Let's Talk Hook Up Trip

Jumped on the Excel for a 6-day trip that was a light load of Let's Talk Hook-Up passengers. Including me, we had 23 anglers coming from as far as Chicago and Northern California to as local as two blocks from the landing in San Diego. I thought it was a good opportunity to view the operation now that it was under new ownership.

I arrived Fisherman's Landing at O'Dark 30. The Excel arrived at 6:30 am with a nice catch of mixed fish - yellowfin, dorado, and yellowtail - mostly small fish. The boat went off to the fuel dock and Jason Gross checked us in at the tackle shop just the same as Kathie and Betty used to do. No changes there.

Ingrid Poole was at the landing greeting passengers as well. She's still interested in the new owners having a successful operation. Boarding was done by the numbers as usual and our gear was quickly loaded on the boat and crew assisted carrying larger items to our staterooms. We were off to the bait receiver before noon.

Changes I did notice are that there is a satellite phone in the salon now and the price has dropped from $3 a minute to $2 a minute. The boat also offers Internet WiFi for $10 per day. I signed up on day one. My charge was $60 for the 6 day trip. Once you sign up, there doesn't appear to be a way to quit the service, however, you can delay signing up until later in the trip.

There is a terrific feature to the Internet service though and it was used extensively by crew and passengers. If you have an iPhone or iPad with FaceTime and you sign up for the Internet WiFi, you can make video phone calls free. Skype will work as well but it was a little jerky. I made two calls via FaceTime and was pleased. Internet service even worked in my Stateroom (Number 7).

Captain Mike Ramirez called us into the salon to give us our safety speech and let us know we were headed 120 miles south to an area the fleet had excellent success catching over 200 tuna per boat that morning. Crew for our trip was Jason Fleck assisted by Jake Phillips in the Galley, with deck hands Derrick, Bunde, Jake, Brandon and Steve Thompson. Steve is the former owner of the Tracer and long time captain in the fleet that lives most the year in Belize. Nice to catch up with Steve.

Pete Gray joined his charter group for the trip which included a very mellow and happy clientele. The Chicago contingent was dubbed the Chicago Seven, a group that has fished this trip for many years together sometimes swelling their numbers to 15. They enjoy their cocktails too - all day long. Great group of guys!

Chicago Seven!

We had two other ladies aboard - Liza (first timer) and Judy (experienced long ranger who brought her husband along). Liza came as a guest of Peter (owner of Safari West).

Saturday morning we hit the deck bright and early excited for our 200 tuna morning like the fleet enjoyed the day before. I chose to fish the Lazer Minnow jig when we first hit a stop. We trolled and trolled and trolled all day until we reached 150 miles south never encountering the mother lode. Good news though is that Liza caught her first ever yellowtail. first ever yellowfin tuna and first ever dorado! She was off to a good start.

We did manage a total of 31 yellowfin tuna (8 to 13 lbs.), 32 small dorados and a hand full of yellowtail for the day. I sent 3 yellowfin, 2 dorado and 2 yellowtail to the galley for us fish eaters and tagged one yellowfin for home.  All came on the jig.

The weather was coming up so Mike pointed the bow towards Benitos for some yellowtail fun. Jason kept us stuffed as usual with bacon, eggs, and pumpkin pancakes for breakfast, homemade chocolate chip cookies for early snack, clam chowder for lunch, chicken wings late snack and a fabulous short ribs dinner.

Sunday morning was chilly tucked behind Benitos Island and the water was choppy. I bundled up and we started fishing about 6:30 in the morning. I like fishing yellowtail with a yoyo jig - the dorado colored Tady 4/0. It's my favorite!

I used my Talica 10 with Berkley's new ProSpec Ocean Blue Professional Grade monofilament in 40 pound test. The line is very supple, ties well and performed even better. It seems a bit stretchy but was just the thing to keep from busting off fast running yellows.

We had a decent day of catching 20 pound yellowtail managing 86 for the day. I caught 11 on my jig. I kept 5 and gave the rest away. Late afternoon, we headed to Cedros to fish the following day. By this time, the weather had smoothed out and was beautiful.

Monday we hit the decks early and were greeted with flat calm seas and sunny skies. Wow! It was gorgeous. And if that isn't enough, the fish were biting for everyone. I headed back to the bow (my favorite spot) and continued to throw my Tady 4/0 jig. After I caught 8 fish (helping other passengers fill their sacks), Jason requested 5 for the galley so I caught another 5 for him. Crew encouraged me to continue as there were several passengers that wanted more fish but weren't up to doing all the catching. My trusty jig kept going until I brought up fish number 21 on the same jig and Derrick cut it and the fish off with one swipe of the gaff. 20 fish on one jig is not bad though. I had to switch to a 6XJR to catch the next two fish.

