Trip #3:

Boat: Thunderbird 2 day

Departs: Thursday July 25th

Fishing: July 26th & 27th

Synopsis: 

23 supper athletes forfeit their chances of Olympic Gold to participate in our two-day-fishing-trip departing Newport Landing on charter boat Thunderbird. Tom Hill’s grandson, Ari and three guests join us for the trip. The catch includes 25 quality Yellowtail, one super-sized Bluefin Tuna, 23 Calico Bass and a variety of miscellaneous species. Saif Liswi takes both Friday and Saturday jackpots.

The trip:

8:00 pm Thursday: Anglers board the Thunderbird. We take on about 60 scoops of sardines at the bait barge. A small number of live squid are also in the tanks as we leave the harbor for San Clemente Island. Boat operations are conducted by captains Jeff and Chris, cook Goofy and crew members Collen, Steve and Jared.

3:00 am Friday: Boat arrives at Pyramid Cove and anchors up. Dropper loop fishing in the dark commences while an abundance of squid attracted to the boat lights is harvested. Alex losses the first biter from line rubbing the hull. At 3:20 am Bill Parks lands the first Yellowtail. A lull follows. At about 4:30 we distinctly smell smoke from the island’s wildfire. Then a red sunrise. At 5:20 am, Bob, Tony, Jeffy and Chris land nice grade Yellowtails. We are surrounded in the Cove by boats including the Fury, Eldorado and Aggressor. Jeffy’s fishing line is snagged by a jig cast from the nearby Fury. It is quickly released with no fuss. The bite stalls. We round the East end of the island to the leeward side.

8:30 am Friday: Fly lining and jigging produce Yellowtail, Calico Bass, Bonita Whitefish and Barracuda. 

Noon to 2:00 pm Friday: Kevin lands a nice Yellowtail. We hopscotch with other sport boats northwesterly along the leeward side of the island. At various stops, we catch and release small Calico Bass, potpourri of island fish and more Yellowtail. We pass smoking vegetation on the ridge marking the edge of the island brush fire. A Navy helicopter operating overhead is dropping seawater on the fire. The Fury gives us sardines. We cruise past our old friend the Amigo, a boat the club had regularly chartered year’s back.

2:00 to 9:00 pm Friday: We make a 2 1/2 - hour northwesterly run leaving the west end of the island for open ocean where other boats are working the Bluefin. At 7:00 pm Kevin and Luke hookup. Large Bluefins overwhelm their tackle and breakoff. At 9:00 pm following a very tough fight, Saif lands a beast – a taped 148-pound Bluefin that would probably be another 15 pounds on a scale. Saif is exhausted. He wins Friday’s jackpot. A nice prime rib dinner with exuberant table-talk and wine follows as we head back to the island.

3:00 am Saturday. We arrive back at Pyramid Cove and start fishing the same spot. All is quiet until 6:00 am when Saif and Jimmy land two nice Yellowtail. Saif wins the Saturday jackpot giving him a clean sweep for Trip 3 – his fans hold up the broom.

6:30 am Saturday: Repeating the prior day’s strategy, we hopscotch with other boats along the leeward side of the island fishing bass and Yellowtail. I venture to say that maybe one out of twenty bass are keeper sized. To the east we see a Navy flotilla approaching the island.

1:00 pm. We lunch as the boat turns homeward bound for 7:00 pm arrival back at Newport Landing. The crew continues its excellent customer service helping us unload and collect our filleted fish. Driving out, traffic on Balboa Avenue is ugly as our cars creep off the peninsula with hordes of Saturday beach goers.

Best regards,

Andy Sienkiewich