The List - SOA 3-day, June 14-17 - Alan Tani, chartermaster

[Brewcrafter]

SOA usually only posts on their website at the conclusion of the trip.  Myself, I like to think they are too busy railing Bluefin to bother    I am sure we will hear something on one of the Saturday Zooms.. - john

[MarkT]

I think there were 9 between 130 and 160, a 40 and a 20.  Bill got 2 bigguns! Nothing for me but a heartache!

[pjstevko]

I think there were 9 between 130 and 160, a 40 and a 20.  Bill got 2 bigguns! Nothing for me but a heartache!

Sounds like tough fishing but I'm sure the company was great!

[Hardy Boy]

What happened Mark ?? You usually kick #### and take names ................. I hope I didn't jinx you. Good for Bill ..... beginners luck !!


Chers:

Todd

[Maxed Out]

The Spirit Of Adventure Website is about as up to date as a person driving a Model T Ford.
Still have postings from the Pleistocene Time of the Woolly Mammoth...

 The SOA does all their current catches on Facebook. Google "Spirit of adventure fishing" and scroll down to the Facebook page.....or just ask MarkT

[Vintage Offshore Tackle]

They probably have not produced and maintained a state of the art website because they are fishermen and not webmasters, and they devote all of their energies and resources towards the boat, their customers and catching fish.  They haven't seemed to have had a problem keeping the boat booked, so they must be doing something right.

[Wompus Cat]

They probably have not produced and maintained a state of the art website because they are fishermen and not webmasters, and they devote all of their energies and resources towards the boat, their customers and catching fish.  They haven't seemed to have had a problem keeping the boat booked, so they must be doing something right.

 Poor Excuses & not acceptable in my opinion as seemingly ALL the other San Diego Long Range vessels have Current, Up to date reports...
Takes but a few brief minutes for the skipper to get on the Sat phone & phone in a report at the end of that day's fishing...almost as long as it took me to type this ....
 
 ...and to quote you, those other vessels also...
 
 
     " devote all of their energies and resources towards the boat, their customers and catching fish.  They haven't seemed to have had a problem keeping the boat booked, so they must be doing something right.

....Queequeg
[/quote]


You might consider offering your Public Relations Expertise to The S.O.A. Captain . I am sure it is something he puts a Lot of Importance on . Since word of mouth advertising is not doing very well (at least for the Last 20 Years or so .)

[Bill B]

Quick report, with more to follow:

23 anglers on the boat, 12 bluefin caught by 10 fishermen.  10 were well over the century mark, almost cookie cutter 150 pounders.  One 40 pounder and one 20 pounder. Roy Qi caught 20 and a 160(?).  As Mark said I caught two, nearly identical.  They were 140 and 141, gilled and gutted, adding 10% makes them 154 and 155.  Weather was great, seas were great, food was great, boat was great, sardines were big and lively, crew was outstanding, fishing well...not so great.  Stay tuned for more to follow.  Bill

[solrac]

thank you, looking forward to the full report.

[Vintage Offshore Tackle]

They probably have not produced and maintained a state of the art website because they are fishermen and not webmasters, and they devote all of their energies and resources towards the boat, their customers and catching fish.  They haven't seemed to have had a problem keeping the boat booked, so they must be doing something right.

 Poor Excuses & not acceptable in my opinion as seemingly ALL the other San Diego Long Range vessels have Current, Up to date reports...
Takes but a few brief minutes for the skipper to get on the Sat phone & phone in a report at the end of that day's fishing...almost as long as it took me to type this ....
 
 ...and to quote you, those other vessels also...
 
 
    " devote all of their energies and resources towards the boat, their customers and catching fish.  They haven't seemed to have had a problem keeping the boat booked, so they must be doing something right.

....Queequeg

You might consider offering your Public Relations Expertise to The S.O.A. Captain . I am sure it is something he puts a Lot of Importance on . Since word of mouth advertising is not doing very well (at least for the Last 20 Years or so .)
[/quote]

[Vintage Offshore Tackle]

Great job Bill!  Congratulations on being the hot stick!  Looking forward to hearing the details.

