Another Excellent 10-Day on the Excel

We departed Fisherman’s Landing on October 4th with 24 passengers on the 2006 Braid Products 10-Day trip aboard the Excel. Shawn Steward was at the helm with Justin Fleck his second. Jason Fleck manned the galley assisted by Ryan O’Conner. Crew members on deck were Mike Ramirez, Jordan Richards, Oscar Marroquin, and Kevin Rhoades. Bill Roecker was also on board along with his cameraman, Paul Sweeney, to document the trip with a DVD.

We ran first to the bait receivers and loaded the tanks with hardy sardines. Little did we know they would be subjected to a 20 degree temperature change during the next three days. Once the tanks were full, Shawn headed south taking a middle of the line route not sure whether he would turn the boat in towards the coast and fish the ridge or turn out west and head to Alijos Rocks. With the weather kicking up on the outside and at the rocks, Shawn decided to head to the ridge hoping for better conditions.

We traveled all night in bumpy seas arriving at the 13 spot on the ridge before daybreak on the morning of the 6th. Shawn told numbers 1 through 5 to put the trolling jigs out. It wasn’t long before we heard “Fresh One” and the dorado were biting. These were smaller fish so most were released, however, they were loads of fun to catch on lighter line.



Shawn worked our way down the ridge to the 23 where we found more dorado, yellowtail, pargo and grouper. The weather was still up on the outside so Captain Steward ran down the coast to Mag Bay where we found 87 degree water. Our bait was dieing off in the hot water. When you picked up a sardine, it felt hot in your hand. It’s a wonder they could swim at all.



Shawn spotted a school of black porpoise with some bigger tuna underneath on the bank outside of the bay. Bait was brailed on the school in an attempt to get the tuna to bite but they refused to show. Shawn had to turn the boat back into cooler waters before we lost all our bait leaving the search for the cows to another day, another boat.

We awoke on the 8th back on the ridge at the 23 working our way north to the 13 again. Plenty of action on dorado and yellowtail, but no wahoo. The weather started coming down on the outside so we made the run out to Alijos Rocks arriving early on the morning of the 9th. The Q105 and Royal Polaris were already at the rocks and the Red Rooster III was following us in. Shawn decided to pass the rocks and go to the bank (another 10 miles.) We picked up 2 wahoo trolling Braid Marauders and found another school of bigger black porpoise with 150 pound tuna underneath them. They refused to bite also.



We ended up back at the rocks anchored in 60 fathoms of water. Fishing was slow. Painfully slow! Five yellowfin tuna were boated for the entire day and 3 of those fish were caught on the chunk by John Malloy on a very long soak.

ALIJOS ROCKS

The following day was different. The tuna bit all day on sardines – also on the long soak. Most anglers had to get their sardine out at least 100 yards to get bit. Almost everyone got a chance to pull on one of these bigger tuna which made the trip fun for all.





I was fishing 50 pound Berkley Hi-Test on a Penn 12T that Cal Sheets had “Super T’d” just before the trip. With the larger drags and great free spool, it was the perfect reel for these tuna. I caught 4 out of the 37 landed this day and all 4 were on that reel. The next day was slow again. I was lucky to catch one of only 7 tuna boated by 11 a.m. when the Captain decided to leave the rocks and search a warm water area south for wahoo under kelps.



The weather was beautiful and the waters calm with several nice kelps. Unfortunately, none were holding fish.

Shawn decided to head north to an area off-shore where another boat found large dorado and some wahoo on kelps. By mid morning the next day we had a kelp that produced a wide open bite on 20 to 30 pound dorado. The waters exploded with dorado flying in the air in every direction. Everyone was bit at once and the crew had difficulty getting everyone’s fish gaffed. The Captain finally told us that we had to stop fishing because we had limits of dorado for the trip. The crew marked the kelp with balloons so other boats could find it.



We traveled during the night heading towards San Martin for our last morning. The water was flat calm and little or no current which made fishing for reds difficult but not impossible. We picked up a few reds and lings to finish the trip.



The trip back home was on waters as calm as a lake which made the prime rib dinner even more pleasant.



We arrived back at Fisherman’s Landing at 7:30 a.m. and unloaded our gear. Fish were sorted and jackpot weighed up. Craig Arnold was first with a 121.6 pound yellowfin tuna. Tim Turner was second with a 103 pound tuna and Tim Kelly was third with his 97.1 pound yellowfin. Bill Anderson has a 127.6 pounder that he caught on the kite but that was not eligible for jackpot because we did not reach a full kite rotation. As Chartermaster, I was not in the jackpot either. My largest fish weighed 119 pounds.



Braid Products sponsored a release contest again on this trip and we documented 156 releases. Tim Turner won the coveted crystal tuna for releasing 30 fish. Bill Roecker was second with 29 fish released.

Even though everyone hoped this year’s trip would find the 200 pound tuna like last year, we were not disappointed with our catch. We had lots of action with plenty of variety and great camaraderie on board. We all remarked what a good trip this was and as I left the landing, I heard many passengers asking Betty and Kathy to put them on next year’s trip.