This came from the Independence office November 15: “Hello everyone, our satellite email is not working in the lower zone at the moment. Capt. Jeff did call in when he had signal to say the fishing has been good the last two days, they have one cow at about 220, the rest of the tuna are all mixed up in the 50 to 190-pound range for the most part. There also has been a few wahoo to spice up the action from time to time. The weather started off bad on departure day but has turned in to beautiful flat warm fishing weather. The plan is to do this again tomorrow.”



Woke To Biting Beaks

“We awoke this morning to flat calm seas,” wrote Intrepid skipper Bill Cavanaugh November 14, “and comfortably warm weather. We looked at water that we have yet to fish this year in hopes of locating some big tuna. On a couple of occasions today we saw small spots of good grade tuna but unfortunately for us, we did not get a response and never hooked one. Although we did not accomplish what we set out for, we did experience some world-class striped marlin fishing. Throughout the day we hooked, caught, and released numerous striped marlin. Overall, not bad for a slow day of fishing. We will be looking for bigger tuna again tomorrow.”



Hoisting ‘Em On

On November 15, Red Rooster III Captain Andy Cates wrote, "Yesterday we caught 60 tuna mostly school-size fish, although we managed to get three big ones: Charlie Martinez caught a 270 pounder, Mike Toetter caught a 243, Nick Rekrut won the Accurate Reel for catching the third-biggest fish over 200 pounds. His fish was a 216-pound tuna! We had 18 to 22 fish at the 80 to 100-pound class, and half a dozen at the 140 to 180-pound class.
“This morning we have about 30 fish so far; half a dozen at 80 to 120-pound class, a couple at 196 pounds. Mike Toetter caught a 209-pounder. It has been slow but we are getting fish. We will try to get some pictures as soon as we get a better signal!"



Deep Jigger

“Weather was quite beautiful today and our fishing is a bit scratchy,” noted the report from Royal Polaris November 15, “but all are catching fish. We started out with an excellent bite in the dark, however most were in the 25 to 40 pound class. Richard Voss had a 130-pound fish and a 60-pounder by daybreak, using a Salas PL 68. In the mayhem there were several good fish lost. Wahoo fishing was fair today, as we caught 29 quality fish. Photos will come later. There are openings on our 18-day/12-day fly down/fly back trip leaving April 26th.”



Adrenalin Rush


“We continue to enjoy spectacular weather down here,” wrote Royal Star skipper Brian Sims November 15, “with the breeze never over 8 knots today. The good fishing continued as we found some Wahoo that wanted to get with the program. It was a pure adrenaline rush with fish biting mere feet from the boat and ripping off across the surface, before being led to gaff. I only took one photo today because when they were biting it was an all hands affair. I hope you enjoy it.”



Toward Cabo San Lucas

“Hello anglers,” said the report from Searcher November 15. “We worked hard today at fishing for large yellowfin tuna. Unfortunately we were unsuccessful. We saw sign of tuna this morning that didn't bite and this afternoon we saw very little sign of tuna. Tomorrow is our last day and we are headed further south towards Cabo to try again. We have all day and plenty of bait left. Hopefully we will be rewarded for our effort.”



Ship May Help Fishing

(News Release November 14, 2012) SAC and a number of other Southern California groups spoke yesterday at the San Diego Port Commission in favor of home porting the new NOAA Research Ship Reuben Lasker in San Diego. The Port Commission voted unanimously on a fifteen-year lease. SAC has worked two years to move this initiative, as this ship will be the information source for the Pacific Fisheries Management Council to make decisions. Hopefully more science will equate to more opportunity for your operations. NOAA has been a good partner and having this ship home ported in San Diego will reduce transit time to our region and provide this ship more time to conduct critical stock research in the California Bight.