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.