Pacific Queen 1.5 day New Personal Best BFT

[pjstevko]

I left the home around 8:30 and headed south to Bob Sands Tackle shop for fresh topshots and a new Okuma pch 7'4" xxh rail rod to use for flat falls and big baits. After my quick stop I continued south to Oceanside to meet a friend for a late lunch of chicken wings and tacos. I arrived at the landing right about 4pm checked in and then starting putting my rod and reels together. I grabbed a quick dinner at mitch's seafood then got in line to board. There were a few people already checked in when I got in line at the dock ramp so we began the small talk about our hopes for the trip.  The trip ran 2 shy of full giving us a tiny bit of extra room at the rail which we'd need for most of the following day! We boarded at 7pm and we're told we'd be heading down into Mexico where they found the BFT last weekend. The recommended tackle set up was 30-50# flouro and size 1/0 hooks. A quick stop at the bait barge to load up with great quality sardines and we departed south. After rigging up and chatting with fellow anglers I hit the bunk at about 10pm.

I slept like crap and headed to the galley around 4:30am to grab some coffee and waited for the throttles to slow down. The captain metered a few small schools early but they weren't big enough to bother with until about 8am. The boat slowed and the captain said there was a nice sized school of bigger BFT below us and asked the crew to throw some chum as we began flylining baits. After about 10 minutes we had our first hook up and the fish took a nice long first run as another passenger hooked up too. Within about 20 minutes of the first hook up we had 5-6 anglers hooked up and pinned to the rail. The first fishes hooked were way bigger than anticipated and a bunch were lost due to the 30# flouro recommended by the crew. I think only 2 fish were landed with light leaders. The fish in this school were over 100# so we were instructed to use 40-60# leaders only. After that announcement I switched over to 50# and started using the biggest bait I could find and around 9am I'm hooked up along with 6 other people!

I'm using my shimano speedmaster 12ii with 65# braid to 15' of 50# flouro to a 1/0 hook on my okuma pch 801XH and the rod is doubled over and line is racing off the reel until the spool is 1/2 empty before the fish stops running and I can start gaining line back. Trying to fight this fish with 5 or 6 other people hooked up proved very difficult but the crew did a great job making sure everyone worked together. This fish took me 2 1/2 hours and 12 trips around the boat before I gassed out and handed off the rod to the captain to finish the fight. I wanted to finish it off myself but my arm cramped up so bad I couldn't move it or turn the handle anymore   :[ I figured the captain would step in and get the fish on deck quick but the fish was still so green it took him about 20 minutes to get it within gaff range. Seeing that made me feel a little better I couldn't finish it off myself.... Once the fish hit the deck it was estimated to be 120#making it the biggest fish I've ever caught (besides a shark)! I know technically I can't count it as a catch because I handed it off but I hooked and fought it the majority of the time so I'm claiming it as a new personal best 

After a brief break and a shredded chicken taco lunch I resumed fishing to finish out my two fish limit. At this point the school has become a mix of 30-75# fish making them a little more manageable. People are hooking up and landing good sized fish as I made my way back to the rail. About 2 o'clock I've got half a spool out on a long soak and I get picked up, fresh one! Not wanting another long battle I put the reel into low gear and winch the fish to the rail in about 40 minutes. It was a great size fish, estimated 65#, to finish out my limit!

The first drift lasted until 4:30pm when we lost the school or they got lock jaw so we motored up and went in search of another school to try to get limits for the rest of the boat. We found another good school around sunset and people started dropping the flat falls. Only one person got a fish on the last stop and it was a quality fish around 130#. The captain called to stop fishing around 8 pm due to the long steam home. The trip ended with a total of 46  bft with 14 @ 120-170 and the rest being 20-70#. A couple people caught more than limits so everyone got to go home with at least one bft!

Got back to the dock at 6am, offloaded my gear and checked in with 5 Star fish processing. My gilled and gutted fish weighted 98 and 58 pounds respectively and the 5 Star guys say to figure out whole fish weight add 12% to dressed weight giving me 110 and 65#! My biggest fishes ever caught 

[pjstevko]

More pics

[pjstevko]

More pics

[Benni3]

Kick aftco,,,,, great food,,,great trip,,,nice sunset,,,big fish,,, fantastic job man that's what it's about,,,,,

[Jim Fujitani]

Nice report!  And nice fish!

[alantani]

congratulations!!!!!!

[Darin Crofton]

Awesome, congrats!

[sabaman1]

Very nice fish PJ. Like the way you used that bow rail to kill those fish also. Congratulations!

[Swami805]

Nice fish. Those blufin are tough cookies. Congratulations!

[Hardy Boy]

Great fish and a good job !! Those BFT on on my list. It takes some skill and effort to land those fish quickly as I have been shown by the Boss and Ben. My first 100 lber YFT took a couple of hours as I was afraid to really put pressure (plus I did not know how) on the small hook that we were using in small anchovies.

Question for the pros : Can you really put the coal to them while using small 1/0 hooks compared to say a 6/0 or 8/0 hook ??


Cheers:


Todd

[xjchad]

Awesome!
Congratulations PJ!!! 

[Vintage Offshore Tackle]

Congratulations PJ!

[conchydong]

Way to go PJ!

Scott

[Gfish]

Great narritive and pictures PJ. Sounds like one needs almost superhuman physical endurance to land one a them big'uns. Like to see hook size answers from experienced members.

[steelfish]

wow, what great fish and battle, congrats amigo.