Reel Repair by Alan Tani

Aboard

So boarded, then left dock after 11 AM. At the bait receiver, did my usual and threw out a 1.5 oz metal jig. Caught a 24" barracuda thus breaking the "skunk" for the boat before exiting the harbor.

Skipper's Talk

Wind. No Rocks. Will head straight to the Ridge Two days travel time down; the same back. Fish reports from other boats indicate fish had been up to 30 lbs...so 30, 40, and 50 lb setups

For me, this meant the following:

• Penn MagPower 970 (30lb)
• Penn Monofil 27 (40lb)
• Daiwa SMF 170 (40lb)
• Daiwa Sealine 300H (50lb)
• Daiwa Sealine 600H (100lb troller)

• Fin Nor FST60 (25lb)
• Daiwa BG 6500 (40lb)
• Fin Nor LT100 (50lb)
• Fin Nor LT100 (60lb)
• Quantum Cabo 100 (80lb)
• Quantum Cabo 120 (100lb)

Why fewer conventionals than spinners? Because I'm a glutton for punishment.

2-speeds??? We don't need no stinkin' 2-speeds!!!

The travel days were travel days. No need to go over those.

The four days of fishing got a bit blurry given the sun and heat. More than once did I hear "What day is it???" Said it mentally to myself a few times...so the following is not necessarily play-by-play, but close enough.

Day One - The 13

Arrived at the Ridge in the early AM, and started the troll rotation. Initially every troller had a Maurader. My first turn came up, so I switch the troller at my station with my Daiwa 600H and a classic cedar plug. No takers either; so took it out of the line up, and eventually a mix of mauraders and cowbells got 1 wahoo to react and was boated (it scaled 70+ lbs at H&M). At some point, one of Alan Tani's trollers with a new $100 marauder had its main line go "POW" and it was lost.

Evening fishing was a motley mix of skippies, bonito, dodos, and YFT; a few of the YFT were keepers. Skipper made the decision to run on down to Thetis Bank overnight.

Day Two - Thetis Bank & The 23

Similar mix of fish seen the day before was again present. This round some dodos, YT, and YFT were keepers. All were on the smaller size. In the later AM, I got my first keeper YT on a dropper rig with the "113H" Tank (80lb). Still it was slow going overall so the boat was pointed back up towards The 23. Enroute, the second wahoo was picked up. The 23 was not any more productive than Thesis Bank so the decision was made to run back to The 13 and arrive early AM. Was also very warm all day.

Day Three - Back to the 13

Early AM started up with more activity than the previous two days with dodos, YT, and YFT, but still on the smaller grade side with a few exceptions. The third and final wahoo was picked up in between stops.

Steady fishing up through dinner time. I hit limits late afternoon, and handed off four YT before calling it a day right before dinner. Skipper then pointed the boat towards San Pablo for a slow, but reasonably comfortable overnight run due to the steadily increasing winds.

Day Four - San Pablo

The AM was more rolly polly the any previous day. Made half-hearted attempts to hookup and hand off fish, but was only pulling up whitefish, sheephead, and even small calicos...not very productive. Personally called it a trip and started breaking down my gear just before lunch. Later stops yielded better grades of YT for the others still fishing. A little after 2 PM, the skipper called it a trip for the boat and begin the run to arrive at the leeward side of Cedros by dinner time.

The low-down on gear

Having spent most of the 2nd fishing day with the Tank on dropper, I came to the conclusion that its uniqueness was to a point where I really questioned whether I would want to have an equivalent to fish on a regular basis. Maybe as a shelfie but not as a go-to reel...

My YFT were landed flying with the Penn 27, Penn 970, Daiwa BG 6500, and Daiwa SMF 170. My YT were landed with the Daiwa 300H with one exception on the Tank.

My go-to knots were

• San Diego Jam
• Spider Hitch
• Triple Surgeon's

Hooks were 2/0, 3/0, 4/0, and 5/0 in-line circles

The nail knot/nub variant I used for hollow core connections all held.

Alan Tani himself will probably be posting more photos and maybe videos...

Good report, but not all of us are home yet. I've had 4 flight delays and I'm still sitting in SAN with 2 more hours to kill until my 5:45 departure. ATL arrival about 1:00 AM EDT. Then about 3.5 more hours to get my car out of hock and drive home.
Had a good time, didn't bring any fish home. Caught 1 decent YT maybe 30 lbs, maybe a dozen very small ones. Tagged a couple of school YFT around 25-30,  released or gave away another 15-20 in the 10-15 lb range. Caught about 100 Skipjack and Bonita.
Food was great as usual, I overate as usual. Overall, a great time with some great fishing companions.
Now if I can only make it home! I'm coming back out in nine days for the GW 10 day. Hope I can recover by then.
Peaches

Thanks for the report Wai and Mike!

