First SoCal Tuna Trip! Report on page 3

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Hey I know that guy!

 


Yeeeeeu go Dan, thanks for the report!

I just got back from a 3 day on The Shogun. Great trip. I landed 4 BFT in the 110-140 pound range and lost 2. We made a stop at Cortez Bank for rockfish and I landed about 15 vermillion. One tip I would add, right now the 350g tungsten jig was definitely getting bit the most for night jigging. I wasn't going to buy one because of the $100 price, but glad I did.

Wow!

Which tungsten jig did you get? Do you think it was getting bit simply because it could get to depths first? Or was it that the tuna were going for the smaller profile?

I got the 350g. I forget the brand, but it's what they were selling at Fisherman's Landing. I put 2 jig assist hooks on a 200# bite leader and tied that directly to braid. One thing to make sure to do is connect your hooks to the bite leader ring, not the jig ring. The stainless eye in the jig is weaker. Color does not matter, but mine was kind of red with glow poka-dots. They were biting smaller stuff in general, AND I think getting down to depth fast helped. I also would HIGHLY recommend color-metered line. Game changer!

You better get over here quick if you want some kama toro, Mikey.

Pics...

Hey I know that guy!

 


Yeeeeeu go Dan, thanks for the report!

You better get over here quick if you want some kama toro, Mikey.

Pics...

Hey I know that guy!

 


Yeeeeeu go Dan, thanks for the report!

Copy that, I'll try and get by today or tomorrow evening if you'll be around.

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Holy Processing Party!!

You have my respect, that’s a lot of meat to cut lol. 

Just got back from my 2-day aboard the New Lo-An.

It’s usually a 7-8 hour ride out past SCI with plenty of time for lunch and a nap…..but there’s acres of cookie cutter sized 50-70 lb active biters about 40 miles out west of the Coronados.   So we were fishing pretty quickly.  I woulda slept through it and waited for the night bite but there was a plunker bite and I couldn’t resist. 

Everyone was fishing 40, during a lull captain called out to try a downsize if we had em.  I dropped to 30 and got picked up…..then caught a ribbing from the deckhand for fishing 30 on a single speed reel lol.  Nice 20 minute fight and I iced her.

The night action was pretty consistent, 5-8 fish per drop but absolute mayhem with about 5 dudes on board that kept tangling the **** outta everyone.  I woulda limited and been sleeping by midnight but got sawed off twice……$150 in tungsten plus lost fish…..so facepalm. 

Zero daytime action on day two but fish boiling all over the place, threw micro sized jigs and poppers at em but no go on at least a dozen stops with boilers. Night two was pretty similar to night one, buyers and saw offs.  Boat limited and we were back home in a couple hours. 

Rumor was there was another school of the XL sized fish between sci and nic but they weren’t as consistent as the closer bite. Either way I’m sure it’ll change by the time you guys push off.  The grounds were flooded with micro chovies, 2-3” baits…..we got bit on regular sized jigs too but tbe 150-300g tungsten was getting bit pretty consistently.  We had so little wind and swell we were able to size it way down and effectively fish the 2-300’ range.  I dropped down to a 60lb set up and had a blast. 

Good luck out there.

Just got back from my 2-day aboard the New Lo-An.

Congratulations on limits, and thanks for the detailed report!

Report: I got humbled by a big bluefin.

I met the group at Fisherman's Landing and we were on our way before 11AM. And what a group. Many OGs from the kayak industry and people with decades of experience catching tuna and other pelagics. I was the clueless newbie but felt welcomed by the friendly group.
We caught a few small 10-20lb bluefin on the troll while heading out the first day, but not much else.

The first night we were surrounded by dozens of other boats due west of San Diego. We found a few biting schools early in the night and I caught a 10 pounder. I think I fished every stop for the rest of the night but none of us hooked anything after the first few stops. 

Night jigging for bluefin can be tough. It's 2AM, you're exhausted and bleary-eyed, maybe mildly seasick. There's a long lull as the boat searches so you crawl into your tiny bunk in your sweaty clothes, jamming earplugs in to reduce the din of the engines. After a chance at some fitful sleep you hear the loudspeaker, cram your boots on and run back on deck.

The next day the captain decided to make a move northwest to where bigger fish had been caught. We motored all day and by evening saw a breezing school of 200lb fish. Incredible to see.

Soon after dark people started hooking up. Huge fish, many 150-200lbs. Then I was on. I was prepared for the strength of the fish but not how dynamic and chaotic the fight would be: away from the boat, towards the boat, around the boat, tangle with all the other lines, straight under the boat... The deckhands did an amazing job of clearing tangles, coaching, and occasionally grabbing the rod to run it under and over other lines.

Then my fish started coming up with very little resistance. There it was: tail first and belly-up. It had gotten tail-wrapped and gone into tonic immobility. Some fish and sharks will enter a state of paralysis if they are gently turned upside down. Now it was at the surface, not moving, with the tail touching the boat. In the clear blue water, illuminated by the deck lights, it looked impossibly huge. Around 200 lbs, based on the ones already landed. The captain was there with a gaff, but he seemed nervous and hesitant. He said "it's going to go crazy when I gaff it!". He only nicked it with the gaff and the fish took off.

I fought it all around the boat and back and forth again. I have no idea how long I was on. I had amazing support from the crew and the rest of the group. Even at 30lbs of drag I was cranking without turning the spool, so another angler pulled on the line and we gained inch by inch.  A deckhand was there almost the whole time to clear tangles and help me. Allan brought me water and reminded me to breathe. 

