I had a wonderful trip on the Intrepid 12/26/2008, no doubt about it.
Well, Accurate is now co-sponsoring the trip for this coming year, and my brother Willy is coming along with me as well.
So it will still be sponsored by Izorline I am told, but it also has Accurate sponsorship as well. And it is a Willy/Wahoodad trip with Bill Casper Jr jumping on. He missed this year due to a recent surgery, but we will both be chasing the cows on the Intrepid come next December 26th!
Jack will be styling us out, with a few nice prizes, and all the Accurate loaner gear that one could possibly hope for.Outfits big and small will be available, all backed with spectra, and the only rental fee on these trips is to just pay for the monofilament.
There was a great group of anglers on this past trip, we are looking forward to another trip that hopes to focus on cows.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Sunday, January 11, 2009
New organization
I should be coming out with a new record keeping website which is dedicated to long range fishing and allows the crew to assist in tangles and around obstacles without disqualifying your catch. It is all about fun, and to recognize our accomplishments with several categories for special types of tackle and techniques peculiar to our sport of long ranging.
If you catch a fish not on a long range boat and wish to submit, we are open to that as well.
I should be ready to go public with the website very soon.
If you catch a fish not on a long range boat and wish to submit, we are open to that as well.
I should be ready to go public with the website very soon.
Intrepid 12/26/08 -01/05/09 report
Back from my best trip ever, with my personal best tuna. This was a fantastic trip that we experienced great weather, fabulous fishing, good friends, and delicious food. Sorry for the late report, but I've been busy since I have returned home.
We rode down in somewhat windy weather, but it's ok when you are running south. I wouldn't have wanted to be driving north. This was an Izorline trip, with Shauna Barton as the chartermaster. She had lots of giveaways, a T shirt for each of us, See's Candies, and some grand prizes which were raffled off the second day of seminars.
As Kevin gave the seminars, he told of the methods that worked best on the last trip. It seems the tuna on the last trip preferred fishing the drift with a sliding egg sinker of 3 to 4 ounces. So I rigged a couple of rods that way, but I sure prefer flylining myself.
We started fishing the next day, after arriving to the ridge area, Kevin selecting the 23 fathom spot as our upper ridge area. Lots of birds and fish sign as we approached, this is a good thing.
We did well on the school sized yellowtail. It was a lot of fun, as they bit flylined bait, dropper loop, and yoyo jigs in no particular preference. Everybody tagged a few.
Here is a sample:
Yanking and cranking after a couple days travel was therapuetic.
On to the Cowtown area. We arrived, and started searching as soon as it was light enough. It wasn't long, and we tried spot after spot of fish hanging with the porpoise, to no avail. We tried, just no response. We slid down south to the next bank, and saw some birds and breaking fish so things seemed better. Kevin found a likely looking spot, and we drifted on that for not that long before we hooked a couple on the sliding sinker rigs. Uggh, I hate fishing that way, but the results were worth it.
Our first two shown here, with Mick and Lee showing that three hundred pounders are a real possibility.
And Henry always has a bait in the water. He is an Intrepid regular, and works hard at his fishing.
These fish would mark on the meter, but not come up and boil very well. We hooked a lot of thresher sharks fishing this way as well. You never really were sure if you had a tuna or a shark on. On day two, I was sure I had a thresher on, using the prescribed 3 ounce slider, but my T shark turned into a tuna. This one was a mere 224, a puppy compared to those prior fish.
Later that afternoon, I saw some boils! I was so happy, I could now flyline a bait and have a real chance at a tuna. My first bite came very close to the boat, almost a surprise I got bit so quick. The fish felt heavy, but my Accurate ATD30 was up to the task, and this 289 pound tuna was on the deck 24 minutes after hooking it!
That night, we set up well upswell of the fleet, just trying to have our own area where we didn't need to worry about drifting back down on the other boats.
Kevin told us we were marking fish in the morning, so there was no reason to leave. It was simply a time to keep soaking baits and putting in rail time to get a bite.
Fred Gates of El Camino Village, close by where I live, and a fellow Yo's angler, got one that taped over 300 but came up a tad short at the dock. Fred had a good one on for about an hour, only to pull the hook at color. He got right back at it, and landed this beautiful fish.
