Ohana,
My wife and I recently drove over to San Diego for a few days fishing. We chose to go on a few 3/4 day trips on the "San Diego" out of Seaforth. As Hamachi said in a post a few weeks back, these trips are referred to as "High risk, High reward"!!! The targeted species, Yellowfin Tuna :). Tactic, motor from one small kelp paddie to another and see if anyone is home...
Tuesday 10/10: ..trip...5:30 AM to 5:00 PM...47 anglers....
Pretty slow day..we were finding small schools here and there at different stops!! Problem was they would shut down after only a few were caught, then we moved on...
From memory the fish count was 27 YFT, 10 Skipjack, and 3 Dorado for the 47 of us....good news is I caught my first YFT on my Cortez Squidder
(https://i.imgur.com/LwrTg3B.jpg)
Unfortunately, that was it for us for the day! But, two things,,, we were there to fish for a limited time, and I had been watching the fish counts and saw that they rarely struck out two days in a row😀
Second day started as more of the same...hit and miss, only a few on board as we approached 12:30-1:00...then we hit a paddie and pulled off a couple of fish, the Captain was glassing and said hesaw a few bigger paddies a little bit off,..
We went by them and sonar scanned them and he said.."we've got a bunch of fish here,start the Chum and get ready...I still had the Squidder with 25# and hooked up right away😀 So did my wife and lots of others, switched to my "Sal's special" 501 and got to work...started bouncing them on deck!
(https://i.imgur.com/LBKPDeg.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/E5Q2FjT.jpg)
So did my wife..
(https://i.imgur.com/ChylG3G.jpg)
Deck might have gotten a little bloody😀
(https://i.imgur.com/9HychQx.jpg)
All I can say is wow, as one of the young deckhands said, " this is pure mayhem"...
The whole boat limited out, I got to test a few reels, and we had a blast!!!!
I'd like to thank all the members here who have helped us out along the way, wouldn't have been possible without this fine group! And a special shout out to Sal who has not only helped us out with "Papa's" old 155 Beachmasters for my daughter's first offshore trip in July, but for his help, advice, and expertise in all our fine reels!...we are truly humbled by all of this!!! What a memory making experience!!!
(https://i.imgur.com/Zc63g8U.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/fAx1sBY.jpg)
Thanks again for all the help guys,
Brett
Here you go Brett!
Pics where too large, I had to download them and try again, but I used Imgur.
Great report my friend and nice fish!
I'm glad you and Mrs. Hale had a great day fishing, using with those custom reels ;).
Thanks for sharing!
Must be nice to have a wife for fishing partner, mine brings a couple of bags with books. She reads and does her nails, leaving me no room to move around on the boat ;D. Still enjoy her company though.
Best,
Sal
Sounds (and looks !) like you had a great time !
Thanks for ride Brett :)
Very Nice Brett.
Thanks for taking us along my Man.
Good to see the Tani meet the sushi! (Thoughtful reel engineering meets tasty sea beasts, resulting in full kitchen. ;D)
Looks like a blast!
Nothing quite like a wide-open YFT bite... "Fresh One!"... "Hookup!!"... "Biter!!" It never gets old, LOL :D
Good for you and the Missus! Enjoy your bounty. ;)
~A~
Wow!!!! Now that's fishing
Sweet!
Thanks guys....
We had a really great time....made easier by knowing that any rod of ours we grabbed would do the job on these schools of YFT...
An observation... I'm starting to get the " high risk/ high reward" of this type of fishing...when the bite starts it is "on", and you have to be ready!!!! Don't understand how some people go out there with non serviced reels after paying $150 each for a bite like this!!! All our reels were ready to go! I saw no less than 6 reels malfunction, resulting in lost fish, and lost fishing time, at the worst possible time... luckily the bite kept going....but for me, I would rather know beforehand that my equipment is up to snuff, if you know what I mean!!!😀...
AT has taught me one lesson for sure, no matter your equipment,...know it, take care of it, and have fun when the "mayhem" begins😁😁
Brett
PS : thanks for fixing my pics Sal....I'll figure it out one day😁😁