2022: Trip 8 - Thunderbird 1.5 Day
DWRRC Trip #8 Report: Thunderbird 1.5 day, September 22-23, 2022
by Anonymous
This trip was the most unique trip of 2022, over half were guests! It seems like it would have an "open party" feel but that turned out not to be true. When Jeff arrived it was discussed where to go and a decision was made to start at SCI and maybe fish the BF Friday night. That day Jeff had pretty good YT fishing at SCI. We loaded bait, it was questionable, and off we went. The ocean was nice so the ride to the island was easy.
We started in the Cove for not much, made a couple of moves in the area, and decided to check out some spots on the leeward side. This produced a few YT on yo-yo jigs, dropper loops, and a few flylining. The next move was up the island to where the Apollo was getting a few. This was a better stop and more YT were caught. We then made a big move to the "9" off the west end and that proved to be a good call. We put on another 30-plus YT. Mostly flylining, some on heavy 50# line, others on surface iron, and a few on dropper loops. Many boats joined us, then the current backed off and the fishing slowed. Jeff then made a move to the Runway area but it did not produce. Next was a big move all the way down to Eel Point and that was the hot stop of the day. Another 40 or so YT were caught and at times the fishing was simply outstanding. We started to run out of bait but we had enough YT. We ended with 83 YT, average size was 20# with a standout by John Lenker at 27#s.
Our next option was to try for BF. We worked out way off the backside of SCI hoping to find BF but did not find any. It was now almost dark and we kept working toward the west end and then out to where the entire fleet was fishing. We counted 18 boats and nobody was doing much. Jeff finally found a school and in the first 5 minutes we had 3 hook-ups....Tom Hill, guest Tom Navlan and Bill Parks. All three hit the deck pretty quickly. Bill's was the biggest (Patch/JB winner) at about 45#s, Tom Navian's was next at about 40# and then Tommy Hill with 20#er. We kept trying but that was it..........a few more schools but nothing stuck.
The weather was great, the bait was far better than we expected and the YT fishing was really good! It is rumored that two of the crustier, older, grumpy, long-time members might have accounted for 30% of the YT. Just a rumor but Gary Thompson was keeping score because he had a little more time than the others so he might be able to verify the rumor to be true.
Anonymous Scribe
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