San Diego Long Range Report

[Dave Sikorski]

OK I've finally gotten back into the swing of things and have some time to type a report.

My adventure started a year ago when running into a friend at a BBQ last July. He had just returned from CA and had been on a 3 or 5 day trip with great success. I mentioned that I was interested in trying a long range trip, and within a few weeks I was signed up.

Before I knew it we were meeting up at BWI airport for the start of our adventure. The line at US Airways and security was long, but we made it to the gate with plenty of time. We were to fly to Phoenix, then onto San Diego on Tuesday night, and board the boat around 9am on Wednesday.

Well "weather" had something to say about our plans. As our departure time neared we noticed the lack of a plane at our gate. It turns out the plan was sent to another airport to re-fuel after being in a holding pattern for a while. 1hr plus of waiting in line and a few calls to US Air's customer support and we were booked for a 9:46 flight out of Phoenix to SD. Phew.....we were going to make it.

We knew the 9:46 flight was going to be hard to make, but tried to be optimistic. As we touched down we heard the bad news.....Welcome to Phoenix folks, it's 10pm local time and 90 something degrees. DAMN IT.

We'd be stuck in Phoenix until the morning, and thankfully got a flight putting us at the pier by the 9 am check in time.

Thankfully everthing worked in our favor on Wednesday morning, and by 9:15 we had picked up rental tackle, bought any last minute neccesities from the tackle shop, paid any remaining balances, and grabbed a breakfast sandwich for the start of the trip.

By 10am the boat was ready to push away from the dock.

The 124'X32' 2000+hp Excel headed out of the bay and made a pit stop at the floating live bait dock. Sea Lions and Commorants greated us with their calls and the crew loaded 4 cages worth of sardines, anchovies, and a few Mackerel.

After loading up with bait we pointed west and began our 12 knot run to the Alijos rocks. The Captain Justin Fleck gave the safety talk and explained where we were going. 450+ miles from San Diego and about 200 from the Baja peninsula. We had an ETA of 44 hours and rode the following sea nicely.

Lunch came quickly and after our tackle talk, dinner wasn't far behind. The first meal of baby back ribs, corn on the cob, and mashed taters would prove to be a good example of the great food the Excel's galley serves.

.......more coming today, have to get some work done.

-D

[O-SEA-D]

Sounds great Dave, I can't wait to hear about the rest of it.

[SeaBiscuit]

Tell us more about the mashed taters!
Looking forward to this saga.
Biscuit

[Dave Sikorski]

Ok who am I kidding....

So we continued to head for "The Rocks". The day was spent prepping tackle, playing cards, eating, and just generally BS'n. At one point I was standing near the stern and saw what I assume was a young blue whale. The suicker was easily 15 ft wide and the section I saw was only a small portion it, but was easily 30+ feet long.

Seconds later the boat began to shudder HARD....I MEAN HARD...The whole damn works was vibrating like crazy. The bait exploded from their tanks, and the captain came on the loud speaker. Folks keep an eye out around the boat, we've hit something. The captain put her in reverse and the evidence came out from under the bow. Some sort of marine mammal had just had a bad day. The birds sure were happy though.

No one ever saw the exact victim, but I think it is a fair assumption that it was the whale, or one of his buddies.

After a quick check we were headed on our way once again.

The captain informed us of our ETA of 5:30ish to the rocks, and after another great meal, I hit the rack.

5:30 came fast, and the early morning greylight of the pacific greeted me. I poured a hot coffee and headed up to harrass the Captain with questions. He searched the area for signs of life, and settled on a 55 fathom section of the NE ledge. The current was pretty slow, but the tide was due to move my late morning. Most of the boat was still eating breakfast, or tying knots when the first few fish came over the rails. A small "yellow" aka Pacific Yellowtail....aka...hamachi. A relative of our east coast amberjacks. A few red bottom fish too.

