2019: Trip 6 Thunderbird (2 Day)
Trip 6 - Thunderbird August 15-17
Once again Hayden has arrived at 10:00AM and is first man at the landing, followed by Parks and the Burson clan. By six it appears the entire club is there. Team 805 arrived at the landing at 3:00 after a long 3 hour drive. We proceed to the drop off zone and we start unloading our truck load of gear for a two day trip. Suddenly Ruddy looks up at me with this sad puppy dog look and asks if I know where his reel bag is? HUH?, HOUSTON WE HAVE PROBLEM! Somehow we left his reel bag behind.
Ruddy immediately calls his lovely wife Kathleen and starts sweet talking her like it’s his prom night. “OH BABY PLEASE” I thought I heard Ron mention something about a cruise and then somehow he convinces her that they could meet half way and she would bring his reels. The likeliness of this succeeding in rush hour traffic is like 1/100. We head over to the beer garden and Ron tells his sad tale to the club. I was impressed that he didn’t even shed one tear. The club felt bad for him and Parks is first to step up and he offers Ron the use of a couple kelp cutters. Before you know it he has 4 set ups and he is set for the trip. He calmly calls Kathleen before she heads out and tells her the good news that the club members have stepped up and saved the day. Isn’t it nice to fish with friends! For some reason I still think a cruise is in his future.
Ron and I decide to enjoy some beers with our dinner at Newport Landing. We sit outside again hoping for another show at the dock. We leave disappointed, nothing/no one fell in the drink, but we enjoyed a great meal nevertheless.
Jeff arrives at the dock around 7 and shares a dreadful report from the last trip. He informs us that we will be heading south to Mexico to chase YFT for both days. This is a change of plan and Luke steps into action and makes sure everyone has a two day Mexican license. Since we’re heading south we’re told the big BFT rigs will not be needed on this trip. Yet for some reason we all seem bring them aboard……..just in case …….(more on that later). We boarded in an orderly fashion and head to the bait dock. It’s nine o’clock, you know what that means? Hayden has turned on the strobe light and its happy hour. The crew starts loading the wells with some well-seasoned dines for what seemed like hours. All four wells are filled. Yet Jeff said that if we somehow run out of bait down south we will head up to Dana Point to bait up again and then head back south and fish the second day. Wow that is some statement as to how bad Jeff wants to catch fish and how bad the fishing must be at SCI.
The BS & booze start flowing and we’re off to the tuna grounds. Jeff calls everyone into the galley for the low down. Get a lively bait, # 1 or 2 hook and light line-20-25lb and you will get bit. The evening party continues for another hour or two. Time to sleep.
We arrive at the grounds around 5:30 and start the trolling rotation. Goofy prepared pancakes, bacon and eggs for breakfast. Time to eat as we await for the tuna to play. At 8:30 Jeff finds a school and it’s off to the races for the next two hours. The corners are full speed with 12-15lb YFT. The first hour they were chewing 30lb and even some 40lb. During the second hour 20lb was the go to line. Some started throwing the popper on the bow and a couple tuna ate it. As we were consistently bent for two hours straight we found ourselves surrounded by about 20 Sea Lions, (AKA Parkers/Skiffs). These guys were aggressive and kept getting as close 50 feet away. Where are the seal bombs when you need them? The best part was that we were all bent and they sat there and watched us catch limits- classic!
A Parker drifts up into our chum line – Jeff has had enough and gets on the horn to ask if they would like a cheeseburger to go along with our chum. They finally get the message and move along. I feel need to mention, that you would never see someone in a Grady do this. We would get the cheeseburger and a beer before we leave.
By 11:30 we ended up with nearly a 1 day limit……….NICE. Jeff decides it’s time to spread some Karma for the tuna God’s. As we leave them biting, he calls in the Fury for a hand off and they immediately hook 3 fish. Next move for us was to go outside and look for paddies. As we went hunting, Goofy set up some meat snacks which went along well with a cold one. We found a couple of kelps but nobody home. We were probably the 5th boat that hit them today.
We head out of Mexican waters and Jeff puts us on another school and we get another 100 fish in an hour. Guess you could say it was wide open. Fish were chewing the paint off the boat and were hitting everything thrown at them. Besides bait, the colt sniper and flat falls were pretty effective too. Jeff once again shares the bite and calls over the yacht-Jack Pot. We hand off the school to them and continue to SCI to hunt blue fin.
