Oh man too fun of a day! Can't thank you enough for having the opportunity and great hospitality Mr. Josh!!!

Despite the "Poop" Mission Bay is still alive! The fish are still there from what my dad and I have seen the last few trips but they're just lock jawed. We've been chasing the bird schools but we haven't been able to stick anything under them except a few jumbo smelt but we have seen the bait is micro 1-1/2" bay chovie. The over abundance of the jumbo smelt leads us to think that's what's under the birds feeding instead of the more desired species people want to chase. You can tell the smelt are thick as they bump your lures everywhere we've been! Might be a smelt spawn. Hope this helps!
Nicky

Well, seeing all these wahoo reports have been killing me!    I've been snipped off by them last year and with all the local reports I wanted to try to get one in our local waters before this crazy season ends.  After seeing Mr. Thomas (Tombo808) get one, I gave him a text if he needed a guy for Monday. He said they wouldn't be going Monday but Sunday was a go and one of their guys bailed on them so...  I met him at the docks at 5:00 AM Sunday morning. (thank you PAPA!!!  Also a HUGE thanks to Mr. Thomas for giving me the chance to go!)   As we got to the 28' Boston Whaler, we met Mr. Rodney and Mr. Bob at the slip.  We skipped bait as we'd going wahoo or bust and if Everingham Bros even had bait, it'd be 2-4" chovie.  We hauled @zz in that boat down to the south 9 making a left near to border and troll up the line where Mr. Thomas got his hoo Friday.  The whole fleet was out trolling the 9 and here we were trolling inside the 3 mile line  .  Conditions were prime with an Overcast greylight and amazing sunrise (of course we were all antsy and only Mr. Thomas took a pic).  On our first pass we saw many paddies and some bird life.  Back in the spread we had out a the Mean Green Joe marlin jig that caught Friday's hoo, a Purple and black Marlin jig, Purple&Black marauder, orange marauder, and a orange&red marlin jig.  As we came almost in front of Point Loma we crashing into a small paddy destroying it.  The marauder and another rod picked up some kelp so Mr. Thomas and I wound them in as Mr. Rodney was eating his gourmet yogurt in the cabin and Mr. Bob kept us going looking ahead to not hit anything. Suddenly the Lucky Mean Green Joe starts to scream! We all think dang bull kelp as the 10 year old mono has the rubbing sound of a yellow Kelping you.  Them as we stop it keeps going! Faster and Faster! Buzzing off line back to the border! Mr. Thomas asks, "Nicky is that a fish?" as I was standing next to the rod when it happened so I took 10 Hard winds on it and as I put my hands of the blank the bull kelp violently shook.  I didn't want to take the rod as I didn't want to lose whatever powerful fish ate the foot long jig, but Mr. Thomas insisted I did.  As I wound like a maniac on the fish Mr. Rodney casually walks out of the cabin and says "are we hooked up?" Mr. Thomas-"ummm I think so"  "holy crap why didn't you guys tell me we were on!!!" HAHA!  As I wound the heavy fish in I just prayed on every next heavy headshake it wouldn't pop off.  Eventually it drew close and we saw some tail kicks in the dark prop wash behind the boat.  We still couldn't see the fish in the dark,  greylight water.  Then we saw a teeny flash. Mr. Rodney says was that a Bonito? LOL Then The color comes and the long, skinny, barred flash came.  We all watched in awe as this magnificent fish thrashed in our home waters.  Finally I get it to gaff and it keeps swimming just outside gaff distance.  I step back and tell Mr. Thomas "MEATSHOT IT!!!" haha and on comes the weird mackerel 2.5 miles outside of Point Loma on our GPS.  WAAAHOOOOOOO!  (Sorry if it's a bit pic heavy)





Oh my.







Yewwww!












SO stoked with this fish!  Just seeing one in our local waters is just insane!

Afterwards we all wondered later why we didn't box the area but the boat that saw us came in trolled and within minutes after us caught a wahoo in the same zone. We trolled and trolled for another slam on the marauder which sent it flying (a;so in the same zone) but that was it for the day. 



The wahoo that hit this may have not taken a ton of paint off but on both sides looked like if someone took a screwdiver and beat the lure.  The teeth marks were DEEP!!!

We called it a day a bit early to clean the boat, get Mr. Rodney home early for his work function, and anyways our morning window was over. We traveled 88 miles trolled 4 laps up and down and worked the whole 9 mile bank.





