we board the boat in 6 days!!!!! i wasn't sure it would actually happen, and to be honest, i may not fully believe it until we are on board and out of sight of san diego!!!!!
so many changes from the beginning, so many veterans dropped out, so many first timers added, so much has happened last minute. half of us are veterans of this trip, half are new! there will be 21 of us for sure. we can accommodate 3 more, so if anyone has a friend that by some miracle is free next week, ping me. but just to have gotten this far shows me what an amazing fishing community we have. this is shaping up to be a GREAT group and i am really looking forward to this trip. i do not know yet where we will be fishing or what we will be targeting, but i do know that this trip will be epic. so let's start from the top......
1. your passport!!!! - you can show up on friday morning with nothing more than the clothes on your back and your passport, and you can go fishing. there will be enough gear on the boat. you don't even need a pack of hooks, but you do need your passport. last year my brother left his passport at home, so it happens.
2. covid precautions - wearing a mask or buff in the harbor is a necessity, and for the rest of the trip is obviously recommended just to prevent sunburns. frequent hand washing is always a good thing and just being out in the fresh ocean air will dramatically decrease the risk of transmission. personally, i'm going to wear a mask or buff and do my best to stick with it. we need to work with the boat and be respectful of their rules so that they can stay in business. see attachments!
3. money - the cost of the boat ride is $60,200. originally, the total that i had requested from everyone was $2884.60. that total was based on the cost of the boat ride divided 24 ways ($2508.35), plus a 15% tip ($376.25) collected ahead of time. then all we needed to do was pay for the mexican fishing licenses when we boarded and the beer tab when we returned and we were done.
with 21 of us, the boat ride will be $2867 each. i plan to give everyone back $20 and call it even. then we just have to cover the mexican license ($90?), tip (15% is $430) and the beer tab. the other expense is fish processing, but more on that later.
4. personal gear - just pack as light as you can. i have a ford excursion and i already know it will be bursting at the seams. if anyone needs something, send me a text at 408-219-1149 and i will throw it in with the rest of the stuff. tom and mike, i will have two folding chairs for you.
5. fishing gear - it's fishing, and you just ever know. figure 30, 40 and 50 pound line class gear for bait and jig, maybe a 60-80 pound rig for dropper loop. the boat has trolling gear but you can bring a 100-130 pound troller if you want.
i'm bringing half the garage, so you don't have to. there are 20 extra rods and reels, a case of jigs, a couple of gallon ziplocks of hooks. one thing i do not have alot of is fluoro for blue fin and titanium wire for wahoo. if you have some, bring it. i have all the crimps.
6. arriving in san diego - tracy and i will be driving down with lee and mike potts on thursday, october 1st, and we will be staying at the ramada. so will half the group. i have made dinner reservations at miguel's cocina for 12 of us at 6pm. if anyone is available early that afternoon, mike pate and tom robinson will be flying in and could use a ride from the airport. i'll get numbers out to everyone in a group text so that you have cell numbers.
7. the morning we board - usually, it's a quick breakfast at denny's, then checking out the catch at the dock as the boats arrive in the morning to see where they went, how they did, what worked and what didn't. as you face the water, our dock is behind h&m landing, way off to the right. it's the very last one. guys will start lining up usually by 8 to 9am. we usually board by 9 or 10, and underway at 11am. rod space will be pre-assigned, tackle box space is sort of a free-for-all.
8. cabin assignments - this is sort of like trying to assign seats at a wedding reception. back towards the stern you have engine noises but the ride is a little better. up towards the bow it's quieter but the ride can be bumpy as hell. old guys generally get lower bunks aft, younger guys forward. i'm going to spread everyone out as much as possible. i know there there are c-pap machines, bad knees and bad backs in the group, so i will take that into account. if you get to your cabin and see that it will clearly not work, let me know and i'll do my best to fix it.
9. tagging your own fish - everyone will get numbers to tag their fish, but we may not all use them. i do know that some of the new guys are accustomed to tagging their own fish. for the new guys, what we have done in the past is just thrown all fish into the cooler with no tags, then had the processor weigh the entire lot, divide it up and process it. that mostly worked the first few times when sarah ran five star fish processing, but it seemed to work less well after sarah left. there are two other major processors, so i will talk to them and see what we can work out.