We cruise around SCI and Jeff sees some foamers of BFT. The blue fin put on a nice showing, but no biters. After a couple of hours Kevin Kom throws a colt sniper at a boil and its game on. After a 20 minute battle with a Tranx 400 on 30lb line, Kevin masterfully lands a BFT which taped out to 52.5 lbs.
This came as a great relief to the crew as they no longer had to sort through 200 YFT to settle the jack pot. Nice job Kevin………….you gets da patch!
We try for some giants that night…….. no current……….. no biters………… but we got beer –life is good.
It’s about 9 o’clock and time for dinner. Tonight its tri-tip, baked potatoes, salad and ice cream bars. Goofy is starting to feel at home in his new galley. For some unexplained reason, Hayden failed to turn on the strobe light to signal happy hour. But as you might have guessed it didn’t stop this group. Wines were paired with dinner and shared among friends. Paul broke out his newly peat infused distilled creation (thanks Luke). Whiskies were consumed and beers were drunk. By 11:00PM it lights out. Time to get a snooze on – flat falls are on menu for 4:00 AM.
In the writers opinion 4:00AM arrives pretty damn early. I stagger out of the bunk room and I see half the club on the rail cranking away. It’s time to get my boots on and start grinding – ITS COW TIME BABY!
Jeff sees a couple nice schools under the boat and starts announcing the depth to target. Finally – BITER is yelled out and Ramsey is on. Chris quickly puts the hammer to the fish and lands a nice BFT in about ten minutes. It tapes out to 83.07 lbs. We continue to hunt for schools and make several stops but no biters.
There is not enough wind to deploy the kite, but the crew did manage to get a balloon rig out. I should mention that the club has adopted the PV process for kite/balloon fishing. If one of the rigs gets bit, Jeff will randomly draw a number and that lucky angler gets to fight the fish. If the fish is landed, the meat will be evenly divided among the club. Sounds like a fair system to me.
Jeff finds another school and Steve Lenker tries a sinker bait and gets bit. After a nice 20 minute fight he lands a BFT that appears to be from the same egg sack as Ramsey’s. It tapes out to 83.7 lbs.
Goofy serves up breakfast……..you guessed it, tri-tip and potato breakfast burritos. Throw some pico de gallo on it and it was great. We continue to BFT fish but it’s not happening. At 9:00 we head to the west end to fish calicos. The conditions suck and we can’t get the YT or calicos going. Jeff decides to slide around front and see what kind of trouble we can find. We work our way down the island and find some YT boiling but no biters. We moved in close and got a decent calico bite going. Maybe 20 legal fish, but no contenders, the record is safe for another trip.
The conditions were just not right at the island, dirty water and no current. At 11:00 Goofy serves up a new meat snack creation, smoked sausage, onions, and peppers over rice.
By 1:00 it’s time to call it a trip and head to the barn. Steve wins day two jack pot with his BFT.
Luke recommends that we may want to keep one rig set up just in case we come across some foamers. Unfortunately none were found and as we round Catalina it’s time to break em down.
We arrive at the landing around 7:00 and start the fish distribution. This was not going very well and was taking a long time. Finally Ryan stepped up onto the boat and got things moving, thank you Ryan.
Day 1 Jackpot goes to Kevin Kom with a 52.5lb BFT and day 2 goes to Steve Lenker with a 83.7 lb BFT. Well done gentleman. Everyone else took home 2 day limits of YFT.
To everyone’s surprise the traffic on the peninsula was not bad this Saturday night. Only took about 5-10 minutes to get off it and onto the freeway. Nice way to end another great trip with DWRRC and I’m looking forward to the next adventure.
