Ol Pedro
10-26-2022, 07:39 AM
We headed out in bumpy conditions. It got better as we got past 20 miles. NOAA was right this time. We got to the area that we had been fishing before sunset and set up for a drift where the Squid boats had been working. It looked good but no love. There was lots of life around us but no runoffs. Moved and set back up for another drift. It was sort of cool being the only party boat out there for a while. We had a pod of White Sided Dolphin (?) pushing bait all around the boat up to 50-60 at a time crashing around the small Butterfish that they had herded to the surface. We had started to catch some Squid but had to wait for the Dolphin to back off for the Squid to regroup. Saw a couple of Blue Sharks , a small Mako, and released a small Swordfish.
We anchored up around 1:00am . It was getting nicer as the night progressed. We released another small Sword and had a good amount of Squid in the live basket. Night went out and magic time came and went without a runoff. Around 8:am we started to get bites . First fish on deck around 8:15. A nice 80lb class Yellowfin. We lost way too many fish in this first flurry. The boat was swinging and people were not reeling up and resetting or moving when their lines started to go under the boat. We only had 3 Yellowfin to show for 12-15 fish that were hooked. These fish were big and had attitudes to match. We went on a drift for the rest of the day. Had one fish on for an hour when it finally chaffed off. What a heart breaker. We boated 3 more Yellowfin in the 60-80lb class. It was t-shirt weather when we started for home with glass smooth water.
I decided to sleep on the topdeck since it was so nice. Found a spot between the dodger and wheelhouse and got in my sleeping bag. Had a good sleep on when I felt that my arm was wet! I sat up and where was the sun? We were in fog! The dew stuck to my stuff. The fog got dense the last couple miles and Capt. Mike crawled us into the inlet without any problem. There was one outgoing boat in that fog. She looked like an older center console whaler without radar . The crew seemed oblivious to what they were heading out into. One even waved to us.
We had quite the weather spread. Live and fresh dead Squid caught most of the fish. They had chunks, Squid, Lanternfish, and small Butterfish in their stomachs. I hope that this was a one off or a time of day thing and not the beginning of the end. There were three other big boats in the area. One had 6 fish and was fishing since before dawn a couple miles away and the other 2 had recently got to the area with nothing to report. What a season it has been so far. Hope that we can go into December again.
We anchored up around 1:00am . It was getting nicer as the night progressed. We released another small Sword and had a good amount of Squid in the live basket. Night went out and magic time came and went without a runoff. Around 8:am we started to get bites . First fish on deck around 8:15. A nice 80lb class Yellowfin. We lost way too many fish in this first flurry. The boat was swinging and people were not reeling up and resetting or moving when their lines started to go under the boat. We only had 3 Yellowfin to show for 12-15 fish that were hooked. These fish were big and had attitudes to match. We went on a drift for the rest of the day. Had one fish on for an hour when it finally chaffed off. What a heart breaker. We boated 3 more Yellowfin in the 60-80lb class. It was t-shirt weather when we started for home with glass smooth water.
I decided to sleep on the topdeck since it was so nice. Found a spot between the dodger and wheelhouse and got in my sleeping bag. Had a good sleep on when I felt that my arm was wet! I sat up and where was the sun? We were in fog! The dew stuck to my stuff. The fog got dense the last couple miles and Capt. Mike crawled us into the inlet without any problem. There was one outgoing boat in that fog. She looked like an older center console whaler without radar . The crew seemed oblivious to what they were heading out into. One even waved to us.
We had quite the weather spread. Live and fresh dead Squid caught most of the fish. They had chunks, Squid, Lanternfish, and small Butterfish in their stomachs. I hope that this was a one off or a time of day thing and not the beginning of the end. There were three other big boats in the area. One had 6 fish and was fishing since before dawn a couple miles away and the other 2 had recently got to the area with nothing to report. What a season it has been so far. Hope that we can go into December again.