Searcher Albies

The annual Braid Products 4-day trip on the Searcher departed Fisherman’s Landing at noon on August 14th with Art Taylor, the Searcher’s owner and Captain at the helm. Assisting Art and providing excellent service to the 19 passengers on board were Art’s second, Kevin, deck hands Kenny, Cole, and Corey with Randy and Dave in the galley. I gave out the T-shirts and Braid Slammer Jigs that Dennis sent for the passengers as Celia signed everybody in.

We picked up a great load of healthy sardines at the bait receiver while Randy served us a delicious lunch of pizza and salad. Art informed us we were heading southwest to the albacore grounds and would arrive during the night. The weather was coming up so the sea anchor was deployed when we arrived on the grounds.

I was up by 4:30 a.m. and fished a jig deep in 25 knot winds. Not only was the weather rough but the fish were not biting yet. We trolled around all day while getting thrown around in rough seas and big swells. Around noon we stopped on a meter mark and picked up 27 albacore. We trolled most the afternoon and still no jig strikes plus we all suffered from boots full of water. The water temperature was 67, the skies overcast and with the winds howling; our feet were wet, we were cold – but we had a few fish so it was not all bad. Right at sundown we got a jig strike and put another 30 fish on the boat. 25# mono with a short fluorocarbon leader and a 1/0 Mustad 92677 hook was my ticket.

The next morning the winds were still blowing but were predicted to come down. As the day progressed, the weather changed and the fishing improved. The albacore started hitting the trolling jigs – a Zuker black and purple 6-inch feather was the hot jig. By afternoon, the seas erupted with life. Everywhere we looked we could see fish jumping – bait balls around pods of whales, porpoise, schools of jumping albacore and the albacore were biting. The crew cast out the green mackerel slammer jig and hooked and handed at least a dozen albacore on that jig. It was dynamite.

The news got out fast that the albacore were biting and since we were only 55 miles from the landing, the rest of the fleet arrived quickly. By the end of the day, we were only 50 fish short of limits for the boat. I had hooked and handed fish, sent fish to the galley and given fish to the crew and other passengers and still reached limits early. Randy filled our bellies with pork loin (I had albacore) and strawberry shortcake before sending us to bed. We were all exhausted and sore but content by the time we hit the bunks.
I was up early the next day and had two albacore on board before anyone else was on deck. By the time the sea anchor was pulled and breakfast finished we had 4 albacore on the boat and I had caught 3. We gave all 4 fish to Tony who was having a tough trip. There were 32 boats in the area with more arriving all the time. Art kept us fishing on the albacore grounds for the morning until it was clear everyone had all the albacore they wanted. We were fishing around the butterfly so Art headed East looking for dorado and yellowtail on kelps. The weather was beautiful; calm seas and sunny skies. The water was 70.4 degrees. We enjoyed the weather and calm seas unfortunately the fish were a no show. We didn’t even care.

We had a comfortable ride home and awoke in the morning tied up at the bait receiver. We tied up at the landing at 7:30 in the morning, unloaded gear and sorted fish. Jackpot was weighed up and Don took jackpot with a 42 pound albacore. What a great trip. The Captain and crew made sure all our needs and desires were attended to. Thanks Art.