Calm Seas and Mellow Friends!

We departed on our 2008 Braid 5-Day with 31 passengers. It was great seeing the regulars return (Chas, Joe, Dennis, Peter, Marshall, Tim, Jim, the Baileys, etc.) and welcoming newcomers such as Earl McVicar (976-Tuna), Patrick Gee (with Shimano) with his brothers and friends, plus a couple guests all the way from Norway. Captain Justin Fleck took the Excel out of dock early and topped off the bait with the help of crew members Oscar, Jordan, Brandon, Kevin and Johnnie. After passing the point, Chef Jason Fleck (assisted by Stan) put out hot dogs to tide the group over until dinner. This group has always been low key and mellow and it was easy to see this year would be no different.

The albacore popped up so we are going to fish the albacore grounds on day one. Captain Fleck gave us the safety seminar. After our safety seminar, I handed out the Braid tackle giveaways. Dennis Braid provided everyone with a T-shirt, two jigs and a trolling feather. Berkley provided passengers with a spool of 40 pound Big Game line, a spool of 40 pound fluorocarbon, and a Tuna Clone. Earl distributed T-shirts provided by 976-Tuna. Passengers were very grateful for the generous giveaways especially considering the current economy.

Next event was a tackle seminar by Jordan. Jordan advised rigging up 25 pound and 30 pound outfits for flylining baits for albacore and rigging an 80 pound outfit for trolling. As soon as Jordan finished the seminar, the deck was busy with passengers putting reels on rods, selecting trolling lures and practicing knots. At daybreak we would be in the zone.

At 5:30 a.m. the next morning, Captain Fleck said “Trollers one through five put your jigs out.” I was number one so that included me. I chose the center position and trolled a small green and yellow feather. About 6:15 we got our first strike and it was on my lure! Just one fish but it was a nice 30 pound albacore that I sent straight to the galley. It only took a few minutes for trollers six through ten to hook a fish and on this stop I managed to hook another 30 pound albacore this time on bait. This albacore found itself in the galley as well and both fish provided the boat with a fabulous albacore dinner with mango salsa prepared by Chef Fleck. We managed a total of 12 albacore and 2 bluefin the first day – not a great day of fishing but it was a very good day for me as I had 3 albacore for the day.



We arrived at Benitos Island around 9 a.m. the next morning. We tried several spots at the island that had plenty of big yellows but it was over run with big, fat seals greyhounding towards the boat as the boat turned into a stop. As soon as a fish was hooked, the seals grabbed it. The yellowtail were mixed in with a school of bonito. When a bonito was landed, crew fed it to the seals in the hopes they would leave the yellowtail alone but it was not to be. Less than 10 percent of the hooked yellowtail hit the deck. Every time Justin moved the boat, the seals followed so Justin moved the boat to Cedros – a couple hour trip. Jason and I made gingersnaps during the move. They were a big hit with passengers.


Jason and I

We arrived at the north end of the island just at lunch time so I helped Jason get lunch on – tacos – before we started fishing. We moved down the island scratching out 113 yellowtail for the day. A sardine flylined on 25 pound test was the ticket.

We had a minor crisis today as we ran out of Budweiser beer. The American Angler came to our rescue.

Justin anchored in the lee of the island close to the salt mine next to the American Angler. After dinner a dozen or so passengers tried to get a night bite going but the fish wouldn’t cooperate. Around 11 p.m. one of our Norwegian passengers (Peter) had a heart problem and needed to get off the boat. He had had previous problems and his doctor agreed that he needed to get off the boat. Justin spent the night trying to make arrangements but with no success. At daybreak, Justin flagged down a fisherman and gave him $100 to take the passenger to the hospital on the island. He sent a crew member along too. There were problems with the Coast Guard and Homeland Security regarding transporting a non-citizen by air into the United States. Eventually a Cessna was chartered to fly the passenger and a crew member to Tijuana where his family met him and drove him to Scripts where he was stabilized. The cost to the passenger was estimated at $12,000. I’m going to buy insurance that covers such a cost.

Salt Mine

Captain Fleck put us on some outstanding yellowtail fishing at the same time he was handling the medical emergency.



We fished between the south end of Cedros and Natividad in an area loaded with bait foaming on krill.



We put over 200 yellowtail on the boat in a couple hours.