Got to cleaning at home and my 1/4 of the Wahoo was 2 of these chunks! That's a 9" blade and 15" knife in overall length.



I can't thank Mr. Thomas enough for giving me the opportunity to fish offshore with him this year and my dad for driving me at weird times as well as drive him nuts!

Thanks for reading!

Nicky

Yewww! Sweet bass! Come on enough with the red sharpie right! 😝 haha

Despite the break offs and difficulties, that looks like some really fun fishing! With some bonus bigger models in as well! Sweet session Mr. Tom!

Sounds like fun!

Thank you guys! It was a really fun trip!

Quote from: sasquatch on August 30, 2015, 12:07:24 AM
Would have loved to be on that trip. Good times with good friends.

That would've been awesome to have more EDC guys on the boat! See you on the October trip Mr. Steve! 

Quote from: Latimeria on August 30, 2015, 09:41:25 AM
You are an animal, Nicky!!!   ... popper tuna also! 

Great read and great to see the EDC together and catching tuna.  I still remember when Reid ate the tuna heart and almost made me puke.  LOL

Thank you Mr. Tom! That would've been awesome to see!    It was great to have  some of the EDC together fishing again!

Quote from: skrilla on August 30, 2015, 11:02:39 AM
Cool, surprise trip AND a half ton haul. I'd be stoked just having AC for a day.

Thank you Mr. Len! It was HOT! Something like 91! Heck Justin (deckie) jumped into the bait tank after we used up all the bait!  .

Quote from: shoresurfer on August 31, 2015, 11:29:38 AM
Great story.
I also just did a trip with my dad. We didn't do as good as you but still had a great father/son trip.

That's awesome! With the dropped counts we weren't going to jinx it by expecting too much but even if we did get skunked I would've been happy just to be offshore with my dad.

Quote from: Pinoyfisher on August 31, 2015, 03:56:41 PM
Thats awesome!!!!!!!!!!! I love seeing fish crash on any artificial!! Some video would've been sick!!

Thank you Mr. Mike! Gopro would've been awesome! Funny thing was just before the cast Johnny the chef said this,"I've never seen anything caught on that Orca popper before..."  "Yeah I just caught that one so far probably just luck in a boil." Cast, right when it hit the water that YFT did a rainbow jump right over it! All 7 of us on the bow let out the loudest scream I've ever heard!

Woooooo what a trip!  I didn't think I'd be doing anymore offshore fishing until October but when SOMEONE poked at my Papa and with the anticipation of offshore time for him he gave in.        Yes I know High school just started but my Fridays aren't too crazy.  Believe me I wasn't going to go for the better benefit and I thought I wasn't going until after all the spots sold out 2 weeks earlier...    My Papa however played a joke on me until a few days prior to the trip he goes, "why aren't you packed?" "Whuuuuuat?" "You're packing my gear right?" "I can let me know what you need" "Come on really!!! I booked your ticket!"      "you're such a dummy"      I love my dad. OK to the trip


       Got everything squared away picked up some stuff at Seaforth 2 hours early, then met up and chit-cahtted with the crew.  The open party "charter master" Mr. Reid (islandboy), Mr. Tyler (T16Mog), Mr. Ed (Relentless), my awesome Papa, and me.  We left the dock on time and off to the bait barge to pick up some awesome 4-7" dines.  They shot straight down to the bottom of the tank, giant slimer, and lost very few scales.  The crew of the Aztec did a great job taking only 5 baits at a time to not beat them up.


KOOK SQUAD (head leader on the camera    )




     After that Captain Greg gave us the scoop.  We'd be going after the mid size fish around 25-40lbs not little fish or BIG fish.  The fish had been finicky chewing 15-25lb line and #2 hooks on butt-hooked dines.  We headed straight west as we left so I expected to wake up at the 302 or 182 and be working north up the line to CBad and San Onofre... Weellllllll. WRONG! When I woke up at 5:00 sharp I was on deck with a few others.  Captain Greg was pulling anchor and had some good tuna under the boat.  My dad and I threw jigs but like Captain Greg said this stuff hasn't been going in the dark or greylight.  At Greylight I made out land. HECK is that Point Loma??? Behind me is that the Coronados??? Wait that can't be North Island it's huge!  Holy Crap! We're inbetween SCI and Catalina!!! Later confirmed by the deckies.  Well after an hour that school sure didn't want to play so we motored west to SCI.  7 minutes later there's a dipping tern.  "Guys I'm not sure if this is wake or fish because it'a so flat I'm sweeping very high and these fish aren't deep at all. AHHh I think its wake lets keep going.  OMG throw some bait! That was fish!"  One guy hooks up as we slide but Captain Greg says ok I gotta go! He keeps bumping the boat forward and says, "guys I gotta go for the steak not the potato! Throw a scoop!" Instant boils everywhere and the whole boat is bent! I land a better, close to 30lb class fish, Mr. Reid 2, Mr. Tyler 2, Mr. Ed a head, and my dad a pulled hook after 3 hours on this fish.





