Al's Bulls & Cows

Early Wednesday morning May 7th a group of anglers converged on Fisherman's Landing to board the Excel for a 15 Day adventure 1000 miles south of San Diego. Tim Turis and Tom Trainer were unloading gear when I arrived. Al Scow arrived next and by the time the sun was up the remaining passengers (Pat Gallagher, Auggie Roberts, Al Merrick, Steve Lindsey, Roger Cundall, Bill Lind, Skip Kenison, Curt Wiesenhutter, Bob Kelly, James DeKay, Walter Ozawa, Paul Wolf, Gary Martham, Louis Drucker, Craig Hasegawa, Richard Ozawa, Tony Gallo, and Bob Wolfsen) had arrived and were signing in with Jason Gross. Ryan Griffin and Jonathan David, cameramen representing Inside Sportfishing, joined us to film our trip.

The Red Shirts at the landing loaded all our gear in carts then loaded it on the boat. As soon as the gear was loaded, we headed to the bait receiver. Justin Fleck was our Captain for the trip with Brandon, Jake, René, Bundy, and Mike as crew. Jake and Ed were in the Galley. It was great having Ed back (on loan from the Independence).

Crew loaded the boat with bait. Unfortunately, the receivers were light on sardines so our bait consisted of 80 percent mackerel and 20 percent sardines. Once the bait was loaded, we left the harbor for our four day journey to the fishing grounds.

First evening, Al Scow, our Charter master raffled off fishing reels and tackle and gave us all some very elegant jackets. Thanks Al for your generosity.

Our chefs made it difficult for us NOT to gain weight on the trip south. They started us off with clam chowder in sour dough bowls for lunch followed by New York Steak for dinner the first day. The chefs served up feasts of pulled pork sliders, roasted chicken, Eggs Benedict, lamb chops, pork loin etc. while we occupied our time setting up tackle, setting drags, reading and playing cards. As we travelled, we kept getting reports of spectacular fishing from boats on the fishing grounds - 25 cows (fish over 200 lbs.) per boat.

We finally arrived at 2:35 Sunday morning and set up to make bait. Bait making didn't go well so Justin set up the boat to fish. Two other boats were on the prime spots and had good fishing. Around noon, we checked in with the camp. All passengers had to stay on the back deck while the Mexican authorities checked our paperwork. That took an hour or so then we went back out to set up for tuna fishing.

Although we didn't have a prime spot, we caught 27 tuna including 3 cows and 4 wahoo for the day. I was lucky to catch two fish for the day - a 115 and a 120 pound tuna - one on a sardine and the other on a salami (large mackerel). This was Mother's Day and since the boat has Wi-Fi, I received Mother's Day wishes from my boys and family. Thanks so much!

Bait making at 3 am Monday. We had all we needed by 5 am. Fishing conditions were funky - one minute your bait was up the starboard side, the next it was across the stern and up the port side making it difficult to get the bait away from the boat out where the fish were. Slow fishing and smaller fish today. The porpoise were a nuisance. They were adept at stealing bait without getting hooked. I had one sardine that had the head and tail bitten off but the mid section with the hook in it was left. We ended the day with 32 tuna and 1 wahoo.

We were up at 3 am making bait again Tuesday morning however the bait refused to cooperate. The tuna were scarce allowing only a half dozen or so bites. Tim Turis managed to capture a 212 on a sinker rig with a little greenie before we trolled away towards Hurricane Bank. Eighteen hours travel put us there by 4 am Wednesday morning.

Tim’s Cow

A full moon greeted us at Hurricane Bank. Needless to say, the flyers were illusive as they prefer the dark of the moon. Seas were flat calm and warm - 80 degrees. Once the sun came up, it was brutally hot on deck with not a breath of wind. Tuna fishing was tough. We scrounged up 11 tuna for the day, however, the wahoo fishing was great. We trolled around the bank and caught 53 wahoo for the day and nice sized ones too. I was late to the wahoo catching party but finally ended the day with two - one on troll and one on bait. Tim Turis was hot. He could do no wrong. He kept fishing the pink 6x jr. and killed them. Justin told us that if the tuna don't show by 9 am tomorrow morning, we were heading back to the Clarion buffer zone.

I was up fishing at 3 am and caught a skipjack. I pinned him on a big "J" hook and fished it until it was dead. Next I fished a chunk and caught a shark. Then I caught a chopa on bait, two wahoo (one on troll and one on bait) and finally a yellowfin tuna on a chunk. By 9 am we had 2 tuna and 20 wahoo and Justin headed the boat towards Clarion Island. Arrival time estimated to be 3 am.

Bait making went well Friday morning May 16th however the tuna fishing was still slow but the quality was good. Steve Lindsey caught a cow (215 lbs.) and I caught one too (a 202 pounder.) Jim, Auggie, Paul and Pat caught nice tuna as well. We made bait after dinner which went very well.

I didn't feel well Saturday so I spent most the day resting in my bunk. Steve caught his second cow, a 231 pounder. Curt caught one as well.

We were all on deck early Sunday morning as Justin said we could fish only until noon. Fishing was good. We picked up 11 tuna for the morning including two more cows. Curt caught one and I caught the other - a 204 pounder. That was my 19th cow and probably my last as these trips are getting too difficult health wise for me.

We settled in for the trip home. Unfortunately it was a very rough ride all 4 days. I spent the entire time in my bunk. Tim was wonderful by checking on me 3 times a day making sure I was hydrated and still among the living. Thanks Tim.

Our last evening, Al Scow, our Charter master, informed us this was his last long trip. He also praised and thanked Captain Justin and crew and gave See's gift certificates for us to take to our significant others that had to spend 15 days without us. Thanks Al.

On the way home Patrick took a photo of the oldest of our passengers.  May they fish many more years!

We made a late 8 am arrival to Fisherman's Landing Thursday May 22nd. Although a slow trip, it still took a couple hours to unload our catch - 120 tuna which included 11 cows, and 99 wahoo.

I invited Shig Kondo and Tim Boyer to share in my catch of 9 tuna and 4 wahoo. After they took all they wanted and I had Fisherman's Processing fillet and package wahoo and tuna to send to Jason and Hillary, there was still tuna to share with landing folks. I sure was glad to get home.