Went fishin'

[luckydave215]

With my son, 15 days offshore on the Red Rooster III. Caught this one (and several more like it) in Puerto Vallarta bay, at a spot called cleophus bank.

When the fishin' hole is 1000 miles from home, it's a lot easier to go on one of San Diego's long range boats. Sleep whenever you want, somone else cleans, cooks, and drives at night, and you don't have to change the oil half way through the trip. (and you only have to pay for 1/20th of the fuel)

 

[Boss Lady]

Nice Fish! You have the correct handle there "Lucky Dave" LOL

 

[egaito]

One word....

Sushi!

What a great fish.....congrats.

 

[hunshatt]

nice. anymore?

 

[luckydave215]

Sorry about the crappy picture of a picture, but it's on the wall in the den, along with the (fish) mount, all 14 feet of it.

This fish was a tough one to land as it weighed 500 pounds, and I was fishing 50 pound line stand up, in rough conditions. That's a ten to one ratio, respectable for sporting angling. I hate winching them in on 200 pound test, it takes the skill requirement out of the equation.
I got spooled in less than 45 seconds, and threw the rig over the side attached to a big fender, chased it around for a while, and gaffed the fender back into the cockpit. Then of course the fish ran again. This went on for a while, as I had the "ball" in the water three times. The whole thing took about 2-3/4 hours.
I was fishing on the Happy Hunter out of Nawiliwili harbor on Kauai, capt Harry Shigekane. (this is the boat my son works on as mate in the summers)


While I have photobucket open, I guess I'll post another pic. This is what I did every sunday for 20 years.

 

[egaito]

I got spooled in less than 45 seconds, and threw the rig over the side attached to a big fender, chased it around for a while, and gaffed the fender back into the cockpit. Then of course the fish ran again. This went on for a while, as I had the "ball" in the water three times. The whole thing took about 2-3/4 hours.

The only think missing from this story is the line "I think we need a bigger boat"

Tying off to the fender....very clever, and quick thinking!

 

[luckydave215]

We had the fender prepared ahead of time, with two 5/16" lanyards spliced to harness clips. Just clip the fender to the harness lugs on the reel, then in one motion, pin down the drag and toss the whole thing over the side. The fender has more flotation than the breaking strength of the fishing line, so at worst you lose the line and lure.
Of course, that reel (Shimano 50WLRS) comes completely apart that night.

 

[Calcutta]

Nice fish, Lucky Dave - both of them!!
A couple years ago, I happened to be in San Diego snooping around the Landing one Saturday morning when the Red Rooster showed up from one of their multi-day trips. As they were backing into their slip ...
I was stunned at the sheer quantity and quality of y/f tuna & wahoo on board. Big fish by the hundreds - the tails were sticking up in the cockpit, like rows of corn stalks.
Question: on these boats, is it typical for the anglers to trade their fresh tuna in for cases of canned Star-Kist in the parking lot, or was I just hallucinating?

 

[thoward]

Nice reel there boss. How does it compare to the Tiagra 50WLRSA(that is what I have as well). The fish aint bad either . Our yellowfins should be here in a couple months and I can not wait.

With big swords I know guys who will attach another rod/reel and dump the spooled one in the drink. When it comes to big fish I have ADD and end up hammering the drag....

 

[luckydave215]

Tiagra 50WLRS (50 Wide Long Range Special) are what we have also. (and Tiagra 80W's ,etc) The 50WLRS has the same drag parts/performance as the 80W.
When fishing boats in the San Diego long range fleet like the Red Rooster III, we usually fish live sardines standup from a drifting or anchored boat, so you have to be able to cast the bait far enough to get it to swim away from the boat, instead of turning back to hide underneath it. In addition, you have that rod/reel in your hands all day, not sitting in a rod holder on the rail -there aren't any- and all fish are fought standing up with specialized harnesses (or being drug around the boat, again and again) not from a chair, so light weight and small size is of paramount importance.
This is what drove the developement of spectra line, and the small high tech 2 speed reels that have the drag performance of huge reels. Thus I fish 200 pound spectra and 100 pound mono top shot on a 4/0 Avet 2 speed reel. It can hold more than 750 yards of this line combo, and make 52 pounds of drag, with the perfect freespool required to flyline these small baits, yet fits in my hand. Unlike the old pen internationals, or even shimano tiagra's, the new reels have drag washers 3-4" in diameter, not the ones the size of $quarter the older reels have.
Carbon fiber rod blanks and high tech reels have all but eliminated back up rigs and floats for tuna fishing on fish up to 350 pounds because now we have the line capacity and the gnarly drags needed to stop these monsters get their heads turned back to the boat.