Mr. Ed's big YFT head. Shouldv'e been and easy 35 but the tax man decided to play.





The only pic I have of Mr. Reid. A good grade of tuna.





My fish.

       The whole time it was steadier than a plunker bite but somehow a curse struck my dad and after a lost fish he couldn't hook up.  Seeing steady boils far out I chucked a popper at that fish.  AHHHHH POPPPERRRR! I landed a 20lb fish on the popper and had one completely do a rainbow jump over it. SICK!



Popper fish!


      After 2.5 hours it was time to move. Not 10 minutes later we found smaller grade fish only to pull a handful out as the smaller fish had been very finicky.  We then motored and found bird school after bird school, foamer after foamer, puddlers after puddlers.  We passed up 20 or so schools unitl we found a biting one.  Here sooooo many guys hooked up landing some mixed 10-30lb YFT and FAT 8 lb skippies.  Mr. Tyler pulled out 3 fish on this stop, Mr. Ed I think 1, Mr. Reid 1 and another brute 28lb YFT.  Meanwhile I couldn't get bit to save my life and the same with my Papa. I finally stuck a 20lb YFT but was really frustrated watching freeswimmers chase a bait then veer off.  UHHH frustrating.

       Here's the light bulb flicking part.  As I watched everyone hookup I noticed they were fishing mono to fluro.  The guy who got 13.5 (hammerheaded) told me he was fishing straight mono.  WTH I had 20lb fluro but then I thought about the braid.  I've caught all my fish with the same 10ft fluro to braid in the past but why now?  So I quickly wound on a short 20yd piece of mono inbetween the fluro and braid for me and my papa...

        The next and last stop was Insane! 20-35lb fish boiling and coming over the rail.  I dropped a bait on the starboard side and he swim right into the boils then went 1000MPH.  FREASHONE!!!! As I settled in I look up and see my Papa bent on a fish too! Phew I hope gets one and doesn't get skunked.  I land my 25lb YFT and my Papa alike. YES!!! The mono did the trick!





Glory shot!


       I got a bait right back into the chumline and I see them start to boil.  Here we go FREASHONEEE! Again I look up and my Papa is bent!  Yeah!  Well now we have 3 hammerheads around the boat swimming into and picking up flylined baits.  At one point I had to duck my line under him so he wouldn't ram into my hooked fish!  :shock:  This fish felt good too 100yds into my spool straight down and taking 50 feet after I gained that amount. Well he just went SOLID not a hammerhead but into bulldogging mode.  Huge thumping and I could horse that 30lb fish earlier in the day, but 30 min into the fight I still just couldn't turn his head or even take a 1/2 crank.  One guy doesnt follow his line and his fish takes 9 wraps around mine... UHHHH shoot then another guy's fish goes inbetween ours. Foowee.  We we go into freespool except the last guy to get into the tangle eventhough Captain Greg told him to and he said he was... Well the enevitable happens and he burns my fish right off. DANG IT! Oh well that was the fish offshore fish I've broken off all season so it was just my turn.  On the bright side my Papa landed his fish, Mr. Tyler 2, Mr. Reid 2, and I'm pretty sure Mr. Ed 1.  Fun fishing until we ran out of bait and had to head home simultaneously.  Fun fishing! On the way back We drove straight through 11 foamers and a ton of prime kelps and some BIG ones too.  With a 6 hour ride I helped the deckies bag fish for most of the time and pull them out of the well.




Great grade of fish




Can't....lift uhh.. any higher!




Much better

I wish I could've gotten some pics of Mr. Ed, Mr. Reid, and my Papa but they went into hibernation...       I don't blame them it was 65 and airconditioned instead of 90 degrees.  I dunno why I worked in the heat.




Happy campers!


I think I ended up with 4 (dang should've seen that mono switch earlier and gotten those bites!), my Papa 2 (phew I'm glad he got some), Mr. Ed 2, Mr. Reid 6, and Mr. Tyler 7 and a nice skippy.  The whole boat ended up with 131 and probably 8 FAT skippies.  Amazing how much life was out easily 10 miles of fish from foamers, puddlers, porpoise, birdschools, hammerheads, crazy stuff.  I'd be stoked even just seeing that popper blowup!

