saxatilis
07-01-2005, 11:40 AM
Fished this past January aboard the Shogun out of San Diego. Here is the story. Enjoy! Post questions if you have some. I am trying to set up a trip of 15 anglers to do it all over again in 2007. Let me know if you have some interest!!
Going Long…
By Rick Vandenberg, Berwick, Maine
A fire has burned deep inside me ever since sometime around 1992 or 1993 when I saw a brief segment on “Fly Fishing the World” featuring the then new world of long range fly fishing. I was amazed by the images of the 1st Bluewater Invitational, hosted by bluewater enthusiast Ed Rice and couldn’t believe how these fly rodders, as skilled as they were, could catch tuna, marlin, and skipjack with nothing more than a fly rod and of 20 kilograms (kg) breaking strength. Wow! Until then I had never associated bluewater with fly fishing. I thought that bluewater fishing was the realm of only conventional anglers equipped with massive reels and 130 pound line. Even so I remember thinking an “Invitational” …how could I beg my way onto one of these trips? This type of fishing seemed so exclusive and expensive and I didn’t really have any connections I could exploit or the kind of money it would take to go on one of these trips.
At Christmas in 1994 my wife gave me a copy of Trey Comb’s new book “Bluewater Fly Fishing”. Of all the fly fishing gifts I’ve been given by my wife, this book was only one of handful than I didn’t have telegraph (i.e. drop hints and detail lists) to ensure that she would buy the right thing. She remembered my interest and scooped it up when she was in the fly shop buying me some other fly fishing gadget that I just couldn’t live without.
The book only served to further develop my interested in bluewater fly fishing. After reading the book cover to cover at least 5 times I put my energies to better use, or so I thought, by trying some bluewater fly fishing on the East Coast. In fact, over the next several years I tried, with very little success, to go bluewater fly fishing in places like the Canyons off Rhode Island; Long Island, New York; and New Jersey to the Gulf Stream off Hatteras and Morehead City, North Carolina.
The results of my East Coast bluewater trips were always the same. No pelagic fish caught on the fly. Mother Nature would almost never cooperate either. She usually would whip up unfavorable winds and high seas the day of my scheduled trips. Ideally I should have planned better and booked more than one day on the water on these trips but my fishing budget usually wouldn’t permit it. So, after years of trying and with exactly zero fly rod pelagic fish caught, I traded in my 12 weight rod for a second 8 weight to chase inshore game fish like striped bass and bluefish in my home waters of Maine. I did take a yearly trip to Newport, Rhode Island to fish for false albacore and bonito. So, I while I had caught plenty of inshore pelagic fish on the fly not they weren’t the ones I had dreamed of catching – yellow fin tuna, dorado, and wahoo.
Several more years passed by with little to no thought of bluewater or long range fly fishing until 2004 when my first significant fly fishing first trip, a trip to Panama from wife for my 40th birthday, had to be cancelled. The group I was to be fishing with fell apart when one of the guys wives became pregnant and was due to deliver their second child a month before the trip. Left holding an American Airlines ticket to Panama and no trip to take, I had to reschedule my unused airline ticket before I lost it thanks to new airline regulations. My travel agent suggested that I book a phantom flight, which is a short flight cheap flight, that you don’t ever intend to use, but meets the airline requirement that your rebook your ticket prior the original date of departure. So, I booked an American flight from LaGuardia Airport to Boston which left me with a $550 credit that could be used for another ticket, but I now I had year to use it.
Talking it over with my wife at dinner after my booking my phantom ticket, my wife casually said “why don’t you see if you could go on one of those fly fishing trips off California?” Man, was she good! Her idea worked on a couple of levels. First, she was right I could use the balance of my Panama ticket to fly to California and secondly I could go solo! Well, of course that was all I needed. Being from the school of thought that ‘you don’t have to hit me in the head with a tire tool twice’ I immediately leaped into action.
That night I searched the internet for information on bluewater fly fishing trips. I didn’t find specific information any trips, but managed to find some references to some past trips run out of Fisherman’s Landing in San Diego, California. From the search I got the telephone numbers for the Royal Polaris and Shogun boats, which have run fly fishing trips in the past. Both these boats are owned by California sport fishing legend Frank Lopreste.
