Al’s Fisherman’s Pals and Gals

Friday, May 13, 2011, 27 passengers boarded the Excel for Al's Fisherman's Pals and Gals first annual 15 day charter. Justin Fleck was our Captain with Mike Ramirez as his second. Crew on deck included Derrick, Rudy, Brandon, and Bundy. Chef Jason Fleck was in charge of the galley assisted by Chef in Training, Jake Phillips.

By 8:30 am, we had paid, boarded and departed dock for the bait receiver. While crew loaded bait, passengers organized tackle and got settled in their staterooms.

While at the receiver, Jason decided to cast a small plastic swim bait on 8 lb. test and landed a beautiful halibut. He made the passengers fish tacos with it the next day for lunch.

Jason’s Halibut

At 11:30 am, we departed the point. Justin called us to the galley for the safety seminar then Al Scow welcomed us and passed out gifts to all the passengers. Various tackle items (including 4 reels), fluorocarbon leader material, Mauraders, etc. were raffled off so that all passengers received gifts. Every passenger also received Cajun Gold Seasoning, a hand towel, 2 pound See's Candy Certificate and commemorative T-shirt. Al was extremely generous as most the giveaways came out of Al's own pocket. All the passengers were appreciative.

On board was Accurate rep, Gary Gillingham, who also provided a tackle pack for each angler. Thanks Gary.

Our destination was Hurricane Bank - a spot 1000 miles southwest of Point Loma. Travel time was occupied by putting reels on rods, making leaders, attending fishing seminars, reading and watching movies. I also spent one day teaching Luan how to make his own top shots and another morning Jason and I made Gingersnaps for passengers. The day before we reached the bank, we set our drags and did our last minute preparations.

Tuesday morning, four days after leaving San Diego, we arrived at the bank at 7:30 am. We trolled around the bank and began catching wahoo immediately. Soon, Justin anchored the boat and we continued to catch wahoo while putting up the kite. The first two kite fish were a wahoo and a 60 lb. tuna. I was up next and nailed a 217 lb. yellowfin tuna - just the luck of the draw. I was thrilled as I hadn't caught a cow for the last two years. My trip was made. The wahoo kept biting and at day's end we had over 100 wahoo.

Although no other sport boats were at the bank, we did encounter a shark longline boat from Costa Rica. They requested our junk fish to use as bait (rainbow runners, small tuna, dead skipjack, etc.) We took junk fish over to them and in return, they sent us two swordfish they had caught before arriving at the bank. What a special treat - swordfish steaks for dinner one night. I hadn't had swordfish in over 10 years. It was great mostly because Jason truly is the best when it comes to cooking fish.

Swordfish Transfer between boats.

The next couple days produced a 202 lb. cow for Jim Carlisle and a 247 pounder for Ted. The weather continued to be a bit choppy with 15 knot winds and the sharks began to gather. The sharks even took the wahoo. At one point they were so thick it was difficult to get a fish through them. Tim and I both had fish on the bow when a shark came through spooking our fish. Tim's fish headed to the stern and mine went under the boat to the starboard bow with the shark on it. I decided to let the sharks have my tuna in the hopes they would let Tim land his. In a heartbeat, there were over 20 brown sharks shredding my tuna. What a show! It worked too - Tim landed his fish - a nice 175 pounder that was caught on the Talica 50 he was testing for Shimano.

Big Al

Third day into the trip, I broke a front tooth accidently biting down on a toothpick. Luckily I brought my nightguard and I was able to use it to hold my tooth in place. This put a damper on the trip for me as I couldn't speak clearly or eat anything but soft foods for the rest the trip. With the Memorial Day Holiday, it would be the Wednesday after returning home – another two weeks – before getting any relief.  Being at least two and a half days from any emergency medical or dental services is frustrating and frightening.  For non emergencies (as was my case), one must wait until the end of the trip.  Fear of having a health emergency, may cause me to abandon the longer trips in the future.

By Saturday, the weather improved and so did the early morning fishing. Before dark I hooked a tuna on a skipjack and was zipped off by another passenger. Everyone was hooked up so several fish were lost besides mine. I hooked another fish on a flylined sardine at 5 am which turned out to be a very mean 160 pound yellowfin that took me around the boat 5 times in my two hour battle to land it.

At first call for breakfast, most passengers went into the galley leaving the rail empty. I used the opportunity to float a puffer fish out on a balloon while everyone else was inside eating. At 8 am, the puffer got bit and Jim Carlisle just happened to be standing next to me. His sharp wit nailed me with "See you back here with your fish at 10 am." referring to my previous two hour battle. I told him to bite his tongue but it was too late - the curse was on me. At 10 am Jim found me at the bow still battling the fish. He just looked at this watch and smiled. After being drug around the boat 7 times for a total of 3 hours, the crew stuck 4 gaffs in my 249 pound yellowfin tuna. Another very mean fish. Great fish - not a personal best, but a great fish. By 11 am, I had been battered by two tuna for 2 hours and 3 hours consecutively - a total of 5 solid hours battling tuna in one morning. What a day!

