD jig and I'm back in the game.  Several stops later I'm bite again and it feels like another good one.  Back and forth for about 20 minutes and getting him to within 50 twice he takes off for a 3rd time. I'm slowly gaining on him but somewhere around the 100' mark we get in a stalemate so I switch into low gear and start increasing the drag passed strike a click or two at a time.  I'm gaining inches and then the fish picks up 2 other lines while doing big circles but deckhand JP clears them and it's back to tug of war. So not gaining on him I bumped the drag again and he starts to come up, I get him to 50' and we see a big shadow but he sees the boat and drives hard for the bottom and my rod snaps straight up into the air, GONE, pulled the hooks on the tightened drag. Both lost fish would have been new personal bests but not to be discouraged I get right back to the rail!

An hours goes by and it's around 3:30 when we find another willing school of biters who are more manageable in size and a couple 50-60 lbers come over the rail.  My jig stops about 250' down so I wind tight and I'm on again,  BITER! I make quick work of this one and a 35#, or so i thought, comes over the rail, on the board and happy to have it. That was the last bite for me all night and I finally called it quits around 6am. I think the boat landed around 12 the first night....

[pjstevko]

Pics...

[Keta]

What size hook did you pull?  Single or double hook rig? 


When plus size fish are possable I go to 300 or 400 hundred pound chafing leaders and 11/0 Owner/Cultiva SJ-51 or Owner 11/0 Offshore Live Bait  #5129-212 hooks, both have a 1" gap.

11/0 SJ-51 HOOK



11/0 5129-212 HOOKS