THE EXCEL BRINGS THE COWS HOME AGAIN!

It happened on another Braid sponsored charter aboard the beautiful Excel Sportfishing vessel. This time it was on a 10-Day trip better known for the variety of it’s’ catch than the size. This is not to say that variety of species was forsaken, however, it may have been overshadowed by the 14 yellowfin tuna from 156.7 to 278.7 pounds that hit the deck. Seven of these fish were over 200 pounds, classifying them as “cows” and all seven were landed by passengers who had yet to land a fish over 100 pounds.

The Excel crew ensured the passengers were armed with 200# leaders on 100# main line spooled on 2 speed reels. Captain Shawn Steward made sure we filled the deck boxes with lively mackerel during our nighttime bait making in Magdalena Bay. Shawn employed a slide rotation where 5 passengers would slide back a live mackerel on a 9/0 Eagle Claw 2005 hook (sending the hook through the lower jaw up through the nose) as we approached the school of tuna. “Let ‘em have it” meant that brails of bait were thrown over the side which caused 200 to 300 pound tuna to clear the water as they pounced on the unsuspecting baits. Those lucky enough to be on the slide team with baits in this mix hooked their trophy.

The largest fish to date was a 60 pound tuna for fishing buddies Tim Turner and Jim Barker. Both skipped the 100 pound category and went straight to the 200 pound class tuna with a 216.6 and a 202.7 pound yellowfin. Bill Siddall landed a tough 233.1 pound tuna on a day that we suffered with rough seas and 5 tuna over 200 pounds lost to chew throughs, hook pulls, tail abrasion, and spectra breaks. Blessed with calmer seas, Craig Arnold, Chiang Chun and Mike Lovelle landed their 227.2, 255.4 and 205.7 pound cows securing 1st in the Jackpot for Craig and 3rd for Mike. Second place went to Tim Turner. Chiang’s fish didn’t qualify for jackpot because he had the crew land his fish as he didn’t have the proper harness for the fight.

Variety did bless this trip too. Limit style fishing on 28 to 30 pound yellowfin tuna was found on the ridge. Ravenous 18 to 30 pound yellowtail also bit jigs, fly lined bait, and dropper loops. Dorado sporadically joined the mix putting on aerial displays of yellow and blue neon sights. Wahoo, a favorite at this time of year, also hit the deck. The wahoo this year were brutes easily hitting the 60 to 80 pound category.

As if that wasn’t variety enough, we also had a school of 30 to 50 pound squid eat the jigs during the day! Imagine a squid pulling drag on a Trinidad spooled with 50 pound line. We had a whale shark bask in the starboard lee of the boat and a sea turtle with barnacles swim down the port side. Ever see 6 grouper chase a hooked skipjack to the surface? Quite the sight! Guess what we did with that skipjack? Yep, we put it on a hook and dropped it to the bottom. We ended up catching 12 grouper that weighed between 30 and 80 pounds that day. And we even made a couple drifts for Reds one morning. What more could you ask from a 10 day trip? “Good weather,” you say. Well we had that too with the exception of the one day with 18-20 knot winds and rough seas; it was warm, balmy weather with calm seas and beautiful sunrises and sunsets.

Dennis Braid sponsored another release contest and the competition was fierce. Tim Turner and Ger Steinberg were within one fish of each other until the last day. There were 148 taggable fish released on this trip. No fish less than 10 pounds qualified. Out of the 148 fish released, 28 were released by Tim and 35 by Ger; thereby earning Ger the coveted crystal tuna. Congratulations Ger!