Eight Days of Wine Glass Weather!

The Excel departed Fisherman’s Landing June 27th with 29 anglers on board for the annual Braid Products 8-day spring charter. Captain Shawn Steward, assisted by second Captain Justin Fleck, and crew members Mike, Joe, Oscar, Brian and Jake, loaded the bait tanks with big, healthy sardines. Some of the sardines were the size of small mackerel. After checking with the long-range fleet, Shawn pointed the Excel on a straight-line for Alijos Rocks rather than search for biting fish in the seiner-pounded bluefin grounds where the overnight fleet was operating. The weather was flat calm or what I call “Wine Glass Weather” because you could set a wine glass on the table in the Galley and it would remain upright. This weather would continue for the entire 8 days.

The 42 hour travel time to the rocks passed quickly as passengers renewed old acquaintances, attended seminars and set up their tackle. As Chartermaster, I had the pleasure of handing out Braid jigs after dinner the first 3 nights to all the passengers and hats for everyone the fourth night. Passengers expressed their thanks for the giveaways.

Fishing began when we arrived at the rocks around 8 a.m. on the 29th of June. Captain Steward trolled around the rocks before anchoring up around 9 a.m. A few chummed baits were all that was needed to attract the tuna. 60 to 100 pound tuna boiled up all around the boat. It wasn’t long before “fresh one” was heard.

The kites went out dangling double sardine rigs for two anglers while the other anglers cast out fly lined sardines on 40 to 60 pound line. The fish were picky and preferred the pristine bait on lighter line. Most my fish came on 40 pound Berkley Big Game line with a 3 foot leader of fluorocarbon connected to a 6/0 ringed Eagle Claw hook strung through the nose of a fly lined sardine. We boated 56 tuna the first day of fishing, half of which came on the kite or helium balloon. I hooked 6 yellowfin that day, sending the first to the galley and handing off the second to Alex who had never caught a yellowfin tuna. It must have been good karma because my next fish was a 106 pounder on 40 pound line.

Alex with his first tuna!

We had our own “Odd Couple” on this trip - 84 year old “Greek” and 90 year old Jean Tolson (good friends of the Excel’s owner, Bill Poole.) These gentlemen fished Penn 4/0’s with 30


Greek and Tolson

pound line. When the bite got picky, Tolson fished what he called “heavy 20.” Tolson was at the rail all day long every day. He has incredible stamina for a 90 year old man. I watched Tolson hang on to a 60 pound fish for over an hour one day and when the fish came to gaff, it was already dead. The fish was no match for Tolson.

Shane was our chef for this trip assisted by Johnnie. The food was top quality as is the norm for the Excel. Shane made the call for dinner around 8 p.m. our first day at the rocks and Shawn moved the boat to set up for a night bite on yellows. Anglers fishing after dinner picked up 8 yellowtail to 50 pounds before the bite shut off around midnight.

Shawn repositioned the boat the next morning back on the previous day’s spot. It was after 9:00 a.m. before the first fish bit. This day was pretty much a repeat of the previous day ending with 57 yellowfin tuna slightly smaller than the previous day. We stayed an additional day at the rocks before heading up the line. We caught 167 yellowfin tuna at Alijos Rocks going through over 3 full kite rotations which produced over 90 of the fish boated. Most the kite and balloon fish were on sardines; however, there were a handful of fish on squid, 1 on a yummy flyer and 2 or 3 were hooked on a plastic squid under the helium balloon. Surprisingly, one of the plastic squids was removed from a tuna’s stomach before it went in the hold. Normally, they spit the artificial bait as soon as they taste it.

After leaving the rocks, we traveled a full day moving up the line paddy hopping for a handful of yellowtail and small dorado. “Time to make bait” was the 4:00 a.m. call the next morning. It only took an hour to fill a couple of bait tanks with small greenies (mackerel). Around 10 a.m. the yellowtail began to feed at Cedros Island. Yo yo jigs, surface irons, dropper-loops, fly-lined bait – they ate it all. We made the most of it - catching 112 yellowtail from 25 to 45 pounds in two hours before heading offshore in search of the bluefin tuna.

“Trollers 1 through 5 put the jigs out” was our 6 a.m. wake up call on the 4th of July (also our last day of fishing.) It wasn’t long before Shawn put us on a school of 25 to 50 pound yellowfin tuna that stayed with us all day. These fish were in a biting mode and provided lots of enjoyment for the passengers that found it difficult to get a bite fishing a fly-lined bait at the rocks. The fish still preferred the “long soak” (a bait that swims away from the boat and soaks out there until it gets bit.) Baits cast out at the stern made a quick retreat to the boat. I chose the bow where baits quickly left the safety of the boat and took their position out with the rest of the chum until slurped up by a hungry yellowfin.

Fish boiled around the boat all day providing a visual display almost as entertaining as Greek when his pants and rod belt dropped to his ankles as Joe gaffed his fish. With one hand on his rod and the other gripping his pants trying to cover his blue and white striped boxers, Greek screamed “wait” each time Joe tried to take his gaffed fish to the stern. Joe kept looking for lines in the water preventing movement up the rail until he finally saw Greek’s dilemma and dropped to his knees in laughter.

Our last day of fishing added 133 yellowfin tuna, 5 albacore and 2 bluefin tuna to our count. Many of these fish were on light line and single speed reels. My largest of the day was a 50.5 pound yellowfin on 30 pound line spooled on a Torium 20. Around 3:30 in the afternoon, we handed our school of fish off to the Polaris Supreme and headed towards home. We broke down our tackle, cleaned up and packed for home.

Before dinner, we viewed a video on off-loading procedures to be followed at the landing and our options for fish processing. Both the “Fresh” wells were full with our catch and the rest of our fish was frozen. Our options for fish processing included having same-day filet service for our fresh fish, trade our fish for cans, process our fish into smoked fish or tuna jerky, or donate our fish to a charity. Of course, we could take our fish home and do our own processing too.

Mark Conway won the crystal tuna for releasing the most fish during the trip. Mark released 8 fish for the trip. There were a total of 55 fish released during the trip. On behalf of Braid products, I invited the passengers to join us again next year and we all gave a big thanks to the Captain and crew for a great trip.

We arrived at Fisherman’s Landing at 6:00 a.m. Gear and fish were off-loaded and jackpot weighed up. Our jackpot winners were Frank McGuire in 1st place with a 111.5 pound yellowfin tuna, Jason Marquette with a 90.7 pound yellowfin for 2nd place and Andy Lam with a 83.8 pound yellowfin tuna for 3rd. Honorable mentions go out to Bill Hale with a 108.0 pound yellowfin, Gordon Bailey with a 103.8 pound yellowfin tuna, and 90 year old Jean Tolson who ended up with a 93.0 pound yellowfin he caught on 30 pound line. My big fish tipped the scales at 106.5 lbs.


Frank McGuire, Jason Marquette, Andy Lam and Jan Howard.

I only have one word to describe this trip: “FABULOUS”