Mike moved us to a shallow, big fish area and I threw out my only bait - a mackerel and nailed a 27.8 ounce yellowtail - my 23rd fish of the day. That was the only fish I tagged for myself that day.

The boat was at limits of yellowtail so everyone was happy and fulfilled. Captain Ramirez put us on a course south and west to a pocket of warm water exploring for tuna. We trolled all day in beautiful weather for 24 baby yellowfin tuna and 5 dorado. We encountered a huge pod of Pilot Whales and several schools of porpoise that entertained us on the warm sunny seas. Since the area seemed void of tuna, Captain Ramirez put us on a course for Jeronimo to fish Reds the following day.

Wednesday we awoke to another gorgeous day of flat calm seas and sunny skies. The weather couldn't be more perfect. I set up my rod with Kenji flies and baited up with sardines up in the bow. We fished shallow then to 280 feet and kept encountering the humbolt squid. They were thick and shut the bite off quickly.

We picked up a few fish for the morning. I caught 6 reds and two chocolate bass. I sent two reds to the galley for sashimi for snack. We broke down most our gear as Mike said we would troll for tuna on the way home but they were a no show again. Soon it was time to break the last of the gear down and let the crew scrub the boat.

Passengers settled into the salon for the afternoon and it was then that the TV was turned on for the first time in the trip. A couple of hunting games were played then a couple movies and it was dinner time. Jason prepared a fabulous dinner of salad, filet mignon with peppercorn sauce, gratin potatoes, asparagus, chili cheese bread and apple crisp a la mode! Great finish to a very fun trip!

Jason sold CD’s of all the photos he took on the trip.  He even took some underwater shots with his GoPro of yellowtail and squid.  Credit goes to Jason Fleck the photos and videos used here.

Jackpot winners were Joe Jazsa of Tinley Park, IL tied for first place with Pete Simokaitis of Orland Park, IL. Both men had 33.2-pound yellowtail. David Petruescu of La Mirada won third place for a 30.4-pound yellowtail.

Cabo Girls Trip

Once again I had the privilege of being a guest on Linda William's II Success for a girls fishing trip out of Cabo San Lucas. Linda, Barbara, Susan and I caught the Friday morning Alaska Airlines flight to Cabo. A short two hours later, Captain Cubby (Kevin Pahl) picked us up at San Jose del Cabo Airport and drove us to the marina where Linda's beautiful 60 foot Hatteras is docked and where we would call home for the next six days.

Saturday morning we were up and ready when Cubby arrived at 7 am to get the boat ready for our fishing day. Antonio, his deck hand, arrived at the same time. Mike Powell joined the crew as well. Bait was loaded (10 pieces at $3 each), tackle readied, switch from shore power to generators, and whatever else it takes to get the boat ready.

We made a quick run to pick up the breakfast burritos, smoothies, etc. that we ordered for crew and passenger's breakfasts and then we were off. It was just after 8 am. As we rounded the cape heading for the Pacific side, we encountered flat calm seas. Our goal today was to catch dorado to take to Panchos for our dinner. Cubby trolled us around something he called the 1000 mile bank or spot until we picked up a nice beautiful dorado around noon.

Mission accomplished, Captain Cubby headed towards the Jaime Bank to look for tuna. We spent the rest the day trolling marlin lures and a little black and silver hoochie - which caught a couple small yellowfin tuna. It was a gorgeous day on the water and a beautiful evening when we returned to dock.

After cleaning up, we took our dorado (Mahi Mahi) to Panchos and they prepared it three different ways for us: blackened, grilled and breaded and served it with 6 different sauces. We stuffed ourselves and still had fish left for the next day's lunch.

Sunday morning was the same routine except that Annie Murphy joined us this day. She and her husband own and operate dinner cruise boats in Cabo. Annie and her husband are a delightfully entertaining couple to spend time with. Quite charming!

We departed the harbor around 8 am and trolled over the 1000 mile bank again. Afternoon, Cubby headed out to the Jaime Bank and out came the Yummee Flyer on the Kite. Now it got exciting. The bank was loaded with birds and dolphins - spinners, spotties and commons.

Cubby's kite set up is 7 feet of 300# mono crimped to two back to back 7691 hooks in 9/0 size slid inside a 7" Yummee. This is connected to a snap swivel connected to 100# spectra with a 1 1/2 ounce sliding sinker and a kite float above it.

