Late July 2014 Overnight Offshore Yellowfin Tuna Trip On-board the Voyager

After reading reports of anglers getting into the tuna and yellowtail bite even on ¾ day to overnight trips, I decided to go on an overnight trip on-board the Voyager.  I brought along three setups: Accurate Boss Magnum 665H  lefty loaded with 40lb leader for trolling, Accurate SR20 with 30lb mono leader for medium heavy, and the Van Staal VM150 with 25lbs leader for my light setup.

Plan was to head south and fish mexican waters.  Got the trollers out.  Not even a jig strike the majority of the morning.  I was getting worried.  It might be one of those days!   Todd, the skipper of the Voyager decided to head north in US waters. It turned out to be a very wise decision. Found some small paddies here and there that were holding some yellowtails, and that got my spirits up a bit.  We started metering tuna, we chummed them up, and we started getting bites.  My first tuna hit my light gear setup with 25lb P-Line copolymer leader.  The small Van Staal VM 150 spinning reel was screaming.  Afraid that I might get spooled, I started increasing the drag, and then pop!  I thought the hook pulled off. Instead, the tuna busted my 25lb leader. That must’ve been a bigger model. Sucks!  I grabbed my 30lb outfit, but the sardine was having problems dragging that 30lb leader and I ended up not getting bit. Decided to stick with my light setup and crossed my fingers. Hooked and fought another tuna, this time I got it done!  So for the reminder of the trip, that VM150 and my Major Craft Giant Killing Hiramasa PE 3-6 rod was my hot stick. That small Van Staal VM150 sure can put some hurt on fish.  I love it!  This trip turned out be an awesome overnight trip!  It was fun to share the rail with a bunch of highly motivated anglers, and also made new friends. Todd, the skipper of the Voyager, and his crew did an outstanding job. I sure would fish on that boat again.

Thanks for reading, and hope you liked my report.   Hit the "Join this site" button to subscribe to my blog and keep up with my fishing adventures. Fish on bros!

Some awesome videos I took on this trip. That VM150 is a suweet reel!  The small reel that can!

This one's a feisty rat ninja Yellowtail that eluded the gaff!

Late June 2014 White Seabass (aka the Ghost) Hunt

Yup, I admit, I've been lazy and been procrastinating to update my blog with my offshore fishing trips and surf fishing sessions this year.  So I'll try my best to catch up.  This year  has been truly  a phenomenal year for fishing in our waters.  Can't resist going on trips when you always see the awesome fishing reports coming from anglers.  In late June I was fortunate to get an invite from the Dillon Street Tuna Club on a 2-day trip to hunt for the elusive White Seabass (WSB) on-board the Fortune.  As always, WSB fishing is a hit and miss affair.  So it's good to have an open mind and prepare yourself either to get skunked, or if the stars aligned, get into a hot bite.  The last time I got into a WSB bite was back in 2001.  Yup, ages ago!  Just shows you why anglers call them "ghost."

On this trip I was able to test the new Shimano Butterfly Flat Fall jig.  I picked up a couple in squid pattern for this trip.  All I can say is this jig is very effective and will catch fish.  Surely a jig to add into your arsenal.  

On the first morning of the trip, things didn't look good, as we didn't get any live squid to come up the night before.  We had some live squid on-board but not much, and the WSB was also a no-show.  On the second night, the squid finally came up in full force when we put out the underwater flood lights out.  We had more than enough live squid to last us for the remainder of the trip.  The captain also decided to move to another island, and we all agreed.  At gray light the following day, we were in position and ready to go get some!  The captain started metering fish on his fishfinder, and in a drop of a hat, we were on one of the best WSB bite I've experienced.  One full hour of non-stop hookups.  I was pinning on a live squid on the flat fall jig and dropping it.  A couple of yoyos, and I was  hooked up.  Everyone was hooked up!  Total chaos! After the hour had passed, the bite switch turned off, and they were gone, like ghosts.  We moved around and started fishing for other deep dwellers like lingcod.  To sum it up, this was another awesome trip to add to the books.  It was indeed a pleasure to  share the rail again with my friends from Dillon Street Tuna Club, ("Fish or Die").  Many thanks to Captain Bruce and the crew of the Fortune.  One of the best sportfishing op in SoCal!

Thanks for reading, and hope you liked my report.   Hit the "Join this site" button to subscribe to my blog and keep up with my fishing adventures. Fish on bros!