First String 10/10

[1morecast]

I had this past Monday off from work and the kids were in school, so I took the opportunity to jump on a overnight trip out of H&M landing. I asked Mike which boat was better the Producer or First String and he gave thumbs up to them both. I ending up picking the First String since it was cheaper of the two fairs. When I got on board I was surprised how big this boat was. It had about 8 tables on the sundeck and air condition bunk rooms. The galley was nice and large with plenty of room for the 28 anglers on board this trip.



The overnight counts were high in YT but I was hoping for YFT to fill the freezer. I spoke to a couple of guys getting off the pervious night's trip and they said the YT were small with only a few YFT in the mix. Not what I was hoping to hear, but I was prepared to make the best of the situation. I picked up some 15lb fluro and size 4 hooks at the dock. I plan on using my 400s Calcutta paired with an 8' medium action Teramar rod if the rat yellows was what was biting.

When I got down to the bunks I scored one of the staterooms with A/C and only four bunks inside. The seas were pretty calm with maybe 2 foot rollers all the way out to the fishing grounds. (We fished a little south of Ensenada.) Although the ride was fine I just couldn't sleep very well, I heard the engines cut off at 4am and we drifted until sunrise.



The plan was to look for patties and any other signs of life out there. We found a nice size patty around 7am and pulled up to it nice and slow. I was on the bow all by myself and was ready with the surface iron. I was surprised that most of the guys on the boat were fishing live bait. I was able to reach the patty first with my cast and started a nice steady retrieve and within 5 cranks I get multiple YT blow up on it. I get tight with the first fish and make short work of the first of many 3lb YT. I was able to land four cookie cutter size YT on that first drift by the pattie. (Mike would have been proud, no live bait ) I think we must have landed 30-40 YT on that first drift.

We reset on the pattie, but the fish got smarter or we cleared it out but the second drift we get maybe 10 more YT for the boat. We moved on looking for more signs of life. We encountered schools of porpoises. but no fish hanging with them. The next few patties we encounter it was wide open rat YT again. This was about 11am and the sun was in full effect. The YT were not interested with Surface Iron, so I switched to the colt sniper and was jacking YT left and right. As soon as the jig hit the water it was swarmed by 3-4 YT. We hit our YT limit for the boat by 12pm and switched to looking for Dodos or YFT. (Which was great by me.) We looked and looked, but it wasn't meant to be. The captain said we would need to steam for home by 2pm, so we all packed it up. On the way back two of the trolling rods go off and we reel in two token YFT, but that was it. 



Here is a pic of the crew putting our catch into the chilled water below deck.

Overall, I had a blast practice catching fish on the surface iron, so it was a worth the trip. The boat was great and the crew was good. I would definitely ride this boat again.

[Pinoyfisher]

Sounds like you still had a blast!!! I wish I could've gone with you. Next time for sure!!!

[Latimeria]

Wow Binh!  I've heard nice things about that vessel and especially how much room is on it!

Nice trip and read!  I used to love the Producer when I used to frequent the sport boats more often, but there is not a whole lotta room.  The older and grumpier I get, the more room I need! lol

[vdisney]

Outstanding, I'm stoked for ya. 

[Eric H]

Nice write up.

Those little rats are fun on light gear.

Good job on the numbers