The next morning I inquired with Andrea in the Shogun Sport fishing office about planned future long range bluewater fly fishing trips that might be running soon and hit pay dirt! She told me that Steve Abel of Abel Reel fame had set up a long range bluewater trip to in January 2005, but he been recently diagnosed with cancer and was going to cancel the trip when developer and bluewater fly fisherman John Hertzberg from Washington state stepped in a took over the trip. At my urging Andrea gave me John’s telephone number and a quick call to him revealed that there was only one spot remaining! The biggest attraction for me was that Trey Combs was coming along on the trip as a co-host. Only one catch…John needed a check immediately from me for half of the trip cost before he could secure my spot! Hey, it was the trip of a lifetime for me so I did whatever was necessary; I called Visa to up my credit limit and took a cash advance for the balance of the trip.
John notified me upon receiving my check to inform me that I was the last person to be included! I was in! I couldn’t believe it! For a week or so I couldn’t get my head wrapped around the fact that I was one of 16 fly fisherman (19 people total) on this trip to the holy grail of bluewater fly fishing. The realization of my participation finally set-in and was quickly replaced with the stress that it was June and the trip was to begin in January and I needed to get going tying flies and acquiring new equipment or I was logistically not going to be ready!
After thoroughly researching the flies necessary for long range trip off Baja I began to understand that those recommended in Trey’s book Bluewater Fly Fishing would be most appropriate so I began tying during off hours when work and family obligations would allow. I ended up with a dozen mylar/epoxy covered 2/0 poppers in silver, pink, blue over white, and green over white; a dozen 2/0 and four dozen 4/0 Sea Habit Bucktails and Sea Habit Deceivers in anchovy green, anchovy blue, pink lady, and white knight colors; and two dozen 6/0 Sea Habit Bucktail flies. In addition, I brought my wallet of false albacore and bonito flies just in case in needed even smaller flies.
On Ebay I found three important items that I used on my trip. The first was an Abel 4 anti-reverse big game fly reel and the second was a Sage Xi2 13 weight fly rod to go with the 8 and 10 weights that I already had. I chose a 13 weight because I wanted a rod big fight large hard pulling fish and small enough to cast for a large part of the day. The third essential piece of equipment was a quality tackle bag to hold all this equipment. The tackle bag was the most used and best investment I made for the trip.
I was helped tremendously by two fly shops near where I live. I was impressed by how much these guys knew about bluewater fly fishing, it was great to have excellent resources like this nearby. To round my equipment I needed, I bought a second 10 weight, a Temple Fork TiCr 4 piece, from nearby First Light Anglers, in Rowley, Massachusetts. I also bought fly lines, gel spun backing, leaders and lots of other miscellaneous equipment like mini-flashlights, knot tiers, and fly tying materials at Eldredge Bros. Fly Shop in nearby Cape Neddick, Maine.
Between family obligations, work, and fly tying the time from June to Christmas flew by as any in my life. Before I knew it I was a week away from the trip, but through hard work and help from others I was ready. The only left was to get threw the week and the flight to San Diego.
Work that week flew by with apparent light speed and I would like to say that my American Airlines flight from LaGuardia to Dallas and on to San Diego was uneventful, but it wasn’t. On final approach to Dallas/Fortworth International Airport our landing had to be abruptly cancelled because the pilot and co-pilot couldn’t get an indicator light that the landing gear was down. He indicated that the gear was probably down, but without the indicator light, they couldn’t confirm that it was locked in-place. After about 20 minutes of circling around the airport, our plane made another approach and landed without incident. There were a few upset people on the plane, but everyone was orderly during the incident.
I was lucky because I happened to be sitting across the aisle from another American pilot who was ‘dead heading’ (which means he didn’t have a working flight from LaGuarida and had to fly back to his home airport as a passenger). Good for me because during the ‘little incident’ he gave me the inside scoop on what really going on. He didn’t seem concerned at all so it immediately put me ease. As the crew was working on the problem and we didn’t know if it was going to even be fixable he leaned over to me and said “don’t worry the MD-80 is the best belly landing plane we have in our fleet”. I imagine that I could have allowed a statement like that to panic me, but there was some something about the casual way he said it and his brutal honesty that made me laugh out loud.
The one thing that the landing incident made me do is significantly change my goals for the trip. Before I began traveling I decided that I wanted to catch a yellow fin tuna over 40 pounds, a 20+ pound dorado, and a wahoo of any size, but after I incident I just wanted to travel there and back safely. It’s amazing how fast a slight brush with the Grim Reaper with correctly realign your priorities.