Being short one crew member, I offered to help on deck. Justin put me on the tank. Throwing bait was harder than it looked. I was just happy I didn't hit anyone in the head with a sardine.


The water temperature was 71 degrees and at one point during the day (while in the lee of the island) Justin put the ladder down and allowed passengers and crew to take a swim. The water was very refreshing.





Once we were back on board and the medical emergency handled, we started back up the line to position ourselves for albacore fishing the next morning.

We began trolling at 9:30 the next morning about 135 miles from Point Loma. We had stops off and on all day for one or two fish working our way up to 110 miles from home. We had one stop for 11 fish including 8 yellowfin tuna. At the end of the day we were the high boat with 41 albacore and 8 yellowfin tuna. I managed to pick up one albacore for the day.

Mid afternoon when the fishing was slow, Patrick Gee had a drawing for Shimano tackle (bags, cutters, etc.). Each crew member and every passenger received a gift. Many thanks to Patrick! This was an unexpected treat.

We arrived back at the landing at 6:45 a.m. to unload our catch and weigh up jackpot.



Travel Path during our 5 Days of fishing.

Mike Lerner, Sidney Gee and Chris Revives came in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd with a 37 lb. albacore, 31 lb. and 28.4 lb. yellowtail. Congratulations guys!

Eight Days of Laughter

June 27th we left on the annual Braid 8-Day trip with 33 passengers, most were regulars. Our Captain this trip was Mike Ramirez with Oscar as second with Jason and Stan in the Galley and Brandon, Johnnie, Derrick, and Kevin on deck. It was great to see regulars Frank, Rolland, Kim, Sean, Steve, Big Daddy Burnside, Jim, George (and his son), Chris, Allen, and the Weisenhutters (Curt, Craig and Erick).

We had just finished settling into our rooms when Captain Ramirez informed us we would be fishing albacore before sundown. Not only did we fish but several folks caught – 22 in all. As usual just a few anglers caught all the fish. Offshore water temperature ranged from 66 degrees to 66.7.

Next day, we were off for yellowtail at Hippolito but met with a current pushing hard north so we stopped short and ended up fishing reds at Jeronimo instead. The water was a cool 61 degrees with 15 knots of wind. We caught 40 to 50 reds, enough for lunch and a few to take home. Since fishing was slow, Frank went to town early and had a great time – so great that he tired himself out. Rolland put him to bed at 5:00 p.m. so he would be well rested for the next days fishing.

We got to Hippolito around 8:15 the third morning and found green 58.8 degree water and no yellowtail. After working the area all day we caught a total of 8 yellowtail. We headed towards the ridge.

Day 4 found biting yellowtail at Thetis bank but the giant squid kept moving in just when we got the bite going. The squid kept eating our sardines. We finally ended up at the 23 spot and caught 200 yellows. They bit the jigs and bait. It was nice to run into biting fish. We even had a couple amberjacks one of which was mine. Our water had warmed up to 69.8 degrees.

We fished Day 5 offshore on our way to the rocks. We found many big kelp paddies but nothing associated with them.

We finally made it to Alijos Rocks the next morning and found 69 degree water and biting fish – small fish. We had a good bite all day on 18 to 25 pound yellowfin tuna. We never saw anything larger. A seiner came through the area and sent its helicopter up but eventually left the area. Mike said the fish were on the shallows where they couldn’t wrap the fish. The Royal Star was with us at the rocks and their refrigeration had leaked into their bait tanks and they lost all their bait. When they fixed the leak, we passed over a box of bait leaving us 1 ¾ boxes of bait for albacore fishing the last day.

We traveled north the next day and began albacore fishing the last day 90 miles from Point Loma in 70 degree water. We picked up 34 albies for the day and I finally put one on the deck.

We check back in to the landing July 5th and weighed up our catch. Jackpot winners included Mike Livingston with a 38.2 lb. yellowtail, Curt Wiesenhutter with a 36.4 lb. yellowtail and Steve Alexander with a 36 lb. yellowtail.

Now you may be wondering why the title. If you have ever fished with Frank and Rolland you would know. They kept us all entertained. It began with Kim trying his new propeller accessory for a trolling lure. After being teased about it tangling other lures, Kim put it out anyway. If you check the photos carefully, you will see that Rolland found a good use for the propeller. It only got better from there. I’m already looking forward to next year’s trip.