Tight Lines My Friends
Tim
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Trip #5: Boat: Thunderbird 2.5 day Departs: Tuesday August 19th Fishing: August 20th, 21th Returns: August 22th am Thunderbird Crew: Jeff Markland- Captain Steve Raby- 2nd Captain Jose, Jared & Nate on deck Goofy in his usual form in the Galley The usual suspects, newer club members and a slew of guests began gathering for the upcoming 2.5-day venture on board the Thunderbird on Tuesday afternoon/evening, a lot of discussion occurred around where will we fish, what is our bait, are we going to fish for tuna, and more importantly, the weather. Forecast was for pretty breezy on the outer banks and tuna grounds with somewhat better at the island. Thursday weather looked much improved everywhere. As it turned out, the weather turned out nice the first day, and even nicer the second day. Also the good news was we would have sardines for bait. When the boat returned from the fuel dock around 7:30, I wandered down to the boat and sat with Jeff and discussed our “options”. There was about 2 scoops of live squid on the boat and the squid at San Clemente Island was available but by jigging. Also, the yellowtail fishing was hit or miss at best early in the cove, and then really nothing to catch the rest of the day unless the bass decided to bite. The tuna grounds were in range to do some night fishing between the days, and daytime fishing was producing smaller fish. The Tanner Bank had the 10-15 lb variety which was spotty, and inside toward SCI were bigger 30-35lb variety with some larger mixed in. Getting bites though would be hard. The Cortez Bank coughed up 100 yellowtail for Jeff a few days before. There was also some white sea bass caught at San Nicholas Island so that was an option. Soooo, one more time, what to do. Jeff decided he will decide when we leave the bait receiver as I said give it your best shot. The final decision, with the weather forecast improving, we would head to the Cortez Bank since there had been some yellowtail there a few days before. And off we went. Travel out was not too bad. Day 1- Arrived at the Cortez Bank around 7:45 am, fished a couple areas for nothing except some of the jumbo bonito, large mackerel and a few bottom dwellers. There was no sign of yellowtail. Where the F**k did they go? Around 10:00am, Jeff pulled the plug and we headed back inside to the tuna grounds, about 30 miles away. Weather was getting much nicer, We ended up picking at the BFT not long after we arrived in the area around 2:00pm and joined “the fleet”. We had one decent plunker drift for 16 BFT, and scratched up 9 more at sundown. As dark fell, we headed into the island to try for the early morning yellowtail fishing at the Lost Point area. Day 1 fish count- 25 BFT, 4 Bonito kept, a few misc bottom dwellers kept JP winner- Bronson Noggle (Cory Steinwand Guest)- 30 plus lb BFT, Patch winner Cory Steinwand- 30 plus lb BFT (it was very close) Day 2- had a few yellowtail bites in the dark and grey light at Lost Point, all nice fish. Headed out after grey light for yesterday’s tuna grounds. Flat calm weather. Worked the area with “the fleet” for a couple of hours and covering a lot of water. Jeff finally pulled the plug and decided to take a gamble and head to the Tanner Bank since there were tuna there a few days before. And the gamble certainly paid off. We were greeted with boiling fish in the chum circle when we arrived, boiling fish on the anchor and steady fishing on the 10-15 lb BFT the rest of the afternoon. We fished a couple deep spots for decent reds and other stuff, one nice ling cod and headed back to the area west of SCI toward San Nicholas Island for some night fishing. We had several stops on spots of fish, and got a few anywhere from 30 plus lbs up to 100lbs. Around midnight, we headed home. We were able to fish that long because by chance, the boat was not scheduled to run a ¾ day trip when we got in, so we got to fish longer. Arrived at the dock around 7:20am, unloaded and that was it. Day 2 fish count- 6 Yellowtail, 40 BFT, 1 Halibut, 2 Barracuda, 100 plus mixed Reds and Rockfish, 1 Ling Cod JP & Patch winner- Cory Steinwand- 102 lb BFT Trip total- 65 BFT, 6 Yellowtail, 1 Halibut, 4 Bonito, 100 plus mixed Reds/Rockfish, 1 Ling Cod The weather for the entire trip was good. Temperature cool both days but very nice. Very little wind to flat calm the entire 2 days. One thing that was troubling was the amount of casualties on these smaller tuna. Seems like most everyone liberated one or two, or more. (We won’t mention my luck!). Small hooks and light line with too much pressure and these little guys were hot! All in all a good time had by all and a very good group of guests on this trip as well. That’s it! Your Scribe- Gary Thompson