10. fish processing - it's never really worked out as well as i would have liked. i will still try to get us in line first and i will still try to get us a discount. the last thing we need is to have guys stuck in san diego until 4 in the afternoon waiting for fish behind three other boats. in the past, the fish would all go in the coolers without tags. we would tie up at the dock at 5am, we would be completely off the boat by 5:30. at 5:30, the fish processing guys would push carts to the boat, the boat crew would toss fish into the carts, the fish processing guys would push the carts up to the trucks and away they would go. we would load our gear and go straight to denny's for breakfast, then on to the processor to pick up our fish. the processors would weigh everything and divide it up.
i do understand that some of you want to tag your own fish, and that's fine. even for the regulars, if you've wanted to throw a tag on a particular fish in past years, that was fine. what i'm going to do is talk to some of the other processors and see first of all about price, then see about how they would handle tagged versus non-tagged fish. we may end up tagging stuff. i dunno yet. if anyone has any thoughts, feel free to ping me.
ok, that's about it for now. there are some attachments that you will need to look at. if you have additional questions, ping me. thank you all so very much for your support. alan
Thank you for all your efforts to put this trip together. And keep it together. Ranks right up there with herding cats!
Mike
Quote from: Wally15 on September 27, 2020, 01:11:31 AM
Thank you for all your efforts to put this trip together. And keep it together. Ranks right up there with herding cats!
Mike
Ditto! Feral cats!
Mike, I'm looking forward to seeing you in San Diego.
I wish I was going this year, as every year. My heart will be on board with you. Waiting in excitement of the fish pics and stores.
Each one of you, I bless you with catching a huge BFT, YFT, YT, and Wahoo.
Have fun and stay safe and healthy.
Sure wish I could have joined you guys this year but I'll defiantly be with you and spirit. However I'll throw my name into the hat for next year right now.
Quote from: scrinch on September 27, 2020, 06:04:03 AM
Mike, I'm looking forward to seeing you in San Diego.
Me too, it is getting closer.
Quote from: Keta on September 27, 2020, 02:45:15 PM
Quote from: scrinch on September 27, 2020, 06:04:03 AM
Mike, I'm looking forward to seeing you in San Diego.
Me too, it is getting closer.
Great. At least I won't be the ugliest person on the boat :)
Mike
First place looser by a hair. If I did not let my face fuz grow all year you would not even be close. I wanted to trim it but the wife said not untill a full year.
Good luck guys! I've been on a couple of Alan's central coast trips and had a blast. Lots of experience on this trip. I'm saving my ducats for when I retire and hope to join you. Bill
Quote from: Keta on September 27, 2020, 03:35:44 PM
First place looser by a hair. If I did not let my face fuz grow all year you would not even be close. I wanted to trim it but the wife said not untill a full year.
At least you've had a song written about you.
Gnome, gnome on the range!
Mike
brutal...... ;D
:D
(https://alantani.com/gallery/33/1583_27_09_20_2_36_13.jpeg)
(https://alantani.com/gallery/33/1583_27_09_20_2_38_35.jpeg)
:D :D :D
Good luck knock em dead guys. Looking forward to the reports as I'll be on the AA at the end of Oct.
Tight lines & safe travels, Keith
Good luck everyone. I wish I could make it this year.
One of these days I'm still hoping my son & I will be able to go with you all. Always nice to see the pics after. Jeff
Miguel's!!!
I recognize Lee, Wes Tracy and Georgia Mike, who are the other three gentleman? And did you shoot pool at the mariner? Man oh man, I wish I could be there! Jimmer
https://youtu.be/XH09zLm1TvM
***SIGH***
:(
One of these days. Maybe next year.
I miss that boat :( Good luck everyone!!
https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/shipid:3954040/zoom:10 (https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/shipid:3954040/zoom:10)
Quote from: tenderloin on October 03, 2020, 04:19:19 AM
https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/shipid:3954040/zoom:10 (https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/shipid:3954040/zoom:10)
That's wild. I had no idea.
-steve
Hope you guys have a blast and catch some fish.
Looks like a terrible incident on the Shogun. Apparently four crew members OD'd. A very serious situation and a bad look for the Long Range fleet in general. I hope they pull through and get the help they need.
https://youtu.be/vOKDyLOS02E
Quote from: tenderloin on October 03, 2020, 04:19:19 AM
https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/shipid:3954040/zoom:10 (https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/shipid:3954040/zoom:10)
Steve is right, that is wild. Now if they could just have some kind of live video feed!
This seems like a long way south?