I didn’t include a striped marlin or a marlin of any kind for that matter on my original list of fish I wanted to catch because of a previous bad experience. I once spent what seemed like the longest day of my life on a 38 foot Bertram off of Grand Cayman Island trolling huge marlin teasers around in marlin empty seas. It was truly one of the most boring fishing days I’ve ever spent on the water. To make matters worse it was made very frustrating too when the captain proceeded to troll his marlin teasers through a school of skipjack tuna that were crashing bait all over the surface for as far as the eye could see! Radio reports from other captains had to school of skipjack at 10 miles long! I had brought a 10 weight rod rigged and ready exactly for this scenario, but the captain just laughed when I asked for him to stop so I could fish. He was obviously inexperience with fly fisherman because he just kept shaking his head and saying in a jovial way that these fish wouldn’t eat my flies. He may have been right, but I would have loved to at least cast to these fish. Fish is at its highest level when you can cast direct to your quarry. I was left pacing around the deck just watching the skipjack have their way with the bait. That the poor experience jaded me toward trolling for scarce fish. I would have much rather cast to the skipjack all day long and not caught any than troll for marlin in a seemingly empty marlin sea.
The remainder of the journey to San Diego was easy and uneventful. I was a little worried about how much I going to have to pay to take a cab solo from the San Diego Airport to Fisherman’s Landing. My uneasiness grew when I asked to the cab driver to take me there and he had no idea where Fisherman’s Landing was. Although, he probably didn’t understand English well because I had a hard time understanding his broken English through his thick Middle Eastern accent. I had visions of being driven around in circles for hours only to arrive back at the airport. He finally discovered from the office that Fisherman’s Landing was only a little more than a mile from the airport. With tip the cab ride was less than a $7. In a pinch or if I didn’t have 60 pounds of luggage I could have probably walked from the airport to the Landing in no less than 15 minutes.
After arriving at Fisherman’s Landing I walked across the street with my luggage and checked in at the Comfort Inn. After checking in to my hotel I met up with trip co-host John Hertzberg and the other two fly fisherman, Jim Sonn and Tony Snow, that were traveling down to the fishing grounds aboard the Shogun. The other 15 passengers were not riding down in the boat instead they all opted to meet the boat in the quite coastal Mexican town of San Carlos. Boarding the boat in San Carlos not San Diego eliminates a three day 600 mile boat ride down the Baja coast and serves to maximize the fishing time on the boat, which is why most of the experienced long range fisherman opted not to ride the boat down. For me, I wanted the entire experience because I wasn’t likely to do this trip again for a while.
The Shogun departed the dock a little after 2 pm on New Year’s Eve after crew cleaned and fuel the boat. The boat had just returned from a 5 day San Martin Island yellowtail and bottom fishing trip (which is along northern part of the Baja west coast) only hours before it was turned around. After a brief stop at the San Diego bait pens to replenish the live bait wells back to their capacity of 400 scoops of sardines, we left the San Diego harbor and turned south toward our destination- ‘The Ridge’ a series of banks or shallow spots that starts about 600 nautical miles (nm) south of San Diego and runs about 200 nm all the way down to Cabo San Lucas. In a few days the fishing was to begin.
For me the sense of adventure set immediately because everything is different about this experience - the boats, the coast line, the people, and even the style of fishing. One of coolest things that I noticed was that over the first 4 to 6 hours of travel the broadcast television signal which had been excellent at the dock slowly faded to complete snow, which drove home the point that were headed far away from civilization. You may have already guessed that cell phones were also of no use after about the first hour underway.
My home for the next 10 days was the confines of the 92 foot long 30 foot beam California long range sport fisher named the Shogun. The 13 staterooms sleep up to 30 people on the busiest of trips, but because the low number of expected passengers I got my own stateroom. My room was on port side just in forward of the engine room. I loud place to sleep while underway, but after a while the drone of the engines would put me to sleep. I was most impressed with the how well appointed the boat was to accommodate fly fisherman. The boat has vertical rod storage along her starboard and port side that can easily hold at least 80 rigged fly rods. The boat is large enough to for everyone to fish with room to spare. They also brought along 3 inflatable skiffs to aid anglers with chasing down big fish and to spread people even further. The Shogun’s aft area is open from the galley back to the stern giving anglers lots of room to move.
Each day as The Ridge got closer the sea state went from lumpy to near glass which made travel very comfortable. Of course, the 92 foot length of the Shogun has a way of smoothing out most seas. The balance of the next three days aboard the boat was spent preparing tackle, tying leaders, watching DVD movies, and eating.
The cuisine served aboard the Shogun is absolutely first rate. Foods like poached eggs, breakfast burritos, veal, pasta, Chilean Sea Bass, Tuna, and tenderloin were served with fresh baked bread daily. For those who like sushi, we had sushi one night that was the best I have ever tasted. The two chefs, Peter and Robert, did everything in their power to completely satisfy the passengers. I can honestly say I was never hungry aboard the boat.
