Bye Bye Blues

Last trip of the year and our hopes were high.  There were still bluefin around after the cold weather system blew through although the tuna had moved from the Cortez Bank to Tanner Bank.  

Needles and I reached Peters Landing first and met Gary in the parking lot. He left us the key and parking passes so we could load our gear and pass out the parking passes to the others while he went to the market.  Jeff, Steve and Randy arrived shortly after as did the crew – Cristian and Eric.

We were all aboard the Rail Time around 6 pm Monday evening and on our way to the bait receiver.  We put our food and gear away then set up our rods for bluefin tuna.  Three outfits needed for the morning – a Flatfall on 150# fluorocarbon, a 4X Mustad 8/0 circle hook on 150# fluorocarbon to flyline a flying fish and a 10/0 J hook on 200# fluorocarbon to use on a flying fish under a helium balloon.

We were lucky to get some lively sardines and little greenies (mackerel) for bait. We were hopeful we could augment this bait with live flying fish.  Catching live flyers had been increasingly difficult to catch and this trip was no different.  Crew worked hard trying to catch flyers at both Catalina and San Clemente Islands.  Crew said the sea lions were out in force and out of the three flyers crew actually found, the sea lions got two and we got one.  Thankfully Gary has a good stock of frozen flyers. 

We arrived at Tanner Bank around daybreak.  We tried our Flatfalls without success.  Gary drove around until he found a nice school to stop on. Two helium balloons went out with dead flyers dangling below just skimming the ocean surface. My rod with a circle hook was one of the two.  Usually we use the big J hook for the balloon but Gary wanted to try something different.  Gary set up two flylined flyers and gave Cathy the outfit with a live flyer. 

There were a few boats in the area all spread out on calm seas.  Our weather was cold and overcast with just enough wind to fly the balloon.  My rod was on the starboard bow.  After half an hour watching my rod, my hands were numb.  I decided to grab another jacket.  As soon as I reached the stern, my rod was bit.  I raced back to the bow and took over winding.  My reel was set at 25 pounds of drag at strike, however, I never got it close to that during the entire fight.  My fish took me around the boat a couple times but was well behaved otherwise and let me finesse it in.  Gary stuck a gaff in it on the port bow.  When they pulled it through the stern door, I was surprised to see it was a fat 170 pounder. 

Shortly after, we started losing our wind which made it difficult to keep the balloons away from the boat.  We continued fishing and the wind eventually picked up again.  Unfortunately, the fish just weren’t biting.  Gary moved around until he found another school of bluefin but they had lockjaw too.  Then Gary got info on fish in another area closer to the island and headed there.  He stopped the boat on a large school of big fish.  Crew quickly set everything up as before.  While we waited for a bite, a Navy ship began firing shots.  It was disconcerting being so close to their training area and the sound was uncomfortably loud.

I wish I could say the fish cooperated in this new area, but they didn’t.  The only bite we had all day was the one I had.  We were happy that we had one nice fish to share.

Gary headed the boat into Pyramid Cove for the night.  We served up our chicken piccata, Ziti and Asian slaw for our dinner.  It was delicious!

I was tired so I hit the bunk around 7:30 pm.  Crew scooped a tank of squid before they called it a night. 

I woke up at 4 am Tuesday morning.  All was quiet and everyone was sleeping.  Normally Gary gets up at 4 am to check the bait and start the coffee.  Gary slept until 5:45 am before starting the coffee.  At daybreak, we began fishing for yellowtail on the front side of the island.  Yellowtail were uncooperative too.

After a couple hours, Gary got news that a couple bluefin had been caught and conditions seemed slightly better than the day before.  Gary put the boat in high gear and headed to the backside of the island where we found the fish the previous day.  Unfortunately, this area was close to the island and the Navy kicked us out because they were practicing live firing.  We headed back to the front side of Clemente to fish yellowtail for the day.  Tanner Bank was just too far for us to get to and still get home on time.

We worked the entire front side of the island for nothing but a few bottom grabbers until we reached the west end around 2:30 in the afternoon.  We finally got two yellowtail (Jeff got one and I caught the other), Sheepie got 3 sheepshead on sardines and Randy caught a big Spanish Mackerel.  The bite lasted 30 minutes then quit.  It was time to go home.

On the way home crew fileted our catch and bagged pieces so we could split them up easily.  We got back to dock about 6:30 pm and I was home by 7:45 pm.

Another great trip in the books and I got to pull on one more tuna.  I am very thankful to have been able to fish this year on the Rail Time and with such a stellar group of fishermen.  I can’t say enough good about Gary and his crew and thank you Jeff for including me.