NOOB question, are they trolling on the way south or stopping to fish along the way? Bill
Quote from: David Hall on October 03, 2020, 09:06:18 PM
This seems like a long way south?
Heading to the Ridge? Looks like the RP is their buddy boat following them down.
Quote from: Bill B (Tarfu) on October 03, 2020, 11:38:14 PM
NOOB question, are they trolling on the way south or stopping to fish along the way? Bill
I'd be dying to fish at this point, I believe they left port yesterday morning. Good things come to those who wait, though!
I can't wait for the first reports.
My buddy was on an RP trip just prior to this; they killed it on fishing inshore north of Cedros on a similar pattern. Just prior to them the Polaris Supreme hit the same area on a charter and nailed it. I suspect they will plunk around there for a few days loading up and then finish off the trip hunting bluefin off the SoCal coast up around Clemente island. I bet they are nailing it! - john
Just checked the marine traffic website, looks like they are on the backside of San Clemente Island now. Hopefully they are slaying the bluefin out there....good luck fellas. Bill
Looks like they are heading back to the Port.
Probably getting more bait.
Got a text, and all I gotta say is.....
....never doubt the gnome with a red hat !!
Quote from: Bryan Young on October 09, 2020, 10:44:56 PM
Looks like they are heading back to the Port.
Well, they do return to port early tomorrow!
We had to return to port 12 hours early due to a health issue with a crewman, we are trying up now... We did well and yesterday landed several BFT from 100# to 337#. We also got a few wahoo, lots of YT and dorado.
The BFT were all on the kite? What was the health issue?
Wow wow, super cow !!
Congrats !!
Hope the crewman is ok! A 377 bluefin? Wow....can't wait for the report......good job everyone and hope everyone is safe....Bill
Taped weight was 337 but "new" weight guess is around 320.
Not sure on the deckhand yet.
Here's a photo of Mike's kite BFT.
Here's a brief description of the trip. Alan will fill in the details after he gets back home.
After picking up good sized sardines for bait, we headed down the coast on day 1. Traveled the rest of the day. Late morning day 2 we got to our first stop and fished the rest of the day for yellowtail, averaging about 2 fish each along with plenty of bonito, a few calicos, and a few sheephead. That night we headed farther south for more yellowtail fishing. We arrived at our stop in the morning of day 3 and spent all day on a good yellowtail bite. That evening we motored into a bay to escape wind and chop that had built up during the day. On the morning of day 4 we ventured offshore in search of kelps holding dorado and/or wahoo. After a long morning of no success, we finally found the right kelp paddy, and we easily limited on a wide open dorado bite. We continued our search for wahoo and eventually caught 4 on a kelp. That evening we steered inland and northward to begin our trip back up the coast toward the bluefin tuna in US waters. The morning of day 5 we poked around at a number of potential yellowtail spots while traveling north along the coast before finally ending up back at our first day 2 stop where we picked up another couple of yellowtail per rod. Day 6 was to be a travel day up to the bluefin grounds, but we found another kelp paddy along the way that held hundreds of good sized dorado and small 5-8 lb yellowfin tuna. We drifted off of that kelp for an hour or two with the school of fish following us. It was a wide open bite the entire time, with baits just lasting seconds in the water before being hit. Fishing there was mostly catch and release since the tuna were small and we already had as much dorado as we wanted. After we exhausted ourselves there, we continued north toward the big tuna. We arrived in the tuna grounds being San Clemente Island in the mid-morning of day 7. We spent several hours looking for sign of the big BFT where it was reported that they were being caught, but no luck. We decided to move north where smaller tuna had been reported, but before we got there we bumped into big schools of the jumbos we had been looking for. Once found in the late afternoon, we got about ten to bite, mostly on the kite, and landed the majority of them. There were a few 60 lb yellowfin caught on bait as well. After dark Alan was able to coax one to bite a flatfall jig, but that was it for the night. Weight estimates were 150-300 lbs for the bluefins. We spent the night on the sea anchor that night, and started fishing an hour before dawn on day 8, hoping to get another hot bite on the kite (using flying fish as bait). By 9am we had a few bites and landed one fish when a medical issue came up with one of the crew. At that point we had to pull the anchor, put away the fishing gear, and get the crewman the medical attention he needed. We pulled back up to the dock at 7pm on day 8, about 9 hours earlier than scheduled.
