Non-Kayak San Diego BFT Adventure: 60 Miles Off-Shore with Bight Sportfishing

What an awesome experience. Thanks for the detailed and we'll written account. Amazing fish and great pics! You guys are stoked!

I've been itching to try a bft charter but sort of balked at the prices. I think next season I'm going to pull the trigger.

What an awesome experience. Thanks for the detailed and we'll written account. Amazing fish and great pics! You guys are stoked!

I've been itching to try a bft charter but sort of balked at the prices. I think next season I'm going to pull the trigger.

It’s a lot of money, for sure. But start planning now, if you are serious about it.  In my mind, I had committed to go on the 5-day back in October 2019. With a year of planning and saving, I was able to put it together, and less sticker shock when the time came. 

Just don’t expect it to be easy or a slam dunk. It’s a trophy fish for a reason. They are line shy, smart, sometimes difficult to find, and definitely difficult to land for the inexperienced. More than ever, it was important for me to dissociate catching a fish from the experience of the day (although we all know that’s hard to do!).

Badass dude...     That is an amazing experience...  wow!

Just found this on the ‘gram. From Bight, different day (day before it looks like) but this is exactly what we were experiencing all day! Same boat that we were on, Capt. Wes running this charter. Keep your eye on the green balloon!
So much fun.

https://www.instagram.com/tv/CEkNS69gWS5/?igshid=aaxlgkfx9hc7

Report of the year nominee! Great write up and congrats on the epic catch!

Great report. I want to go out and get one! this is awesome.

Once in range, we still had to set up the kite, balloon, and frozen flying fish.  This method of fishing was completely foreign to Plankton and me and involved a lot of moving parts and teamwork. Since tuna are quite shy, you need to present the bait far away from the boat.  The captain puts the boat upwind of the fish. The main line is attached to the kite line, and the kite is flown away from the boat, downwind, hopefully taking your bait in the direction of the school.  At the end of the mainline is a frozen flying fish, rigged with the wings open and hooks in its back.  From underneath, none of the hardware on the bait is observable.  One person mans the kite and the other mans the fishing rod.  Both lines need to be fed out smoothly and at constant rates, ensuring that the bait just skims the surface of the water.  If the timing is wrong and one line is faster than the other, the bait comes out of the water, or it gets dragged and flips upside down. Either way, the fish won’t bite.  It was tricky at first, but we got the hang of it after a few tries. 

Excellent, thanks for sharing, really sounds like an adventure. 

That’s pretty cool that you were actively involved in the process, I’d rather be on a trip like that where you’re Learning and operating gear as opposed to having crew do it all.  I really want to go on a seabass trip, they have that game dialed too. 

Koji and plankton, excellent report! Everything you said happened to me as well. I wish I read this earlier. It is difficult for someone has never done this before to fully comprehend the power of these fish. Bight is great! I’m going to fish with them again next year and it might become a habit from now on. For folks who are seeking their first trip. Here are a few things I would do to prep. Start training 2-3 months before your trip! Pretty much your whole upper body, but focus on grip and forearm. I’m definitely going to do this before next trip. Bring a good fishing glove. Bring quality snack and make sure eating it when you are not fishing. We ran into a good school of fish pretty much non stop action for 4 hours. There was no time to eat and I was so beat. We ended up with two fish, 150 and 220# range, lost one, missed 6 or more. We decided to bring the whole fish back. It took me 7 hours to process the smaller one. It is a lot of work, but so worth it.