SOA 8-Day, October 2-10, 2024

[Crab Pot]

Slime rockets suck Mike.

They can be fun...till you see them!

Kind of like a Carp.

[Keta]

And they shread your topshot.

[Gobi King]

Fishing is done, they are on their way back, more from Alan and John O

[Crab Pot]

#9 & #19, what's your Wahoo secrets! 

[Keta]

I bet either 9 or 19 was Warren.

[Gobi King]

The boat is at harbor
Docking around 6 am

19 James park
9 Bobby Haskell

- John O

[Gobi King]

#9 & #19, what's your Wahoo secrets! 

Super secret color lure ?

[Keta]

Nice to see "Rock Star", Bobby, pounding the wahoo.

[steelfish]

looks like a trip with plenty of fishing action, looking forward for the full reports

thanks guys for the updates 

[Hamachi]

Tried to keep my fish processing fee low, worked somewhat with it just shy of $800. If you are real aggressive on the slide you will get them! Fish is best when given away or consumed immediately.

[Wally15]

I made it back home to S GA at 10:30 PM ET. I-75 southbound was clogged with Floridians headed home after Milton cleared out. So I took an alternate route through Columbus GA that added 30 minutes to my usual travel time.
Awesome fishing trip, even if I didn't bring any fish home. Have a couple of freezers full as it is. My pb Wahoo weighed 49 lbs on the processors scale and my biggest YFT was 61.5 lbs with the gills removed. I didn't get a weight for my biggest YT, I'd estimate close to 40 lbs. At 75 years old, that's a good weight range and within my physical limits.
Great fishing with great people is a great combo!
GA Mike

[Porthos]

Mike,

Good to hear! Sorry to have missed meeting you and guys when you returned to the dock...had to go to the office North of LAX.

Wai

[sabaman1]

Had I known you guys were returning yesterday morning I to would have walked over and greeted your return as I was at Fisherman's Landing waiting to hop on the Liberty for a full day trip to the islands. Sounds like you guys had a great trip. My  humble apologies, I would have very much liked to meet the Ohana family members.

[Bill B]

It was an epic trip! Apparently it harks back to the Golden Days of Long Range Fishing.

YFT were the larger models, anything under 30# were thrown back.

Seeing the size, I had to limit the quantity (10) of YFT to keep the processor bill reasonable. The crew kept saying, "Let that go, plenty of bigger fish on the Ridge".  On the Rocks wahoo were plentiful, trolling, bombs, and fly line were all catching fish.  I had 3 baits sniped when tossing on the slide.  Still getting the hang of fishing the Slide.

We spent the night alone at the Rocks.  Peaches came through at 0430 hrs banging on the doors saying YT were on fire.  Sorry John, thought you were already up 😮�💨.

Out of the rack I jumped, dressed and headed updeck.  Just in time to see Alan walk by with a 100# dropper loop.  OK, I can take a hint,  pulled the 20VISX out and dropped a sardine.   30 minutes later 5 jumbo yellowtail were tagged. Each 35# plus. Dawn was approaching and Captain Luke wanted to target wahoo.

Spent the rest of the day trolling for wahoo.  Towards the end of our day at the Rocks, 7 of us needed a hoo.  Capt Luke put out the call that anyone (7) who did not have one were to step up for trolling.  In short order 1, then 2, then 3, then 4, then 5, then 6 guys had their wahoo, leaving me alone with 5 trolling rigs out.

Baaawahahahahaaa!  All mine!  Not to worry, if all 5 went off I was confident someone would pick up the slack. Anyway 1 rod went off and I literally skull dragged my wahoo to the boat in record time.  Three guys got their first wahoo on this trip. Congratulations!

Headed for the Ridge, the 13 Spot to be specific.  Got there and the jumbo YFT were on tap.  Didn't take long to get your fill.  Fly line worked well for me.  40#, 50#, and even 80# rigs all got bit.

When everyone had their fill of YFT, some more than others 😉, we headed north for the Natividad or Benitos, not sure which due to the amount of liquid libations involved.  But yeah, islands were all around us.

Anyway, found a spot and it was wide open YT!  Every cast was a medium size YT.  Any color iron was bit.  White, scrambled egg, dark green, red crab (yes I did go through that many) and it didnt take long to put the remaining 10 on my tag.  Even had plenty of time to help fill McFly's tag.  And if I had known I could have filled another 10 fish on Scott's tag.

Highlight of the trip was McFly hooking a jumbo YFT on a fly rod and  breaking it as the fish neared the boat.  I broke 1 rod and popped the insert of the tiptop on another.

Food was the best I've ever had on the SOA.  Seas were amazingly calm, even going uphill.  I did spend 1/2 a day with severe lower back pain, but with all the old geezers on board; Advil, Tylenol, Norcos, Lidocaine patches, and heating pad got me back in the game.

Captain Luke, Scotty, JP, Chad, Matt, Steven, and Chef Abe made it a great trip.

If the guys on the 10 coming up,  have the luck we did, bring extra coolers, you're going to need them.

I will post pictures as soon as I can gather them up. 

Thank you Alan for making this happen.  Bill

[Keta]

I reduced my rod collection today as it does not look like we will target BFT.  I still have one heavy rig and heavy iron just in case.  I plan on fishing slow and long pitch but have 40, 50, 60, 80 and 100 pound rigs for if/when my slow pitch gear gets trashed.  I have 2 FTHII15XNLD2 and 1 FTHII10NLD2 reels spooled with 40# JB that should work.