Offshore 9-16-08

[FishPOET]

Bill Kelly and I left Oceanside Harbor at 5am in Bill's 17' center console. We picked up a healthy scoop of sardines at the bait barge and headed SSW towards the 181 spot some 43 miles out.

We were approx 30 miles from shore when we saw a couple of birds working bait. We stopped and each put a bait in the water and I got picked up. After a short run it jumped and I knew I had a nice Dorado on. About 20 minutes later we had our first fish on board, a 30 pound Dorado. We hung around for another 15 minutes before moving on.

Approx 41 miles out we found what we were looking for; Birds, Porpoise and Yellowfin Tuna all crashing bait.



For the next 6 hours we chased the tuna. We would get in front of the fish, drop bait, get hooked up, land the fish and then start the process all over again. We were using 15 lb and 20 lb test line and it would sometimes take 1/2 or more to land these fish. We ended up keeping 10 Yellowfin Tuna. The smallest weighed 35 pounds and the largest weighed 50 pounds.









The boat has a 150 qt ice chest and it was full with 7 fish in it. The rest ended up on the deck until we started filleting them.





It took us almost 2 hours to clean the fish. We ended up with almost 200 pounds of filleted tuna. We were back at the launch ramp at 7pm.

We will be vacuum packing about 1/2 of the fish tonight for freezing. We will be smoking about 50 lbs of tuna. Tonight we will be having fresh Mahi Mahi and Seared Ahi for dinner.

[Jason]

We just finished up the rest of the Albacore we caught on Friday. Baja style. Nice catch, especially the Dorado. Good eatin there. Enjoy.

[NAILER341]

those are some great looking fish!
i need to het out there ant get my line wet
it has been too long.

[FishPOET]

Yum!

[fun4wheelerguy]

Now .......... That made me hungry !!


Awsome fish !!

Brett

[cjdirtbiker]

those are some great looking fish!
i need to het out there ant get my line wet
it has been too long.

Let's go Erik. Been down there three times now and finally got dialed in.

Lost about a 40-pounder like that last trip, got just a couple of skipjack's, but they're out there.

It's not crowded on weekdays...
--Chris

[Materdaddy]

Next time you're around my neck o' the woods, if you're not in a hurry (or covered in fish guts) give me a call and we'll grab a beer!

My neighbor goes fishing a lot and brings me back Yellow Tail/Albacore for my smoker! Bring some fish and we'll make something delicious!

[USMC 0369]

I've only been fishing once here in California... and we didn't catch anything like that! Awesome catch and I bet it was a heck of a day!! Congrats Doug!

Your plate made me hungry!

[NAILER341]

Let's go Erik. Been down there three times now and finally got dialed in.

Lost about a 40-pounder like that last trip, got just a couple of skipjack's, but they're out there.

It's not crowded on weekdays...
--Chris

name the day... i'm in! i'll get some new line on my rods. what size rods should i bring?

[cjdirtbiker]

name the day... i'm in! i'll get some new line on my rods. what size rods should i bring?

Uh, sorry for...:hijack: There's just no excuse :oops:

25-35lb on a good saltwater rig is good for the tuna. If you snag a marlin he'll break you off anyway. But I have several setups so skip the spools and buy some gas. It's about $150 to make the trip, plus bait, grub, and beer (I know, no beer for Erik )

I've got flouro leader and hooks, a live well, and we get a load of sardines on the way out.

If you're susceptible to seasickness take bonine when you wake or the night before, it can be pretty rough out there.

The fish are 15-30 miles offshore, it's been really good insde the 181, and up to the 209.

I'm taking off in the morning for a desert trip 'till Sunday, but will get in touch with you to set a day next week. Leave OC about 5:30, and that's a late start. Puts us at the ramp at daybreak, and head out from there. Figure to be back late afternoon, early evening, hopefully with a load of ahi tuna.

Here's a pic of my boss with a couple of skipjacks, which are crap compared to the yellowfin. Then me playing the 40lb yellowfin that broke me off, and the previous trip we got a couple of dorado, but it's getting harder to find water over 70deg and they disappear. It's been a phenomenal year out there for fishing though, I've heard best in many, many years.






Laters...

[FishPOET]

Bill Kelly invited me out on his boat Friday night for the lobster season opener. At 12:01am Saturday morning we set out 10 hoop nets. At 4am we made our last pull and headed for the barn. We only got 2 legals and 2 shorts for 4 hours of hoopin. The tide was really against us. Bill is on the water again tonight and he started setting out nets at 7pm with much better tide conditions and better results.

Alive and on ice waiting for the kettle.


Turkey friers make great lobster cookers.


Fresh out of the cooker


Mmmmm good

[Jason]

That's it. I need your address cause I'm going to stake out your house with my knife,fork, and drinks.
:beer:

[cjdirtbiker]

Nice job guys.
Bloodydecks report had a few over to SCI for tons of shorts, and DFG was out in force with night-vision and who knows what all writing tickets to early hoopers and some keeping the short ones, and looking for cards.

We'll wait for the early-bird rush to cool off, then hit the harbor for some bugs.

Erik and I burned up a LOT of gas searching for the YFT out there Saturday for naught. Really foggy out of DP, about a mile visibility, then opened up a bit mid-channel but didn't really see any sun all day.

There were a lot of unhappy fishermen on the radio from the Mexico border all they way up to Cat island, water has cooled and the tuna are gone. We found one huge pod of porpoise, the wrong kind, just south of the 14 but no love on the tuna.

Happy Hooping and Good Luck!!