Merritt 20th Anniversary!

Thirty excited passengers boarded the Excel on Wednesday, November 4th, for Brad Merritt's 20th Anniversary 10-Day Charter aboard the Excel.  Although this was only my second year on the trip, Brad, Jeannie and the regulars made me feel part of the group. 

We departed the bait receivers around 11 a.m. and after the safety meeting, Captain Justin said we were headed south to an area of yellowfin tuna and should be there at daybreak.  Justin's second would be Mike with Jake and Matt in the Galley and Joel, Tim, Chowder, and a new Matt (from the east coast) on deck.  Brad followed Justin with his "welcome aboard" talk, followed by an extensive terminal tackle raffle including a personally wrapped rod for passengers on their 10th trip.  We all received the 20th Anniversary T-Shirt - in Green Tie-Dye.  What a generous man.  I won a couple bags of weights - something I needed.  Thanks Brad.

Thursday morning found us off El Rosario looking for tuna.  

It was windy and the water temperature was 75 degrees.  We found 18 to 25 pound yellowfin that gave us an enjoyable day along with a few yellowtail that wanted to bite.  By day's end, we had boated 140 yellowfin tuna and 14 yellowtail.  Jake and Matt kept us fed with Eggs Benedict for breakfast, Seafood Chowder for lunch and New York Steak for dinner.  With cuisine like this, I would need to be selective as there was no way I could eat every meal.

Friday morning Justin had us up making bait at 4 a.m. to fish the lower banks.  

Unfortunately, the bait had other ideas.  

We tried for yellowtail around Cedros and Natividad.  The yellowtail were uncooperative as well so Justin took us offshore looking for paddies.  We managed 9 dorado and 1 yellowtail for the day.

Saturday morning we began fishing for wahoo at the upper end of the ridge. 

Team 1 was up first and both Brad and Jeannie caught wahoo.  At each stop, we would catch a troll fish or two and a few bait fish plus an occasional jig fish.  Most of these wahoo were 40 pound class fish.  I sent my first wahoo to the galley and Ron did the same so we could have a wahoo dinner one night.  We managed 61 wahoo for the day.  

We fished until 2 in the afternoon then set up gear to fish the big fish at Potato Bank in the morning. 

Sunday morning the anchor chain going down at 5 a.m. woke most the boat.  I had been up since 3 and was ready to fish.  We were at Potato Bank, where previous boats had encountered tuna up to 300 lbs.  I tried the sardine sinker rig first then flylined a sardine when the sun came up.  The fish weren't ready to bite.

We fished hard all day making sure we covered all the bases - chunking, flylining a sardine, sardine sinker, kite and bobber balloon.  I caught a 101.2 lb. tuna on a bobber balloon, 100 lb. fluoro short top shot on a Talica 25.  Fish were caught on chunk and sardines as well.  Ron Moy, one of our best anglers, was first with a 181 lb. yellowfin.  Ron Hasson had a 123 pounder, Uncle Rick had a 72.6 and a 171.2 pounder, and Raphael had a 114 pound tuna - his largest to date.  There were a handful of smaller tuna caught and 13 grouper as well.  Definitely a good day!

Monday, November 9th, we were still anchored up at Potato Bank.  

We fished hard all day again for a couple yellowtail and a couple trophy yellowfin tuna.  John caught a 191 pound tuna - nice fish John.  Raphael was fishing for grouper dropping a sardine down using a rubber banded sinker on his line when a 295.8 lb. yellowfin tuna grabbed his sardine.  It took him an hour and a half, in his now infamous A-Frame style, to land his first cow tuna.  Much celebrating went on between Raphael and Oliver, who had a private competition going on that required the loser buy the winner a gold tuna necklace like mine.  

Other trophies included one that the entire boat cheered for - Don's Personal Best 177 lb. tuna - his first over 100 lbs. after trying for 10 years.  Paul Viale also caught a beast at 249 lbs. the third cow of the trip.  Steve had a beautiful 141 pounder too.

Raphael had been on fire the entire trip.  Needless to say Oliver was a little disappointed that he hadn't broken the 100 pound tuna mark yet, although he was very happy for his friend.  Late in the afternoon Oliver was flylining a sardine when the big tuna came through again and he hooked one. 

A couple hours later, Oliver watched the crew lift his 272 lb. tuna over the rail.  Quite the catch for two friends that had never caught a tuna over 70 lbs. before.  Oliver was so enamored with his tuna he named her Betsy and lay on the deck with his arm around her.

Weather was predicted to come up so Justin decided to get a jump on it and headed up the line.  I was sad to leave the big fish. 

Tuesday we began fishing the lower end of the ridge.  

We trolled and fished wahoo until 3 p.m. when the wind came up.  We caught 42 more wahoo for the day then spent the rest the afternoon watching Tombstone - an annual tradition.

Justin said weather offshore was blowing 30 knots on Wednesday so we hugged the coast passing Cedros, Canoas, San Martin etc.  It was a long, boring day.

Thursday, the 12th, we were back in the area we caught yellowfin tuna the first day.  We put another 83 tuna and 24 yellowtail on the boat.  We had to fish hard and fight the birds which were a horrible nuisance.

Friday the 13th, last day, dawned with us just outside Guadalupe Island looking for dorado on kelps. 

We began trolling at 7 in the morning.  We hit a kelp around 9 and landed 40 nice dorado. We fished until Justin called it a trip at 2 p.m.  We packed up our gear, showered and came up for dinner and learned about the terrorist attack on Paris.  Such terrible news to end the trip.

Final dinner was a celebration of good fishing, good friends and good spirits.  Fish counts for the trip:  110 Wahoo, 295 Yellowfin Tuna, 52 Yellowtail, 75 Dorado, 52 Grouper.  Big fish honors go to Raphael 295.8 lb. tuna and Oliver 271 lb. tuna.

Fruits of our Passion!