[Aiala]

They probably have not produced and maintained a state of the art website because they are fishermen and not webmasters, and they devote all of their energies and resources towards the boat, their customers and catching fish.  They haven't seemed to have had a problem keeping the boat booked, so they must be doing something right.

Beggin' your pardon, Maestro Randy, but ALL of the long-range boats are booked solid through Christmas, and many of them have perfectly fine websites which do NOT include fish counts from 20 years past: RP, Star, Searcher, Indy, Supreme, Intrepid, etc... 

~A~

[pjstevko]

Bill congrats on breaking the 100# mark twice!!!!


How was it dealing with the new parking system?

[Bill B]

I'm sure there will be more complete reports coming. We all met at the landing around 0800 hrs and off to Dennys for breakfast.  Let me back up most drove/flew in the day before and the rest maybe 3 drove in that morning.  Parking at the lot is pretty simple, go to the machine, punch a few buttons insert your credit card and pay for the days you will be there.  Parking lot had quite a few open spots.  I ended up parking near Mark T. And Warren. 

After breakfast we loaded the carts and by 0900 hrs were headed down to the boat.  The load out to the boat went smoothly, rods were racked and reels loaded.  Around 1030 hrs we were off the the bait tanks.  The SOA had some leftover bait from the previous trip.  Captain Evan Kraft spent some time looking over the tanks and selected a 4 day cure which turned out to be awesome bait.  Big, strong, and fast swimmers.  By 1130 hrs we were off.  The captain came down for the usual safety briefing and gave us the low down on who, what, where, and why.  Things were not looking good.  The bluefin were definitely not on the "chew" but he promised to fish harder than us.  Cool beans I can run with that!

Lunch was a full spread of lunch meats and breads.  So I filled up on carbs and protein.  The brews that John Brewcrafter sent were quickly iced down, thanks John!

We steamed a good pace and found the fleet about 30 miles west of San Diego and I counted 18 boats in view.  Dinner was quickly served about 2030 hrs which consisted of grilled chicken breast with mashed potatoes with mushroom gravy.  😋

As dinner was finishing the boat throttled down and Capt. Kraft started a zigzag pattern.  Over the loud speaker we heard he has a school under the boat.  A mad scramble to the racks and rails ensued.  From below it must have looked like Normandie at D Day with all the jigs dropping from above.  Unfortunately the tuna had better plans and were dug in like an Alabama tick.  No takers.  A few more stops with nothing to show.  By 2300 hrs I was beat, having got up at 0200 hrs that morning to make sure I got to the landing. Remember, "Early is on time, On time is late, and Late is inexcusable." Many continued to fish through the night. 

I got up around 0430 hrs to the sound of the boat throttling down, so out of the rack I came, dressed and hit the deck.  I dropped a 340 gram jig a couple time with no takers.  As dawn approached we changed over to sinker rigs and fly lines.  A few were using the new In-Line Singer rig.  More schools later, eyeing breezes, boils, sounder groups, we just couldn't get any schools to stick around.  Around 1000 hrs we had a school around the boat and I heard the captain say over the PA, now pay attention here this may be on the test later, "We have a school around us and looks like a few below us at 200'". 

Now I'm not too bright but I do listen sometimes, not often just ask my wife. So I grab my Penn Fathom 40NLD2 with 80# braid and 25 yards of 80# flouro, Okuma PCH 741XXH, 2/0 ringed circle hook, and a traditional 6 oz sinker rig.  I sent it straight down, just as I hit 200' the line began to peel off the Fathom quicker than it was.  C&@# I'm hooked up!  I advance the drag to 20# and then it really takes off!  Ok I got your number how about 25#!  Well I was introduced to Mr. ZingPow.  Ok I just got chewed off, right?  Nope my flouro braid knot parted.  And to be perfectly honest Alan did not tie it, I did.  Ok what to do, I don't have anymore 80#...Lee Keta to the rescue and I had 6' of flouro.  Now doubting my knot skills I found a deckhand to tie on the new leader and hook.

