Hi guys just got back from my three day trip and wanted to post a report.

We ran on the Spirit of Adventure again this year. With Brain as captain, Frank, Mike and Cheddar on deck and Dean and his assistant (sorry I forgot his name) in the galley we where in great hands and boy do they do a great job.

Well the trip started a little shaky when on the way to the landing my Pops remembers that he forgot to pack some stuff that he needs and our fishing boots. So a quick turn around and back to his place for the gear. While unloading our stuff into a cart to take it down to the boat I say “Hay dad where is your tackle box?” well it never made it into the truck but no worries I have enough gear in my tackle bag for us to use.

We get down to the boat and see all the familiar faces that have been on our trip for the last 26 years. Also there were a lot of new ones too; I think we had 7new people on board. We do all the introductions and soon underway.

Well the reports were that the fishing wasn’t all that great and that we would need to work to do well.

Day one starts out with fish under the boat. We are able to get some right off the bat. My first fish makes a nice run and as I start to crank it in the line goes limp. I’m thinking bad knot, new floro what’s the problem? I get my line in and my line parted right at the hook. It was a clean break no nicks or curlicue at the end. Well I retie and keep fishing. I manage to get two in on this stop, ya baby and by 8am I have three on the boat. So much for the slow mornings the fleet has been having. We never had a wide open bite we did have some good ones but not wide open. The final count for the day was 127 albacore for the 27 anglers on board, not bad since we had a few seasick people and a few novice fishermen.

Day two started out much different than day one. The first day we had ran 75 miles west of Point Loma and at night we ran north a ways to move into some cooler water. Well we start our trolling rotations with slim results with one or two fish on the few stop troll stops. In this area we see a lot of life, birds working, a lot of bait and whales feeding in the area. Also we see a few foamers with birds crashing and fish jumping. We slide up to the bait ball and the fish charge the boat and I’m thinking game on right? Well wrong they crash the stern and then disappear. We try this again with almost the same results but this time we get two 15-20lb blue fin tuna. The little blue fin doesn’t want to play with us or any other boat in the area, so we make the run back to the area where we started.

We get back to the area with a couple of ok stops and everyone is happy again. When all the smoke clears we end up with 202 albacore and 2 blue fins.

Guys that used fluorocarbon and ringed hooks were the ones that did the best over all and yes I was lucky enough to be in the “hot stick category”.

P.S. Just a side note this was the last time that I will charter master for this trip, a 26 year run was a great run. There will be two new charter masters that have been on this trip for many years and are two really great men.

socal, great report.

...and a great run. 26 years at anything is a good run in my book...