Top Gun 80 2.5 day report....tunas!!!!

Started by pjstevko, August 15, 2019, 06:46:38 PM

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pjstevko

Just got back yesterday from my 2.5 day trip aboard the TG80 out of San Diego and I'm beat....

Super short version.....We killed'm!!!! Total for the trip was a handful of rockfish, 2 sheepheads, 1 mako shark, 1 dorado, 14 yellowtail, 97 bluefin tuna and 115 yellowfin tuna! I ended the trip with 3 yellowfin, 3 bluefin and the only dorado! Still no yellowtail for me but overall I'm stoked for my catches!!!!!

I'll post up a real report with pics later!!!!!

Fishy247

That's great PJ! I'm looking forward to reading your report!

sabaman1

Right on Pj, I'm stoked to hear you had a great trip! Sounds like things here out of San diego are really starting to heat up.


        Tight lines!
       
            Jim
JIM

steelfish

Looking forward for the story and pics

sounds like a blast
The Baja Guy

Newell Nut

Great catch. Hope you have enough freezer space. ;D
Dwight

pjstevko

Quote from: Newell Nut on August 15, 2019, 08:56:25 PM
Great catch. Hope you have enough freezer space. ;D
Dwight


Plenty of room in the freezer as most of fish only weighed between 10-15# each! No bigger fish for me but it gave my wife and I plenty of fish to eat and share!!!!

Benni3

Fantastic job,,,, :D that's alot of fish on the deck,,,,,,, ;D

pjstevko

My trip started out with a stop at Bob Sands Tackle Store to meet up with Rich who bought my custom made spinning rod and pick up a few supplies. With a bunch cash in my pocket I decided to treat myself and reinvest the $ in my first 2 speed reel, a Shimano Speedmaster 12II. I had it filled most of the way with 65# braid and a short topshot of 40# mono that I'd add flouro to on the boat. It got paired with a PCH-C-801XH and it preformed great. After spending way too much money at Bob Sands I made my way south towards the landing. I made a quick stop in Oceanside for some poke then headed towards Anglers Choice Tackle to pick up a few more hooks and get a reel respooled. While inside AC I met a guy named Ryan who said he was on the same trip as me so we chatted for a few minutes then he took off while I shopped. After a little bit I finished up at AC then headed to the landing. I checked in, was assigned bunk room #4 and was told I could board the boat anytime! I boarded around 4:30pm, picked out my bunk, stowed my tackle bags and went back up the dock to grab dinner. I ate at the seafood market/restaurant at the top of the walkway and had a great fish & chip basket with a cup of chowder, it was delicious!

I head back on the boat and find Ryan doing some last minute rigging inside the galley and lend a hand helping him rig poppers. Everyone else is here and checked in so we leave the dock early and he's too the bait barge. The crew consisted of Captain Bob Taft, Co-Captain Scott Hart, chef Tree Jennings and deckhands Nate Ison and Julio Malanum. While enroute to the bait barge we're given the "plan and rigging" speech, 30/40 flouro and 2/0 hooks. The plan was to head to Cortez/Tanner Bank to scout for new schools of fish and if nothing showed up we'd fish the shallow water for some rockfish just to get the stink off then head to SCI to fly the kite for cows. After loading up the wells with great sardines we head north while everyone rigs up then head to bed with high hopes.

I wake up at 5 am and grab some coffee with Ryan, Scott and Bob while we motor around looking for schools of fish but couldn't find any for the first few hours so we start rockfishings. There a few red rockfish and sculpting caught and Ryan caught the best fish of the stop with a nice sheepshead. After a couple hours the Captain gets on the horn and says we're gonna head to SCI to fly the kite for cows. On the way there Julio started to rig up some fresh flying fish for kite baits and it was great to see how it's done. We arrive at SCI and it's a mad house with boats everywhere and dozens of kites in the air. We set out our yummy flier bait and start to troll around looking for marks. We trolled south for an hour without one blow up or sonar mark then we realized why, the tuna seiners were out in force... 12 boats with spotter planes! Nothing going on here so Capt makes a few calls and gets a tip about a bite going on south of us a few hours away so off we go.....

We arrive at the area around 4pm and see the rest of the fleet, around 8-10 boats most of which are on the drift and catching fish. Get into position and start trolling around and within half an hour we're on the fish. It's a mix of yf and bf with decent size around 25-30# fish. It was a steady bite from then on until dark. I landed 2 fish around 10-15# each and the rest of the boat did all. I think the first night we ended up with around 44 fish.....We stick in the area all night and are excited to see what tomorrow brings!

Day 2 starts off at 5 am with coffee and no fish in the early grey light but the bite turned on at 7 am and didn't stop until 2 pm! The bite was so hot we had to lay fish up the sides of the boat because we filled up the fish box in the first few hours. The only reason we lost the school is because we had to stop fishing so the crew could put all the fish in the rsw box before deck before someone got hurt! After an hour of clean up and refilling the bait tanks we were back on the school quickly. In the middle of it all we drifted by a patty and people started hooking up to yellowtail and I thought I'd finally get my first YT. As my bait swam towards the patty line starts moving off my reel and I'm bit, I move the lever to strike and come tight. As I'm reeling in my line a lone dorado jumps sky high and my dreams of yellowtail are gone. I'm stoked to have caught the only dodo but I've caught loads of those when I lived in Florida so I was hoping to get a yellowtail. It was mayhem until around 7pm with multiple people hooking up every 5 minutes. Ryan was the hot stick of the trip with trip limits of YFT, BFT and a few yellowtail. He was the clear jackpot winner with a 46# bft and a 50# yft!

Overall it was a great trip on a great boat with an amazing crew. I highly recommend the Top Gun 80!

Pics will follow report as close as possible and will take several pages...

pjstevko

Pics

pjstevko

Pics

pjstevko

More pics

Crow

Looks like a super trip ! And sounds like you had a great time !!
There's nothing wrong with a few "F's" on your record....Food, Fun, Flowers, Fishing, Friends, and Fun....to name just a few !

Swami805

Nice! glad you had a great trip, it had been pretty slow for awhile. You'll get your yellowtail!
Do what you can with that you have where you are

pjstevko


pjstevko