70lb wahoo, 30 lb yellows, plenty of fish to pull on, sounds like a fun trip!

Quote from: Wally15 on October 13, 2021, 10:07:57 PM...but not all of us are home yet...

Sorry, I meant "home" more as in terra ferma. Perhaps "back" would have been more appropriate. If the schedule permits, I may be able to do breakfast with you and Alan before the SOA departs, especially if they leave dock 10/23 as late in the AM as it did on our 8-day.

Sounds like a varied trip guys.  Looks like you fished some of the better areas, but the fish weren't as cooperative as would ahve been liked.  Looking forward to more stories and pictures from your trip!  Hoping we have a good trip on the GW 10-day!

I5 sucked with truckers playing games, changing lanes just before you came up to them and playing leap frog passing 3-5 trucks at 2mph faster. We got to Alan's around 21:00.

$100 Marauder?  Even Magbay Magtrak's and Ballyhood Cowbell's don't cost that much!  I had a Marlin break off one of my Cowbells and that hurt!  The popular Nomad DTX's are cheap compared to that.

Quote from: MarkT on October 14, 2021, 02:47:46 PM
$100 Marauder?  Even Magbay Magtrak's and Ballyhood Cowbell's don't cost that much!  I had a Marlin break off one of my Cowbells and that hurt!  The popular Nomad DTX's are cheap compared to that.

Alan's stated price when I asked him...perhaps that included the cable and all other terminal tackle... ???

My question was "What did that cost?"

Wai pretty much nailed the report....I had a great time and had many 1st's on this trip and knocked off 3 of 4 bucket list fish and caught more that were not on the list...

1. 8 day (longest trip)
2. Yellowtail (Bucketlist)
3. Yellowfin (Bucketlist)
4. Dorado (Bucketlist)
5. First skipjack
6. First bonito
7. First triggerfish
8. First grouper

My heaviest fish was a 42 lb grouper caught on a dropper loop, 5/0 Mustad Demon circle, Baja Special with 50 flouro, my largest yellowtail was 30 lb caught on a dropper loop, Fathom 40NLD2 with 50 flouro, 2/0 Mustad Demon circle.  Yellowfin were mostly smaller fish.

During the pre-dawn bites it was wide open fishing on skipjack, dorado, and one am trigger fish.  One pre-dawn I saw a marlin come from below the boat as it inhaled my flyline sardine and an epic battle lasting about 5 seconds ensued.....guess 30 flouro is not the right gear for marlin 😆 I had the pleasure of fishing the Tank and caught two yellowtail.

Lee (Keta) donated 3 boxes of Mustad Demon Circle hooks which I used almost exclusively during the trip, great hooks!  My fishing was a mixture of flyline (still need to learn how to cast sardines) and irons.  I lost 3 irons, 1 bad knot, 1 the iron broke leaving the ring on the line, and sawed off on the 3 rd.  So if anyone catches a fish with a pre-existing "iron" condition let me know and I will ID the iron and pay for the safe return 🤣🤣🤣. I took a lot of unnecessary tackle and will have to alter my rod/reel selection for the next trip.  The 2 speed Fathoms worked great and the Baja Special was a winch.  

I want to thank Alan and everyone on the trip for making me feel welcome and helping out when needed.  Bill

That's a beautiful grouper Bill, perfect size to eat. Nice yellow too!   Maybe not the epic big fish trip but caught a lot of fish and from the looks of it everyone had a good time which is the point of the whole thing.  I'd bet this is the first of many you'll be taking in the future

had to get a new battery after the excursion sat in the parking lot for a week.  we got home and didn't finish up stowing gear and fish until midnight.  lots of weather, really small baits, small yellowfin and yellowtail, poker every night, even learned how to speak "southern!!!"  photos to follow.   ;D

Bryan donated the hooks I delivered them.

Nice report Bill!  Seemed like a fun trip overall.

As long as everyone had a good time!!!!  Sounds like a great trip! - john

Quote from: alantani on October 15, 2021, 12:02:06 AM
even learned how to speak "southern!!!"  photos to follow.   ;D

A little refined culture never hurt anyone.

Quote from: oc1 on October 15, 2021, 05:22:07 AM

Quote from: alantani on October 15, 2021, 12:02:06 AM
even learned how to speak "southern!!!"  photos to follow.   ;D

A little refined culture never hurt anyone.

.

Calling them "Dawgs" if you live in Georgia is a sure sign of intelligence and sophistication.  ;D
Even if I am a Tarheel.
Peaches

Quote from: Wally15 on October 15, 2021, 09:05:12 AM

Quote from: oc1 on October 15, 2021, 05:22:07 AM

Quote from: alantani on October 15, 2021, 12:02:06 AM
even learned how to speak "southern!!!"  photos to follow.   ;D

A little refined culture never hurt anyone.

.