I felt my 8 oz weight hit the bottom, gave it a few cranks, and WHAM hooked up....damn that was easy. My live sardine convinced a ~45lb yellow to eat, and I brought him to the surface a little at a time. He put up a great fight, especially for before 7 am. He even bent the reel foot on the "80lb" senator outfit the store had rented me.

Arms shaking in this picture. Yellows are definitely formidable foes.

Being the first yellow I have caught, and one of the first fish in the kill box, I donated it to the galley to become sushi later in the week.

My arms needed the rest, and I couldn't help but get excited about all of the action on the boat. The 33 anglers were nearly all fishing in some way or another, and the kites were being broken out as the tuna started to boil around the boat.

Three basic techniques are used by anglers on the Excel:

Dropper loop:

Make a loop in your mainline and tie a 4/0-7/0 j hook on the double line. Add a 8oz.+ weight, a sardine, slab of meat, anchovie, or mackeral and send it down.

Fly-Line:

30-50lb mainline, piece of flouro leader, 4/0-7/0...depending on brand, circle hook. Find a nice and frisky bait and send him out by a gentle cast and freespooling.

Watch out for baits that swim at the boat, and always know where your bait is to prevent tangles.....more on this later

Yo-Yo jigs:

A basic lead "diamond" jig on a longer rod w/ a high speed reel. Drop to the bottom, crank like mad, and repeat.

....................................................................................................

An interesting assortment of tackle adorned the racks on the Excel. Avet, Accurate, Okuma, Shimano, Penn.....Short trolling rods, to 9ft. surface iron casting rods. 20lb-80lb.....mono to spectra and power pro.

Lyle, a retired fireman from CA was the first to hook up with a nice tuna while fly lining.

The kite was out and working too and each angler waited their turn to watch for a boil on their baits, then cranked like mad to get the hook-up.

Lyle ended up fighing his 102lb jackpot winning yellowfin for 3+ hours on 30lb. The fish did over a dozen laps around the boat and anchor, and the crew did a great job assisting the angler.

5 crew members are assigned to live bait chumming, tying knots, hooking/casting bait, running the kites, gaffing, cleaning and everything else that needs to be done. They're always just over your shoulder and willing to help.

Lunch came and went, and I didn't have another hook-up. To tell you the truth, I didn't spend much time with a bait in the water anyway.

We had a lack of current, and only 5 tuna in the box before pulling the anchor and heading to another spot along the sea mount.

The afternoon would bring us 93 more yellowfin by fly-lining and kite fishing. I have never seen so much mayhem. 10 guys hooked up an once on YFT, Yellows, Pacific Amberjack, or a bottom fish of some sort...normally popeye cataloupus...sp?....or red rockfish.

A shark or two were hooked and two tuna were chewed on too.

The captain called "lines-in" as the dinner bell rang, and congratulated the boat on a job well done. 93 fish in an afternoon was quite an accomplishment. I took credit for 2 in the freezer, a few missed hook-ups, and a handful of released yellows.

No one on the boat had trouble sleeping friday night. Saturday morning came fast, and we found ourselves in the same spot along a ledge, 33 fathoms with nice rocky bottom. The sounder showed throughout the column, yellows on the bottom, and a mix of tuna hanging around too.



The chumming with livies began, and the tuna boils commenced.

The kites went up and the cranking began.

Picture a typical atlantic headboat situation with 40-100lb yellowfin walking folks around the rail. Tangles ensue, some folks get angry, some folks avoid tangles, and the same folks CAUSE THEM.

Saturday didn't prove to be my day. I had said on the trip out that one nice yellow and one yellowfin was all I needed to be happy. I still stick by that statement, but being skunked by the tuna on day two wasn't what I had hoped for. Even my two turns on the kite proved to bring nothing my smaller yellows to the boat.

The weather was beautiful, and the fishing was great, but I couldn't handle the elbowing and tangles and decided to spend a large part of the day with my camera in hand, and just enjoying the experience. Don't get me wrong, you couldn't wipe the smile from my face, and I was loving every minute of the show.

