When Bluefin Bite!

Jim Carlisle and I left Mission Viejo at 1 p.m. Saturday heading to San Diego for a 1.5 day L.A. Rod and Reel Club Charter on the Pacific Dawn. We picked up Roland Reesby in San Clemente on our way. Two and a half hours later we finally arrived at Fisherman's Landing in San Diego. We would have complained about the traffic, however, we found a parking in the lot and realized we had earned that spot.

The boat arrived early and Captain Pat Cavanaugh had us loaded, baited up and departing the point by 8:30 p.m. "We're headed long - the fish are down 140 miles south and they bit well today!" Pat informed us. No need to get up early as he said he's putting on his blinders until we get into the zone. Pat's crew included Jake, Moses, Man Dog (Mike), and Jeremy (another Fleck brother) in the galley.

 

Jeremy in the Galley

I set up my tackle. I brought 4 reel/rod combos: a Trinidad with 25# mono, two Talica 10's with 30# and 40# mono plus my Penn 12T with 50# mono. I topped each with Berkley Fluorocarbon and Mustad 92677 hooks in the 2/0 size. Some of our 16 passengers settled in for a long evening of card games while others read their Kindles or hit the bunks.

          

Top Bunk is Jim’s; Bottom Bunk is mine.

The next morning Jeremy served cantaloupe, omelets, hash brown potatoes and English Muffins for breakfast. Around 10 a.m. Pat had us put out the trolling jigs even though it was still another 30 to 60 minutes before we would reach our destination. After trolling a couple hours, we finally had a jig strike for a few fish - 20 pound yellowfin tunas. I picked up one tuna on bait.

Pat informed us that the fish had moved and the fleet was looking for them. We ended up traveling further south and fishing almost 150 miles from the landing.

Fishing was like it was many years ago - troll then get stopped on a jig strike and catch a few bait fish. Most of our fish were yellowfin tuna 18 to 25 pounds, however, we did pick up a few bluefin tuna and dorado as well.

Pat kept us fishing until 7:30 in the evening before starting up the line. At day's end, we had 78 yellowfin tuna (near limits), 16 bluefin tuna and about a dozen dorado. I was fortunate and caught two of the bluefin tuna and 10 yellowfin of which I sent one to the galley and gave away 4 others. Most my fish were on 30#. Jim had two bluefin and limits of yellowfin and Roland had a bluefin, a big dorado and limits of yellowfin.

The weather came up and the ride home was quite rough. The crew waited until Monday morning to fillet the fish, hoping the weather would ease up. Around 9 a.m. Monday, the fillet fest began. These guys are fast - they finished filleting all the fish in just two hours. Wow!

Jeremy kept us well fed during our trip with chocolate chip cookies mid morning, pork & beef or fish sandwiches for lunch, and pork loin or tuna for dinner Saturday.

Monday morning, Jeremy served us fried rice and eggs for breakfast and blueberry muffins mid morning. We finally reached the dock around noon. I didn't want to have to bag my fish when I got home and neither did Jim or Roland. I called Sean Sebring at Fisherman's Processing to see if they had crew available to bag and tag our fish. "Yes, bring it on over" said Sean.

Sean's staff had all our fish processed in less than an hour. They did a wonderful job and when we couldn't get all our fish in my 100 quart ice chest, Rosie made up a couple insulated boxes with ice for the rest. It was worth every penny we spent. Thanks Sean and Rosie.  Several other club members brought their fish to Sean as well.

SO -

When Yellowfin Bite - I do canning and smoking. I canned a case of tuna and ended up with a couple cookie sheets full of smoked fish to share at a BBQ this week at my old job.

BUT -

When Bluefin Bite - I make seared bluefin tuna steaks and sushi!

And what was leftover?

Fortunately, I caught both yellowfin and bluefin tuna.  Thanks Pat for going the distance for us!