Ok back in business, a new sardine and 6 oz sinker, and back down to the 200' mark.  I didn't have to wait long and a 200' breezer picked up my bait. Now I carefully advance my drag to 15#, not stopping!  How do you like 20#? He's still not impressed.  Well then take this 25#!  That got his attention and really pissed him off.  By this time I'm at the bow next to Alan and I'm seeing the last 1/4 of my spool peeling off.  I ask Alan casually, what kind of knot did he use to tie off the braid to my arbor.  I can't print his words here but I did get his attention.  I then asked for some coaching on this fish.  With Alan's help we boated the fish in 35 minutes with no round the boat trips.  It taped out to 150#.  I'm tapped out, who thought fighting fish was this hard.

I retire for the evening, with a cold beer and hot shower, and a few Advil.  Of course when someone hooks up there is a chorus of "who, what, where, and how".  A couple more 150# class fish came over the rail that night.  It's safe to say this was a sardine sinker rig bite.  A couple schoolies came over on flyline but as far as I know sinker rig was the hot ticket.

Captain Kraft and the crew pulled another all nighter looking for fish, me I was done and headed for the rack.

Vowing I was done with my new personal best fish I elected to pass off my next fish. 

The next day I had no pressure on me to catch another fish, but was going to pass off the next fish. Now class do you remember the test question you were briefed on?  Well the call came over the PA and I duly dropped in at the target depth of 180' and just as I thumbed the spool to a stop, I got burned by the line peeling off!  Now trusting my rig I slowly pushed the drag to 25#.  This fish was mean!  Captain Kraft saw me hooked up and pulled tight against the rail and came to assist. 

We quickly advanced to the starboard bow where 90% of the fight occurred. We did make a quick trip down the starboard rail, but the fish didn't like the scenery and headed back to the bow.  We hop scotched a couple times over the anchor but settled on the starboard bow rail.  We are now pushing 28# of drag.  I would take 3' of line in low gear the fish would take 5'. We went back and forth a couple times and I finally started making some line.  Did I mention this fish was mean?  Well when we got to the death spirals he decided to wrap up everybody from the bow to the bait tank.  I now had the captain and two deckhands assisting and they cleared all the tangled lines.  Cool beans I'm back in business, we start making line on him again and he decides to wrap up some more lines.  Hey Lee, is that you tangled up again 🤣🤣🤣. Yup he got Lee twice by making those mile wide spirals.  Lee called out to the captain "just cut my line". Thanks Lee!  Lines cleared again we put the coals to this fish.  Back over the anchor to the port bow rail.  Out came the gaffs and the solid thunk of a good shot to the body, quickly followed by two more shots.  This fish was done!  On the deck it taped out to 150# also.  This fish almost beat me.  If not for the excellent work of the crew and the other fisherman it would not have hit the deck.  Thank you!  While the fish was being dressed Alan walks up to me with a shot and as only he can say, "Your timing was off, you should have had it in sooner".  Yup, he was right, I was about 1 second off the swell timing missing 1-2' of line each time.

My goal as to beat my personal best of a 115# bluefin.  I did it!  Oh and my vow to hand off the fish, well when I saw the drag it was pulling I couldn't had that off.

The rest of the night is a little hazy, I do not think anymore fish were boated, but I could be wrong. 

In total 12 bluefin were landed, 10 well over the century mark, and 2 schoolies. 

On another note, I used Sportmans Fish Processing, also known as Mario's Fish Processing.  They were efficient, quick turn around, and good prices.  I will be using them again in the future.  They had my fish and Warren's fish processed before we finished the mandatory breakfast at Perry's Cafe. 

I know others will chime in with their reports.  Here are a couple pictures, well all that i have.  And the fellow in the sweat stain grey t-shirt is me after landing that mean SOB.  Tight Lines everyone.  Bill

[pjstevko]

Bill that was a great write up and congrats on you double PB!!!!

Did anyone hook up with the "stealth" sinker rig?