..................................

[shoefish]

Okay, it's been almost two hours since your last update....quit screwing around with work and give us the next chapter of the adventure

Are those the Alijos rocks in the picture?

[Dave Sikorski]

Those sure are the rocks....

Day two of fishing proved to be the best for the boat. I caught my share of release yellows....under 12lbs, and a rudder fish of some sort. I did miss two bites by not feeding them long enough. Oh well, live and learn.

Day two's tuna tally was 115 from 40-110lbs. A few skippies came over the rail too. It's amazing what some people want to keep! I think some folks look at this as their only trip of the year and want as much fish as possible to take home. More power to them, just don't invite me to a skipjack dinner!

The captain once again called lines in just before dinner and gave us an update on our plans.

There were two other boats headed down from up north and we were going to head over to a ridge to the south by about 10 miles to try and catch some bait and bigger yellowtails. After filling up on mackeral we were going to head inshore and try for some yellowtail, grouper, ling cod and rockfish. Calico bass were also a possibilty.

Dinner started just after we anchored up on the new spot. After eating, all of the anglers on the boat were told to rig up sabikis and 6+oz oz weight.

We all lined up around the rail and began to bring some scad macks and green macks over the rail. The smaller greens went directly in the livewell, and the scads were put in the kill box to slab out for the dropper loop fishermen.

The bait making wasn't going too well and the captain sent us to bed. There would be a wake up call in the morning to try it again.

Overnight the crew landed 8 yellows around 25lbs, and the mackeral fishing started again in the pre-dawn darkness.

A few drops before leaving the bait spot yielded a few yellows. I caught two back to back on a slab, and a full dead mackeral.

The captain explained that the fishing inshore had cooled off, and only one boat was coming down to the rocks. We decided to give the tuna hell for one more day. We made the hour run back to the rocks as breakfast was served, Set up on the edge again and continued to kite fish and fly-line for the tuna and smaller yellows. There were always a few folks bottom fishing with limited success, most of the fish came from higher in the water column.

Day 3 at the Rocks yielded 32 or so tuna and a few keeper yellows.



Dave Knight with a tuna caught while fly lining.

Dave and His father are in the Cookwear business and brought the their younger brother/son Josh along too. He would get seasick at night, but have a blast all day cranking in the fish. Drinking beer didn't help, but it was definitely mostly in his head. Tommy and Alex were the other two in our group. Both salesmen for Healthcraft cookwear.



Another boat asked us to give up the spot for them and we gladly headed our way to the coast.

With 250 tuna on board we had more than our share of fish. The limit for the trip was no more than 30 fish per angler, and no more than 15 of any one species.

The fish were either frozen by being sprayed down with an 8-11 degree salt solution, or placed in water filled tanks that were kept at 27 degrees. It was a rude awakening to step in the cold water on the deck, but it kept the fish good and fresh.

Day 3's dinner was a grilled tuna steak with mango salsa. A nice reward for three days of hard fishing.

The captain remarked that he has been on the Excel for 11 years and can only remember maybe 4 or 5 other days that were as good as what we experienced. I'll be seeing boiling tuna in my dreams for years to come.

....

So I ran to comp usa to get a new cord for my computer.....YEP...you guessed it.....I'm SOL.

Gonna try and track down my old cord, or figure out another way to get the pics off of the camera......what a PITA!

more to come.

-D

[knot for shore]

nice report Dave!! sounds like one hell of a trip!!

[O-SEA-D]

Very good report Dave. Thanks so much for taking the time to share it with us.

I am glad you had a good time.

See ya soon

[gottaflylee]

More Dave, more! Tell me about the "fly lining" thing. Is this fly fishing or something else? Glad you had a great trip and home safe. If you get me your cord # I can see if they got one here and overnight it to you.

[hunt4fish]

Great report Dave,please fill us poor people in on this trip,we need more info and pics.