Hi's tackle 10 day November 4 thru 14, 2009
A Captain's perspective
Preface-A couple of weeks ago I was informed that an article was needed to be written for the "Fish Sniffer" fishing news paper that centers in Northern California.
It was to concern the Hi's tackle trip 10 day trip and is suppose to be some sort of a trip report. For me to write another trip report is about exciting as reading another trip report (blah, blah, so and so caught a 30 pound yellowfin tuna and we have good weather, blah, blah) this is something I have to do on a daily basis and to tell the truth the polish and luster has worn off. So what I came up with is something I hope all will enjoy and more importantly learn from, its a daily log of the trip from the captain's perspective. There are many things that the average passenger on a long range boat doesn't see or understand on why we do what we do, maybe this can shed a little light on the subject.
November 4-
We left the landing in the midst of clamor and hustle, there are five long range boats(Excel, Royal Star, 105, Intrepid and Shogun) leaving today, all on ten day trips. Its foggy on our way out to the receivers, the bait is good and loading goes quickly. As we pull away I wave to Tim, who is in the process of loading bait aboard Royal Star, but he doesn't wave back. Come to find out later his bait loading isn't going as well as ours and he still has to go back to the landing to pick up his passengers. The rest of the fleet is a day or two a head of us, which sort of takes the spontaneity and elusiveness out of where we are to be fishing in the next few days. A report from the Vagabond states that the rocks(Alijos) are slow, the fish aren't acting right, its got a funky condition with strong east current running, even so he did manage 21 wahoo and a handful of tuna for the day. The ridge is fishing better, some wahoo at the top end and smaller tuna. There has been a report of some yellowfin on dolphins around or above the bush(San Benitos) and it looks like everyone is running for that. Already I am formulating a plan for the trip and where to go or where I want to be five days from now. Its the decisions that make or break a trip, the decisions made from years of experience and living out here on the eastern Pacific. I can decide where we are going tomorrow, time is on our side, right now the weather is good with less than 10 knots of north-west wind and no chop to speak of. Even though we got away first from the bait receivers the Excel is in the process of slowly overtaking us, the Sirius radio is playing Outlaw Country.
November 5-
Its a travel day, but it sounds like there could be some yellowfin to be caught around Cedros island, so we will look at that later this afternoon. Tommie is giving the seminar and we arrive in the yellowfin area to find it lively, but the tunas really aren't cooperating for us. A few here, few there, but there is good life in the area, whales, dolphins, lots of birds. Maybe this will hold up for another month and we will be able to get some tuna on our December five day. Sam(American Angler) comes on the radio and gives a report of the rocks being slow, with the conditions just not right. I decide to reign up, drop anchor and fish in the area that we have been seeing good life in the past month. We will fish here tomorrow and try to get some yellowfin under our belt before heading down south. The anchor hits the bottom at 10:00 p.m. and the guys that drop to the bottom are instantly on. Yellowtail are biting nails, every bait is a bite, you just have to get it to the bottom. They go flat out, full throttle until 01:00 in the morning, by this time most of the guys are worn out and heading for bed anyway. At 06:00 on the 6th, the yellows start again, but we only have a handful of participants. Life is good.
November 6-
This morning, after a short four hours of sleep, we find that the yellowtail are still underneath us and willing to bite for the remaining guys who want to get in a few more licks. At 07:00 I try to start the mains but the starboard one won't start. I go down and switch battery banks and get it running. This is not a good thing, once we get things rolling I will send Cha-chi down to scope things out, hopefully it will be an easy fix, hopefully. I pull the anchor and start looking for yellowfin tuna. Most of this fish has been associated with dolphins so its not to hard to find, but even so it takes almost three hours before we start finding the mammals and then putting fish on the boat. The problem we are faced with today is that there is tonnage of black skipjack mixed with the tuna and in fact so thick on some of the schools you can't get a bait passed them. As the morning turns to afternoon we figure out that the tunas will bite the heavy jigs while the skipjack tend to stay away from them. All the while we are working our way south, finding more dolphin with "cleaner" schools of tuna.
Cha-chi reports back to me that he found a loose connection on one of the battery terminals, cool an easy fix.
The issue here is that while being loose, it has almost melted the post off the battery, but there is enough meat left to get the connection solid again and should last until we hit the dock where we will have a new battery waiting for us. This kind of thing happens, long range captains and crews deal with this while we are out here, we don't have a mechanic down the street or Napa parts on the corner. We deal with it, we make it work and keep fishing. In case we did melt off the post of the battery then I have six more that I can fall back on, not necessarily spares, but they are on the boat and we can re-wire to get things going. All the while I am staying ahead of the fleet, always working south, so that we can get in position to be on the "13" to land on one of the more prime spots first.
November 7-
Decisions, decisions, what are we going to do from here?
We made the "13" by 07:00, this will give us most of the day to fish. The wahoos aren't biting, so we get the anchor down and proceed to catch fish. Yellowfin tuna, yellowtail and dorado keep the guys busy for the next couple of hours, while I agonize over where or what we are going to do. So far the trip has gone very smooth. We have plenty of fish on board, just not any of the large size.
