With great anticipation, our group of anglers gathered on the docks at
Point Loma Saturday night and waited to board the
Eldorado! The weather forecast looked great, and we heard the albacore and yellowfin had been biting well and close to home today.
The crew was Captain Eddie Moreno, Second Captain Brett, Jeremiah and Matt on deck, and Dave serving both in the galley and on deck, with myself and KennyMac as co-chartermasters.
Once on board and checked in, once everyone had their gear stowed, Kenny invited some of the less experienced anglers to the stern for a demonstration on the finer points of choosing and hooking an anchovy. Then it was off to the bait docks for some great looking cured anchovies and sardines, followed by a safety speech, the game plan and a brief seminar on tuna fishing from Captain Eddie, then we were on our way!
After a smooth overnight run we got up in Sunday morning and started trolling at gray light. It was pretty much an all morning pick at the albacore. There’d be a jig stop, a few bait fish, and soon we were on our way again.
Lots of these early in the day...
And eventually... a few of these!
Not all the kind of quality we were hoping for... right Fred??
Tuna fishing at its finest...
Waiting...
... and waiting...
We got a call early afternoon from a boat that had been getting a few bluefin, but when we arrived at the location we were given, we found no real sign of them. Later in the afternoon Eddie got a call on a really good spot of yellowfin on a paddy, and we made the run in the evening to that location. We found the paddy at just around dark, with the boat who had called us in finishing their day on it. They were heading in, and leaving the paddy for us to work in the morning.
The crew set some marker lights on the paddy, and we settled in for dinner. A few of us fished the edges of the paddy, but with no biters, while the first half of the passengers settled in for dinner. We ended day one with 54 albacore, 1 bluefin, and 5 dorado.
And what a great dinner! We had a choice of New York steak or pork loin, mashed potatoes, corn, rolls, pasta salad and green salad.
So while we slept, the crew kept watch of our paddy. With light winds and the sea anchor out, they only had to start the engines a couple of times to move back to the paddy. A few passengers got up as early as 3:30 AM and had a pick at the fish in the dark, and I believe those were mostly albacore, with some really nice sized ones in the mix.
Here's a few from early in the morning.....
At around gray light we picked up and moved closer in again to the paddy.
And within a few minutes, the yellowfin started to bite! We had a really steady bite of them going, and biting sardines, jigs, and even eating the anchovies quite willingly! By 8:30 AM, we landed about 80 fish among us, which was pretty good given the number of novice anglers we had on the trip. And with hand offs from KennyMac, and passengers Brian and Fred, everyone on board got to land at least one yellowfin. For a while it was SO crazy up in the bow where I had been fishing, I put my rod down and helped the crew direct traffic. With SO many newbies, there were a lot of break off's and they really needed help. By the time they started to get the hang of it, it was about 8:00. I grabbed my rod again and landed three nice YFT in quick succession in the last 30 minutes before the bite shut down, all on 20-25# line...
Brian with a nice one...
The water was a balmy 71 to 72 degrees by the paddy, though… temperatures which did not agree with our cured bait. Unfortunately by morning much of the bait had rolled, and by 8:30 we were down to the last few pieces of cured bait. While we did manage to hook a few on artificial baits, once the live bait was gone the school slowly lost interest, and the bite fizzled.
Kenny thinks handing off a fish on his bass rod is funny..... at least it got the "skunk" off of me!
We procured a small amount of additional sardines from another boat, set out our troll lines, and we were on our way looking for other biting fish. Captain Eddie headed us back inside, where he’d heard there may be some larger grade yellowfin in with the porpoise. We had a few jig stops along the way for some small albacore, but we were saving the dines for yellowfin, and got very few biters after the few jig stops.
In the afternoon, just as the skipper told us to get ready to call it a day, he spotted some porpoise jumping just ahead! Full speed to the school, we slowed and ran with them with the jigs still out, and …. “HOOK UP!” The baits came out, and we landed a couple more yellowfin after the jig fish. Troll lines back out, another round of jig fish, with a few more bait fish, and they disappeared.
By now it really was time to call it a trip. Once again, we were pretty much out of live bait, and it was time to go home. On the way in, while the guys filleted the day’s catch, Dave procured some fresh ahi from one of the passengers, and we had a sashimi snack.
The take from day 2....
We would like to thank the crew of the
Eldorado for another great Labor Day 976-Tuna Charter. This trip has an annual event for the last few years, so keep your eye on the schedule next year and grab a spot!
The
Eldorado will be running out of
Point Loma Sportfishing until the end of September, and then will be moving back to
Long Beach Sportfishing for the winter and into next spring. For more information, visit the Eldoraodo’s website at
[link]
Eldorado Labor Day 2-day Trip 2008!
Probably a waste of time... everyone knows I don't know how to fish!!
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