“When we left the dock yesterday,” said the report from American Angler September 10, “the guys on the grounds were talking about choppy weather, but the forecast talked about the winds backing off. When we got up in the morning, the weatherman was absolutely correct and it was beautiful with next-to-no wind. We had scattered strikes in the morning before we got on a kelp that had a beautiful grade of Dorado. Brad helps Steve Powell show off one of the many that we put aboard and also mixed in was a fair amount of yellowfin tuna which definitely added a little spice.
In the afternoon we got lucky and found a spot of 25 to 45-pound tuna fish and enjoyed a pretty good bite until dark on those trophy-sized offshore gems.
Taro and Michelle Zenger show off one of the first of these better grade fish that hit the deck.”



Hard To Come By

“The last few days we were fishing for tuna and Dorado off shore with just moderate success,” said the news from Independence September 10. “The better grade fish were hard to come by, as only eight made their way on board, 35 to 40-pounders, and the rest were smaller grade. We covered a lot of water, and are going to try somewhere for tomorrow. The weather is really good out here.”



First Day

“Today was our first fishing day of an eight-day trip sponsored by Seaguar/Hayabusa with Richard Hightower as host," said Intrepid's report September 10. Just before dinner of the first night, Richard gave away a bunch of shirts, hats, hooks and fluorocarbon to everyone on board. We will no doubt be putting it all to good use in the days to come. We fished offshore today with good results. We experienced steady action throughout the day on school sized yellowfin tuna. We also picked up some beautiful dorado and a couple of bluefin tuna. It was an excellent start to the trip and we will be fishing our way south tomorrow. The photo for the day is of Jamie Kepke with a nice yellowfin tuna.”

The next day the report said, “We had an excellent day of offshore tuna fishing today. We ended up with our daily limits of yellowfin tuna, 12 bluefin tuna, and 19 good grade dorado. The yellowfin were 12 to 20 pounds and the bluefin were 20 to 25 pounds. To go with our great day of fishing, we had grease calm weather. Life is good on the Intrepid. We will be targeting yellowtail tomorrow.”



A Real Dandy

“Just a real dandy of a day for us today,” noted the posting from Polaris Supreme on Facebook September 10. “We started it out in the morning with the yellowtail snap and then we followed it up in the afternoon with Monday night footballs. The footballs were all you wanted and we also added a small handful of dorado to our days count. We did all of this in flat calm conditions and the boys are all wore out from the excellent fishing that we had today. Everybody's pumped and I screamed myself hoarse today.

“For tomorrow, we're looking for tuna with a little more size as one of our code boats had a nice afternoon on those premium grade offshore yellowfin tuna so we'll be in the area looking around for a few ourselves. The boys enjoyed a twenty-two year old Cabernet Sauvignon tonight and I think Robin and Wayne might have shed a tear together while talking about it.”



Big Bluefin Nip: “Epic Day”

“We had great action all morning on kelp grade yellowfin tuna and dorado,” reported Andy Cates for the Red Rooster III September 11. “Three kelps with ‘See them swimming in the water action.’ A great start of the trip. A few upper grade fish mixed in up to 35 pounds but not many. The majority are 12 to 18-pound fish. Great action.

The afternoon was a surprise with an area of 80 to 100 pound Bluefin. Great visual with big fish boiling as far as you could see. We kept 4 to 7 fish going until dark and ended up with 23 trophy Bluefin. Our bait situation will be ok for another day and we will try this again. It was a really lucky deal and any sign tomorrow would be great. Flat calm weather and what an epic day.”



Toasty

“Hot was the word of the day,” recalled the report from Royal Polaris September 10. “Hot Yellowfin Tuna limit-style bite. Yellowtail fishing was hot. The weather was hot, water hot, sun hot. We caught a couple hot Wahoo and a few hot Dorado. Even bait fishing got hot for a little while. Although our dinner was mostly cold what can you say about eating the fish you caught with 25 of your favorite buddies, prepared by two excellent chefs and spread out sushi buffet style but Hot!”



Satiation

“Another fine day of yellowtail angling in flat calm weather,” said the report from Royal Star for September 11, “with all aboard completely satiated by lunch. We spent the afternoon working up for only a few dorado and school tuna, the guys took advantage of the idle time with the cocktails flowing freely. Our plan is to target bigger tuna in the offshore grounds for the remainder of the trip.”



Amazing Morn

“Howdy anglers,” read the salutation from Art Taylor’s Searcher September 11. “This morning has been amazing in all aspects! The weather is calm and the fishing is unreal. We found a kelp paddy this morning and we drifted until lunch catching nice yellowfin tuna and dorado. Here is a nice yellowfin caught by Robert Chavez from San Diego.”



A Little Late

“Would be home tomorrow earlier,” noted the Vagabond’s posting on Facebook September 11, “but stopped for a wide open bite on YFT from 30 to 50 pounds! ETA is 7:30 a.m. September 12 with happy large family.”