The day continued when Chris landed a 201 and Luan got the big fish of the trip - a 252 on a top shot he made after I taught him how to make them. Several more big fish were landed just under the 200 pound mark. I sent a tuna to the galley for sushi and gave another away to another passenger.

Our last two days, the tuna and wahoo continued to bite. I caught fish on chunks, flylined sardines and mackerel. I gave another tuna to the galley and 4 tuna to other passengers. Jim got another cow - a 217 and Gary got a 206 but my favorite was Roland Reesby's first cow - a 204. Congratulations Roland.

Wahoo kept biting each day too so with tuna and wahoo both biting well, the boat was quickly filling its' holds. The two fresh wells were chugged by the fifth day and on the seventh and last day, with 184 yellowfin and 297 wahoo, the slammer was topped off. 

Jason and Jake in the Galley were fabulous.  Both are excellent handling passenger’s special orders with patience and humor.  Jason had Jake handle the cooking one day as part of his training and did a fantastic job.  Passengers were all impressed with Jake and we are all hopeful he gets the opportunity to be the second chef on the boat.

It was a good trip for all.  As for me, this was one of my most fun trips. I tagged 8 tuna from 150 to 249 pounds and 15 wahoo. I caught fish on the kite, balloon, flylined baits and on chunks using sardines, live and dead flyers, skipjack, mackerel, and puffer fish. I fished my Penn 50SW with a 50 foot top shot of 130 pound big game monofilament with a 3 foot 130 lb. Berkley fluorocarbon leader using a Mustad 8/0 39943 hook for everything except the kite where I used the Mustad 7691 hooks instead.

The cows caught on the trip included:

Luan Pham 252

Jan Howard 249, 217

Ted Kamenecka 247

Jim Carlisle 217, 202

Gary Gillingham 206

Roland Reesby 204

Chris Perez 201

Several of the anglers who caught the big fish were not in the jackpot, so the jackpot winners are as follows:

Luan Pham

Jim Carlisle

Gary Gillingham

Luan, Jim and Gary

The trip up the line was a brutal 4.5 days heading into 20 knots of wind with up to a 10 foot swell with the boat sloshing in the trough. I spent most the travel time in my bunk and was grateful to be back on land.

View from my bunk.

We returned to dock on Memorial Day weekend so the landing was crowded with folks wanting to see the wonderful catch we brought back. Tim Boyer and Jack Voss came down to help by taking most of my wahoo and some tuna. Tim actually worked harder sorting fish than most the passengers that were on the trip. Thanks Tim! And Jack, thanks for watching my fish so they didn't grow feet. Fisherman's Processing handled my fish. I had them filet a 30 lb. wahoo and a 60 lb. tuna then I donated the rest charity.  They did a fantastic job and the fish tasted great.

While my fish was being processed, Mike and I took Hillary and Sage to breakfast. I got reacquainted with the baby girl I missed on this trip. Jason had to help clean up the boat so he couldn't join us.

Sage

San Miguel Island

Sunday, May 1st, I popped into my truck packed with rock cod gear and headed north. On my way, I picked up Jim Carlisle and Al Scow for our L A Rod & Reel Charter on the Pacific Dawn operating out of Ventura Sportfishing during the winter months. We arrived early to sign the manifest then we headed over to Andrea's for a fresh fish dinner (courtesy of Big Al). Thanks Al.

Captain Pat Cavanaugh brought the boat back to dock filled with rock fish - and he was excited that they were caught in shallow water. We boarded as soon as the boat was cleaned up and set up all our gear. We had a slight delay in departing due to a need to replace Man Dog as he had a serious hand infection requiring immediate attention. Get better soon Man Dog!! Whitney made a cameo appearance in the Galley before starting her summer on the American Angler. Opie also made a cameo. Regular deckhand, Jeremy, was assisted by Man Dog's replacement, Joe. Jim and I shared some wine then called it a night.

Monday morning found Jim, Al and me watching the sun come up as we idled close to San Miguel Island.

The weather was perfect - sunny and warm with a slight breeze. Pat decided to set us up in shallow water - as in less than 60 feet deep. Pat said "grab your bass gear guys and have fun!" I fished all day with leadheads and Gulp grubs. My first drop was a nice big Red! I had caught Mike's favorite fish to eat so my trip was already made!

We fished all day until we all had limits of rock fish which included a couple lings (Jim had one), reds, loads of big chuckleheads and Big Al had a nice Cabazon. I also picked up a big calico bass in the mix. Beautiful weather, calm seas and great fishing made for a perfect day on the water.

Now it's time to pack up for the next trip - Big Al's 15-Day Charter on the Excel called Fisherman's Pals and Gals departing May 13th. Wish us luck.  Woo Hoo!