Calling them "Dawgs" if you live in Georgia is a sure sign of intelligence and sophistication.  ;D
Even if I am a Tarheel.
Peaches

Right on brother Mike!!!

Thanks for the report and pictures. "Variety's the spice in life", and fishing. Allen, sounds like you might have a parasitic drain in your vehicle's system.
Alright brother Bill! "An epic 5 sec. battle"😂. That one brightened my AM. You hooked 'em, though, next time you'll ____?, right? Nice Grouper.
End of the journey problems suck! Smooth sailing on the next one.
It's cool, windy and rainy here but I can't stand it anymore, I'm inspired by ya'll, and I'm headed out.

Same ol' I-5 trucker games, Lee, like us other tax-paying interstate users(transport industry subsidizers?)are in their way.

   Great trip guys...thanks for the report! 8)

great report and great pictures

Bill, congrats for scratching out some items out from your bucket list, thats awesome.

I'll add my 2 cents. Biggest problem for me is that I have figured out that long surface transits don't work for me without medication. Fortunately, there were 2 pharmacists on board and we were able to get that taken care of. I have also decided that I will drive down from Seattle from now on. The compromises taken to reduce weight for luggage are just not worth it. I'll sleep in the truck and bring all the gear I want. The list of good to have gear gets longer and longer each trip.

I caught my first wahoo! I actually stole my first wahoo because someone was in trolling prison and wasn't around when the rod went off, somebody needed to reel the fish in.

My last fish was my personal best YT. 35#s on a Fathom 25LDII and an 8ft Graphighter 40# jig stick on a (no surprise) blue and white Salas 7x (On the IRON B!@#$ES!!) I took my time with it because I knew when it picked up the jig and started running that it was something special (at least for me.) Warren had tied on a new top shot with an FG knot, and I am sold. That knot spent about 10 minutes (seemed like hours) hanging in mid air and went on and off the reel 3 times. I actually heard it make music as the wind started playing violin. I still don't like manipulating the lever on a lever drag to play the fish, but I got it done. Every time the fish wanted to go I backed off the drag (probably to much) and when the run slowed I added on the coal and got line back on the reel.

Only other notable fish for me was a 35+# YFT caught on a ProGear CS501 with 30# braid and a 6.5ft 30# Sabre. This is one of my favorite combinations and was on the small side for that fish. I was really worried when the fish went under the boat and had to play it with really light drag (couldn't help it Lee :),) but it was really cool when I saw how big the fish was and the gaff sunk into it.

Biggest difference between a long range and a pange trip is that you can bring enough rigs to have bait and jig ready for the same line class, so you should!

Considering the Tank. Most of my fishing on the first SOA was done with a 4:1 Newell YTS, basically a Tank light. I agree with Porthos, the tank is really big for the fishing we mostly run into. If we were to end up with a bunch of 60#+ wahoo or ahu around the boat it would come into its own, but for schoolie YT and shibi the Tank is overkill. On the other hand, Bill used one a lot and caught a beautiful grouper with it, so I guess better to be overgunned than undergunned.

The Man

Good deal hoss, thanks for the report. Them Yellowtail sound fun. We got a bunch once on a commercial Albie trip. They jumped on the trolled jigs we were using for Albies at 8 knots! Easy fight with a hydraulic winch. I also hate night running, you have to be exhausted to sleep.

Thanks for the report, & the pictures, very interesting from the other side of the world, cheers Don.

Some more pictures....

I knew we went a long way south but not south of the equator....  ;O)

Quote from: Keta on October 16, 2021, 09:49:08 PM
I knew we went a long way south but not south of the equator....  ;O)

Pictures don`t lie , you were further south than you think.    ;D

What's crazy is they are all right side up on the iPad.....errrrr 😡

Twilight in the harbor is pretty cool upside down.  You should frame it that way

Quote from: Keta on October 16, 2021, 09:49:08 PM
I knew we went a long way south but not south of the equator....  ;O)

Cue "Down Under"...break out the Fosters...and put shrimp on the barbie.

Ok....fixed the pictures, had to turn the original file upside down and save, then turn it right side up save, and repost....Bill

 :)

https://youtu.be/cbvcaHYEFZE

https://youtu.be/whhuZwNCDNw

https://youtu.be/DKPt137j-FU

https://youtu.be/PifMbbYIju0

https://youtu.be/MYTKdJ20PdI

Awesome videos!  Very nice and touching tribute to Sal; thanks to all who made that possible.  And yes, looked a little rocky and rolly when you folks were there fishing on the hook.  Was that down at Thetis? - john

Thank You Ron, for arranging the tribute to our dear friend Sal. I was very moved by it.     Rudy

Could someone please post the group photo that was taken on the ride back to SD? Or text it to me.
Peaches

Yeah, thanks Ron and Allen. That was excellent.
Kinda surprised people don't pick-up and move sometimes, when a person is fighting a fish.

great videos Jefe, thanks for posting them