Braid 3.5 day trip on the Islander

Davis Choate and I shared Chartermaster duties on this year’s Islander trip. It was great to fish with David again. I arrived early afternoon and David was already at the landing. We put the tackle giveaways on board. We opened the box and checked out what we would be handing out - each angler got some Braid tackle, the new hand wipes and a T shirt.

We had a very light load, only 14 of us. We departed around 8:30 p.m. Shane came down and gave the safety and tackle seminar during the bait loading. Since we have 3 full days to fish, he stated we would be trying an area out west on the 1st day, looking for albies working with the Vagabond.

The Islander is a nice older wood boat, comfortable galley, good showers, only two heads but never a long wait on this trip. The owners, Shane Slaughter and John Coniff do a great job operating and maintaining the boat. They have an ice machine, cups, and a soda fountain so sodas are included in the price. Rick and Gringo handled the galley and prepared great meals, including morning and afternoon snacks.

Monday morning I was up before gray light. Shortly after, the crew set out some trolling rods. It didn't take long before Shane ordered a chum circle, so our journey out west seemed like it might work out. We saw fish, but most of it wouldn't react. It was a long day, fair weather, looked at lots of spots but only 4 albacore to show for our efforts.

I landed the first fish and donated the albacore to the galley so we had albacore enchiladas for dinner. The chef, Rick, used to own and operate eight Mexican restaurants in Arizona so he knows how to fix a nice Mexican meal.

Albacore filets ready to star in Rick's enchiladas

Ken pulling on another fish - he was on fire!

Tuesday found us fishing kelps southeast of Monday’s fishing area. We awoke to bluefin under the boat, but only one bit, so we went trolling and searching for kelps. We got on a bluefin breezer early thanks to Greg up on the roof. Greg, or Killer (as Shane calls him), John and Jack are good crew members, always willing to help, always looking for kelps and fish. The bluefin showed better than they bit, fish were on the smaller side but I was lucky and landed one about 35 pounds.

We stayed busy throughout the day on kelps. Each time we would drift away from the kelps, the bluefin would get on us. So from time to time we picked a few bluefin. David got one about 43 lbs. and I followed up with a 42 pounder. Neither one of us was in the jackpot though being Chartermasters. What a variety we caught this day, catching bluefin tuna, albacore, dorado and yellowtail. The majority of the bluefin were smaller grade, but all other fish were nice sized. The albacore were 20-28 lbs., dodos 12-18 lbs., and yellows 14-25lbs. with the largest going 37 pounds!

Curtis and me with our Bluefin Tunas

Gaffing a yellowtail

The smallest of the kelp paddy yellowtail

Fish ready to be carved up

The Filleting process

Wednesday morning, we awoke with more bluefin around the boat but no biters today. We pulled the sea anchor and proceeded to another great variety filled day of yellowtail, bluefin, albacore and dorado. Harry got the 37 pound yellow, and he also landed a 44 pound bluefin to take the JP.

One of the big kelps holding fish

Great group of anglers, very pleasant to spend a trip with, and most said they will return next year. Some of these guys have made this trip 9 years running. Shane is a pleasure to fish with, as is John Coniff. I sure hope Dennis asks David and me to chartermaster this trip next year as well - we had a blast.