Rockcod Season Opener

I hopped on a full day trip with Seasons Sportfishing out of San Diego, deep dropping for rockfish and lingcod.  It's indeed an early rockod  season opener trip.  We left the dock at about 5:30 AM. We used dropper looped live squid with 12oz torpedo sinkers to get to the rocks and holes where the reds and lings live. I used my old but reliable Quantum Cabo PT 80 spinning reel paired with the short Van Staal 500gm jigging rod. We had a steady pick of nice reds and lings all day. Dropping up to 400 feet and cranking up these fatty critters is a workout. But the delicious fillets you'll end up with is worth every crank of the reel. By 2PM we decided to call it day, as the wind and current started to pick up. We were having a hard time to get the 120z sinkers to the bottom.  Another successful trip in the books, everyone had a blast.  What a way to start the rockcod season!

2.5 Day Yellowfin Tuna Fishing at Puerto Vallarta Mexico On-board the Maximus

Finally, the time has arrived after waiting for months; my first trip ever to get a shot at bigger YFT. Mixed emotions of excitement, anxiety, nervousness, and awe set in as we went underway on the hunt for the famous PV YFTs. This will be the first time I'll be doing the railrodding technique and would probably be fishing conventional gears the whole time. The gears on the Maximus were all right-hand retrieve ATD-50's. I brought along a lefty DPX2 DAWG 50, and a lefty ATD-12 just to give me a bit of comfort. I also brought along some heavy spinning setups for popping and casting jigs. Total anglers on-board was 7.

Day1:

The first day was spent trolling and fishing with live cabalitos. We only had one hit on the troll which didn't stick, and it most likely was a wahoo based on the bite marks on the Marauder. I did get a hookup with a nice dodo on a spinning setup, and my cousin did also hookup to a very nice bull. Hooray! The skunkiness feeling is gone! Towards the afternoon, they put the kite out with double rigged live cabalitos. That worked well. First hit on the kite was a marlin but during the fight it was able to shake off the hook. The next hit was a big YFT. I saw that big YFT jumped in the air and attacked the surface splashing cabalitos. That's when it really dawned on me the enormous size of the fish we're going after. My main goal was to land some and I decided stick with conventional gears if that's the tool I need to get some. At the end of the day, we had 2 dodos and 1 nice YFT on-board. When darkness set-in, the crew rigged the squid lights and we started jigging for juvenile humboldt squid we'll be using as bait the next day. 

Day 2:

This day turned out to be a fantastic day despite the rains. Once we got to the spot, we started flylining squid and at the same time we had the kite out. We started hooking up, and the crew handed me the kite rod that had a YFT on. Yup a righty ATD-50 on a rail rod! With adrenaline pumping, I grabbed the rod and started the fight. I was really having a hard time with it even with the aid of the rail. Determined, I stuck with it. The awesome crew of the Maximus did helped me alot, especially when the need to move fast around the boat came. Finally, I got the fish to color and at gaff, and we got the fish on-board. I was stoked, happy, and at the same time humbled by the fight I just experienced. I've lost some fish, one the leader broke off from the hook, another the fish just missing the hook even after letting it run a bit before setting the hook. I hooked up a slob YFT this time on my lefty Accurate DPX2 50 DAWG reel clamped to the Maximus' Saltydog rail rod.  I was doing much better during the fight, and it did't take long at all when I had the fish to color.   This is is my personal best YFT I've landed so far!  The crew of the Maximus did an outstanding job getting the fish on-board. My ATD-12 paired with my short Tunamax Parabolique acid rod wrapped by Jim performed flawlessly! My wife used it on the rail and she got her first big YFT! Keith was with her the whole time coaching her. My hat's off to Keith and his crew, truly one of the best! Everyone was looking at that rod and can't believe she landed a big fish with it. Especially that nice bendo! My cousin Ver also managed to land a couple of nice YFT on-board. To top it off, this was his first mutli-day trip! I'm quite sure he's now hooked into fishing for life! To sum it up, I've learned alot from this trip, and most important of all made new friends. Again, my hat's off to Capt Keith and the crew of the Maximus, they're a well oiled machine! They've taught us alot. Surely I'll be back to fish the Maximus again in the future!

The awesome Captain and crew of the Maximus!

Pics of our hookups!

My hookup using a right-hand retrieve Accurate ATD-50.  Yikes! I'm a left-hand retrieve!  I sucked it up and got it done eventually.  Yup I need more rail time fishing conventional reel to get used to it!

How a huge tuna pulls line at strike!  Pure power! This is an Accurate ATD-12 reel. 

Cow YFT over the rail!

Dorado!