SWYC Rockfish Tourney

Slooooooww for us all day as far as big grouper were concerned. My son Chris, My foreman Tim, and Knot Now Phil took a generous scoop of mackeral and sardines down to the lower end of the 9 Saturday where we worked the outskirts of the crowd; we figured the macks would nail big fish for us but is wasn't to be. We did however catch quite a few nice reds in the 3-4# range on sardine strips and after giving up on the bocaccio we headed for the south wall to take a shot at some lings later in the afternoon. For all the pressure that was there before us; I think we did OK as we took 3 cookie cutters from 28-30" 8-9# and Phil managed a 24" ling. We told Phil we had a 26" size limit on lings on our boat before we started fishing for them and when he held it up and couldn't quite stretch it out long enough. As he was getting ready to toss the fish back over the rail he had that look in his eye of disbelief so when we told him that 24-26" was kind of a gray area depending on how successful the trip had been we all agreed the ling would look better on Phil's plate for dinner. I wished we had tried for lings earlier as the fishing was quite good with alot of bites on mackeral ; but we were out of time so we pulled the lines in after that and headed for weigh in; Tim's biggest of 2 lings was 2 ozs behind the leader and our 5 fish weight of 14.8 was dismal. Beautiful ocean and not alot of wind but the current was ripping! They said the banquet was great as usual but a little drawn out;silent auctions, live auctions, so much sitting time it's hard to stay awake from 3AM to 9PM. Had a great time with Phil and wish we could have caught some bigger fish and that's the worst total weight I've ever had in that tourney; maybe we are fishing those bocaccio out! Phil and I talked on the bridge in route and compared our guage readings, electronics and their use, what what the next toy we both need will be. I did get the feeling he's had enough of the 1.95:1 outdrive ratio on the Doghouse; his 1.72:1 ratio gets at least 2-3 kts more speed for the same RPM. He's really trying to talk me into a new D4 !

Thanks for the report Jeff,

Sounds like a fun day regardless of the dismal total weight. It's always fun to fish and talk with other Blackman owners to compare performance and setups. Funny, every time I go over the the Blackman's shop, John tries to talk me into upgrading to the D4 as well. Since I just upgraded to the AD41 600 hours ago I'll stay with what I have. I'm happy with it anyway.

No serious bites on the Tenacious so, unless someone approaches me with the asking price I guess I will try my best to keep her. I have considered your comments (sell the wife/kids). I'll try to continue to maintain the balance of family and my personal selfish fun time!

Later,
Scott

Jeff,
I didn't know I was that transparent. I was ready to throw the ling overboard when you said I should keep it......I hate throwing fish back:mad: ....

I had a great time fishing with you guys and learned a lot....You are right about the ride home...I kept waiting to hear that familiar wine of the turbo and that lifting feeling I get as my engine passes 2800 rpm and She jumps up on plane. .....

Its not that the trip back was long, but I was dreaming of being down below the 1010, than I realized it would be a 7 hour trip back at 15 kts and 19-20 kts sure sounded better......

I owe you at trip out on the Knot Now. You still need to show me how to catch a Marlin. Or at least how and what to troll for them....

Phil

The fishing sucked for us. Nothing for the morning until around noon outside North Island. When the slack tide changed we caught some 3 1/2 for about an hour. We called the Polican over where they caught the wining ling. This is the first trip in years without a Bocaccio. I can't remember a trip ever without one. The Polican caught the big bocaccio's in shallow water, 300ft. We should have changed our plan to shallow but.......
The SWYC allowed a new club to fish for the competition, Bloody Decks. If there are any or enough BOCA members who do not belong to a SD club I'm sure they would welcome a solid effort from the club. If you guys don't belong to a club you should. Not sure about Jeff but I have been a SD R&R Club member for 20 years. He belongs to about 3 clubs, que no ???
The meetings for the SDRR club are the 1st Thursday of each month at the Bali Hai in Shelter Island, 6:30 to 7 drinks and lies and the meeting starts at 7:00. More lies for about 45 minutes and then the guest speaker for more lies. The raffle usually starts at about 9. You are all welcome as guests. I think the membership fee is about $65 a year. Thursday is the next meeting.
The Doghouse can tell you guys about the clubs he's in. He knows more lies than I do.

Pepe you were the one who told me clubs are like girlfriends, the more the merrier!

I have been in the Mission Bay Marlin Club since 1987, the first year I slipped a boat and I made alot of friends and sure learned alot about offshore fishing; the Marlin Club since 1998 and I support their weigh Station in San Diego and fish their tournament as often as possible; and the San Diego Rod and Reel Club since ?; I joined them frankly because if you entered their Big Fish Tournament and won either the marlin, shark, or tuna division you took home an extra $500 so the $50 membership fee was like buying into the bonus round as I think we won each division one time but never in the same year. I met Pepe and a few of his character crew members at the meetings along with a few good guys from my Mission Bay Club; we had a great time and the I looked forward to a new SDR&R meeting each month. There are alot of great fishermen and women in that club. I think they are on the rebound now as a new younger generation has taken over and they are doing their best to get people involved again; their meetings became a little unruly but things have shaped back up now. The only thing that holds me back from their meetings at Bali Hai is the fact that this is where mine and about 3 or 4 other trucks were stolen from at different meetings; one right in front of the entrance! It's a hard thing to get over! They are a good club to be involved with and one of the cheapest, both the marlin clubs are $120 and up but I think you get more bang for your buck with Mission Bay as they give several free seminars throughout the year with includes a decent catered sit down dinner! And for $20 more per member you're entered in the Fish of the month Contest with gives a new Torium 20 worth $165 to the angler who brings in the biggest fish each month ; one win and you paid for your membership! The best thing any of these clubs can give you including our own BOCA group is the up to the minute network of current fishing information which leads to a higher success rate on the fishing grounds. Half the fun of fishing for me is sharing spots and info which helps others enjoy the sport as much as I do. Just remember, what goes around comes around and we all need a little help every now and then!:)