Freedom Tuna Massacre 10/2016

Saw the yellowfin counts starting to spike up so I knew it was time to go. Found a weather window and lots of spots available on the Freedom out of 22nd Street Landing, so I pulled the trigger. Apparently everyone else had the same idea and because the boat ended up full with 36 people. I liked that they did the bunk assignments, sign in's, and jackpot collections at the landing ahead of time so there wasn't a mad dash to run down to the boat upon being allowed to board. The boat is super clean and very roomy. The crew was cool too.

After loading bait, we were off and headed towards San Clemente Island. The ocean was flat as a lake and I slept like a baby all the way to the grounds. We were on the hunt at first light, and kept hunting and hunting and hunting. The morning passed on and things were looking pretty grim with not a single fish on the boat . Looking around, I saw a few sport boats stopped but not us. We were coming up on 12:15pm and I hear the throttles pull back quick. Then the captain gets on the PA and says " Dump a bunch of scoops here and everyone get a bait in the water fast!" For the next hour and 45 minutes it was total chaos. When the dust settled, we ended up putting 127 fish on the boat. At first the fish ate the 30 and 40# no problem, then they started getting picky. We had to step down to 15 and 20# to get bit. They were boiling all around the boat but didn't want to eat anything with a hook it in. Light like and small circle hooks were the ticket, but it was high causality fishing. I ended up with 4 good ones, and lost a bunch due to tangles or getting chewed off.

Get out there guys, it's biting good!