I had a very good day this day, getting a 198, a 299 and a 150. Strangely enough, I got the 150 on my ATD50, smallest fish on the biggest gear. Since I had plenty of fish, and this poor 150 came in very quickly, I donated this fish for a meal. The 299 on the other hand, came at a time when it was tough to get a bite. I had my ATD3o filled with one hundred pound spectra, and I used a 90# Seaguar fluorocarbon topshot, and an experimental rod from Seeker. It was a Super Seeker blank Randy is calling a 2X4. The blank is seven feet long, has the tip section of a 6463XXH and the butt section of a 6463XXXXH, and this rod worked very well on this big fish as well as another cow on the trip. While fighting this fish, we had 5 other big ones hooked up at the same time. It made for quite a photo. Funny thing is, the small one on the right landed by Brandon weighed 224.
It was New Year's Eve, and I was having quite a holiday myself.
Javier used my tuna to put on his Hawaiian buffet spread, and we had champagne on each table to ring in the New Year.
Ted was one of those guys who really put their rail time in. He had more than his share of threshers, but kept at it none the same. Perseverance paid off for Ted, shown here with his nice cow tuna.
Mark was another who caught loads of T sharks, but never got discouraged. We didn't catch a lot of fish, but sure had nice quality.
Bud and Marilyn from Fresno had a super trip. First, Marilyn got herself a 290ish tuna shown in the shot of 5 fish above. She handed off her kite fish to Bud, and he handled this 336 just fine. They were here celebrating their honeymoon.
On New Year's day, I hooked into what I truly feel was the largest yellowfin tuna I have ever had on the line. I ran out of line, so they hooked on a backup rod, and threw my perfectly good Seeker rod and Accurate ATD reel over the side. I got the fish stopped, and eventually got my own rod back on the boat. I was gaining good on the fish, only to have it get angry with me, and take off on a extended run again, where we had to throw the rod and reel back in with a backup, and throw in that backup as well. I was on this fish for well over 3 hours, and knew that the amount of time with the Seaguar fluorocarbon rubbing over the teeth of the tuna wasn't good, and eventually it chewed through the line.
Disappointed as I was, as well as tired, I knew that trying for another was my only way for redemption. And it didn't take long for a bite, and this personal best 316.6 pounder came on my ATD30 with a 130# Seaguar leader.
As you can tell, this was a very special trip. Many thanks to Kevin Osborne and the Intrepid crew for a spectacular job of doing their best to make sure we had a chance at fighting these world class fish. Special thanks to Javier for all the meals, and of course thanks to Carol who takes all our calls, Hoffy who signs us in, and a very special thanks to Ken Price, the owner of Intrepid for assembling this crew which works so well together.
This trip will sail next year same dates, but we will be Accurate sponsored trip with myself and my buddy Bill Casper as the chartermasters from Accurate. I believe Izorline might be a co-sponsor as well.
Hopefully, we can repeat a lineup like this next year. Hope to see you there.
We rode down in somewhat windy weather, but it's ok when you are running south. I wouldn't have wanted to be driving north. This was an Izorline trip, with Shauna Barton as the chartermaster. She had lots of giveaways, a T shirt for each of us, See's Candies, and some grand prizes which were raffled off the second day of seminars.
As Kevin gave the seminars, he told of the methods that worked best on the last trip. It seems the tuna on the last trip preferred fishing the drift with a sliding egg sinker of 3 to 4 ounces. So I rigged a couple of rods that way, but I sure prefer flylining myself.
We started fishing the next day, after arriving to the ridge area, Kevin selecting the 23 fathom spot as our upper ridge area. Lots of birds and fish sign as we approached, this is a good thing.
We did well on the school sized yellowtail. It was a lot of fun, as they bit flylined bait, dropper loop, and yoyo jigs in no particular preference. Everybody tagged a few.
Here is a sample:
Yanking and cranking after a couple days travel was therapuetic.
On to the Cowtown area. We arrived, and started searching as soon as it was light enough. It wasn't long, and we tried spot after spot of fish hanging with the porpoise, to no avail. We tried, just no response. We slid down south to the next bank, and saw some birds and breaking fish so things seemed better. Kevin found a likely looking spot, and we drifted on that for not that long before we hooked a couple on the sliding sinker rigs. Uggh, I hate fishing that way, but the results were worth it.
