I got back Friday night from 12 days down in San Diego.....not Albacore but still fishing.
My first trip of 3 days Oct 11-14th on the Pacific Queen was canceled due to Gale Force winds and 20-24ft waves out at Tanner Bank where the Bluefin (BFT) fishing was so had to go on to plan B and then C to try and get on the water before my next boat left on the 15th.
Plan C was single day trips which come in at night on the Liberty patty hopping. Day 1 the 13th I got 4 rat yellowtail(YT) and had a chance at 20lb yellowfin(YFT) which pulled the hook. It was a light load of 16 people.
Day 2 the 14th I expected the same but no YT at all, we also had 32 people on board and most unexperienced. We did find the YFT and I went 2/3 on 20lb class fish and 1/2 on skipjack but had to drop down to 20lb and 25lb fluoro carbon to get bit on live bait. Around 1:45 we came across a massive flat spot with a V wake.....big school of smaller grade BFT pushing water and what a cool site to see. No 20lb fluoro on this stop, 25lb was needed to get bit and patience on bringing these mid 30lb fish to hand. I went 2/4 to get my limit then proceeded to hook and hand to less experienced anglers, 2 lost fish were due to pulled hook at colour and braid dig in on my Lexa 400. We headed for home just before 4pm with a 3 hour trip back as the captain stayed very late to try to get more fish onboard but too many lost fish due to inexperience.
The 15th I headed out on my private 3 day charter on the New Lo An with 21 other very experienced anglers for a big blue fin or bust trip....these guys brought 8 extra helium tanks and $1000 worth of frozen flying fish to go after the big boys on balloons and kites, unfortunately non were hooked on those as the storm had pushed most school down to 200-600ft. We got 100 miles offshore by 1am and dropped heavy glow jigs and one small 60lb was landed the 1st night.
The 16th we put another 7 BFT on board with my buddy getting 3 of them up to 140lbs on fly lined live bait and sinker rigs. I got bit at the same time as his 140lb fish but mine was 40lb but hey I'll take it, there was also a 105lb fish at the same time so some pretty mixed class fish together.
2 hours later and I'm the first to hook up on a stop with 40lb fluoro and a really hot sardine. 45 mins later after a killer battle gaffs are sunk into my new PB of 127lbs.
Tough fishing the 17th but 3-4 fish were landed on the last stop of the night dropping glow knife jigs including one stand out at 205lbs. Small boat with small bunks but super fishy with an excellent crew and phenomenal chef.
Night of the 18th I jumped on a 2.5 day with the Excalibur and we headed way south for peanut YFT and skipjack. I wasn't impressed at all with the captain or crew, lazy as f@4K and didn't chum but still managed my YFT limits (some of which I gave away) oh and the food sucked.
