Trip 7 - Thunderbird - 2.5 Day, August 18-21, 2021

Since I didn’t get to the landing until about 3:00, I didn’t see who beat Hayden to the #1 spot, but someone did. Giving the trip an unusual vibe right away. t was warm and beverages were passed around to keep everyone smiling. The T-Bird showed up about 7:30 and we started loading up an hour later.

With all of the local Tuna action seen the last week, bait has been and was in short supply. No cured bait available. We loaded up with the available Sardines. Actually, despite the “freshness” of the bait, Jeff said it looked pretty good. There was talk about having to go back and reload for day 2, but that didn’t turn out to be necessary. Jeff laid out our options of either starting out at the Cortez Bank or at the West End of San Clemente Island. Since we were not confident the bait would last, we agreed that SCI was the smart play.

Day 1 Thursday Morning – West End of San Clemente Island

We awoke on the anchor well before gray light. A few were fly lining sardines for nothing. The first bites came about 6:10am. A couple of Barracudas. 5 minutes later, Luke caught a small Bluefin. Then a plunker bite for more small BFT and some nice sized Yellowtail. By about 8:15 we’d landed 15 Bluefin, 18 Yellowtail and a single Dorado that Tony had willed onto his surface iron. The bite was slowing and Jeff moved us a short distance away for another 8 Yellows but only 1 more Tuna.

About 9:00am we pulled anchor and started SW looking for kelp paddies and what they may hold. Only about 15 minutes later we find one and pulled 5 Dorado onboard. Not big fish, but not Doritos either. The day was looking pretty good. Already three gamefish species and it’s still early. Three hours later, we’ve seen a lot of empty kelps. Tom Hill coaxed one Dorado onto his hook only to get bit off. Over the next we added two more Do-Do’s to the count and two tiny Blue Sharks. Lots of empty kelps and two hours later, Jeff spots three finning Marlin. He slows and we throw baits to them but they ignored our offerings and sunk out. A few more little Dorado were caught including the reverse Jackpot fish by Luke. A 1 ½# Dorito.

We were near the Butterfly Bank by 5:00pm when Happy Hour started. Oscar, who had been on the gyros most of the day, spotted a huge kelp. Jeff set us up for a drift passed it and chaos ensued with most everyone hooked up at once. 43 Dorado were landed with some losses due to angler errors and the frenetic swimming of those fish. We made another drift on the kelp for only one stupid Dorado. So, 44 dorado were added to our day’s total. By 6:00pm we were almost to the Mushroom Bank and hit another kelp for 14 more Dorado. Some nice ones in this bunch. Up to about 20#. That was it for Day one. Good fishing with terrific weather. Calm seas and nearly windless all day.

1st day totals were:  26 Yellowtail, 16 Bluefin and 69 Dorado

Brian Wynne had best fish and won the patch with a 27# Yellowtail.

Jeff looked at the bait and decided it would hold us for Day 2 and the call was made to head for the Cortez Bank overnight.

Day 2 Friday Morning – Cortez Bank

Again we awoke on the anchor in the dark. A few other boats were anchored around us. The Top Gun 80 and the Success were closest. The weather had improved from excellent to terrific. Flat and glassy all day long. The first bite didn’t come until about 6:30am. A bonito. Then the Yellows started to bite. From 6:30 to 7:10 we caught 11 Yellows and 1 small BFT. We pulled anchor and moved a couple of times to escape the Boneys and Sea Lions. At 9:40 we started a decent bite for 18 more Yellows and 5 Bluefin. It slowed and about 10:00 Jeff made a move to the West End High Spot on the Cortez. Also a 9 Fathom mark on the map. It was a good move with 57 more Yellowtail and 5 Bluefin added to our totals. And some of these Yellows were larger models. Our bait situation was getting bad with mostly red, dying Sardines left in the tank. But if you found one that would swim, you got bit. And by 1:30 we’d landed another 4 Yellowtail. At 1:45, our bait gone, we started a slow run back to SCI to see if we can jig up some Bluefin.

The Cortez counts 90 Yellowtail, 11 Bluefin and a bunch of Bonito released.

We got to the West End of SCI about 7:00pm and started looking around. There hadn’t been much large Bluefin seen lately and most of us were thinking we would get in early, when at 9:15 we stop on some meter marks. Dropping flat falls and knife jigs down to 180’ to 300’ to the fish 5 Bluefin from about 70# up to about 130# were landed. Then some bigger models moved in and 5 more were multi-gaffed by the crew. These fish were from 107# to 210#

Brian Wynne again caught the Jackpot fish at 193# taped weight. Chris Ramsey brought in the biggest one at 210#, but he let BJ pull on it for a while and that disqualified him from the JP.

 An awesome surprise ending to an excellent Club trip.

Two Day Totals:

117 Yellowtail

69 Dorado

37 Bluefin Tuna