In the next couple of days we are going to have to spend time looking for something bigger. Do we go out to the rocks? The weather report for out there is not good, besides that, the fishing has really taken a nose dive in the last week. Flathead bank(Toussant) and the Cow Pasture have been looked over for not much. But Billy from the RP just came on with a interesting note, he is seeing some big fish sign on the Potato,,,hmmm. A glimmer of hope.
Tommie turned on the RO unit(freshwater maker) today, just to make sure we stay full, even though we carry 6000 gallons of freshwater its always a good thing to stay full. Our bait situation could use a topping off. We have gone through almost three tanks so far and it would be nice to get some mackerel to help things along. At 14:00 we pull the anchor and start heading towards Magdalena bay, all the while looking for some dorado sign for the rest of the afternoon. Billy comes over the dispatch and is out of breath, he says they have been keeping two or three going with most being 80 to 120 pounds, with a couple over 200. That is great news, wonderful, now the ugly problem exists that the fleet has known about for the last five days. Over crowding. Since we stayed on the "13" and caught fish, it has allowed for a couple of the other guys to slide past us, that and with the boats already in the area we are sort of in left field for a position on the Potato tomorrow. Decision time again. Now what do we do? Sit in the fifth or sixth spot on the bank? No, we are going to suck it up, conserve on bait and make the run to the Finger and hope that it doesn't give us just that, the Finger.
Just before dark I spy a bird school from four miles away. As we get closer I can see the occasional boil and frigate bird plucking flying fish from the air. Once we pull up into the area I saw one dorado, right next to the boat, chase a flyer. I stopped the boat and tell everyone to get into the water. It becomes an instant mad house, everyone has a dorado on the end of his line, Calcutta flying, yelling, laughing, line snapping, fish jumping. If you have never witnessed the mayhem of a full click dorado bite you are missing one of the great thrills in life. In my younger days I used to be right in the mix gaffing and stapling, now I run down and kick the guy off the bait tank and watch the pandemonium ensue. What great fun and a fantastic way to end the day. The Sirius radio is playing 50's on 5.
November 8-
We passed the fleet this morning on our way to the Finger bank, 50 miles further to the south. It will be a good check as no one has been there this year. The 105 decided to come down with us to help out, the area of the Finger is quite extensive and it will be nice to have another pair of eyes looking for fish.
Shogun is running well, although we are caring a slight list to port due to all the fish going into the frozen well so far this trip, that will change today as we are starting the RSW. The freshwater pump/pressure tank is acting up, we may have to change the pump and motor out.
No sign of tuna on the Finger, this bank is literally giving us the finger. We looked down both sides of it, anchored for two hours, nada. On our way out looking to find a free sonar school or black dolphins(bottle nose) we come across a wad of polypropylene rope with some lobster floats attached to it. The dorado are as thick as flies and we top off our limits, so the day isn't a total waste. Yes, they were biting fish tags, broccoli spears, banana peels, etc.
We are headed back up to the Potato bank, where the fleet has posted some good scores on big fish. Tomorrow its our turn.
November 9-
Stress, stress, stress, anchor, anchor, anchor. We arrived last night at 22:30, found a spot and got the anchor down. The Potato is notorious for being soft, as in its deep and hard to get the anchor to grab, there are only a few areas of hard bottom that will hold boats the size of Shogun. Fortunately, we find a good chunk of rock to stick to and even more in a our favor it happens to be up current. Things are looking up for us all the time. Six boats are here anchored as least .24 miles apart, the safe minimum(for the most part) for angling for big fish, due to tangles with other boats fishermen, other boats anchor lines especially now with the use of the super braids.
The fishing is slow, very slow. Yellowfin tuna are boiling and showing very well on the side scanning sonar and fathom meter, but that doesn't help us getting any more bites. After yesterday's slow fishing, today is killing me. I have to try and keep my mind off of it. Cha-chi and I go below and replace the malfunctioning freshwater pump, I keep up with the kite rotation, then catch up on some overdue paperwork. There are times and mileage figures and options I go over for the rest of the trip and making our way home. Its slow! Then at 14:00 the both kites go off. The first to make it in is 172, the second tapes at 220. Now we are keeping some fish hooked, most being over 60 pounds. Alright, here we go! The rest of the day is still slow, but we do land some fish and more importantly they are big. Now we get to stay for another day and concentrate on the big fish.
November 10-
No bait showed under us last night, we will have to go to Magdalena bay tonight. Our anchor remains fixed into the soft bottom of the Potato bank. In the Grey light of the morning smaller tuna made a showing and we threw on a half dozen for the guys that were awake. Shortly after we land the first tuna over 60 pounds, then another and just when it seems like its going to get going the whole things falls on its face. There is tremendous sign of tuna around us, boiling, jumping, knocking baits out of the water, but no bites for us. Its very frustrating. I go down and work on the freshwater pressure tank. At 10:00 I get on the intercom and tell everyone we are sticking it out until 14:00. Lunch time comes and goes with only the occasional fish coming over the rail. Then like clock work, the same as yesterday, 13:30 rolls around and they begin to bite, only much better today than yesterday. Throughout the afternoon we keep one to three tuna on the line all the time and end up with 19 over 60 pounds with nine of those over 100 and the biggest at 150 pounds.