We got back ontime to meet Kazi and the Pac Voy crew as Mr. Ron and Ms. Shari headed out on a 2 dayer  .  We got the hook up with Mario down at Sportman's Seafood all we had to do was ship the fish down 800yds... Well with our 22 fish and then 9 more from some joinees, a 6'4" Mr. Tyler and tiny me pushed and steered close to half a ton of fish down on a dock cart... Got our fish to the processer, said our goodbyes, and off to a hot shower we were. 





We had to push this... What a bad Problem 

I would definitely go back out on the Aztec again with Captain Greg and crew.  They were extremely helpful, energetic, and everything they did was for the better of the customers and catching fish.  Not to mention a very Spacious, well air conditioned, and fast cruising boat.

My Papa now has the itch and already wants redemption for not getting bit/landing fish earlier! Great times again with everyone and this a very special one with my Papa.  Love you!!!




Thanks for reading!

Nicky

Thank you Mr. Josh!

Quote from: Latimeria on August 11, 2015, 12:05:38 PM
You're getting more rides offshore than me, Nicky!  lol

Way to go and get them DoDo!!!!! 

Thank you Mr. Tom! I think that may be my last trip until October... Dang school! 

Quote from: WheresMyBeer on August 11, 2015, 09:53:22 PM
My wife just asked why I can't catch Mahi like Nicky ... 


She's tired of tuna (already).

Mr. Dave, I kidd you not I have easily 20-22 lbs of dodo.  Probably more all vacuum sealed, you can swing by if you want some. 

Here you go Mr. Thomas!!!  :lol: I can't thank you enough for giving me the opportunity to enjoy offshore fishing with you guys!

So Friday I headed out with Skipper Craig, Mr. Mark, and Mr. Andy.  With boat problems, Mr. Thomas headed out on another boat.  We started our day in the water at 4:00am and a healthy scoop of 5"-8" dines ( 15pieces of scraggly stuff from one tank and great cured stuff from another tank).  With manageable weather, we headed north offshore.  Pretty bumpy crashing down hard on swell, but hey I like it as you don't get used to it and not seasick! Along the way I get up on top and spot a small paddy. Not scraggly but trashcan lid type, nada.  A couple minutes of running later we see hard working terns, a small meter mark, we chunk, still nada.  So we get up to Oside and we see boats stopped.  We respectfully slide and chunk for nothing.  Turns out everyone was on a nice paddy and all we only see a small dodo landed.  Ok so the water from Point Loma-Oside is aboslutely prime but void of life... We decide to just head back and try to find a meter mark and chunk on it.  Along the way back we see a huge fin 3ft out of the water at 500yds away. Grabbed the binoculars and its brown, shaped like a big hammerhead, pretty cool!  Even with a Red Bull Mr. Mark and I are falling asleep up top in the swell.  Drearily, Mr. Mark sees a fin, PORPOISE! We troll around them for nada.  Eventually we see 6 boats stopped way off a paddy, 200+yds away drifting, all the passengers were not really motivated fishing more less all sitting.  Up top, I start to see fish boiling on bait into the paddy.  Respectfully we slide on it and start to chunk.  Thinking they were Yellowtail, I threw a Tady 45 and some dodos followed it! We start seeing freejumpers eating our chum and we launch out flyline baits. BAM triple hookup on NICE dodos!  Jumping 3-4ft out of the water, they barf, flinging 4-5 baitfish!
 



26lb hen


The other boats somehow just sprang to life and all run back on top of the paddy!  Meanwhile, we had a bite a bit faster than a plunker bite with dodos following the chunk!  The whole 2 hours we were there 2 dodos were hooked by other boats. One by an awesome 5-6 year old kid who whooped it on a large coffee grinder! Awesome stuff!



31lb bull

Well they went skittish after that.  They were all good ones 18-33lbs ish with one little 11lber.  We landed 14 of them; Mr. Andy with 6, me 4, Mr. Mark 3, and Mr. Craig 1.  Funny thing was the last fish ate three baits! All three guys were "tangled" but ended up roping in a smaller hen.  :lol:

With full killbags, we head in to fillet fish. Along the way with irons tied on, we found some working birds in the kelp.  We stop and find some cuda and rat yellowtail around 3-4lbs.  Mr. Andy lands a nice easily 32-34" cuda and I release a small 20"er.  We never stuck one of the following rats so we headed in with lots of filleting and vacuum sealing to do.  :lol:



We ended up with 14 dodos and a big cuda.