After 2 days of traveling and one day spent picking up the remaining passengers in San Carlos (up in Magdalena Bay), we finally began fishing for striped marlin, yellow fin tuna, black skipjack, skipjack tuna, pacific bonito, and other pelagic fish. Fishing was done by searching the banks and other likely areas for sign of game fish. The biggest indicator of fish were the ‘birds schools’ (terns, gulls, and frigate birds), especially at long distance. Once a bird school was found, the crew would pinpoint the position of fish using the side scanning and the ‘up/down’ sonars. From this the crew could tell the size and species of the fish which was nice because then they could advise on the most appropriate weight rods to use. Another indictor of fish was the schools of dolphin (black, spinners, and bottlenose) that roam almost everywhere around and especially offshore of the banks.
[B]Fishing Day 1
Much of fishing day 1 was spent searching for tuna and marlin in an area of life (bait, birds, whales, dolphin and sea lions) about 15 miles south of Magdalena Bay. Despite the life that was found spread out across the area there weren’t enough fish around to warrant staying. So, off to the north we went trolling tuna feathers and marlin teasers along the way. The nice thing about seeing so much life on the water is that it keeps you optimistic that a great bite is only a short distance away. During the trolling segments four anglers were ‘at the ready’ in the stern for 1 hour shifts. If a fish was hooked by the stern anglers and the bite continued new people would be rotated into the stern.
If fish were found using the sonar or via bird schools or when one of the trolling feather or teasers were struck, Captain Norm would put the boat in neutral so the fly anglers could begin casting as the boat slide to a stop. Normally, it was most productive to roll cast your fly in the foam once the announcement to fish was heard on the PA system. Fish were usually on there way toward the stern because the crew immediately starts tossing live sardines overboard once fish were spotted.
Until 2 PM on fishing Day 1 we didn’t have to worry about fighting fish. Most people took their turns at the stern uneventfully until the Shogun reached area just off Tosca known for its large population of black skipjack. It took Captain Norm a very short time before he found a school of fish that were willing to come to stern and eat our flies. In less than 30 minutes 8 to 10 skipjack between 5 and 10 pounds were boated released. The bite died, as it normally did when it was my turn in the rotation, but everyone was now clear that this fish could be fast and furious.
Fishing Day 2
We started fishing the morning Thetis Bank which is due north where we finished day 1. Captain Norm had moved the Shogun to Thetis Bank before dawn and anchored the boat on the high spot to make sure we were there for the morning bite. Morning brought brisk north winds and 4 to 6 foot seas.
Like the other areas to the south, Thetis Bank held good sign of life. Numerous bait and bird schools were found all over the bank especially along the offshore edges. However, after chasing the ‘bird schools’ for a while with little success, Captain Norm moved the Shogun to another promising sign of fish the crew had glassed and the sardines were deployed by the crew. Unlike the recent stops on the back this time the fish cooperated. Within a few minutes, three of the anglers in the current rotation were fast into fish. Two of the fish that came over the rail were a bottom fish that they generically refer to as ‘whitefish’ and the last fish to the boat was a California yellowtail. The fish weight almost 22 lbs which is 7 pounds heavier than the existing 10 kg fly rod world record (15 pounds). These fish are caught with great regularity by conventional anglers, but not by fly anglers on these trips. In fact, this yellowtail was the first caught by fly on any of their fly fishing trips.
http://www.shogunsportfishing.com/news/images/2005images/20050106-P1050011.JPG
At the time of the catch, the angler and crew thought that the yellowtail would qualify for that world record, but it was determined that the leader did not conform to International Game Fish Association (IGFA) rules. Nobody knew it at the time, but that yellowtail was a sign of good things to come.
http://www.shogunsportfishing.com/news/images/2005images/20050106-P1050017.JPG
The yellowtail is a hard fighting fish, related to the greater amberjack that ranges from Baja California, Mexico to Los Angeles, California. According to the 2005 IGFA World Record Game Fishes book the yellowtail is easily recognized by its bright yellow tail and characteristic brass colored stripe that run along the median line of the fish. Coincidently, the All-Tackle World Record yellowtail was caught on November 21, 2003 aboard the Shogun by Tom Lambert and weighed 91 lbs 9 ounces. The fish was caught near Guadalupe Island, Mexico.
