Had another work trip with Blackfish. The day before, we were told to bring a 50# dropper loop rod, 30#, and 20#. The dropper loop threw me off. Seabass at one of the islands?

Got on the boat at 0430 and after Robert finally figured out his parking, we were off the dock at 0500. Down the coast.

We ended up off the San Diego coast. From Newport. We kept our eyes open for tuna on the way down but didn't find any. So we settled into this dropper loop spot, in 200-250'. 16oz torpedoes and sardines.

The first drift was good. It took a minute to start hooking up, and I got picked quick. Then Edwin and Omar got white seabass. Oh! I hooked up but it was a legal barracuda. Then Robert got pinned to the rail and pulled out a 22# YT.



Then the deckhand pulled out a 15#er. More barracuda.

The rest of the drifts weren't quite like that. More barracuda and the occasional YT breaking us off. I kept getting picked, then finally had a big hookup which started tangling everybody. Turned out to be a huge bonito, maybe double the weight of my last PB set a few months ago.



A few minutes later I hooked up to something even bigger. I dropped into the low gear of the Talica 16 and put my leg up on the rail to leverage the rod on my knee and it was still slowly pulling drag, then popped me off. Big uncatchable yellow I guess!

We pulled a few more bass and barracuda but it petered out by 10:30, so we started back with a line offshore, trolling for tuna.

Around 1330, we're all napping when the boat slows down. I roll out of a bunk groggy as can be, come out to the stern, and there are 50# class yellowfin tuna boiling behind the boat. I do not want to hook these things on the 20# or 30# but the 50 still has the dropper loop. Tried an anchovy first because the deckhand was in the way of the sardine well. Anchovy did nothing. Finally got a hold of a sardine. Jared hooks up and his line goes screaming to the bow. Captain hooks up and his fish goes on a run to the horizon. Just as my sardine is swimming out correctly, the fish fade out. Edwin takes the rod from the captain to fight for a few minutes, gaining no line, then I end up taking over. I'm gaining inches, then after Jared lands his fish, a 15-20# skipjack, the captain wants to chase the tuna I'm fighting now. So I get up onto the bow pulpit and we start gaining. 10 minutes later it comes up fatigued and the deckhand sinks the gaff in it. Solid fish, ahi all around! We looked around for the dolphin that the tuna were on, but after finding the pod, the tuna never reacted again. That capped the day and Easton started the filleting for the way back home.





I have never heard of YT, WSB, and the 3Bs as a collective bite in 200-250' before. I normally think of the cut-off for pretty much all of them at 150' on a normal day, and 200'+ being rockfish land. So I am still rewiring my brain to accept that new information and look for them in that range going forward. It was also amazing to finally see some respectable yellowfin, and right off the coast. That gave me a ton of juice going forward into the next few weekends for my own trips. So it was a very interesting day despite my own personal fish count being low.

Everybody dumped ALL of the barracuda and bonito meat on me, so I did a ton of vacuum packing last night. It's been a long time since I've had barracuda, but I've never hated it like many people seem to. So I will try a few basic things and course-correct if need be, but worst case I have 20 nice fillets to turn into 20 beer batter nights.

  80 looks good on him and that is a great present, very nice !!!

Awesome trip guys!  Nothing like some big bats to put smiles on everyone's faces!

Thank goodness for the cart!

 Well, if all the gear fit in Edgar's Mustang, it had to fit in my Jeep......The Clown Car Show continues




Edgar was the Hot Stick today....I couldn't buy a bite   



Myles got one on my rod while I was filming Edgar  


All the Bats were in the 30" range with the biggest being 38" A big one came unbuttoned after a nice battle but still a productive evening with 6 Bats on the sand and the one that got away




Max is going to try to Redeem himself tonight, I may join him 

Killer craftsmanship Tom. From the wood down to the little details, glad he was stoked.

I was supposed to fly out for Dad's 80th birthday, but then my surgery got scheduled and the planets just never seemed to align.

There was only one thing Dad wanted for his birthday, though, and it was something he wanted me to make.

Twenty-six years ago, I built him a wooden sign for their house up in the hills. Somehow that sign survived 26 years of snow, ice, rain, sun, and everything else Mother Nature could throw at it. Back then, I shipped it out for what felt like pocket change compared to today's shipping costs.

When Dad asked for a replacement, I told him I'd build something he'd love.

The original sign used real antlers, which seemed like a great idea at the time. Unfortunately, the local rodents thought they were a snack, and the neighborhood kids apparently viewed them as souvenirs because they kept trying to steal them off the sign.

So with that in mind, I got to work on version 2.0.

I also built the shipping crate like a tank because there was no way I was trusting this project to make the trip unprotected.

Here's the progression from start to finish:

I went resin this time.



PNW Redwood.



Rounded edges and smoothed out.



Honey stain and nautical rope trim.















Arrived today and the shipping is 5x as much as the last time I shipped one to him.





He was really happy with it and was as stoked as I've heard him in years.  Last time I saw him this happy he had a hole in one!  Okay, well he was happier over the hole in one.  hahahah

I need to get the rail mount for my camera. Probably could use a remote control to start recording also.

Great stuff Tim!

BTW, the tuna are 7 miles off Delmar

Found a few pics that Max had on his phone, he got the Kayak that snagged my line and a couple of action shots





3 days later and still a bit sore Them damn things pull HARD !

A deep YT to save the day, pretty sweet !

A Nosy Neighbor setting up Shop next to you is always irritating

Speaking of Koga.... He is MIA lately

Hope the shoulder situation isn't too brutal on you