Luckily, it
was only 76 miles from Captain Steve's home. Steve drove to pick upLATEST FISHING NEWS
July 18, 2007
Member, Scott Butler, from Phoenix, Arizona was planning to go aboard FLYING FINGERS for albacore trip on Tuesday, July 17th. He looked forward
to this trip for several months which included his 30 Year Class Reunion from CSDR. When his friends backed out for several reasons, he didn't want to
drop the plan. He was willing to pay the entire package alone. Anyway, on the way to San Diego after work on Monday the 16th while towing his ski
boat
behind, his SUV broke down on the freeway.
Luckily, it
was only 76 miles from Captain Steve's home. Steve drove to pick up
Scott and his boat. AAA truck came to tow his disabled SUV off the freeway. The next day, an U-Haul trailer was rented to go back to mount the
SUV to bring to San Diego. Scott still was stubborn about not canceling the
fishing trip because he was not a quitter.
At the
same time, another member,
Otto Rechenberg, from Orange County, was supposed to join Greg Sassounian's VITAMIN SEA for a fishing trip to San Clemente Island. However,
Greg hurt his back while loading ice chest thus the trip was cancelled.
Otto was
still itchy and itchy as he had not gone tuna fishing for 3
years. So, he decided to ditch work to join with Scott. Tuesday night, 17th, Otto arrived at Captain Steve's home and helped pack the boat.
Despite the negative fishing reports about count being down and rough weather, we still didn't want to cancel. The next morning at 5:45, we hit the open
ocean after a load of great mix of anchovies and sardines. The weather was rough like a "washing machine" during the entire trip. We caught the first
albacore at 7:45 a.m. Then, we kept catching one after another one and by 3:00
in the afternoon, we reached our LIMITS!!!
The average weight class was 25 lbs plus several over 30 lbs. including a whopper of 36 lbs!!!!!!!!! Scott
battled
one albacore estimated to be 40 lbs for about half hour before it came
unbuttoned.
Also, Otto lost several big ones but that was
part of the game of sport fishing!!!
Pics are below.
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Lots of tuna steaks!!!!!!
July 7 and 8, 2007
Let me just put everything in a nutshell here instead of a long-winded report.
On Saturday, July 7th, one year old member, Mikael Lundquist from Riverside, and
Greg Lee from Gardena went aboard FLYING FINGERS
for a 2 day trip. It was Mikael's first time while it was second time for Greg. Another member, Satoshi Nakama, was supposed to join with us but at
the last minute he could not make it. Anyway, on Saturday, the 7th, we caught our limits in the Mexican waters at 302, 371, and 390 spots. At night,
we slept overnight. Mikael could not sleep because he thought someone was knocking on the hull trying to get his attention. I told him it was probably
the mermaid trying to talk to him. The boat drifted 4 and 1/2 miles all night. Then on Sunday, the 8th, we fished at the 390 Spot with Mexican purse
seiners (at least 25) and cattle boats. By 10:00 a.m. we started trolling all the way home and eventually reached limits minus four. The last albie was
gaffed at 17 miles from San Diego to wrap up our two day trip.
Here are the pics.
July 3, 2007
This albacore trip was postponed for two consecutive days due to rough ocean conditions. Steve Turner, Tony Barksdale,
and Blake Smith finally embarked at 2:15 in the morning of July 3rd heading straight toward east butterfly bank aboard
23 foot FLYING FINGERS. We stopped at EB for full scoop of large sardines as we double checked with the guy
to make sure the bait was “aged”. The ride out was nice at first but once we got closer to the butterfly bank, it became
unbearably rough that we had to slow down to 8 knots.
At the first break of early dawn, we put out the black/purple feathers plus
cedar plug. One hour later, the cedar plug got hit.
Of course, the bent pole sent our adrenalin rushing!
Again as
always, we began scrambling and stumbling and fumbling our way
around due to "out of practice". Even if we were to have a meeting, we still would bumble around during the first strike on every
trip. By third or fourth hookup, things would then become smoother where good teamwork would be set in. Anyway, when the
first albacore was gaffed, HIGH-FIVES were exchanged
around.
Then, we came across a pretty good sized kelp paddy
which we derived two nice size yellowtail. We arrived at the east butterfly and saw only one cattle boat “Sea Horse”
(where the heck did that boat moor at? Seaforth?). We
saw very few private boats. By noon, we had only 3 albacore.
Decided to head toward west butterfly bank where we had to conquer the incoming treacherous swells on the way. Upon arrival,
we saw only one cattle boat “Tide Change” and only 3
private boats. We began to wonder where the heck everyone was???
All this time much to our woeful HORROR, the water temp was darn too warm at
69 degrees and sometimes hitting 70!! Then,
this common annoying nasty FEAR of
going home with only one albie each began to creep into our minds.
We began to
wonder if
all those glamorous reports of hot albie bite by both party and
private boats were all false.
At 3:00, we decided to return to east butterfly bank riding with swells
behind. After two hours of trolling for NADA, all negative
thoughts entered our minds such as “was our trolling speed too fast?” – “were our feathers at wrong color?” – “were the feathers set
up too short to the boat or too far away?” – “were our lines tangled up?” – were the kelp strings stuck on the feathers?” – “was the
water all of a sudden too warm?” and so on.
Since 390 spot was too far that there was not much time left, we decided to
turn and begin trolling toward home till dark. Of course, we
had to fish in the “forbidden” Mexican waters where it always creates problematic headaches with DFG, silly “leaving the skin on” rules,
and other crap.
When we
approached San Salvador bank, our poles went BENDO!! Triple hookup!! Yes,
albacore!!
We
decided
to box the area. Finally, we reached our Mexican LIMITS of five each
before pitch black!! You could imagine how elated we all were.
Posted here are the pics. Read and look and weep!!!
March 9, 2007
Attack of the Giant Squid
After reading reports about white sea bass/yellowtail bite at La Jolla by kayakers, Steve Turner launched FLYING FINGERS from
Mission Bay with Joe Keller. Began fishing at 6:30 a.m. in the vicinity of kelp beds where few kayakers were paddling. No luck
not even one hook up after 2 hours!
Decided to move to the NW area. Then bam bam bam!!!!! Caught 14 giant
squids nonstop in 1 and half hours then 2 more in the
next half hour and the bite died for a total of 16 squirters!!! All in broad daylight!! I thought they only bite during night time but
obviously this was not the case. Such NEW experience for me !!!
I heard about how the ink
from squids could stain your own boat so i kept the pump going to prevent such
ugly stains. What impressed
me was that those squids could jettison such gallons of water right into your face with such awesome perfect aim soaking all over my
clothes!! it was such a barrel of fun!!! During the hectic bite, I lost my favorite gaff since 1975 and the bait net, too. Well, it was time to
get a new one anyway and this time I would attach a floater to both gaff and net
so they could be retrieved if dropped.
here are the pictures below:
