“Without the time to get wordy today, suffice to say we are very encouraged by the signs and are geared up for tomorrow. There is going to be some very good big fish action here over the next few days. I can feel it.
“For our photo congratulations to Jeff Crouse who battled an exploded reel with no anti-reverse during the final twenty feet to triumph over his three hundred thirty two pound fish of a lifetime. It was an incredible fish story that I will have to share later. Suffice to say it took all of our wits, and brute strength, to overcome a colossal hurdle that easily could, and probably should, have cost Jeff his massive trophy. Thank goodness it didn't.”
Better To Be There At The Right Time"We have all heard the sayings such as 'I would rather be lucky than good,' but the truth of the matter is that timing is probably the most important factor,” said the report from American Angler January 9.
“We were lucky enough to get on a spot early and right out of the gate were very busy on 30 to 70-pound fish. We kept three to 10 going for several hours and by lunch we opted to leave them biting. We ended up with a great catch that included a half a dozen fish over 100 pounds such as the one displayed by Karl Bornemann and our Nathan Madruga.
"We went looking for something different and finally found it before dark. We hooked a half a dozen fish and they were all size large. Dale Prichard made short work of his 208 and then we had a short run of bad luck when we lost three in a row. We boated the last two that we had hooked in the dark. Mark McClintock did a great job of representing Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties with one that weighed just over two and Harvey Rosen caught one on behalf of his son Burke, that was a whopping 267 pounds."
Good Ones Off The Mainland
“Well we went for it,” said Excel skipper Justin Fleck, “made the move across to Puerto Vallarta to start out our trip. The speed was not in our favor on the way down so we didn't get here until after lunch. We did manage to catch 24 tuna out of a drift that started out on a bird school. The fish were 90-150 pounds. We are spending the night and will try it again tomorrow.”
On The Way Down“We made a stop this afternoon at our Grouper hole," wrote Intrepid skipper Kevin Osborne January 10.
“The big bottom dwellers did not disappoint us. We had many hookups on skipjacks. Some of the yellowtail we hooked also got hammered by the grouper. We managed to get nine on board along with plenty of yellows. Big fish today goes to Dan Hannegan with an 80 to 90-pound gulf grouper. We got a visit by a giant sea turtle, one of the biggest we have seen, maybe 150 to 200 pounds, and managed to get a couple of pics of him.
“It was a fun couple of hours for us and we are now back underway towards the lower banks.”
Supreme Finishes Up
“We had a very good start off early this morning,” said the report from Polaris Supreme January 9. “Al got the first ever swordfish landed on this boat at about 3:30 am.
“Jeremy backed that up with a 182-pound yellowfin, also caught in the dark. Then we stayed pretty wide open until about 7:30 am, on the smaller grade tuna which all were released. We then went looking around for larger grade tuna for the rest of the day.
“Today we wound up the trip and are heading into Cabo to fly home tomorrow. The guys are breaking down their tackle and looking forward to sitting down to a nice lobster and filet dinner. I have to say these guys are some of the toughest guys we've seen. They really hung in there with such a great effort on their part in trying for the cows. This was an outstanding group and we all had a great time.
“We will be at the dock on Wednesday morning to weigh in the cows that were caught in the beginning of the trip. Come down and see us.”
First Spot’s A Winner
“We had a really nice first day here today,” said Andy Cates, Red Rooster III skipper on January 10. “We had excellent action on fish from 75 to 230 pounds. There were a few bigger ones mixed in but up to 180 pounds was the biggest. Tomorrow we are going to spend some time looking around to see if there is much bigger fish. Bill Campbell won the daily jackpot with a $200 gift certificate to Anglers Center in Newport Beach. He was stoked.”
Big Sunrise, Big Fish
“We awoke to the most memorable sunrise of the season,” wrote Bruce Smith aboard the Shogun January 11.
"The fishing still was on the slow side. Dave Stoltz stuck with fishing the big baits and was rewarded with the first cow of the trip, as his tuna taped at 210 pounds. Good going Dave! By the time 12:00 rolled around and only a hand full of wahoo and tuna coming aboard, Norman made the decision to move the boat to the nearest island. We will be at Clarion in the morning, hoping for some much needed action.”
