SOA 3-day, June 14-17, 2024

[Bill B]

Photos. Gonna try a different device so you don't have to click each photo.

[CooldadE]

It wasn't sporty, it was treacherous. 

Anyway, my wife and I drove down to San Diego Thursday.  We had dinner with the crew at Miguel's and breakfast at Dennys.  The wife spent three days relaxing while we fished.

Boarding went smooth and everyone sorted, prepped,  and stowed their gear.  We loaded up at the bait barge, but Evan wasn't too happy and quiet a lot was dumped due to poor health.  As we exited the harbor Capt Evan and Capt Luke gave us the safety briefing and game plan for the next three days.  It appears Luke is being groomed for the captains chair. 

Out of the harbor we hung a left and headed south for the area where the SOA limited the night before.  6 hours later somewhere west of Ensenada we began searching for fish.  There was little signs of life.  The fish moved on but left no forwarding address.  During the evening we motored north to the Coronado Islands to net flying fish, aka bluefin candy.  We loaded up a couple dozen wrapped and froze them for later use.  Not that we would use them, too windy to fly a kite.

As dawn approached we headed southwest looking for our wayward BF. With daylight I put out a large Mexican Flag feather and a couple other trollers were put out too.  An hour in the Penn VISX 50 went off and another troll rig went off.  An epic battle with bookend 10 pound bonitos ensued.  We were victorious. Both fish were donated to the galley.  This turned out to be the highlight of my trip.

As night approached we continued searching for schools of BF.  Found a couple picking off 1 or 2.  Then about 0230hrs we found THE school that stuck with the boat and the majority of the 42 fish were landed.

Knife jigs and Eddie Bombs ruled the night. The SOP was to cast up current dropping down to the target depth as you shuffled across the stern. Depths were anywhere from 150-300' which the captain called out as he maneuvered the boat for a drift. When you reached the down side of the drift your jig was scoped way out, retrieve and do it again.  My bomb was 20 oz and in no time scoped way out.  You may have been straight up and down with a 10 pound bomb the wind was so strong.

The next day we continued searching for BF in Mexican waters but no luck.  Evan made the call to head north and fish an area west of SD.

By night fall I was beat. I broke down my gear and showered.  This was a smart move as no BF were found that night.  I woke up around 0430 hrs as we motored into the harbor.  Gathered my gear on deck.

Offloading was quick and the fish filled maybe 3 carts.  I canceled my reservation with Fisherman's Processing with a refund coming back to me.

Thanks to Alan I was bunked in the aft cabins with the other old men.  I swear i heard the guys in the forward cabins playing ping pong in their bunks with the giant swells.  Been there done that, no thank you.

Lots of new faces on this trip and it took a minute to sort out the teamwork aspect of this type of fishing.  But we got it done.  Yeah, yeah, I can hear the folks from the Pacific Northwest saying this is normal for us.  But I'm in SoCal and it's not normal for me...and you weren't there.😜

This was a good trip, any trip you don't sink is a good trip. I have some pictures I will upload later after I climb into my bed that's not trying to throw me out.

I hope you guys have a nicer trip in July.

Bill

Great rundown Bill...

[pjstevko]

Bill tell me more about catching the flying fish, I never seen it done.

The one pic makes it seems like you were right close to the beach,  what was going on there?

[Bill B]

Here is a link to Evan netting flying fish.  We were tucked in REALLY close to the Coronado Island.  With the boats lights and engines we stirred up the sea lions and bait fish (flying fish included).  As the FF swam close to the boat a dip net was used to bring them into the boat.  They started dumping them into the live well then with the amount they netted a trash can was used.  The FF were then wrapped in plastic and placed into the freezer for later use.  The FF didnt survive very long in the live well, I guess they are fairly delicate.  Tucked in so close, danger close maybe 25 yards at times, we were out of the wind and swells.  In the still pictures Evan and I are on the upper deck starboard side.  Bill

[Hardy Boy]

We dipped them at night on the 8 day as well.

Todd

[pjstevko]

Were you allowed to fish while they netted FF? Seems like a good spot to catch some bass....

[MarkT]

You need tuna tubes to keep alive. I hear they're good on a sinker rig!

[Hamachi]

Found these guys on the spirit of adventure website

[Swami805]

It's kind of fun catching them with a dip net. Something to do at night on the anchor

[bchen]

We did cast a little while the crew caught flying fish but to little effect: I caught a calico, Chris caught a mackerel.  Very small fish.  The real show was watching the 400+lb sea lions chase and eat flying fish.

All of our tuna were caught between 9pm and 5am starting Saturday night - the peak was midnight-3am.  It was a very narrow window of productive fishing, book-ended by hours of rough seas.  The trick was to get the lure to the strike zone and keep it there.  Cast into the drift like Bill mentioned and reset once the line started angling out. 

Btw, Bill's bonito was tasty!  The crew bled, filleted, and chilled it immediately, then Abraham served it up as sashimi and poke.

Great hanging out with everyone!  Here's a pic of Isaac and me.  These weighed in around 60# gutted and gilled.

[CI_Seawolf]

Great pic of you and Isaac!

[Ron Jones]

Bonito is very good, especially the variety that get that size. Fantastic ceviche, and really nice grilled to just past rare.
The man

[Crab Pot]

Last year we hid behind San Clemente Island for 3 out of 4 days on the tail end of Hurricane Hillary.

It sucked but we made the best of it at night catching flying fish and squid.

The PV is much smaller than the SOA, we actually had seal chased flying fish fly up on the deck trying to get away from the seals. I was surprised at how big they were. a couple guys got hit by them and it smarted. The deckhands did the same thing but we never got to use them...

Se' La Vie

[Mjg378]

A few pictures of some of the impressive meals provided, especially  considering how rough the weather was

[alantani]

finally getting around to adding photos.