 

[luckydave215]

There are 3 or 4 "fish processors" who meet the long range boats when they return to port, and they offer filleting, vacuum packing, smoking, air shipping, canning, etc. They do a great job, and the price is reasonable. You can even donate your catch to charity through them, and get enough write off to pay for the trip. (almost)
On our last trip (January 4-19) in addition to California residents, there were anglers from New York, Texas, and Denmark on board. Anglers come from literally around the globe to try for a "cow tuna" (over 200 pounds) and the holy grail is to catch one over 300 pounds.

 

[thoward]

That is very much like fishing for swords. We use the stand up harness which really helps put it to the fish and save your back. We have been using mono with wind-on leaders but have been looking in to going with the 130# Jerry Brown Hollow Core with a top shot of mono.

 

[Calcutta]

Thanks for the reply, Dave.
What a trip that must be...

 

[Ross Macdonald]

Dave.. I'm confused.. You have the best equipped 60 Hatt on the west coast and based on your posts, your boat is a hell of alot better equipped than mine. Wouldn't it be a good thing for a tuna fisherman like you to take your boat to PV, home base out of Paradise Village Marina and be about 50 miles from the area you travelled on Red Rooster? My wife and I are probably no where near as experienced as you are and we made the trip arriving Jan. 11. The fuel at Opequimar is about $2.30 per gallon and there are great people here that would wash and wax your boat as well as your crews in San Diego. Just a thought.....Also, Don't most of the anglers on the Long Range boats out of San Diego fly back from a drop off in Cabo? Nice...No getting your butts kicked for an 850 mile bash back up the outside of the baja...

 

[luckydave215]

Ross, it's a matter of time, or lack of it. I still work fullk time, and my fishing partner (my son) is a full time student. We can fish for the big tuna in a short amount of time if we go on a long range boat. It's not sensible to put all those hours on the engines and pay for all that fuel just to marathon travel 24 hours/day trying to raise big fish without combining that pursuit with cruising at leisure.
I'll be retiring soon, and then the cruising begins........In the meantime, I'm getting the boat in the shape that satisfies me. If I left the boat in Puerto Vallarta (or Cabo) it would be a plane flight to spend the time I love simply fooling about in the engine room every weekend, and going for those short local cruises and fish adventures.
My boat is my favorite toy, I like to play with it every weekend.

 

[thoward]

I want mine to be as clean as yours so will you come play in mine?

 

[luckydave215]

Ross, strangely on the last trip we got our asses handed to us on the way down (you were there at the time, anchored somewhere nice while we were running 24 hours a day) and had flat water the whole way north. The reverse of usual.
This trip wasn't a fly back trip because we planned to fish the hurricane bank, and run straight home from there. It's 600 miles south west of Cabo, so darn far out of the way to deliver anglers to the airport. As it turned out, the fishing at the hurricane was poor and the weather worse, so we diverted to PV.

 

[Ross Macdonald]

Roger that.... We sat in Santa Maria in 35-40 kts. for 3 days during that run. I agree with you.. I like to spend time on my boat every day. People in Paradise Village think I'm nuts because I'm the only owner down here that takes care of their own boat. We waited out weather in Ensenada, Turtle Bay and Santa Maria. Sometimes it seems hard for all the east coast guys on this forum to grasp the Pacific Ocean on the outside of the Baja and the fact that you are out in the middle of nowhere for some 24-36 hour stretches. It's no fun running in a 10-12 ft. following sea at 10 kts. with a 20 kt. wind behind you for 13 hours of pure darkness with an autopilot that would prefer that you hand steer. But the old Hatt seemed to do better than I did. We are heading to Manzanillo in 2 weeks for a couple of months. Ross

 

[luckydave215]

Between San Diego and lucitania bank we had 35-40 knots and 20'+ following seas for three days, running 24 hours / day about 200 miles offshore.
The seas were high enough that we couldn't see over them at times from the bridge of the Rooster.........that's tall, and they were quartering the whole time. Crap, we rolled our brains out.
I drive some of the time, standing a few watches to help out so the crew can get some boat work done, and the ride up in that tall house was almost violent at times. Just about the time I was feeling a bit seasick and felt like crawling into my bunk instead of being at the helm, the Captain (Andy Cates) confessed to me that HE was seasick. That made me feel a lot better about my lubberiness, so I sucked it up and stayed where I was.
Hard core fishing boats and stabilizers don't mix, but about then I was wishing............
When you're on a schedule like the long range boats are, you don't have the luxury of waiting it out, it's "press on regardless"

 

[hwginc]

Nice Job