So I promised a report of my first ever commercial boat experience. I'm new to the fishing game and so far have only done a few outings on my recently rigged up Kayak, and one trip aboard my buddies Parker 2520. This experience was quite a bit different,... and I'm definitely hooked.
(Pun intended !!!)
My girlfriends company charters a boat every year out of San Diego and this was my first year going. They book a pretty large boat and travel as a relatively small crew to keep things comfortable and provide plenty of "elbow room". This year it was the Sea Adventure 80 out of H&M Landing with our group of 22 people.
Here's our boat...
The 22 of us boarded at about 9:00. Everyone immediately got to rigging their gear and sorting everything out for easy access come the next morning...
Once everything was stowed away, it was all fishing stories and hanging out till people got tired and turned in to the bunks down below. A smaller crew of us stayed up in the galley, beers in hand
, and a DVD playing on the 2 screens. The movie of the evening was "JAWS".
After a few beers and enough bloody shark scenes to keep everyone away from the rails we started to doze off one by one. I was pretty excited sine this was my first real fishing expedition so I had a tough time falling asleep. I finally got in a couple hours of shut eye between 2:00 and 5:00.
Bright and early people were already waking up and getting into their first cups of coffee. I'm not much of a coffee drinker, but with only 2 hours of sleep I needed all the help I could get. The smell of bacon was a help as well.
(I think I had the best breakfast burrito of my life.)
Here's a shot of "eagle eyes" in the tower looking for our first patty...
And a group of the early birds ready and waiting...
As you'll notice over the next few shots, I became more of a fisherman and less of a photographer.
The deck hands had set out 3 or 4 trolling rigs, probably before day break, and the captain called to reel those in and alerted us of a decent size patty coming up on the left hand side of the boat. Camera went away pretty quick, and out came the "lighter tackled" of my 2 combos per a friends recommendation.
Fresh and feisty sardine on an Owner 1/0 ringed flyliner.
(20lb P-Line on a Sealine X30 w/ a 7' 20lb Seeker...3' Fluoro carbon leader)
First short cast of the morning... HOOK UP !!!!
WOW, I've never felt anything like that. I had the reel in free spool and the line just went running. Flipped the lever closed and made sure the line was tight. Set my hook and just listened to the drag run off as the fish went straight towards the patty.
The night before my buddy helped me set up our drags nice and proper using a meter that measured the line tension. I wasn't afraid of breaking my line, but I also wasn't aware that the Yellowtail are quite smart and run straight towards the kelp with the hopes of breaking free. After about a 3-5 minute fight, with the fish under the kelp...SNAP...bye bye fishy.
I had been told to keep my other rig ready just for that possibility and I immediately swapped out for my "healthier" 30lb set up.
(30lb P-Line on a Saltist 30TH w/ an 8' Calstar...3' Fluoro carbon leader)
Another good looking sardine...and short cast...nothing.
The bite slows down, and good few of our crew land some fish.
Our captain says "reel it in", and we're off to our next stop.
I'm pretty new to this fishing game, but our captain and crew of deck hands seemed to be pretty amazing. The captain wasted no time surveying the action and getting us out of the water and off to our next spot. If there were still fresh hook-ups he'd leave us there to catch all that we could. The bites for the day consisted of LOTS of yellowtail and a great mix of Dorado.
Here's a quick peak at the take on our first stop...
(first fish landed for the day !!!!)
(later becoming a contender for the Jackpot)
Now we were off to our second stop. In between patty's I got a couple tips on fighting these fish in. One tip that seemed to work well was a way to steer the fish away from the kelp if that's where they were trying to go.
"
Keep your drags set where you want them, DO NOT tighten the drag during the fight. Keep your rod tip UP, and if you want the fish to swim left,... tilt your rod to the left...right, tilt it right. The subtle pull on the fish in either direction will force it to veer slightly off track since he is swimming against the force of your drag."
Sounds pretty much like leading a horse, and seem to work pretty well. I didn't get broken off in the kelp anymore after that.
The next 2 patty's were pretty slow. We were told that we were following a similar course to the previous day and that they may have just been over fished.
We were still able to pull a few smaller Yellowtail and some pretty small Dorado...
I think it was our 4th or 5th stop when the action picked up again. It almost seemed like all of us were hooked up at one time or another. I actually landed my FIRST ever "big fish".
Here's a keeper...
(That is ME in the black windbreaker and Surfrider foundation t-shirt...not to be confused with the big guy in the silver/blue/yellow scales)
Here's our take at the second stop. The action was fast and there were fish all over the deck...
I was actually a bit tired after that fish. It's pretty surprising how these fish fight and how strong they are. Up until that trip my largest fish had been decent Calico, one keeper Halibut, and some medium sized Barracuda. This was a completely different game all together!!
Next stop was initiated with a double hookup on the troll.
2 medium Dorado.
Once the boat slowed down and a few people got some bait in the water 2 or 3 more Dorado were landed. I hooked into one and was able to see color. He jumped out of the water right after I set the hook. That was pretty darn cool to see. When I got him closer to the boat he decided to walk me around the deck. In the process I got tangled with a few people to the side of me. While I waited for the deckhand to help clear the tangle, which was pretty bad, I lost the fish.
After that I was actually pretty excited to hear that the day before, and a few other times in the last two weeks, the troll had brought a Marlin and a few Yellow Fin Tuna to follow.
When they asked who wanted to keep an eye on the trolling rigs I graciously accepted. After 2 more stops, and bunch of reeling in empty trolling lines, I decided trolling wasn't my thing.
Back to the waiting game for the next patty and working on being the first bait in the water.
Next stop..."Hook Up"!!!
I landed this guy...
A few of the others landed some Yellowtail and I got to see the biggest Dorado of the trip landed. (keep an eye down below for the 2nd JackPot contender...the Dorado was landed by an 18 year old girl)
Here's our take on that stop, less the Dorado that made it's way around the boat for photo op's...
I think we made maybe two more stops to complete the day. My buddy Willie hooked into a really nice Dorado (2nd largesr Dodo of the trip)
Here's his photo op...
As we headed back home, sunny day winding down, I got a couple photos of the days entire take.
The deck hands pulled out all the fish from below and sorted them by #'s...
The fish extended from one end of the boat to the other, and around the corner. I think the entire take for the day was 45 Yellows and 21 Dorado. Apparently a slower bite than the previous day, but plenty of fish for our group of 22 people.
Maybe just a coincidence that I was assigned to be
#3 but...
...here's my 3 keepers for the day.
Next trip I'm definitely asking for a higher #. 
As the day was coming to an end we had to find out who would be the JackPot winner for the day.
Would it be the 18 year old girl bruising all the male egos on board???
Or the
first landed fish holding on to the chance all day long???
And the winner is... ... ... ...
The first fish of the day outweighed, and outlasted, every other fish.
It was a great day and I will definitely be back out on the water a lot more. I learned a lot, lost almost as many fish as I caught, and had a great experience.
Oh yeah,... one more shot.
This is one of my favorite parts of fishing...the pay-off...
Saturday night we ate fish at my buddy's house...and last night I made a feast at home.
-Grilled Teriyaki Yellowtail over rice
-Sliced Seared Yellow tail
-Sashimi style Yellowtail
-Sushi rolls with Yellowtail/Avacado/Masago
-California Rolls
AND I barely made a dent in the freezer.
HA HA HA !!!
Hope you all enjoyed the thread.
Happy days...and good fishing to all of you !!!!!!!!
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