Wishing To Go Fishing

[SoCalAngler]

I really need to get out there and catch something! I mean now...lol.

I have been stuck on the beach just chomping at the bit to get out there.

Where is your "out there"? What do you think your best fishing trip was? I get it when people like myself talk about taking the kids, grand kids, wife, girlfriends or what ever out fishing. But, what was your best fishing trip you ever had? This does not mean it was about catching fish, but it could be.

For myself I have two trips that come to mind, and for me it was all about pure fishing.

Lets set the plate on trip #1

We left the dock in San Diego about 12 PM and got bait to the bait receivers. The group I chartermastered the trip for was all about BFT. So as were getting bait I went into the wheel house to talk to the owner/captain of the boat about what our options were.

The owner Mike told me 100% WFO albacore close to home and we will fill the boat. I then talked to the guys, I gave them the info and this was what came back to me. Is there any BFT around?

I run up, well climb the stairs to the wheel house and ask Mike, can we look for any BFT because that is what the guys want to do? He then tells me that not many reports are coming back in for the BFT, but maybe we should check out one place.

A few years back I asked owner/captain Mike on a trip like ours how far in any direction could you head if needed to find fish and he told me about 150-170 miles. Well I guess we have some coverage, right?

Ok, underway and all baited up I head back up to the wheel house. I ask Mike where are we going? He then tells me about 60 miles due west. I'm thinking, guys we may have not made such good of a choice.

The first morning at day break we chase foamers, jumpers and bird schools for a few fish, but not good at any standard. That night we eat a great meal most crash out in there bunks and I can't sleep thinking what have I done?

Day two opens with fish that hung with the boat all night. Dark to gray light morning biters, yeah baby game on, so I thought. Still marking fish without many caught Mike gets on the PA about 7-8 am and says we have not hooked a fish for about 1/2 hour and lets look around. As soon as he starts the motors and the bait runs away from the boat where it is hiding everyone is hooked to BFT from about 65-85 lbs. This bite happens for a hour or so and Mike later starts the boat again with the same result and this went on until about 12 pm. Thats when Mike gets on the PA again and says the boat is plugged and we will not keep another fish unless it looks like a Jack Pot fish. The JP for that trip went 110 lbs so easy to tell it was above average of the other fish we were catching.

Everyone is happy, all have plenty of BFT with many sore backs and arms for the anglers.

This is when captain Mike says "a buddy boat is coming up the line, this is someone in the code groups and we are going to wait for them to get here. Please keep fishing and the guys on the bait tank will keep the chum line going as we want the fish to hang with us until the other boat gets here." Cool a no brainier, hook and release as many fish as you wanted. Maybe 10-12 guys fished at any given time on this 88' long range boat waiting for the other boat to get here. No pressure fishing just to keep the fish with us and I think all fish what were hooked were released unless they guys were broken off. And, that happened as some people as well as myself stepped down to stupid light test.

Several of my friends were on the the upper deck just relaxing and having a cold drink when I hooked on a bait and asked how long do you think this will take? One light cast and whamo, darn another fish and the bait may have been the water for the best 10 seconds...lol

Later I was on the binos in the wheel house when I saw the boat with the initials AA that that I later found out was coming back from a 5 day trip where they did not do so well.

Here is where it got really cool for me. Our boat starts to slowly motor away from the school of fish, and when I say slow I mean a maybe knot or two at best. The AA is about 25-30 yards away from our stern, and I hear captain Brian on the AA's PA say wait until I tell you guys to put a bait into the water. The next thing I hear is him say again on the PA saying to bail a scoop or two.

The fish just erupted with all of them trying to get a free meal. I mean like 100 or more fish of a good grade BFT just went air born in maybe 10 seconds or less. Brian on the PA says let them go guys and to see 25-30 people get hooked up in a matter of just a few seconds was truly something to witness. Our boat sat there for maybe 15-30 minutes just watching the fun, heck we were plugged and didn't need run right home.

The hoops and hollers from the guys on the AA and them saying thanks guys is something I will never forget.

I don't know if the second story is better but what I do know it was just as good if not better to me.

Lets hear yours.

