By Bill Roecker

Independence arrived at Pt. Loma sportfishing September 21 after a seven-day Young’s Tackle trip with skipper Jeff DeBuys at the wheel. There were 30 anglers aboard, including chartermaster Mac McLeod.

“We got everything we could,” commented McLeod. “The Ridge was good fishing on tuna and yellowtail. The yellowtail bite on the dropper loop was instant. You had to work, but if you did, you got your fish for your time at the rail.”

Mike Steele of San Diego won first place in the jackpot for a 35.4-pound yellowfin tuna. He bagged his prizewinner with a sardine on a 3/0 ringed Super Mutu hook tied to 30-pound Seaguar fluorocarbon leader and 40-pound main line. He fished an Accurate 270 reel and a Super Seeker 6470 rod.

Lenny Stahl of Lake Arrowhead won second place for a 32.6-pound tuna. Chartermaster McLeod stood in with the winners holding the trip’s best dorado, a troll fish of 32 pounds.



Mr. Izorline Shows ‘Em How

An Izorline trip of five days aboard the Red Rooster III with skipper Andy Cates and 27 anglers ended at H&M Landing September 21.

“We fished dorado and small yellowfin the first day,” related Cates to dock reporter Bill Roecker.

“On the second day we had some excellent yellowtail fishing off Natividad Island. Then we went over to Guadalupe Island and fished a day and a half for trophies and sharks.”

Anglers aboard said they saw one huge white shark come up and clear the rail height, flipping over. They were mightily impressed.

Izorline owner Steve Ichinokuchi caught several large tuna at the big island. One of them weighed 93.9 pounds and won first place for Steve.

“I got him right out of the middle of Shark City,” said Ichinokuchi. “It took about 30 minutes.”

Steve said he used a small new Accurate B2-30 Xtreme reel with 500 yards of Izorline Spectra and some 30 yards of Izorline fluorocarbon leader on the front end to take his tuna. He baited a sardine on a 1/0 Mutu hook and used a Calstar 700 M rod.

Roland Tittle of Fallbrook won second place for a 71-pound tuna. He won the Izorline trophy for the best fish (other than Ichinokuchi’s) caught on (50-pound) Izorline. Scott Peterson of Las Vegas won third place for a 65-pound Guadalupe Island yellowfin tuna. He also won the coveted trolling jacket for the best trollfish, a small wahoo caught at the big island.



Took Light Tackle Advice

“Hi Bill:

Thanks for the advice on what to take on our 1-1/2 day trip on the Ultra out of Fisherman's Landing 9-19-09. We had a great trip.

“We had nine fisherman and caught limits of Yellowfin plus an assortment of other fish. We managed to catch three large albacore to 42 pounds on trolled green-colored Rapalas.

“Weather was flat calm which was great as we had to two young fishermen who had never touched a fishing pole. They both had a great time pulling on the little feisty YFT. My boy Ernie Alex fished with a little Corsair with 12-lb.test line, and had a great battle fighting and landing a Yellowfin tuna. He commented that it felt like fishing with sewing thread.

“Thanks for giving us advice to bring light tackle because we caught a lot of our fish with 15 and 20 lb. test line, yet a few were caught on 25 to 30 lb. test line. Nothing caught on heavy line but good to have it, in the event we ran into big Bluefin or bigger YFT or Albacore.

“A bonus to our fishing trip was that we found four Orcas (Killer Whales) and followed them for about one mile. This was a big thrill for everyone on board, even the crew and the Captain enjoyed the show they put on for us.” Ernie Montano SR, September 21 via e-mail

First Thousand-Fish Day

The San Diego docks recorded the season’s first thousand-fish day for a single species September 20, when the day fleet bagged 1,002 yellowfin tuna. The 295 anglers on 14 boats also caught 86 albacore, 262 dorado, 157 yellowtail and 40 skipjack tuna.