Tile Fish!

[Chico]

I was originally scheduled to fish a full two day, three nite trip leaving on June 30th, that trip got blown out, so I looked on the fishing schedule that a NS boat has online. I jumped on Sunday nite's departure for a two day
trip that returns Tuesday nite. After about a 10 hour steam we arrived at the fishing grounds and with a ripping current we needed 3# just to hit the bottom in 450' of water. That first day the action was good with blueline and golden tiles coming over the railings, almost all the fish were in the 6# to 8# range, small ones to be sure. Every once in a while a fish would slam your rod down onto the boat's rail and you knew you had a good one. By nite time everyone was too beat to try for any other fish, plus the conditions were not such that we could anchor out where we might find tuna or swords. Next morning we made a short move and we were fishing in
MUCH deeper water, amazingly 3# was still working!! I had a slow start but after an hour or so I started landing some fish, these were nicer sized fish, most in the 12# to 20# size, all goldens. We found some decent drifts and kept at it for most of the morning in the same area. Although it was not drop and reel, the quality and size of the fish made up for the slower pace. We were fishing with squid, mackerel, as well as some strips of silver eels that were caught. Some guys had salmon strips, I did not see any advantage to using those. The few that had fluke strips were doing well also. We saw two mako sharks come close to the boat and Capt. tossed out a bait, about 20 minutes later he had the mako on the deck, nothing huge, probably 90#s. The second one, we ignored! On this trip we fished some sticky bottoms and for the first time on a NJ tile trip, I lost 3 complete rigs to the bottom!! This was a limited load trip with 17 fishermen and even with a half dozen electric reels, the tangles were at a minimum. As always the mates were spot on to gaff your fish, and take care of any tangles. The ride home was less bumpy than the ride out and we all arrived rested after the nap on the homeward stretch. The galley had some good food, dinner was a nice pork roast with mashed potatoes, green beans, and gravy. A salad and fruit cup desert were included. I am also booked for the 2 1/2 day trip leaving Aug. 18th. Gonna have to start eating fish 3 days a week!! I will post pictured, I actually took the time to take some pics on this trip.