[Benni3]

8 trophy size brook and rainbow trout in the freezing rain or goliath grouper fishing that was rough,,,,, the main thing is getting out there for the good and bad is ok it all ='s out some how,,,,,,, good luck on your fishing trip my friend,,,,,,,,

[Benni3]

Can't wait to see some pictures from your fishing trip,,,,,hope you get the big one,,,,,,,,

[Dominick]

My best fishing trip was in San Jose Del Cabo about 19 years ago.  We put bait in front of 13 striped marlin.  We brought 7 to the boat with all successful releases.  My captains down there will still put us on marlin but I don't target them anymore.  The last 2 marlin I caught were by-catch while fishing for tuna.  2 of the marlin were caught on the Tank.  Leaving tomorrow for Cabo 7 days.  Dominick

[thorhammer]

I have some good ones, but I cherished the trip out to Alan's, getting to meet the Ohana fishing Morro Bay and San Fran bay for ling, salmon, rockfish- none of which are to be had in NC.  That was the trip where Dominick's avator is from, and an excellent dinner at his house- paella made with stock from that fish he is holding!!!!!


John

[happyhooker]

I've had some fun ones, and, yes, most had little to do with the fish actually caught.

Fished at Yellowstone (Gibbon River, Firehole River, Yellowstone River, Nex Perce Creek) several times and caught nothing memorable but the ambiance was certainly a 10, and I'd go again tomorrow if I could.

Went out with my niece and her husband a couple years ago.  It had rained earlier in the day and the wind was kinda howling, but we decided to go anyway.  Typical central Minnesota lake, except very private with few cabins or houses on the shore.  Got the boat in; the waves & wind looked crummy, but as we headed out, things perked up, the wind dropped and we had some sun and clouds for one of the most beautiful fishing days (about 6PM) I've ever had.  Not all that many fish, but I got a nice walleye, my niece had the best northern and her husband topped the largemouth category.

About 30 yrs. ago, I went out with a brother-in-law and his stepson.  We were fishing for an angling/sportsman's group that was having a get-together/fishfry in a few days.  We hit into some panfish on Indian Lake in Central Minn., and could not keep them off the hooks.  Non-stop for about an hour; as I recall, the limit then for bluegills was 30 apiece and 15 apiece for crappies, and we all limited with decent fish.  That was the fun part. Then, we had to help clean them all for the fishfry.

Finally, went out for walleye with my wife; this was about 35 yrs. ago.  Lake Shetek in S. Minn.  I don't remember what I caught or how many, but she got into a nice walleye (I suppose 7-8 lbs.) that is still the biggest walleye we've caught between us, and, of course, she has never forgotten it.

Frank

[SoCalAngler]

Benni, Dom, John and Frank,

Thank you for adding to this post.

I didn't get the response I thought but that's fine.

Ok the second installment from me. I don't know if one trip was better than the other. but what I do know I will never forget either one.

Let's set the stage.

We leave the ramp in Puerto Escondito at O'dark thirty. Puerto Escondito is about 15 miles south of Loreto B.C.S. on the Sea of Cortez side of the Baja Peninsula.

A local pangaro made bait for several boats leaving that morning and that was great as we didn't have to make our own.

We point the bow north east and start running about 22-26 miles to where some reports of fish have been. This area starts around  island of Carmen at a place called Punta Lobo. The sea is flat clam with no wind chop yet as we start making are way up to the point. I think we traveled for only 25-30 minutes only. Love it when we can run fast.

Around the middle of the island about 150 yards off shore we see a small kelp patty. And when I say small I'm talking about the size of a trash can lid. The kelp here are not what we have in So Cal but are Sargassum and this one has a single bird sitting on top of it. Really nothing special but it is something one wants to take a look at.

Now we are a little past gray light but a ways from sun up. I grab a nice fresh bait, one of the 25 we bought and cast it towards the patty. Maybe 15 seconds later I'm bit and set the hook. This fish is taking 10 lbs of drag like it's nothing, just ripping line off the reel and I'm stoked. As I look towards where the fish should be I see a 30 lb sized dorado leaping and shaking it's head about 100 yards off the boat and yep I'm hooked to it.

Bait caught dorado need to be played with a bit as they can and will go wild once brought onto a boat still green. So just like the normal routine I get the fish close enough to the boat where it can see it and then again it pulls 100 yards off the spool in seconds.

Sounds cool right? Well this is just the beginning.

The third time the fish is close to the boat and this is mostly when we start thinking about gaffing, the sun is peaking around the island. I put on my polarized glasses and see the fish at deep color. Wait that's not in the area where my line is going? What the heck? A couple of more pumps on the fish and I look down again and see at least 20-25 free swimming dorado down deep.

