Fishy Tales: Late August 2-Day Trip On-board the Ultra

The fishing season continued to heat up as the month of August rolled in. Even wahoos have reached our local waters which is really quite extraordinary. I had a 2-day window that I can break away from work in late August. I scrambled to find a boat with available open spots, and luckily I found a spot on the Ultra out of 22nd Street Landing in San Pedro. I've never fished on this boat before so I did some checking on the internet. The Ultra is a 50 footer with the capacity for 10 anglers. It was just recently refurbished in 2013; it's a nice and clean boat.

On this trip, I decided to bring my Shimano Blue Rose 140gm short jigging rod. I think the last time I used this rod was over 4 years ago and caught a Yellowtail with it. I paired it with the Shimano Biomaster 8000PG. The Blue Rose and Biomaster combo turned out to be my hot stick on this trip. It was just so fun using that awesome short Blue Rose jig stick! In addition, I also brought along my new Shimano 10000SW Spheros.

Shimano Blue Rose

Shimano Biomaster 8000PG

Shimano Spheros

On the night of our trip, the only live bait available was anchovies. We filled the bait tanks with them, but lots of them rolled by morning. Yup, the demand for live bait was so high due the terrific fishing season that the anchovies didn't have time to cure at the bait barge, and they're already getting scooped up by the sportfishing fleet. Using anchovy for bait means using lighter line and smaller hooks so they can swim out and away from the boat easier. On this trip, we ran across many paddies that were only holding rat Yellowtails. Most of the tuna we caught on this trip were metered tuna. We chummed them up and once they surfaced it was non-stop hookups, and boils all over. A couple of folks fishing with 15lb leaders got bit fast and consistently. I tried throwing a popper, and only got hit once but didn’t connect. Tried metal jigs-nada! I did had some success with the Flatfall jig in sardine and saury color pattern. At first I was using the bigger size flatfall jigs, no takers. Decided to tie on the smaller size, and it worked pretty well. There was one stop where we had the most hookups of the trip. A hammerhead shark was ever present, and bit one of the angler’s tuna in half. To sum it up, it was surely an awesome trip. It was a blast to fish with an amazing group of anglers on a nice boat. My hat’s off to skipper Jacob Moreno and the crew of the Ultra, they did an outstanding job! We had an older gentleman on-board in his 80’s and the crew took the time to hookup some fish and handed it off to him and stayed with him till the fish was gaffed. He had a blast! I sure would fish on this boat again, and one that I'd add on my list of favorites.

I took these pics after the first day of fishing. Unfortunately these are the only pics I took on this trip as my camera died on me.

Some videos I took with my GoPro on this trip.

This is one of the best screaming drag I captured on video. The sound of the Shimano Biomaster 8000PG is music to my ears! This small tuna got me fooled into thinking that I was hooked to a bigger fish. The little devil could sure pull some heavy drag!