Our first two shown here, with Mick and Lee showing that three hundred pounders are a real possibility.
And Henry always has a bait in the water. He is an Intrepid regular, and works hard at his fishing.
These fish would mark on the meter, but not come up and boil very well. We hooked a lot of thresher sharks fishing this way as well. You never really were sure if you had a tuna or a shark on. On day two, I was sure I had a thresher on, using the prescribed 3 ounce slider, but my T shark turned into a tuna. This one was a mere 224, a puppy compared to those prior fish.
Later that afternoon, I saw some boils! I was so happy, I could now flyline a bait and have a real chance at a tuna. My first bite came very close to the boat, almost a surprise I got bit so quick. The fish felt heavy, but my Accurate ATD30 was up to the task, and this 289 pound tuna was on the deck 24 minutes after hooking it!
That night, we set up well upswell of the fleet, just trying to have our own area where we didn't need to worry about drifting back down on the other boats.
Kevin told us we were marking fish in the morning, so there was no reason to leave. It was simply a time to keep soaking baits and putting in rail time to get a bite.
Fred Gates of El Camino Village, close by where I live, and a fellow Yo's angler, got one that taped over 300 but came up a tad short at the dock. Fred had a good one on for about an hour, only to pull the hook at color. He got right back at it, and landed this beautiful fish.
I had a very good day this day, getting a 198, a 299 and a 150. Strangely enough, I got the 150 on my ATD50, smallest fish on the biggest gear. Since I had plenty of fish, and this poor 150 came in very quickly, I donated this fish for a meal. The 299 on the other hand, came at a time when it was tough to get a bite. I had my ATD3o filled with one hundred pound spectra, and I used a 90# Seaguar fluorocarbon topshot, and an experimental rod from Seeker. It was a Super Seeker blank Randy is calling a 2X4. The blank is seven feet long, has the tip section of a 6463XXH and the butt section of a 6463XXXXH, and this rod worked very well on this big fish as well as another cow on the trip. While fighting this fish, we had 5 other big ones hooked up at the same time. It made for quite a photo. Funny thing is, the small one on the right landed by Brandon weighed 224.
It was New Year's Eve, and I was having quite a holiday myself.
Javier used my tuna to put on his Hawaiian buffet spread, and we had champagne on each table to ring in the New Year.
Ted was one of those guys who really put their rail time in. He had more than his share of threshers, but kept at it none the same. Perseverance paid off for Ted, shown here with his nice cow tuna.
Mark was another who caught loads of T sharks, but never got discouraged. We didn't catch a lot of fish, but sure had nice quality.
Bud and Marilyn from Fresno had a super trip. First, Marilyn got herself a 290ish tuna shown in the shot of 5 fish above. She handed off her kite fish to Bud, and he handled this 336 just fine. They were here celebrating their honeymoon.
On New Year's day, I hooked into what I truly feel was the largest yellowfin tuna I have ever had on the line. I ran out of line, so they hooked on a backup rod, and threw my perfectly good Seeker rod and Accurate ATD reel over the side. I got the fish stopped, and eventually got my own rod back on the boat. I was gaining good on the fish, only to have it get angry with me, and take off on a extended run again, where we had to throw the rod and reel back in with a backup, and throw in that backup as well. I was on this fish for well over 3 hours, and knew that the amount of time with the Seaguar fluorocarbon rubbing over the teeth of the tuna wasn't good, and eventually it chewed through the line.
Disappointed as I was, as well as tired, I knew that trying for another was my only way for redemption. And it didn't take long for a bite, and this personal best 316.6 pounder came on my ATD30 with a 130# Seaguar leader.
As you can tell, this was a very special trip. Many thanks to Kevin Osborne and the Intrepid crew for a spectacular job of doing their best to make sure we had a chance at fighting these world class fish. Special thanks to Javier for all the meals, and of course thanks to Carol who takes all our calls, Hoffy who signs us in, and a very special thanks to Ken Price, the owner of Intrepid for assembling this crew which works so well together.
This trip will sail next year same dates, but we will be Accurate sponsored trip with myself and my buddy Bill Casper as the chartermasters from Accurate. I believe Izorline might be a co-sponsor as well.
Hopefully, we can repeat a lineup like this next year. Hope to see you there.
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