I say everyone grab a bait on and toss it out. Ok we have three people on the boat and everyone is hooked up at the same time. My fish is ready to be gaffed and I do it myself, I spike the fish throw into the hold. I wait until the next fish is ready to gaff, maybe 10-15 minutes later. I stick that fish and tell my dad sorry you are going to have to deal with your own fish. He spikes it and in the fish hold it goes. The third fish is gaffed/spiked and in the hold. As soon as we get one of the fish on the boat a new line goes into the water and we get another hookup. We were fishing some of the macks at first but these fish would bite anything, like frozen squid, chunk bait we brought and any type of cast lure if we wanted to use them. We don't fish casting type lures for dorado as this could be dangerous.

We had 3 people on the boat that day so our limit was 6 dorado. We fished that same spot for 1.5 hours only keeping 5 dorado in the hopes something really big would come along. But our biggest went about 40 lbs, not shabby but we wanted larger. After catching and releasing many more fish I told our buddy that spoke the best Spanish to call in other boats.

The Loreto area is known by some as the dorado capital of the world by some and many fly fishermen come here to target them.

As the other boats showed up most if not all were on saltwater fly fishing gear. We watched as 3 pangas pulled up and those guy tossed in their fly's. They literately got destroyed by these fish. I myself saw two rods break and another get pulled right out of the hands of a fisherman. I don't fly fish but I think it was due to the size of the fish and/or user error, like the line getting wrapped on the rod or caught in the reel somehow.

We sat and watched this for around 20 minutes. As other boats showed up and the whole thing began again. I mean could you leave such a sight? I know we could not.

We finally say goodbye to the pangaros  travel a ways and are now just getting to Punta Lobo where we wanted to start the day. Just outside the point when see maybe 6-7 birds crashing the water. A live mack goes out and whamo fish on, I toss out surface iron and I'm bit. I should of waited as my dad is hooked to a sailfish and I have a striped marlin on my line. Both fish going in opposite directions, so we decide to chase my pops fish. That fish is released but now I'm almost spooled. Finally we get that fish released and start to head further out when we see another mini bait ball getting attacked by birds.

This time only one bait goes out and our buddy fishing with us today is on another sailfish. This same thing keeps happening. The billfish keep eating our dorado baits. So we call it a day.

At the end 6 billfish were caught and released, all the good to great grade dorado we wanted and the way back home we see around a 200 lb thresher free jumping at are 11 O'clock maybe 200 yards away but I said to my father "NO WAY", even though we still had one mack left.

Ok we make it back to the ramp, load the boat on the trailer, fuel up and are back home. As we are getting ready to start cutting the dorado I look at my watch and it is 12 noon. Man what a day!

[scrinch]

Wow! What a morning! It's what we're all dreaming of when we hop down into the panga in the dark. Will today be that day?!

[rogan]

I started carp fishing about 6 years ago after realizing that where I live in the desert, carp are the largest species available in the state (with the exception of flathead catfish, which are only found in the large, 10,000+ acre reservoirs).  I had some success and learned a great deal about fishing and carping.  I spent most of my time in the urban lakes, 2 to 15 acres in size, and found carp into the low 20 pound range.  

In 2017, I tried a new-to-me lake.  Very small, it covers less than 2 surface acres and almost half of it is less than 3 feet deep.  With no prior knowledge of the lake, I did a short scouting session to see if it was even fishable.  I decided it was, even though I didn't see any carp and had no knowledge that carp were present in the lake, and I tried a week later.  I arrived early, 6:30 am and picked my spot carefully, placing the rising sun at my back so I could fish the far bank that would be warming up first in the morning sun.  I decided that the fish would patrol along that shoreline since it was inaccessible by people and totally overgrown, with several overhanging trees and snags in the water.  It was about 35 yards to the shore, so a 30 to 32 yard cast would put me next to the snag without being in the snag.  I wanted to only cast one time, so I didn't create any commotion and spook off the fish.  I hit it on the first try.  This might not seem like a big deal, but I also use a form of packbait around the weight as a chum incentive for the carp.  So I was lobbing out about 6ozs in weight.  With my hook in place, I added 4 additional packbait chum balls spread out along the shoreline at close intervals, 3-4 yards apart.