I think everyone on the trip would agree that it was, as Alan predicted, epic. We had good fishing overall, with periods of wide open bites on yellowtail, dorado, football yellowfin, and giant bluefin (on the kite). The weather was good for the most part, the food was good, and the companionship was pure ohana.
That was a very nice write-up. Thank you.
-steve
Thanks for the report. Makes me want to sign up!
Yes thanks, good report & memories, cheers Don.
Very nice report, sounds like some real good fishing was had. Hope that the deckhands health improves soon.
Sounds like you guys had a blast!!!
How big was Mikes kite BFT in that picture?
Thanks for the report - great trip - stuff I can only dream of.
Quote from: MarkT on October 11, 2020, 03:33:44 AM
How big was Mikes kite BFT in that picture?
It was about the smallest BF boated. Maybe 150 lbs. I played him for maybe 10 minutes, then my old VN buddy Tom Robinson played him for 10 minutes or so, then Rich had the honors of bringing it to gaff. It was fortunate that we 3 had a chance to play the fish since our BF fishing was cut short. Alan was adjusting the rotation so everyone would have a shot at a BF when we had to head in.
I hope Alan posts the vid of Lee fighting that supercow. You ever heard the story about a monkey and a football???
GA Mike
Wow, great trip!!
Hand rolls with all the fix'ns. End results. My daughter in law says she'll bring this every time I catch fish! (Not pictured, nori and sushi rice, strawberry shortcake, vanilla ice cream). I didn't get one but thanks to Ohana I got to enjoy! Thanks everyone!
Warren
Hamachi, is the lighter colored meat the tuna belly? Lots of nice marbling.
Quote from: Wally15 on October 11, 2020, 07:21:48 PM
Quote from: MarkT on October 11, 2020, 03:33:44 AM
How big was Mikes kite BFT in that picture?
It was about the smallest BF boated. Maybe 150 lbs. I played him for maybe 10 minutes, then my old VN buddy Tom Robinson played him for 10 minutes or so, then Rich had the honors of bringing it to gaff. It was fortunate that we 3 had a chance to play the fish since our BF fishing was cut short. Alan was adjusting the rotation so everyone would have a shot at a BF when we had to head in.
I hope Alan posts the vid of Lee fighting that supercow. You ever heard the story about a monkey and a football???
GA Mike
Mine from Monday 10/5... 226# on the kite with a flying fish. Note the Alan Tani t-shirt too!
Yes, sabaman 1 that is the otoro belly meat of one of the larger bluefin. Even though I didn't catch one, we got to enjoy it thanks to Ohana. Melts like butter. Crazy good! But be careful, all that fatty belly meat expands afterwards. (Or feels like it does). Full.
Nice one Mark!
Any pics of the super?!!!
I will post after I feel it is time. Sal's passing hit me hard.
My condolences to all
(https://alantani.com/gallery/33/1583_19_10_20_6_31_37.jpeg)
Lee!
What happened to the propeller on that BFT!?!?!? Pulled away from a shark? Inquiring minds are dying to know....
Lee, you look almost as beat as the BFT!
Mark, yup.
Quote from: Jim Fujitani on October 19, 2020, 03:10:29 PM
Lee!
What happened to the propeller on that BFT!?!?!? Pulled away from a shark? Inquiring minds are dying to know....
A large mako helped me about 20' from the boat. The deckhands beat the shark off with their gaffs.
Lee, that's photo of the month right there......This could be the cover jacket for Hemingway's "Old Man and the Sea".....congrats on the BFT....Bill
Congratulations Lee! Fish of a lifetime!
The best part Lee, is you got to rest and recover your strength. Can't say the same about the cow !
Lee you are a pro angler !! Caught and bleed at the same time with no wasted effort ................................ although you look a little toasted there.
Good job:
Todd
That's wild Lee. Was the tail still attached or did they have to gaff it separately? Congratulations.
-steve
Quote from: oc1 on October 20, 2020, 05:43:38 AM
That's wild Lee. Was the tail still attached or did they have to gaff it separately? Congratulations.
-steve
Attached with a small piece of skin.
Well thats one way to bleed your fish, nice catch Lee, congrats, cheers Don.
Awesome fish Lee! - john
Lee you look puckered. What a great feeling. Just sitting there waiting for the muscles to recover. Nice work. Dominick
Awesome Lee! ;D
I totally agree with you.
Sal's passing is a tough pill to swallow.
We have to carry on,
Daron