The Pacific Queen out of Fisherman's Landing in San Diego was our boat for a 1 1/2 day tuna run in May 2005. It was early for yellowtail but when they hit the 70 mile range out we were anxious to try our luck.
FForF (Mike) was kind enough to line up a day and half tuna run out of Fisherman's Landing in San Diego for Rick (Westy) and me. It was early for yellowtail but when they hit the 70 mile range out we were anxious to try our luck.
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The Pacific Queen was our boat. Captain Bill Cavanaugh was aboard to say hello but he turned the helm over to another Captain since his new baby was due. The Queen had a length of 88' and a beam of 22'. 3 heads inside, 2 refrigerated fish holds with RSW systems and 175 scoop bait capacity. Galley had a good menu and a decent cook.
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The line up started about 5pm Friday night. It was a bummer finding parking there. Lots of guy worked on tackle and getting gear ready. Westy had some new line strung on some of the Penns reels he had brought for the trip Fisherman's Landing has a nice store there with everything you could need for the trip.
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We we supposed to leave at 9pm but we were late and got under way at 10pm. We already had bait on board so we didn't have to stop and lose more time. Guys were anxious to get out to the fishing spot. Most guys crashed in the bunks after awhile. Some stayed up top and talked and hung out late. The next morning I crawled out of my bunk and stumbled up the steps only to be greeted by these two stow aways, FForF and Westy on the right.
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Every hour the crew rotated you on the troll rigs, there were 4 troll rigs and you stood at the back of the boat and watched one of the troll rigs. Zuchinni Zurkers were hot and FForF was using a Mexican Flag. It wasn't long when one of the troll rigs got hit and it was "Fish On". The crew jumped into action on the mark and started chumming. Once the bite died off we went trolling again. It was a spotty bite all day until about 4pm, which was what the crew told us. For a bit it was wide open on the rails but only for maybe an hour and then the bite died just before sunset.
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FForF getting some bait. One tip if you go, take a small bait net. Them dern baitfish are tough to catch and it you want the friskiest one you need a net. I watched one guy who had the drill down pat. Everybody else fished around with the arms trying to corner the best fish but he just walked up, looked for a bit and scooped his pick of the litter up. Easy Peezy Japaneezy. He was back on the rail in record time with the best swimmer of the bait tank
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I videoed most of the fish being taken onboard so I don't have any action pics of FFF or Westy in action. This is on the return Sunday morning, unloading the gear and tuna.
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The Shogun I believe it was was next to us when we unloaded and they got into the tuna hard. Longer range boat than ours. The whole deck was piled high with tuna, even some big halibut on the Shogun. We ended up with 70 tuna for 30 guys on our boat. Not too shabby for an early short run.
The dock where a lot work gets done when the boats come in.
· Date: Sun April 9, 2006 · Views: 2762 · Filesize: 54.1kb · Dimensions: 500 x 375 ·