Trip #4: Boat: Thunderbird 2 day Departs: Thursday August 7th Fishing: August 8th, 9th Returns: August 9th pm Trip 4 started as usual with people arriving at Newport Landing at all hours of the day with anticipation of fishing. The preliminary reports from Gary Thompson were all too familiar to what we’ve seen this year. Bait was going to be an issue. And last but not least, was the fish seemed to pop up one day and then disappear the next. Nevertheless, everyone was ready to go. Friday morning saw us anchored at the usual cove off SCI. Weather was OK; fishable, but not a lot of fish. But the ones we caught were quality yellowtail and white sea bass. The sea lions provided ample entertainment …err I mean frustration. We hopped around to a few spots picking up the occasional calico but not much. Day 1 jackpot went to Alex Arthur (Justin Becker’s Guest) with the patch going to Nick Burson for some chunky YT’s Day 2 started much as it did Day 1 but the weather was worse than Day 1. We looked here and there with only 3 yellowtail to show for our efforts. Eventually, the Thunderbird turned towards offshore waters to try our luck at some bluefin. Unfortunately, the fish didn’t get the memo and we saw neither sign or had any bites. Mr, “Hey that’s my fish” Tom Hill was the lucky jackpot and patch winner for Day 2 with a 15# YT. So, there you have it, not a, “Hey you missed a great trip” kind ‘a trip but per usual, the members of our club all seemed to enjoy doing what we do. It’s not always about the fish; it’s about the people and the experience. LOL! Who am I kidding…we all want more fish. Until next time, step to the right/left and take up your slack.
Trip #3: Boat: Thunderbird 2 day Departs: Thursday July 24 Fishing: July 25 and 26 Returns: July 26 pm Trip 3 started as usual with people arriving at Newport Landing at all hours of the day and anticipation for fishing high. The preliminary reports from Gary Thompson were not great. Bait was going to be an issue. Anchovies were sick, too hot for squid, and no sardines. Nevertheless, everyone was ready to go. Due to some late cancellations (bummer), there were 21 passengers on the trip. Gary gave the pre-trip update before boarding with the news that we would make the ride down to Dana Wharf, where there were good sardines for bait. That was the good news. The bad news was that it was going to be a bumpy ride out and wind was going to be an issue, and we probably wouldn’t make it to San Clemente Island. Our initial destination would be Catalina. So, at 9pm off we went. Friday morning saw us anchored at China cove at Catalina. I haven’t been with the club long, but my understanding from some of the older members is that the club hasn’t fished Catalina in many years. I was up at 3:30ish and there were a few hearty souls trying to make squid bait. 2-3 at a time on squid jigs, and eventually we had a decent amount of squid to go along with the sardines. Possibly a good sign. Gradually all the fisherman got lines in the water, with most people dropping down by 5am, waiting for the fish to bite. Well, the yellowtail and white seabass were a no show. We did have a pretty incredible black seabass bite. A total of 6 were hooked, 3 broke off, and 3 were landed (all by Jim Bertella) and released. At 7:30 Captain Chris decided to make the move over to San Clemente Island. We looked for kelp patties and bluefin on the way. Again, fish were a no show (there’s a theme happening here). Made it to Clemente about 11:30. We spent the rest of the day fighting winds at Clemente. Most of the fishing was close to the island with catch and release calico fishing, although a few nice ones were kept. A few small yellowtail were caught on bait, and one on a surface iron. On any other trip these probably would have been released, but beggars can’t be choosers. Final count for day 1 was 9 yellowtail. Gary Thompson won jackpot. We anchored at Clemente for Friday night. Overnight the squid came up and we woke to plenty of squid in the bait tanks. We started fishing early Saturday morning by dropping down for yellowtail. Once again, the fish were a no show. It wasn’t for lack of trying. All the passengers dropped lines and were giving it the best effort. Enthusiasm remained high. A small halibut was caught, along with a few barracuda. At 7:30 we pulled anchor and started looking for bluefin. At 8, a small bluefin was caught on the troll by one of our guests. No other fish were willing to bite and we kept looking. No luck. At mid-morning, Chris set us up for some