The trip is going wonderfully, great, I am a happy camper this evening, we have lots of fish on-board and now we have big fish. Its time to pick up the anchor head to Mag bay for bait. The Steve Miller band is telling me to "take the money and run" over channel 015 on the satellite radio.
November 11-
Another short night for me, from driving into the bay, helping with shaking bait and tangles, then driving out of the bay, but bait went well. We made a little over two tanks in an hour. There is quite a bit of traffic in the bay tonight, its sad to see the full size Guaymas style shrimpers dragging inside this bay, they are destroying it. Tonight I see no less than four pair. They seem to work in tandem, the second following closely to the lead dragger. Between them and the gill-netters that rape the mangroves it makes me sad to watch it all play out over the last twenty years.
While we were in the bay making bait the Excel got the jump on us and it proves to be a coup for him. We arrive at the "13" an hour behind them and take up our trolling for wahoos on the other areas of the bank. Justin scores 40 wahoo over the coarse of the day, while we manage to scrape only seven. A purse seiner is sitting on top of the other productive high spot and shows a couple of aggressive movements towards us that he doesn't like us trolling around his buoys and flags he has set up on the "10". Even so, the day is not a total loss as we anchor on south ridge and get in on a decent bite of yellowfin tuna, yellowtail, sheephead, etc. for a couple of hours. We take off at 17:00 and start making our way up the beach towards the hot area of yellowfin and yellowtail. The weather is very good and traveling is smooth going up hill.
November 12-
We hit the beach at the San Pablo "10's" still in the dark, I meter around don't see much life so we keep traveling towards Turtle bay. At 07:00 the first bird school appears and we make way for it, under the birds is a small dolphin pod chasing some bait around, behind the dolphins are yellowfin tuna and under the yellowfin there is yellowtail. Game on. Our first drift is for 66 yellowtail and 37 yellowfin, yes, great way to start. Next up I spy a group of squatters(birds just sitting on the water) and decide to check them out, good thing because there is a "porcupine" sitting underneath them. The porcupine is a relatively new term coined by Tommie on the Polaris Supreme it refers to finding a bait ball on the fathom meter that has fish sticking out the sides of it, sort of resembles a porcupines quills. I love porcupines, we have been looking at them most of the summer down in this area and when we find one it is usually fast and furious, this one proves no different. Another long drift ensues. Next up is a dolphin school for another quick twenty yellowfin, but while we are drifting the yellows find us again and mayhem breaks out. By the end of this bite we and the fish are pretty much done for the day. For whatever reason this area is closely oriented to the time of day and stops biting around noon. No matter this half day we just put together is better than most full days anywhere along the coast right now, we rocked it this morning.
This evening Shogun made her way into one of the windless bays of Cedros island and the passengers broke down rods and reels, stowed rods, crew members rolled up the mats in preparation for the ride home tomorrow. The weather is forcasted to be coming up and we make preparations for it. You can't prevent the weather, but you can "batten down the hatches" before it gets to you and try your best to make everyones ride more comfortable and safe. Little Steven's Underground Garage plays "Poison Ivy" by the Coasters, Sirius radio is a great invention.
November 13-
Travel day. The weather is up and the ride up the line is bouncy, 15 knots of north-west wind and a six foot chop. Crew member Cha-chi has woke up to find he can't bend his leg and his knee is swollen. It looks like some kind of infection usually caused by a fish spine, he willl be sent to the doctor's office at the earliest convenance. That means Tommie is going to have to cover for him on the next trip. Tommie is going to miss on some planned on time off, but to our credit, he is willing to put in another ten days to help everyone out. We all have to roll with the punches. Shogun is being scrubbed bow to stern, wheelhouse to the porch. Our ETA to Fisherman's Landing is 05:00, very early, but this is because there are three boats returning to our landing tomorrow and three boats returning at Point Loma landing. It will be very busy for everyone and just like ten days ago, we all turn around and do it again.........
November 14-
The weigh-in is goes smoothly, yet hurried. We have to get our fish off the sidewalk and let the second boat get in here and get started. Its off to the fuel dock where will put on 5'000 gallons of diesel, re-stock the galley, strip and remake the bunks, top off the freshwater tank and finish scrubbing the boat. The next group of fishermen from Bob Sand's tackle are waiting anxiously at the dock, anticipation and excitement in their eyes, high hopes of good fishing. They want to get out of Dodge, take off, leave the world behind and so does the captain and crew of the Shogun, because thats what we do. We fish for a living.
Bruce A. Smith
Captain of M/V Shogun