As the Yummee was trolled, Antonio would yank the line causing the Yummee to skip across the water like a live flyer. As the Yummee hit the water, tuna would blow up on it usually inhaling the flyer and hooking themselves as well. We caught 9 yellowfin tuna at the bank this day and 8 were hooked on the Yummee Flyer and 1 on live bait. The tuna ranged from 30 to 70 pounds and Annie caught her personal best. We had a rotation going so we each caught two tuna except for Susan. She will be first up tomorrow.

We were late getting back to dock and we had tuna to process. Mexico prohibits filleting fish at sea so we had wait until we returned. Cubby and Antonio filleted the fish, while Linda, Susan, Barbara and I bagged and sealed the filets. It was 10 pm by the time we finished and the only place open for dinner was Solomon's on the boardwalk. It was delicious - I had the pecan chicken.

Monday morning we headed back out to the Jaime Bank. Mike joined us again. We still had flat calm seas, water temperatures at 85.3 degrees, air temperatures around 97 and high humidity. We drank lots of water or frozen bottles of Crystal Light. The trip to the bank takes around an hour - about 25 miles. We located the porpoise and out went the kite. 8 yellowfin tuna today (2 each for Linda, Susan, Barbara and me) and all of these were on the Yummee. The Yummee under the kite was the ticket. Other boats without the Yummee were struggling to get a bite. The tuna were on small 3 inch fry but there were loads of live flyers all around.

Tuesday Barbara left us to fly home to be with Hubby for his surgery on Thursday (which I was told went well). We missed you Barb.

We got a late start as our first stop was the fuel dock. We got out of the harbor about 9:30 am. The weather had come up on the Pacific side so we couldn't go back out to the Jaime Bank. We ended up trolling back in towards the Sea of Cortez until we got out of the rough seas. I made us some Poke out of the tuna we caught Monday and sliced up some sashimi for lunch. Nothing like fresh tuna.

We only caught one small dorado all day. It was still a beautiful day on the water. Water temperatures were warmer here - 87 degrees. We went to Nick San for dinner - sushi. It was wonderful and not crowded at all.

Wednesday was our last fishing day. Annie and her husband joined us as did Mike and Glenda Powell. Weather was still up on the Pacific side so back around to the inside.

Cubby and guys spent hours with the Gyros looking for fish and birds. We trolled the outer Gordo Bank and ended up on the inner - Punta Gordo. The porpoise were here - spinners, spotties and commons. Out went the Kite with the Yummee. We picked up a couple yellowfin. We even had a marlin on for a short time.  One disheartening sight was a tuna pen being towed towards Cabo.  Pretty far south for a pen boat.

I made some tuna tataki, sashimi and smoked fish pate for snacks/lunch. I also set out other leftovers and sandwich fixings. It was a beautiful day- clear skies, 98 degrees, water at 88 degrees.

It was just before six in the evening and we were trolling the Yummee close to two pangas when a 150 pound tuna blew up on the Yummee, and kept blowing out on it but just didn't get it. Just as Cubby said I think I'll make one more pass before heading to dock, it happened. A big boil and we were on. Susan was up so she strapped into her harness and started to work on the fish. 55 minutes later, the big tuna was still not yielding to her pressure. She asked me to take over. After 50 more minutes, I hadn't made significant progress either. This fish was easily over two hundred pounds and we only had 100 pound spectra with just a scant 7 feet of 300 pound mono connected to it. Not the stuff that allows the pressure needed to bring this fish in. Cubby was resistant to me tightening the drag so I didn't but I also knew that if the fish wasn't coming in, it was a lost cause. Time is a killer.

Sharing is what these trips are about and share I did. Linda took over. She really put the pressure to the fish and had it coming when the spectra parted. We never saw the fish.

It was dark and late when we got back to dock.

Another late dinner - 10:30 pm. After dinner, we stopped at the Jazz Bar before calling it a night. Charming husband and wife owners - husband plays the piano and wife sings. Nice way to end the trip.

It was with long faces Thursday morning that we packed, cleaned, did laundry then packed up the ice chests with tuna for the trip home. We were all able to upgrade to First Class so our bags were free to check as was our dinner and drink on the flight home. We thought we might get entertainment too as our attendant was chosen for American Idol and it was his last flight - but alas, he must have had stage fright.

It was a perfect trip - great weather, good fishing, wonderful company and truly a carefree vacation. Thanks again Linda for your friendship.