They're still there

Fished solo Saturday near the 371/302. Great scoop of medium size dinos from Mission Bay. On the way out, the 9 looked real good. I saw a boat hooked up on a bait marlin. After 1/2 hour the fish came off. Dragged marlin lures and tuna jigs through porpoise (with a lot of good meter marks) but, no luck for me. Ran to the 371 where part of the fleet was. The other part was near the 302. By 1:00pm I still had nothing except continuous meter marks on bait and fish. It was frustrating to say the least. A boat calling themselves "Rock n Roll" called out some numbers near the s. end of the kidney bank so off I went. He continued to broadcast numbers for all of his hookups. Upon arriving I instantly got bit on blk/purple six shooter jet head. After boating a 20ish lb albie I was back on the move and only put two trollers out as I wanted a baitfish on my new torium/jig stick 20lb outfit. Next stop I got my chance and after another single hookup on grn/blk jethead I brailed about 10 baits. Left the troller in the holder and baited up. Boils all around the boat and I'm instantly bit. After a good fight I reeled in the troll fish and began to clean the boat up. The fish were not through with me as after I scrubbed all the blood off I looked at the finder to see fish stacked under Tenacious. I threw a few more baits out and more boils. Two more bait fish and I was done. It's tough to gaff a fish by yourself using an 8' jig stick! On my way in a guy calls out the he's got wide open dorado close to home. I spotted the guys inside the 9 and asked to join them. No problem he said. Unfortunately I could not get the fish to bite and three more boats barged in. The bite shut down for sure.

A little bumpy but, not bad out there. Water at the middle of the 9 was 71.1 degrees and deep blue! Thanks much to Rock n Roll for sharing the numbers. This guy was really cool. On a day when hundreds of boats were maneuvering in a small area and radio obsenities were the norm, this guy graciously offers numbers to all. I know he saved the day for many fishless boaters including me.

Later,
Scott

Rock N Roll guy even mentioned your good paddy etiquette over on Bloodydecks. :)

Sounds like a great solo day on the water Scott! Good job.

Good going Scott. Wish I could have made the trip with ya, but work got in the way again.

If thing are looking good mid week, I'd like to get out and hit the albis one more time before the water warms up.

Mike

Scott,

Yeah I saw the post too on BD and wondered if it was you who held off the dodo paddy until invited, that was great! Glad you finished up the day well, it seems as it has been an afternoon bite the past 2 days. Way to get them!

Has anyone tried getting to the zone early (2200), getting on the sock, and getting the scattered fish to build under the boat with deck lights or chum?

RT

Yeah Jeff that was me. Just didn't want to shut down the guys bite. Being so close to S.D. there were a lot of boats passing by close and of course it didn't long before they realized there wre fish being caught on that paddy. Three other boats came in after I was patient enough to stand off. No big deal. They were all quite polite and stood off the paddy by a good distance (except 1).

RT,
I have not tried the night tuna thing this year. Tried the past few years hoping to get the BFT to come up but I never had any luck. It is tempting when you hear the stories of some boats fishing the tuna at night and never having to search for fish when the sun comes up because they're under the boat. My buddy co-skippered the BMS a few years ago and he once had fish stack up under the boat around 3:00AM. At daybreak they just started throwing bait and he said the bite went from BFT to YFT to bigeye and by 10:00 they were done. This was out by Tanner Bank.

Reminds me of something I have been thinking for a long time (but wouldn't discuss on a big message board). I wonder if fish stack up under those tankers that often raft up out there in the shipping channel. They must be on a ridge and still have one hella long anchor chains, right? Or are they station keeping? I have seen the same tankers out in some spots on the way to Catalina for days. Maybe they are not on the best spots, but if the water temp is right, wouldn't bait seek shelter? There must be some waste coming off them boats to attract fish too. I guess the scary part is getting close enough to such boats to try without knowing if they are ok with it.

Glenn,
Serving in the USN for 20+ years and being on 8+ deployments I can tell you that there were several occasions when we were either anchored or drifting (doing engineering drills) when dorado swarmed the ship and seemed to stay with us. Since I didn't have access to a fish finder I couldn't tell you if there were fish stacked under us. While anchored off of Mesirah (Island off the East Coat of Oman) We were constantly swarmed by dorado. After working hours we could fish and were able to catch dorado and lots of bottom critters like grouper and snapper. The engineers always set out a heavy line for sharks and were almost always rewarded with some big ones. The guy who made trash runs out to our ship dragged marlin lures all the time and always had a good marlin or big tuna story. I know, that's enough sea stories. I believe the CHT (human waste) does attract fish though.

I wonder how close you can troll around something like that and not get shot at or something? Can't hail them without a SSB radio and inside info on channels (assuming they speak enough english - LOL). Could hail them on 16 and pretend to be a Harbor Capt, but not the right thing to do.