Tuna report July 12-14

Good afternoon BOCA,

Here's a summary from from the past few days of fishing on Tenacious. Departed Monday afternoon in slightly bumpy conditions. Motored down at 10 knots and the ocean turned into a lake. Absolutely not a breath of wind. Arrived at the 295 area at about 3:00AM and left the lights on hoping to get a pre-dawn bite going. Lots of sauries swarmed the boat and I was able to put several in the bait tank by free netting them. No tuna joined us. At 5:30 put the jigs in and began trolloing towards the 220. At 6:15 a single rod goes down and we boated the first albacore of the season for Tenacious (24 lbs). For the next couple hours we scored singles and doubles in the area for a total of 13 fish brought to the boat. The bait was really weak and that's why we believe we could only get a couple on bait. Another reason might have been that there were sauries everywhere you looked with albacore crashing them. Since we were on the first day of a three day trip we only kept one fish. Motored into Hotel Coral and filled up with diesel in preparation for day two. Spent the night at Todos Santos with hopes of some WSB action. The WSB never materialized. At around 7:00 PM the wind started blowing and by midnight it was a steady 15 knot NW wind. Next morning we found bait boat near hotel Coral around 9:00 AM. Several folks called on the radio to say that the weather outside the island really deteriorated. We decided to check it out ourselves. Yep they were right but, we pushed on in 2-4' mixed swell with steady 15-20 knot winds and white caps. Stopped on a paddy at the 238 and it erupted with albies. A few fish on bait and I decided to soak a bigger mackerel when whammo I got nailed hard and it was a solid fish. We're thinking bluefin but, the fish made a long slow steady run right to the kelp anf broke me off. Second mackerel resulted in exactly the same scenario. Never saw them but they had to be big yellows. Left the paddy with albies still crashing in hopes of BFT elsewhere. Continued west for multiple albie doubles and triples but, none came up on the bait. The closest we found albies was at 3138N 11711W. Headed in to Hotel Coral for a slip, a hot shower, and an awsome spaghetti dinner. My buddy (Lou) was soaking a sardine on the bottom right in the slip and caught a couple 2-3 lb sandbass but, here's the part that's hard to believe. He gets slammed and after horsing the fish away from the dock he pulls up a estimated 20lb lingcod. Unfortunately there was no leader touch and it's teeth broke the line (no points). Got a good night sleep and got underway at 6:30 AM Thursday. The seas were still pretty mixed up but, the wind was down to 8-10 knots. We decided to hug the coast but, the red tide was so bad that the water looked like coffee up until Salsipuedes. Really wanting to find tuna closer to home we turned west and scouted the area around the 425. No life at all on the finger bank and out a few miles. A couple miles short of the 425 we started metering huge amounts of bait and marks that looked like tuna to me but, not strikes on lures or bait. Headed home and had a cold beer to celebrate a safe and fun trip. The boat and engine performed flawlessly the entire trip. I love my Billfisher!! Sorry the report was so long. I'll post the 26lb albie in a day or two.

Scott

Any time you can spend two or three days on the water with good friend, catch some fish, return home safe and sound and collect some tounament points along the way is a great trip in my book.

Now for the #20 Lingcod rumors you and Jeff are starting to spread, "Big Foot" is all I can say. Lots of sightings but no proof.

Mike

Wow, a fish report!! LOL

Sounds like a good trip. Good job!! :)

Hey Scott - Great trip! Loved the report and you know they can't be too long!