About an hour and a half later, my baitrunner takes off and I see my fishing line kiting off to the left along the shoreline, right into the overhanging tree that is partially submerged!  I grab the rod, trip the baitrunner into drive and realize I'm hooked to a descent sized fish.  As I pull to the right on the rod to keep the line out of the snag, I can feel the line grating on the branches.  I know that I'm fishing for larger fish, so I generally run 15lb mono that breaks at 18lb strength, but I still don't want to get cut off.  I keep the pressure up for several seconds and mange to turn the fish 180 and it swims out of the snag the way it went in.  Now the fish takes off and pulls some drag and I know this is not a small channel catfish, which are the bane of my existence in the urban lakes.  Channel cats are stocked several times a year to provide catchable fish, 1 to 2 pounders, for the urban anglers, but they like the same baits as the carp, so I catch way too many of them. After a couple of minutes of good tug of war, I net a sizable common carp.  I put it in my weight sling and it pulls 22.5 pounds.  I was super stoked.  A small urban lake with no idea of what it might contain, and I have probably just landed the biggest fish in the lake.  All of my previous experience with bait, location choice, baiting strategy, hook and weight setup... it all worked and I caught a monster.  Well, I should say caught and released a monster.  I believe in catch and release fishing as much as possible, especially in the urban lakes, since it takes several years for a fish of this size to reach these proportions.

I returned two weeks later, but another angler was sitting in the spot I used last time.  I decided to fish further down to the left of my original location.  Same bait, similar conditions, and unbelievably, similar results.  I caught another common carp, 21.5 pounds.  I was amazed to see two large fish in such a small body of water.

For me, this was about the experience.  Spending all the time to learn about my intended quarry, researching fishing methods, selecting bait, tackle, lakes, locations, etc... Then having all my efforts rewarded with two excellent fish... this is why I fish.

[mo65]

Lots of great reading here folks...makes me skittish...I'll have to wet a line to stop twitchin'!  

[Benni3]

Great job man,,,,,, I have been looking for a 20lb carp for along time now,,it's not easy,,,,,,,

[happyhooker]

Good carp; I would've bet it came from a small water in a warm climate; here in Minn., most of the carp are all beat up from close calls with spears (allowed here in the winter thru the ice), boat props, arrows (bow and arrow for carp also allowed), etc.

Common carp and a lookalike, the bigmouth buffalo, are amazingly strong fish.  Usually have numerous runs in them after hooked, and, yes, they know where the snags are to snap your line.  They will test your gear.  A lot of anglers don't care for them, but if you're looking for a good fight, you'll find one if you hook one.

Frank

[Caranx]

This has got to be one of my most epic trips. A member of our group caught this one early last month on the Big Island.
From shore, the first of two that day. I'm am grateful to witness and experience it and also to be the gaff man.
I do not expect it to be repeated for the rest of my fishing days.

[Gfish]

"DUDE!". I never hear, or have witnessed that happening on Kaua'i. That really has to be the peak for a shore fisherman.

Switch gears to FW. Late 90's. A 2 hr. drive over the Big Horn mountains in North-central Wyoming one Sept. Day. A few Elk starting to bugle, and the Aspens turning orange, perfect sunny weather. Heading to Kaycee Wy. & the N. Fork of the Powder River.

Hoping to see the Hole in The Wall Gang's actual "hole in the wall" hide-out and the place where Butch, Sundance and the rest stashed their loot: Outlaw Cave, before I start fly fishing. Nope, private property surrounds it now.

Absolutely beautiful canyon and river, it's about 3pm when I get down there. No wind and the caddis flies are goin nuts. The half light in the canyon is hard to describe, almost spellbinding.  

Getting the Rainbows to strike took a little finesse, which makes it more fun for me(ego boost!). These are the best looking wild trout I ever remember seeing.

Wasn't a perfect day, cause I really wanted to see the historical stuff, no real big'uns, not at all a strike on every cast,  but that was the best fly fishing experience I've ever had.

[Maxed Out]

This has got to be one of my most epic trips. A member of our group caught this one early last month on the Big Island.
From shore, the first of two that day. I'm am grateful to witness and experience it and also to be the gaff man.
I do not expect it to be repeated for the rest of my fishing days.

Wow, that is an epic day of shore fishing !!

.Hope you took lots of pictures, so when you're old and grey you can show your great grandkids