rockfishing drifts. Most of the fish caught were salmon grouper, but people at least had a shot to fill their bags. After the rockfishing, we were back on the troll. We covered a wide area of ground. I believe at one point we may have entered into Mexican waters. We saw no bluefin during the troll. Finally, we had to start heading back to the landing. As we were heading north, we saw one our first and last kelp patty. It would be our last stop for the trip. On the stop, one yellowtail was caught using a colt sniper. Like the yellowtail on day 1, it wasn’t big (generous to call it 8 pounds), but it was a keeper and the jackpot fish (sad but true). Final count for day 2 was 1 yellowtail, 1 bluefin on the troll, 1 halibut, and a couple of barracuda. Brian Drazba won jackpot. Despite the rough weather and challenging fishing conditions. Captain and crew were great as always. Never gave up. And I believe all club members and guests had a good time. We can’t always have great days and it just gets us ready for the next trip. Submitted respectfully, Brian Drazba
Trip #2: Boat: Thunderbird 2 day Departs: Thursday July 10th Fishing: July 11th and 12th Returns: July 12th pm Thunderbird Crew: Jeff Markland- Captain Steve Raby- 2nd Captain “Scuba” Steve, “Melo” Carmelo and Jarred on deck Goofy in his usual form in the Galley As the usual suspects, newer club members and a slew of guests began gathering for the upcoming 2-day venture on board the Thunderbird on Thursday afternoon/evening, a lot of discussion occurred around where will we fish, what is our bait, are we going to fish for tuna? As I was the one as club president that is supposed to have all the answers, I had only one…I have no f**king clue! And as everyone sauntered off to dinner, I sat there thinking based on the way things are fishing and bait wise, we could be in for a long two days. When the boat arrived around 6:45, I sauntered down to the boat and sat with Jeff and discussed our “options”. There was about 75 pieces of live squid on the boat and the squid at San Clemente Island was starting to phase out. Also, the yellowtail fishing was hit or miss at best early in the cove, and then really nothing to catch the rest of the day unless the bass decided to bite on our other bait...the long disappeared but now returned anchovies. There was, and still remains, no sardines in range of the landing bait haulers. The tuna grounds were in range to do some night fishing between the days, but without sardines, daytime fishing would be a waste. And there has not been any gamefish on the outer banks either. Soooo, what to do. Jeff thought it might be a huge gamble but he did suggest a 113 mile trek to Santa Rosa Island for white sea bass and halibut which have been biting. He mentioned that the Oxnard/Ventura boats have been snagging squid during the day up there so we should be able to get more and have plenty to fish with. So with everything as it was, we rolled the dice and that was the plan. And it turned out to be one good call when it was all said and done. We loaded up and departed about 8:30pm, stopping at the bait receiver to top off the anchovies and cleared the harbor around 9:30 pm. Day 1- Arrived at Santa Rosa Island around 7:30 am, fished several areas, picking all day long at WSB and Halibut and a few large barracuda mixed in most everywhere, with a pretty good little hit late in the day. We caught plenty of daylight squid, but when dark fell after dinner, the squid nest we were sitting over decided to float, so we loaded up. That evening, the decision was made to move about 30 miles closer to home for Day 2, so it would be off to San Nicholas Island to see if a WSB could be had, and fish for more halibut. We took off around 10:30pm and headed that way. Day 1 fish count- 14 WSB, 16 Halibut, 10 Barracuda JP winner- Jim Bertella- 26.1 lb Halibut, Patch winner Craig Steinwand- 26.2 lb Halibut (was not in jackpot but Halibut larger than Jim’s) Day 2- Arrived at San Nicholas Island at 3:30am down at the sand spit area to a screaming current. Flylining a dropper loop with 8 oz of weight in 60 feet of water. Basically no WSB to be found trying several areas, but did pick up more halibut. Went south of the island later in the morning and fished the deeps for a good amount of nice reds, other rockfish and one nice ling cod. Left for home around 11:30am since we were 73 miles away. Arrived at the dock at 6:30, and as usual, everyone piled off the boat and went home. Day 2 fish count 6 Halibut, 2 Barracuda, 100 plus mixed Reds/Rockfish, 1 Ling Cod JP & Patch winner- Mike Higa- 30 lb Halibut Trip total- 14 WSB, 22 Halibut, 12 Barracuda, 100 plus mixed