Almost didn't make the trip 'cause my passport was still in the bank's safety deposit box as of 9AM 7/3, but there were no pre-July 4th hiccups with the bank's Monday opening at 9AM, so arrived at the boat at 9:45AM.
The first night's deep drop yielded one small BFT...and it was the start of a "typical" BFT hunt...lots of time chasing with little to show for the effort.
The second day's daytime fly-lining brought in a few more bigger models, with the biggest (the day's kite fish) coming in at ~250lb.
The second night's deep drop brought in few more...but my jig setup from the 2023 2022 trip did not work this time; the long, flat, thinner profile acted like a foil and had a lot more drift in the current than everyone else. The "hot" jig on the boat was a plain, 16oz cigar trolling sinker like this:
(https://dks.scene7.com/is/image/GolfGalaxy/20SSKU16ZTRLLBRXXTER?qlt=70&wid=600&fmt=pjpeg)
... with rigged with hooks like a deep drop jig. No color, no luminescence, lesser drift.
Depths called out were 150 to 400 ft.
The third day's fly-lining result a few more as well. After 4PM and a low boat fish count, the kite was put back out, and excitement kicked off. On the third kite hookup, my number was called! Since my fishing buddy Dave, who had been seasick the entire July 2022 3-day, and was having a slightly milder case this time around but still only got limited rail time again...appeared to have recovered enough, so I told him to take my spot. After about 15 mins, the BFT came over the rail.
(https://i.imgur.com/dGMwxxk.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/9SXfhHh.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/2Iwus3Y.jpg)
137.4 lb gilled and gutted on the H&M scale...so ~150 lb whole.
Not everyone got a BFT. Final boat fish count of all the "few's" totaled in the high 20's, which appear to have been the highest of all the LR boats in the same vicinity for the same July 4th time window.
Until next time...bent rods and tight lines!
Thanks for the report.
Bluefin being Bluefin... again!
nice catch, thanks for the report
Tough trip! Reminds me of our trip last June.
Quote from: CI_Seawolf on July 06, 2023, 11:19:59 PMTough trip! Reminds me of our trip last June.
Hit or miss is the nature of BFT fishing.
On my last 3 day trip fishing was tough until late in the last day. In
6 hours we plugged the fishhold with 180-250 pound fish and they had to cut the last one because it would not fit in the hold.
Bummer on the low numbers and your buddy getting sick.
Good on you for letting giving him that memory, and salvaging his trip.
What was the kite bait?
Flying Fish popsicle, California Flyer, or?
Looked windy, was it?
Quote from: Crab Pot on July 07, 2023, 03:05:40 AM...What was the kite bait?
Flying Fish popsicle, California Flyer, or?
Looked windy, was it?
The fins/wings and hook system looked like a match to this:
https://magbaylures.com/product/frequent-flyer-14-floating-flying-fish/
The wind wasn't too strong but it was a cold wind.
Quote from: Porthos on July 07, 2023, 03:25:41 AMThe fins/wings and hook system looked like a match to this:
I have a bouncer like that.
My charter captain uses California Flyers which are awesome and work great.
My PB, 130lb Bluefin, came off one.
We lost one the trip before last when a huge fish spooled a 50 wide reel.
Haven't found a big enough crowbar for my wallet to shell out $200 on a lure.
https://www.californiaflyerco.com/collections/immortal-flyer/products/immortal-flyer-rtf-kit?variant=35448175394983
They used both frozen flyers and California Flyers...
Had a great time fishing with old friends and made some new ones. We fished NW of SCI the whole time and only caught a couple during the daytime and the first night only produced about 5 fish. I stayed up until 4am the first night then headed to the bunk with a big goose egg for day one.
Day 2 started for me around 9am and my losing streak continued until around 10:30pm when my jig gets hit on the drop to 400'down. A couple quick cranks and I'm tight and pegged to the rail. Pushed the Mak16 to 25# of drag at strike and winched the fish to the boat in about 15 minutes. 2 gaffs and it's lifted into the boat, just looking at it my guess was 70ish lbs. After a quick break I was back at the rail until 3:30 am before I called it quits.
Woke up on the final day around 9am and hoped we'd find a school of happy daytime biters but they weren't having it until later in the afternoon when the kit went out. We hooked about 4-5 bft on the kite on the final day bringing our total for the trip to 24/25 fish!
We had tough fishing but everyone put their time in at the rail and fished hard but the bluefin were being bluefin!
More pics
More pics
Thanks for a great report, cheers Don.
Tough fishing but good company thnx for letting me tag along.
I have a vid of Ken on his kite fish - send me a pm if anyone has his email.
Keith
Great pictures PJ! Heading down tomorrow for Mick and I going on the Vagabond.
Quote from: CI_Seawolf on July 07, 2023, 11:20:45 PMHeading down tomorrow for Mick and I going on the Vagabond.
How many days?
We did 3 days, got bluefin up to 141 gilled and gutted, a few yellowtail, and some nice Red's.
NICE!, where do you go, fly line, lures?
That's a nice haul.
We were around San Clemente Island for the Bluefin, except for 1 kite fish, all our bigger fish were caught on heavy jigs at night. We fished Cortez bank for the yellowtail, and also the rockfish. A few yellows caught on jigs, but most on 30 lb live bait outfits.
Cortez Bank?
Humm, did you guys make the move to Tanner Bank?
It's encouraging to hear the fish are "North" of the boarder.
STOAKED!