Thank you again for the invite Mr. Thomas!

Thanks for reading!

Nicky

Wow those are some nice bass Mr. Tom!

Thanks guys!

Quote from: Latimeria on August 07, 2015, 06:19:48 AM
Wow, the fish slayer strikes again!  Nice job Nicky!  I'm not sure I've ever seen the Squatch with a haul like that! 

Great story and sweet pics Nicky!

Thank you Mr. Tom! I'm sure Mr. Steve has done just as well or better before. 😄

Quote from: Tim524 on August 07, 2015, 10:42:46 AM
Nice job, and you chummed the waters too 

Yep! Bumpy conditions...

Quote from: Pinoyfisher on August 07, 2015, 02:37:58 PM
Love yellows on the plug!! Way to slay 'em!!

Me too! Surface iron is addictive!

Well with school starting in two weeks my dad told me get your offshore fishing in now before you can't get out at all...    So I hopped on the Chubasco II at the last minute. Got checked in, everything squared away, and off we were to the bait barge.  Same bait as its been the last few weeks, the usual lively, yet uncured 8-14" sardines! You'd be lucky to find a 6-8" dine in the tank. Captain Chad said we'd be going into to Mexico offshore and the fish have been pretty finicky eating 25lb or lighter.  Well the 1.5 hour ride wasn't too pleasant for many, 1/3 of the load (29 people) got sick including me barfing 3x... :x also the swell&wind was really up making for waves splashing up to the captains window.  Finally we get into the grounds and immediately find a trash can lid sized paddy. We troll around it and HOOKUP!  Land a 6-7lb dodo and another on bait. (the guy who gets the biggest dine in the tank, last bait out on a coffee grinder, and straight 65lb braid!?!? what the heck!) That'd be the same story all around, find these trash can lid sized paddys with nothing on them.  I was starting to get worried I was going to get skunked but we quickly spot a massive school of porpoise.  We troll by it for nothing until the captain gets perfectly in front of it and says "WTH!!! how are we not bit! Kevin throw two scoops of bait on it!"  Well we long soaked for nada then as we wind'em up I think I get hit but it comes off.  Then two guys are instabit!  We all scramble for fresh bait as 35-40lb YFT just start absolutely killing bait 10 feet off the stern.  I'm instabit and then the whole boat even the rental rodders were bent on tuna! Or was it???  Our "tuna" start giving montrous head shakes as they get to color. HOLY CrAP! These are 15-25lb yellows!  Didn't matter what you threw it was true WFO fishing.  After putting 3 on bait, I saw some yellows boiling on then bow.  Quickly grabbed the surface iron rod and fired to them.  Again instant 10 fish following the jig and boils! Boils! Ahahhhhhhaha! Fresh one! That would be the same for the next hour, 3-10 followers chasing the jig, something ridiculously close to 30-35 boils, and many hookups. I ended up landing 6 on the jig (I threw a mint&white Tady 45 but it didn't really matter you could throw a non kicking jig and get bit) .  Fishing was so nuts eventually I just grabbed a gaff in one hand rod in the other and started gaffing my own fish.  Deckies even gave us two guys on the bow a gaff to self gaff them after they saw we could do it! Fun times! Even poked the eyeballs out of a YT with the gaff single handed! Well eventually after a 1.5 hour stop the school moved on.  I believe 3 of us had over limits (somehow I got the most with 9), no YFT were landed (or maybe none even hooked), and I don't even know how many people&rental rodders got limits.  We gave our excess fish to the crew (luckily 4 guys). The rest of the day was more of the same, one more dodo landed, 2 skipjack on the troll, and many freeswimmers just too small to be interested in the huge bait. We ended up with 124 yellowtail, 5 mahi, and 2 skipjack for 29 anglers.  Headed in tired and stoked!


The money shot (why did I pick up the smaller fish and why do they never look as big???)





But in reality I was struggling   





"Take a dump on those fish!"   





Thanks for reading!

Nicky

Quote from: Latimeria on July 21, 2015, 05:57:00 PM

Quote from: Nicky on July 21, 2015, 12:44:29 PM
We know barred largo is possible... 

Yep Nicky. I know and have been jealous since your dad got one, but I want one now! Lol

😂😂😂 yep I've been jealous too!

We know barred largo is possible...