Reds/Rockfish, 1 Ling Cod Note- Largest WSB was Chris Lund- 24.8 lbs The weather for the entire trip was good. Temperature cool both days but very nice. Very little wind to flat calm the entire 2 days. All the WSB were decent fish in the 18-24 lb. range, and several halibut were over 20 lbs up to 30 lbs. All in all a good time had by all and a very good group of guests on this trip as well. Goofy was his usual self and apparently there was quite a lot of fun going on in the galley after dinner on Day 1, after I had gone to bed. Lots of beverages consumed as I understand it. And I also learned a squid attacked and bit a certain club member who shall remain nameless in the lip and he bled like a stuck pig! And I have a copy of the video! That’s all folks! Your Scribe- Gary Thompson
Trip #1: Boat: Thunderbird 1.5 day Departs: Thursday June 26 Fishing: June 26 - June 28 Returns: June 28, AM “Your life does not get better by chance; it gets better by change.” — Jim Rohn. Well, on trip #1 we saw many changes to our normal DWRRC routine. We had zero Burson’s in attendance, Hayden was not the first in line, hell, he was not even on the trip! Our fearless Captain Jeff was subbed in by Captain Chris and lastly….no sardines. Wow, that is a lot of change for us men to handle. How did we survive? Quite well actually. The trip started off as normal, with many getting in line and finding ways to work off the 4-6 hours before we actually boarded the Thinderbird. Oscar had coaching duties which stifled his ability to join us, but Junior took his spot and was well looked after. On the dock, we were told that BFT were not within reach and would not be pursued, we would fish for Yellow Tail, do some bass fishing and do a few passes for bottom fish. We had a plan. We pushed off around 8 PM to San Clement Island. Chris parked us at Pyramid Cove where we woke to night fishing. Some were up around 4 AM, with Said catching a shark and a White Sea Bass, we also landed 3 Yellows early, before sunrise. The big bite happened just before and thru dawn with good sized Yellowtail (#30-#35) being landed. We lost very few as we were fishing heavier gear with dropper loop and squid. Paul landed 2 nice Yellows and Jim, as usual, could not be stopped with 5-7 Yellows already in the hole. At 7:20 AM we pulled up anchor with 35 YT and 1 WSB. It was strange not having Sardines on the boat, as many veered away from the small anchovy. Chris started off to the front of the Island, with a few stops sprinkled in. We picked off some white fish, sheepshead and an occasional barracuda. Around 9 AM, on the East End, Chris pulled us tight into a nice spot for Calico fishing. Some whoppers were caught; Bill bringing in a very nice bass with “cheat code” bait, Said also landed a nice Calico with Anchovy. This was a change, certainly, that we had to work with the smaller baits and match hook, line and strategy to get bit. We continued around the Island heading East with some stops throughout the morning, stops produced an assortment of White Fish, Barracuda a few Bonita, and a sprinkling of YT. At 12:30 we had 30 Yellows and the 1 WSB. At one stop we had good bass and YT fishing but 6 sealions on us, that halted the fun. Chris tried to pawn the sealions off to some private boats and return to the spot, but we never got the groove back. Spent some time, mid-day, looking to bottom fish. Chris made of few attempts at floating past some nice spots, but struggled to hit the pass, so after a few swings through the grounds we aborted the bottom. Reds and other rock fish were caught, but nothing consequential. As Ron noted, we spent much time “rigging and re-rigging” as we moved from dropper loop, yoyo, to weighted line and lightly weighted fly line using squid and anchovy. The afternoon was a science experiment, with many trying different options to land fish. Chris brought us to Eel Point, where the Amigo caught a bunch of WSB in the early Friday morning bite. We assumed the meandering Sea Bass would come back in the evening and we would be ready. Unfortunately, none were landed and we spent most of the time hoping for action. The evening excitement was Paul’s bat ray that stirred the crowd, expecting a WSB bite. We had some dinner (Costco Special) and drank some wine, but pretty tame evening all in all….scribe crashed at 9:15…out! We finished with 42 YT and 1 WSB. All the Yellows were of good quality running between 30-38 pounds….Paul won the Jackpot and the only badge available with a #38 Yellow Tail. Congrats Paul! With all the changes on this trip, we still managed to land some nice Yellows and enjoy some time on the water. A good first trip for a 1.5 day’r!
