"We all set goals for what we would like to accomplish and the same goes for us on the boat. We told ourselves that if we could catch 20 nice bluefin we would be stoked because where we were going above the banks the weather forecast was for choppy weather. When we arrived on scene the weatherman was correct and throughout the day it picked up to a steady 20 to 25 knots. We were lucky enough to find a few dabs of fish and ended up with close to 30 nice grade fish that included a few in the 70 to 80-pound class. Unfortunately, the weather forecast for the grounds is for it to increase so we are moving on as we will never put a fish before safety.”
Jigged ‘But
“We spent the past two days down at the Islands, wrote Excel skipper Justin Fleck August 30, “trying to avoid the winds and swell from the Hurricane. We had very good Yellowtail fishing. We got them on yoyo Iron, fly-lined baits, dropper loops and a few guys were fishing the surface iron. We also had some quality calico bass to go along with one big halibut. We are going to head up now and we will check in tomorrow.”Sensational ‘Tails
“We departed yesterday on the coast side fishing club 8-day,” wrote Independence skipper Jeff DeBuys August 30, “with high hopes and a decent load of bait. Our first attempt of the day today was very rewarding, so we stuck it out and ended up with a sensational catch of big yellowtail for the effort. Everything was the hot ticket, 7X surface plug, yoyo, or cast a bait and hang on style fishing. We are going to try for some bait tonight, and then maybe some more of this tomorrow.”
Intrepid Winners
Intrepid skipper Jesus Companioni posted August 30: “Our 4-Day Open Trip returned this morning. Here are the jackpot winners:
Brett Ringler and Mike Hanson tied for first place with 21-pound yellowfin tuna
Steven Fletcher got second with his 20-pound YFT
Third place went to Tom Shea and Tom Shea Sr.; both with a 19-pound YFT.”
On the dock August 31, skipper Jesus told Bill Roecker:
“We had 26 anglers on our four-day trip. We started early the first day on bird schools at 30 miles. In a couple of hours we had 70 yellowfin from 12 to 25 pounds. On day two we went up to Cortes Bank, in the wind. We got 25 bluefin from 15 to 25 pounds there, and 18 yellowtail. Back on the yellowfin grounds for day three at 40 miles, we found a nice sonar school, good for 150 fish. On day four we had about 50 yellowfin, and half of them came up on the north end in the evening.”
Wahoo Snooze
“Today didn't go as well as we were hoping,” observed Polaris Supreme skipper Drew Henderson August 30. “The plan sounded so good in my head too. You don't believe me? Come inside my mind and tell me it didn't sound like a good plan, you'll be a liar. The plan was to start here and work there. We were supposed to catch a bunch of yellowtail, then catch a wahoo or two, then scratch at some dorado here and there along with another wahoo or two, then we were supposed to get a small hit on wahoo in the end before finding the mother load of dorado.
“Well, there wasn't much yellowtail. The little bit of dorado we saw either didn't bite or was small. And we didn't see a wahoo until the end. We did see a school of good grade yellowfin that wasn't in our plan. It didn't bite for long though. It was on the corner, biting every bait, for about three minutes. Just long enough for everyone to get one and then they vanished. I drove around thinking I would easily find the school again but we never did. We lost at least six wahoo on the last spot we checked and landed none. The wahoo won today.
“Cool things of note today- the sailfish we caught, a couple marlin hooked and the orcas we saw. In the 14 seasons I've been out here I can only remember a handful of times seeing killer whales so it's not too often we see them. We also don't catch sailfish too often.”
Skipper Henderson felt better entertained August 31, the next day:
“Remember yesterday I was talking about plans? Well if you read my first report of the trip I talked about dragging our feet a day and waiting for the weather to get pristine out at the Rocks. That was the master plan and well, it worked out. Today we had great weather to go along with our great wahoo fishing. We arrived to the grounds at 7:30 and we were getting steady jig strikes on wahoo to go along with jigging and baiting until about 5:30 when things around here went to bed. I really wanted gour more wahoo for the magic number but we tried and tried and we gave up. The fish went to bed so we will too. We're now sitting on anchor getting ready to enjoy a nice sunset before eating a nice dinner. Like I said, the weather couldn't be better. We'll have a great night’s sleep. We're going to try this again in the morning and take it from there. It's the last day we ever get in August of 2014 and I'm glad we spent it here."
Brown Charter
Skipper Andy Cates brought Red Rooster III home from a five-day Larry Brown charter August 29. His anglers took 385 yellowfin tuna, 38 bluefin tuna, five dorado and two skipjack tuna.The boat’s office posted results:
“1st place jackpot: 110-pound bluefin caught by Sal Tocco of San Diego
2nd place: 42-pound bluefin, Donna Leffman of El Paso, TX
3rd: 41-6-pound bluefin, Tim Dooling, La Jolla
Trolling jackpot: 41.6-pound bluefin, Josh Rider, Woodland Hills.”
Back again Labor Day, Cates wrote, “We are just wrapping up our annual labor day special. It has been an action packed trip. I don't think we could have squeezed in any more fishing time. The style of fishing this trip was a fast pace "run and gun" style that is often associated with yellowfin. They really are a fun fish to try for, usually willing to bite and always fight to the end. We made a play for some of the local bluefin but as is often the case they proved elusive.” Plenty ‘O Yellows
Weather today was very humid," posted Royal Polaris August 31, "overcast in the morning, but by afternoon it was sunny with a slight breeze, just enough to keep you cool. The breeze was the only thing that was cool today, because the Yellowtail fishing was excellent, with limits (daily limits) for all aboard. Most of the fish were in the 15 to 18-pound range, with a few in the 12 to 14-pound category. We did have a few in the 22 to 30-pound range also. The Yellowtail started biting around 08:00 hours, and we had steady fishing until we departed for the San Benitos Islands.“We are headed to San Benitos to make bait, and fish for Yellowtail in the morning. Most of our passengers are napping for now, while others are gearing up for tomorrow's fishing adventure.”
Dorado Best Biters
Jonathan Roldan’s Tailhunter Fish Report for August 31 said his week was warm and partly soggy, with daily dorado.“Early in the week, it seemed we had threats of rainstorms just about every day. Some days it would actually rain pretty hard for a while. Other days, we got nothing but clouds. But, it surely kept us on alert and trying to figure if it would be better for our fishing clients to fish out of La Paz or Las Arenas.
“Mostly, just to be on the safe side, we kept folks fishing with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet. Dorado were more or less ready, willing and able and everyone was hooking fish. Not a lot of big ones, but fun sized 10 to 20-pounders with occasional 25 to 30-pounders plus some billfish.
“When we did fish Las Arenas, there were roosterfish and enough 10-pound dorado to at least keep it interesting.
“Later in the week, it seemed that the weather pretty much cleared up. We were pretty excited after watching clouds for so many days! The conditions looked awesome. Sunny skies, dark moon, blue water, decent bait (at least more than we had before), good currents, warm water…but wait!
“I don’t know what happened, but the latter part of the week it was almost like a dead ocean. Not only did the dorado go lock-jaw on us, but so did the bonito and even needlefish got scarce!
“Many of our ace captains who niver get shut out were coming back with nothing or only one or two fish. Maybe one day that can happen, but two, three, four days in a row? I don’t think I’ve ever seen that many days go dead on us, at least not that many consecutive days.
“Hopefully, but the time you’re reading this, things will have turned on again! Any day now! But we have to keep an eye out; more rain is predicted this week. No hurricanes, but thundershowers are predicted!”
http://fishreport.jonathanroldan.com/
