Cortez Bank Blues

October 24^th, we escaped smoky skies from two Orange County fires raging out of control by departing Peter’s Landing on Gary Adams Rail Time.  Jeff, Steve, Jim, Brian and I set up our Flat Falls while crew were loading bait.  We were fortunate to have both Jake and Andy crew for Gary this trip.

I hit the bunk early but had a restless sleep with the rough seas.  Jake and Andy worked hard to scoop live flyers at Catalina Island.  It was difficult and it took until after 1:30 am to get the job done.  This meant we would be late getting out to Cortez Bank, our destination.

I got up around 6 am, just before Gary found a school of bluefin.  We fished our Flat Falls without success.  The school left us so Gary picked up and went searching until he found another school.  I switched out my Flat Fall for a circle hook to use on a flylined flyer.

The sun was up and the wind had died off.  It was a beautiful day with calm seas and a light warm breeze, just enough to get a helium balloon up.  Gary put out two balloons and two flylined flyers.  The goal was to have Brian and Sheepie (Steve) catch their first 200 pound bluefin tuna.  The rest of us had caught ours on previous trips.

Brian’s flyer got bit first.  Shortly after, one of the balloons got bit and Jim took that one.  We had two fish going at once.  Jim landed his first.  A nice 190 pounder.  Brian landed his next and it was his personal best!  240 pounds.

Shortly after Brian landed his fish, Sheepie got bit on his flylined flyer.  Sheepie’s fish was a hard fighter but Sheepie prevailed.  His fish weighed 229 pounds – his personal best.  Our primary goal had been met. 

In order to get the fish in the hold, Jake had to cut the heads and fins off when he gutted them.

It wasn’t long until Jeff landed a 155 pounder, Andy landed a 190 pounder and Brian landed another fish around 175 pounds. That left just me.  Gary put out my balloon outfit and my flyline outfit.  I can’t use Gary’s equipment because his rods don’t have gimbals which I need in order to use my harness.  Unfortunately, the bite was over.

Around 4:30 in the afternoon, Gary headed the boat into the island for the night.  It took 3 hours to get settled into Pyramid Cove.  Brian brought lobsters for our dinner and Jeff brought Ziti pasta with meat sauce and a Caesar salad.  It was a delicious dinner celebrating our 6 bluefin from 175 pounds to 250 pounds! 

We were all tired so we went to sleep right after dinner.  Everyone except me slept until 6 am the next morning.  Gary worked hard looking for yellowtail around the back side of Clemente without success.  We caught plenty of junk fish plus nearly a limit of bonito which Brian kept for his lobster traps.

Around noon, we headed in search of porpoise schools hoping to catch yellowfin tuna.  Gary found the porpoise and tuna, but they weren’t in biting mode so we headed to Catalina. After working the back side of the entire island without success, Gary pointed the Rail Time towards home.

Jake and Andy pulled four fish out of the hold and fileted them.  Gary would keep the other two fish whole.  Andy would take one fish for his family and friends; Brian would take his own fish home and Jeff, Steve, Jim and I would each take half a fish.  Jeff, Steve and I wanted collars from one fish each and some belly pieces too.

We got back to dock by 6 pm.  We off loaded gear then Jake brought the fish for us to share.  The next day, I gave Shig a third of my fish and the collars.  I gave another third of the fish to Tim Boyer.  I froze some and kept one large piece wrapped in paper towels and gel packs in the refrigerator for sashimi Sunday.

Gary is a great captain and he is a pleasure to fish with.   I  am very thankful Jeff includes me on these trips.  I feel fortunate to have enjoyed this experience especially considering everything 2020 has handed out.