Local Bluefin, Marlin, and Swords (11/4)

[Latimeria]

So Shaun's boat is still out of commission, and he wanted to do a lobster trip.  I really had too much to do this weekend and I said, let's get a 100-pound BFT for my boat.  We'll take a look and switch to swords if we don't find anything.



I have to admit, my confidence was pretty high after all of the reports from buddy's came pouring in.  We get out to Birds EVERYWHERE!  Then we started watching Bluefin bust all over!  30-40 pounders, 80-0 pounders and 120-150 pounders!  Clear out of the water and we kept trolling the spreader and switching it up to the MadMac.... but nothing.  f@cking picky bastards!  The great thing was there wasn't a single boat in sight!

We trolled through them for an hour and even tried casting out to them, but nothing.  The meter would just light up every now and then!



Then they just vanished and the only sign of them was all the birds floating after the carnage.  This was a case that I wished we had bait....

Anyway, we kept trolling the spreader for that rogue BFT when something jumped out of the water right in front of us... then jumped again and again and again!  At least 10 jumps and it was a glistening MARLIN!  HOLY CRAP!  Local Marlin in November! Well, we trolled and trolled for that bastard also, but he didn't want to play.

So with no signs of life, we went to drop for swords.  I don't have any real "swordie" rigs, but had a few in the bag from a few years ago that I thought a swordie might like.  We made a makeshift  rig and I attached one of my deep drop lights on it.  Cheap deep drop lights that only performed to the amount I paid for it.

As we were drifting, we both saw a hit and was ready to start reeling, but it never came back.  I didn't have any big squid, so I pinned two big local ones together and it looked like it would work. 

We reeled up from 1150 feet and saw the squid all screwed up!  I sent a picture to Matt and he said the last few Big Eye threshers he caught deep dropping had squid look exactly like this, so maybe it was, maybe it wasn't.  In any case, I felt pretty good that we had a bite of something!



Deep drop light... well the batteries EXPLODED in the case, so they aren't good below 1.000 feet I guess.



We trolled on the way back for that hopeful bind strike fish, but it never came.  Still not a bad way to start September seeing all this big game life out there.  I wish I wasn't busy tomorrow or I'd go out again and bring live bait this time!

Wll, thanks for reading and until next tide.

[jrodda]

A lot of good signs in that report. I don't wanna risk a sword near my boat but hooking a bigeye thresher would be cool. Good try.

[Tim524]

Just take a ride with Chris, he'll put you on them

[Chris]

Those bites on the squid looks like squid bites. We have large squid that will tear up the baits. Saw two huge groups of Rissos yesterday which reinforces the fact that the squid have moved back into the canyons.

I got a giant squid jig to try to bring one up this year.

[Latimeria]

I thought it was squid, but when I sent the picture to Matt, he said thresher.  In any case, I was just happy to see that the baits attracted something.  lol

BTW, Shaun's friend got a cool catch yesterday out there.  I've only seen them in the East Coast canyons, so I wasn't even sure they were out in the Pacific.  I'll attach the pic here in a few.

[Chris]

I thought it was squid, but when I sent the picture to Matt, he said thresher.  In any case, I was just happy to see that the baits attracted something.  lol

BTW, Shaun's friend got a cool catch yesterday out there.  I've only seen them in the East Coast canyons, so I wasn't even sure they were out in the Pacific.  I'll attach the pic here in a few.

Pomphret?

[Latimeria]

I thought it was squid, but when I sent the picture to Matt, he said thresher.  In any case, I was just happy to see that the baits attracted something.  lol

BTW, Shaun's friend got a cool catch yesterday out there.  I've only seen them in the East Coast canyons, so I wasn't even sure they were out in the Pacific.  I'll attach the pic here in a few.

Pomphret?

I forgot to attach pics and stuck at work for 12-14 hours a day for the rest of the week.  It's a Lancetfish.  Like a Cutlassfish on Steroids.  I've only seen 4 or 5 in my life at the docks and they were all from the east coast.