Foamer Blues!

Rail Time is leaving Tuesday evening; Oh No, Wind’s up, can you leave Wednesday – of course; Oh No, Wind’s bad, can you leave Thursday instead; call from Gary saying the bluefin are biting, can you leave tomorrow?  So Cathy, Fumio, Steve, Jim and I packed up and headed out on Tuesday evening (original schedule) on the Rail Time.  Eric and Jacob were crewing for Gary.  Our first stop was at the receiver for some beautiful sardines.  Second stop, a bit bumpy getting there, was Catalina to scoop live flyers.  I slept through flyer scooping.

Gary was up making coffee and checking bait at 2:30 the next morning.  He pulled anchor and had us in the area the bluefin bit previously.  I knew it was the area because we were not alone.  There were skiffs, local sportboats and long range boats in the area all looking to score on bluefin.   The bluefin had been anywhere from 30 to 200 pounders.  Gary had us prepared for them all.

Gary shut down on a school of fish and we started Flat Falling and deploying sinker rigs.  The school didn’t stay with us so we moved on to another school.  Little did we know this was going to be our pattern for two days. 

A little after day break, Gary found a foaming school of bigger bluefin that he had us slide flyers back as he came around the school.  They sunk out. 

Our weather was a bit rough which kept Sheepie in his bunk most the day.  The wind we feared prior to the trip was blowing 15 knots and it was cold on deck.

Gary said it’s time for our tweeker tackle (25 pound fluoro with a #4 J hook.)  We all switched over and Gary had us slide sardines back into the foamers.  I connected and was rewarded with a 30# yellowfin tuna.  Steve came up on deck long enough to get bit on a long soak but had the hook bit off.  I hooked two more fish, one of which spooled me before biting the hook off.  Then I remembered what Jeff taught me a couple years ago when I kept getting bit off by bluefin:  use a mutu circle hook!  After that, I landed my bluefin instead of getting bit off. Actually I had been using those hooks but Gary said they weren't small enough so he gave me a J hook. Unfortunately, I didn’t have small enough mutu hooks with me.  I'm sure Jeff would have connected with a bluefin if he had been with us.

We headed into Catalina for a calm anchorage to have dinner and spend the night.  Gary and crew looked at flyers but decided not to scoop them as we would  be island fishing the next day.  I was disappointed but understood completely. 

We had a wonderful Veal Lasagna dinner along with a couple bottles of great red wine that Cathy brought.  The fish may have won the day but that didn't stop us from enjoying ourselves.

Gary was up at 3 am the next morning making coffee, checking bait and then he started the engines and headed up the island and began scooping flyers.  He said we were going to give it the morning on the tuna grounds and if that didn’t work, we would finish at the island. 

We found the boats and tuna in the same area.  We hit foamer after foamer only to have them sink out.  At one point Gary had Fumio cast his popper into a foamer from the bow.  He was bit instantly! And BIT OFF instantly. Gary started heading towards the island looking for kelps.  On one of the kelps, we found dorado and I managed to hook one.  We now had two fish on board.

When we got into the island, we found baby bluefin, sealions and skiffs from the island.  It was a busy area.  Steve managed to hook and land a nice yellowtail on a dropper loop.  Eric was determined to hook one of the bluefin.  He kept trying different combinations of tackle – 20 pound fluoro, down to 12 pound fluoro when he finally hooked and landed a 12 pound bluefin on the anchor!  Then Fumio hooked a bluefin and got it to the boat where a sealion stole his fish.  Time to go home!

We broke down tackle while crew cleaned fish.  We had them split up the fish into separate bags so everyone could take some home.  

We were back at dock by 4:45 and on our way home by 5:15 pm.  I took a small strip of bluefin, half a filet of yellowfin and a small piece of dorado.  It was enough for me to have a seared tuna dinner for three of us and some sashimi and ceviche too.

Thanks again to Cathy for being an incredible and generous friend.  Thanks to Gary for his patience and persistence with the bluefin. I feel incredibly lucky to be able to fish with this great group of anglers!