Toronado 2 day

As I lay in my bunk with my legs elevated on my bag to relieve some of the back pain, I contemplate how fishing has brought so many people in to our lives and bring more meaning to it..

We left Pierpoint Landing and now are heading to Catalina Island to get squid! I guess the tuna have been biting on a sliding sinker 3/0 hook and squid. Pretty cool. No matter how often you fish, there's always more to learn. The seas are supposed to be rough so I am hunkered in my bunk. Keep you posted as we continue on our trip

10:41pm

Today was a tough but good day of fishing. I fished my sx with 30lb a 2/0 circle hook and live squid. The first couple of hours yielded tons of salmon grouper, sheepshead and other miscellaneous fish. The tuna bite was slow with 8 coming over the rail, one was mine. Nice schooly sized maybe 15 lbs but hey it counts. After I caught a nice white fish and that was it for me. Kevin was on fire with all the keychain sized fish. Amazing Jim had a hot rockfish stick and his friend John caught a BFT too. 

Dinner was so good: steak mashed potatoes and corn, salad to start with the wine we brought!! Wonderful meal. 

Going to bed as we motor to Tanner Banks so we can have a few extra hours of fishing than if we went to San Clemente. 

Night!

9:33pm

Today was tough fishing for me. Couldn't get bit but Allison was on fire!!! It all started when we were dropper looping for well anything and we were getting hungry. So I asked Allison to watch my rod and I will go get the muffins, totally figures that I get bit and then she does. I loose mine cause I wasn't there lol! She fights here and then the connector knot from mono to spectra fails. It was done by someone at Bob Sands and she was pissed. A few more winds and it would have been in the spool. Well that flurry of bites yield nice 30-40 lb yellowtail. So we all drop down again. Chef Chowder hooks up and asked which of us girls wants it and I tell Allison to go get it!!! She fights it and lands it; got the bad mojo off her day! She's exhausted but so happy. I tell her to get her line in the water and she is hesitant, but does anyway. Soon after bam hooked up again!! It was a nice 30 lb YT!! We spent the rest of the day searching for YT then had to head home. It would be a 7 hr ride back with a fast troll by paddies if we came across any. No more bites for me and we motored home. 

We had so much fun, making new friends and learning new techniques. Allison got to fight big fish and I got my bluefin. It was a good trip. 

Thank you Earl and 976-tuna.com

Mirage overnight

Since the last trip was a bust, I have been jones-ing for fishing and some redemption. 

Marion and I went on the Mirage Monday night fish Tuesday. This time I actually check the weather and sea forecasts so make sure it would be good trip. 

We got to the landing around 8:30pm to check in and get our bunks. It was kind of weird being at the landing when it was so quiet. There were hardly any cars and it seemed just creepy. We put our stuff on the boat and tried to get bunks in the bow but everything was taken. So we went middle section middle row. It was a good spot for future reference. A nice guy named Tony switched my top bunk for his middle bunk so Marion and I could sleep next to each other instead of some random man! 

Marion set her alarm for 5:30am which I heard and woke her up. As for myself, I promptly fell back to sleep and missed the whole seabass and halibut fishing. It was ok, no bites except for Marion's bat ray. So I didn't miss much. 

We were fishing the far side of Santa Rosa where you could see San Miguel. It turned out to be a beautiful day clear skies and calmer seas. It was windy on the far side of the island which Tucker let us know and tried to avoid going to. 

Fishing was so much fun and really quality reds, cabazon, sheepshead, lings and other rockfish came  aboard. Jackpot was won by this nice guy with a huge sheepshead right off the bat. Very cool guy since he gave the jackpot to the crew! Marion was stoked with catching 2 legal lings since it had been a couple of years since she last got one. 

On my last drop I hooked up a nice ling and it was a beaut!

Marion and I had so much fun talking with all the other anglers and crew. It really was a great day!

Electra 2 Day Tuna Trip

It's 9 am and we are on round 3 of the troll. We stopped at 3 kelp paddies with first one being productive. Lots of small firecracker yellowtail and I was hooked up first. 

Got it to the boat fairly quickly but wasn't sure if we should keep it or not. I asked to release it but the deckhand said just keep it. So it was gaffed and our picture was taken. 

So as tuna fishing goes we are trolling for a jig strike. 

Fast forward to 9/2 and I really don't want to finish this post (can't you tell?). 

So in a few words that trip sucked. 1 BFT on the troll of course on my rotation but not my rod. Took the guy around the boat and well that was it. 

I don't want to be negative but wow that trip was horrible. The boat was filthy the fish sat in the funny sacks all day not getting hose down or bled before they went in the sack. 

When I went to cook the fish it was pink in color and smelled like week old garbage. 

I was so disappointed and just defeated. Never going on that boat again and well that's the end of that..