Last Big One of the Season

[Latimeria]

Sounds like I might be doing a Clemente run this weekend for an evening of bugging and then daytime tuna run.  It's still up in the air, but it's my buddies last chance for the next 3 weeks to get out and he wants to go big.  I've never been, so if we do go, it'll be a new trip for me.

He started to mention the Tanner, but I do NOT want to go 40 miles past Clemente in a 24' CC with 3 guys on board and a bunch of hoop nets.. 

[KogaHead]

go big go to the cortez fish south west BIG tunas out there

gotta carry a ton of fuel

[jrodda]

Yeah sounds a little tight on space...good luck with whatever you do. I'm a little surprised you haven't fished Clemente! I haven't either. Hooping there might be great. Hope you find a cow.

[Tim524]

I'm still working my way to the 9 Mile Bank

[vdisney]

Whatever you guys decide Tom, good luck and be careful. 

[KogaHead]

look up san  juan seamount, i went a few miles past that

[jrodda]

look up san  juan seamount, i went a few miles past that

How did you do out there? That's an interesting spot to me. I hear stories of albacore but also read a thread once about giant bluefin there. Here's a link to that delicious story, scroll midway down the thread for it...

http://www.spearboard.com/showthread.php?t=170784

[Latimeria]

look up san  juan seamount, i went a few miles past that

How did you do out there? That's an interesting spot to me. I hear stories of albacore but also read a thread once about giant bluefin there. Here's a link to that delicious story, scroll midway down the thread for it...

http://www.spearboard.com/showthread.php?t=170784

Dude said 400 pounders in 1989, but funny enough, no one even sniffed 400 pound tuna here until probably 15 years ago.  That would be one hell of a secret that fishermen kept.

[KogaHead]

First off we used dacron line with a mono leader. Second if we had more than one hookup we would chase a single fish to rundown, if the others came off oh well. Third, at times we would have three rods clipped together. When the first one was low on line, we would tighten the drag down, clip on a second rig and throw the first in the water. The BFT were huge 300+ pounds, the Albacore were between 50 and 60 pounds. Fishing was epic. Imagine 80W Internationals tricked out with close to 700 yards of dacron on them and you have two to three in the water.

We were on a 50 foot sportfisher loaded with fuel and travel at about 8 knots to get there, it was very slow. There were a number of commercial fisherman I knew that would help us out with bait if we ran low. Also, they carried 55 gallon barrels of fuel for us. They would toss them over the side and we would retrieve them to fuel up. This trip is NOT for the faint of heart. It is in the middle of nowhere and will take the Coast Guard hours to get there to bail your ass out.

However, the fishing was epic.

Would I go again, HELL YES!!!

Side note, up until the mid-60s there were 300 pound BFTs caught at Catalina. Saw pictures and heard the stories as a kid hanging out at the Balboa Angling Club.

Here is a good read on the Seamounts off the California coast. Rodriguez was a good one for Albacore, but crowded, it was "close" to the shore.

https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/8315a3654bce41bfbf4704f4f74a1a06

[jrodda]

look up san  juan seamount, i went a few miles past that

How did you do out there? That's an interesting spot to me. I hear stories of albacore but also read a thread once about giant bluefin there. Here's a link to that delicious story, scroll midway down the thread for it...

http://www.spearboard.com/showthread.php?t=170784

Dude said 400 pounders in 1989, but funny enough, no one even sniffed 400 pound tuna here until probably 15 years ago.  That would be one hell of a secret that fishermen kept.

.

I've read this article a few times before but it's behind a paywall for me now. 1988 behind Santa Cruz/Anacapa, a couple commercial guys wrapped 500lb+ fish (pretty sure they caught 800#ers) while rod and reel guys couldn't begin to turn the heads of the fish. It was a short gold rush that caught them years if not decades worth of profit over a couple trips.

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-11-10-fi-266-story.html


That run of giants probably didn't get much traction in the fishing zeitgeist since no hook and line angler actually landed a 400+.

Record is still sitting there at 395#s and that's from 2021.

Didn't see a lot of super cows this season.

[jrodda]

First off we used dacron line with a mono leader. Second if we had more than one hookup we would chase a single fish to rundown, if the others came off oh well. Third, at times we would have three rods clipped together. When the first one was low on line, we would tighten the drag down, clip on a second rig and throw the first in the water. The BFT were huge 300+ pounds, the Albacore were between 50 and 60 pounds. Fishing was epic. Imagine 80W Internationals tricked out with close to 700 yards of dacron on them and you have two to three in the water.

We were on a 50 foot sportfisher loaded with fuel and travel at about 8 knots to get there, it was very slow. There were a number of commercial fisherman I knew that would help us out with bait if we ran low. Also, they carried 55 gallon barrels of fuel for us. They would toss them over the side and we would retrieve them to fuel up. This trip is NOT for the faint of heart. It is in the middle of nowhere and will take the Coast Guard hours to get there to bail your ass out.

However, the fishing was epic.

Would I go again, HELL YES!!!

Side note, up until the mid-60s there were 300 pound BFTs caught at Catalina. Saw pictures and heard the stories as a kid hanging out at the Balboa Angling Club.

Here is a good read on the Seamounts off the California coast. Rodriguez was a good one for Albacore, but crowded, it was "close" to the shore.

https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/8315a3654bce41bfbf4704f4f74a1a06

That's some extreme fishing, thanks for sharing. This week it'll be a square 10' sea with 20-40mph winds over there. Only 4'@10sec with 20mph winds right now though!

What's the biggest you guys landed in those efforts? Anything that got away that was just monstrous / uncatchable?

[Latimeria]

Wow, this all took a turn for the worse.  My buddy was heading to the gas station to fuel up the boat and one of the shackles/U-bolt busted on the trailer sending the tire up through the fender.

Now no last big trip of the year I guess.  lol....   damnit....



Fog is supposed to be dense and my boat is not remotely ready to go since I wasn't expecting to use it at all...

2023...  Not what I was hoping for, but still a few months left to salvage a less than mediocre year.

[jrodda]

Woof.

Fog was nutty this morning, didn't go out but could barely see across the street.

[Latimeria]

BTW Jeremy, I kept forgetting to say thanks for the Shout Out on your Podcast.  lol

[Tim524]

Fog was brutal this morning, had to use the Radar to get thru the Bay and out to the 9 Mile Bank, couldn't see Chit !