American Angler skipper Brian Kiyohara posted September 5:“The Curtis Rosenthal trip returned this morning from a trip so great from the fishing and people aspect that everyone will have to settle for a different experience next time because it would be hard to top this one.
“Thanks to Mr. Hara for being the glue on this trip and for his support for us all year long. We are grateful for your writings, pictures and postings which brings us invaluable exposure.”
1st place: Ryan Leitner, 42-pound tuna
2nd place tie: Bob Hara & David Christensen, 41-pound tuna
Big But Tough To Entice
Independence skipper Jeff DeBuys noted in his posting September 4:
“From the looks of things out here today I would say that the over all sign of fish out here is outstanding. We saw giant schools of big bluefin, giant schools of 25 to 35 lb. yellowfin tuna and we managed to put together a decent day. Getting the big’uns to bite was a tough feat, but we did get a few shots at them. The yellowfin wanted to bite today and we had great action on them in the afternoon, and bluefin in the morning. Picture perfect weather is what we had today. We plan on doing this again tomorrow.”
Bigger Yellowfin
“A fun day out here on the Tuna grounds,” wrote Intrepid skipper Kevin Osborne September 4, “with a nice long mid-morning to mid-afternoon drift for quality Bluefin. The afternoon brought on some pretty darn good Yellowfin Tuna fishing in the 30 to 40-pound class! Very nice to see this grade of Yellowfin mixing it up out here. The weather is very nice as well, with Norbert working his way up the coast we are very content to stay put up here and enjoy more of this good offshore action.”
Afternoon Delight
“Our morning started out with calm seas, overcast skies, and a bit of a chill in the air," said the report from Royal Polaris September 4. "Our morning started out a bit cool also, but by late afternoon, it was game on. We only caught a few Bluefin in the morning, but the quality of the fish was a bit larger than yesterday. We would go most of the day chasing down school of Bluefin that didn't bite. “By late afternoon, we did find a school of Yellowfin that did bite. Most of the fish were in the 18 to 25-pound range, with another group of fish in the 25 to 40-pound range.”
Pesky Yellowfin
Royal Star posted September 4:“Beautiful weather and incredible sign of tuna in the offshore grounds today. We started the morning driving away from 30 to 40-pound bluefin to go in search of bigger grade and were rewarded a few hours later when we found a school of jumbos. We got a quick shot at them that produced eight fish from 60 to 90 pounds with a few quality yellowfin mixed in.
“The rest of the day was spent hitting school after school of this bigger grade but we only hooked a few more. A new development this afternoon was the inundation of yft in the 20 to 35-pound grade which bit with abandon, making it difficult to target the bft. This overall offshore scene looks phenomenal for the upcoming month. We will be spending our final day here targeting the big bft again.”
Raining Bait
“Today started off with great bait making,” reported Shogun September 4, “soap bar mackerel raining over the side, and we filled the top four tanks. Started fishing around 8 A.M., almost immediately after finding a sonar school of 40-pound bluefin that bit consistently for half an hour. At that point yellowfin started hitting the deck.
“Later in the day the fish floated and we were able to slide onto consistent breezers and flat spots of larger grade bluefin. Almost every stop reacted well to the chum, boiling and crashing in every direction. However in typical bluefin fashion, only a handful were frisky enough to bite the hooked baits.
“When the dust settled we boated 31 bluefin, 10 of which were over 70 pounds, and 33 yellowfin, 18 to 38 pounds. Top fish for the day was a bluefin caught by angler Jeff Clark, taping out at 102 pounds. Tomorrow we’re waking on the anchor in hopes of jigging up enough bait to replenish what our efforts depleted today and moving on to a new area.”