At one point a deckhand asked about tightening the drag but after feeling how much tension there was changed his mind. I worked hard, cranking whenever the fish wasn't running or we weren't scrambling along the rail clearing tangles. Presumably it was still tail-wrapped, but I don't know. A tail-wrapped 200lb bluefin is not the easiest thing to bring to a stationary boat. I was panting and shaking but ready for more. 

I made a lot of mistakes on this trip, and one of them was that switching from low to high gear wasn't instinctual for me, so when the line went slack I was reeling like mad in low gear and then fumbling for the knob to switch. The line stayed slack. The hook had come out. 

I sat down for a while. Then I went back to the rail and jigged until dawn, but did not get another bite.

By that point I was sick, having succumbed to the cold that the rest of my family had already gotten. The boat had some success stopping on kelp paddies for yellowtail the next day, but I slept through most of it. The boat was slow enough and the run to port was long enough that we did not fish on the last night, instead arriving in San Diego harbor before dawn.

Here are some things that seem like they might make a difference night jigging for bluefin, written as notes to myself as much as anything.

Drop fast. The action of the jig might matter in some situations, but several of the guys who did the best were fishing unpainted eddie bombs (1 lb torpedo sinkers that have basically no action).

Retrieve fast. The first anglers to hook up seemed to be the ones with the fastest retrieves. They would burn the jig up in an all-out blender-mode sprint. Cranking a 1 lb jig up at max speed is tiring, but remember that bluefin trolling speeds range up to 15 mph.

Fighting the fish:

Don't be too quick to drop to low gear - wait until the fish has settled.

Pop out of low gear instantly if the tension eases. I wish I'd practiced this transition.

Be ready to move. The sooner you see where the fish is going, the sooner you can get ahead of potential tangles or trips under the boat.

Back off the drag whenever you need to move. Doing this quickly allows you to move fast and go under and over others easily. Trying to lift the rod over another angler's head with the drag at 30lbs is hard. Tighten the drag back down as soon as you are settled on the rail again.

Luck. Another, much more experienced angler said his line had gone completely slack multiple times because the fish was running towards the boat faster than he could reel, but it stayed hooked.

Night jigging for bluefin can be tough. It's 2AM, you're exhausted and bleary-eyed, maybe mildly seasick. There's a long lull as the boat searches so you crawl into your tiny bunk in your sweaty clothes, jamming earplugs in to reduce the din of the engines. After a chance at some fitful sleep you hear the loudspeaker, cram your boots on and run back on deck.

It is indeed a grind….I don’t think it’s truly understood till you’re in the darkest hours of the night and working through more lulls than fish schools. It’s easy stay up past grey light when you’re riding off the adrenaline wave of consistent biters but when it’s driving, dropping and nothing……that’s when you really know if night jigging is for you lol. 

My nephew got a taste of it; at 12 years old he fished through the first day and night on a couple hours sleep.  Second day when fish were frothing all over but refusing to take a bait his dad told him to go down to the bunks and take a nap.  He just stood there with the zombie stare, bags under his eyes, and mumbled, one of these schools is gonna bite and I don’t wanna miss it.  He got the bug bad.

Sorry to hear about the big girl, losing fish sucks…..but when you lose em after a long fight, that really fn sucks. There is a life sucking force that absolutely drains you when you have a fish at color and they see the lights and rip off another 100 yards to keep the fight going. 

I was waiting for the fish counts to post, 6 over 200 and 20 more @ 150-200……that’s alottta meat, looked like the KBF trio lived up to its name again.

Krishna, you were on over an hour.  I saw that fish several times.  It was definitely over 200.  You'll have to take revenge on next year's trip.

Oh, the night time dilemma. On the first night, the bite on small fish essentially died around midnight.  I went to bed and didn't miss anything.  On the second night, the bite lasted all night into the grey morning hours.  We didn't search long before stopping, and then with a couple hookups on large fish, it took some time before we got going again, unless some fresh biters came through, which they did.  I went to bed around 1 and missed a good portion of it, but I already had landed a 160 pounder, so I didn't mind.

-Allen

wow, what a fight, sounds like a great trip

Thanks for the great reports and pictures  guys.

Here are some things that seem like they might make a difference night jigging for bluefin, written as notes to myself as much as anything.

Drop fast. The action of the jig might matter in some situations, but several of the guys who did the best were fishing unpainted eddie bombs (1 lb torpedo sinkers that have basically no action).

Retrieve fast. The first anglers to hook up seemed to be the ones with the fastest retrieves. They would burn the jig up in an all-out blender-mode sprint. Cranking a 1 lb jig up at max speed is tiring, but remember that bluefin trolling speeds range up to 15 mph.

Fighting the fish:

Don't be too quick to drop to low gear - wait until the fish has settled.

Pop out of low gear instantly if the tension eases. I wish I'd practiced this transition.

Be ready to move. The sooner you see where the fish is going, the sooner you can get ahead of potential tangles or trips under the boat.

Back off the drag whenever you need to move. Doing this quickly allows you to move fast and go under and over others easily. Trying to lift the rod over another angler's head with the drag at 30lbs is hard. Tighten the drag back down as soon as you are settled on the rail again.

Luck. Another, much more experienced angler said his line had gone completely slack multiple times because the fish was running towards the boat faster than he could reel, but it stayed hooked.

I tried something different this time.  As soon as the first slowed after her initial runs, I pushed the drag up to full (40+ pounds) and got down and dirty with her.  She made me sweat for it.  160 pound fish, 15 minutes fight time, mostly straight up and down.  I moved from the rear port corner to the starboard corner once, then back to the port corner.  And that was it.  It hurt, but it was a mostly a no drama fight, except for a couple people that thought dropping in just up drift from me near the end was a good thing.

-Allen