Over the next several hours the Shogun would repeatedly motor to the high spot and the boat was allowed to drift with the wind into deeper water. Once the chumming began Captain Norm would come on the radio and ask the anglers begin fishing again. Subsequent drifts yielded two more nice yellowtail, a few trigger fish, and more whitefish. Both of the yellowtail were larger than the current 10 kg world record, but again leader issues prevented the larger of the two from being submitted. The smaller fish, caught by Geoff Clark of Gig Harbor, Washington weighed (at sea) 19 lbs. This fish appeared to qualify to replace the existing record.
http://www.shogunsportfishing.com/news/images/2005images/20050108-P1060051.JPG
Once the fishing slowed and the birds began to raft up on the water and began to show little interest eating, the Shogun was moved off Thetis Bank to the north to 23 Fathoms Bank. The boat was anchored on the high spot for the night.
http://www.shogunsportfishing.com/news/images/2005images/20050108-P1060037.JPG
Fishing Day 3
In the morning after the anchor was pulled and the search for fish began on 23 Fathoms Bank. Almost immediately the lack of life on this bank was noticed. Captain Norm moved the boat off the bank and we headed north trolling tuna feathers and marlin teasers. I could only take so much trolling before sleepiness set-in, so I headed to my cabin to take a nap. There is nothing better than taking a nap at 8 o’clock in the morning. Before heading down to my cabin, I asked fellow passenger to wake me if anything happened.
It didn’t take long for something good to happen. I was only asleep for about 20 minutes when I heard the engines idle down from trolling speed and go into neutral. Figuring that some fish were located, I headed up to the stern to see what was going on. Coming up from below deck, I immediately saw five or six anglers with bent rods scurrying around the stern. All fish that were boated were yellowtail between 8 and 12 lbs. Still half asleep, I asked someone where we where and the response was 13 Fathoms Bank! The bite was on!
http://www.shogunsportfishing.com/news/images/2005images/20050108-P1060039.JPG
Over the next 6 hours the yellowtail bite continued to grow to the point where yellowtail could be seen free swimming all around the boat. At any given time there were between 5 and 15 anglers hooked up and fighting yellowtail. With each successive drift off the high spot the quality of the fishing improved. At one point it was so easy to get a bite that I tried experimenting to see if different retrieve rates would make a difference. I tried presenting the fly dead drift, slow retrieve, fast retrieve, and super fast and they all worked! Retrieve rates didn’t matter, but it became clear after some additional experimentation that the yellowtail preferred smaller flies of 2/0 size to larger flies in the 4/0 to 6/0 range. Anchovy green, anchovy blue, or white knight color patterns worked best, but fish were taken on many different patterns, colors, and sizes during the bite. Leaders didn’t make much difference either. I caught fish on 20 lb, 30 lb and even on straight 50 lb. All my leaders were less than 5 feet in length. It seemed best to keep leaders simple especially because I wasn’t trying to catch a record fish. I believe that this significantly increased my hookup to landing ratio.
The constant chumming of live sardines coaxed yellowfin tuna to with casting distance of our flies. The yellow fin were small (8 to 20 lbs), but were a blast on a 10 weight rod. Despite their size they still pulled up to 150 yards of backing off my Ross Big Game Reel with ease. After having some fun on my sinking shooting head set-up I switched to my rod equipped with floating line and a mylar covered popper. This worked great too and it was exciting to see the tuna blast the fly and take off in a blur. Occasionally, I would hook a large tuna or a large yellowtail that would take me 200 to 250 yards deep into my backing. Unfortunately, my 10 weight was no match for these large fish. The tuna would initially run straight out away from the boat before eventually getting vertically below the angler. The large yellowtail would run straight down to the bottom a wrap the fly line or leader around some kelp or a rock and it was game over.
The bite slowed late in the afternoon and then Captain Norm steamed the Shogun to the top of the 13 Fathoms Bank where he anchored boat for the night. After that good bite, all the passenger and crew were in a great mood. Good fishing has a way of relaxing people. That night Phyllis Kvinsland from Washington State had the best reason to be happy with three (6 kg, 8 kg, and 10 kg) potential women’s fly rod world record yellowtail caught that day.
In addition to the record fish, most anglers opted to keep a few caught to bring home. This was made easy as all anglers aboard the Shogun because all anglers were assigned a tag number that corresponded with their rotation number. Once a fish that was to be kept was landed all you had to do was tell the mate what your tag number and they would staple it to the gill plate of the fish. The fish then went directly into the 12 ton hold which was equipped with an ultra fast spray brine freezer system which ensured that the catch remained in ‘just caught’ condition.
Fishing Day 4 and 5
Day 4 was a repeat of Day 3 except the fishing began just after breakfast. However, the boat was left on anchor because the school of yellowtail we fished the day before were just milling around the boat waiting to eat our flies. The bite was every bit as good as Day 3 and for a time it was even a little hotter! Lots of yellowtail and yellow fin were caught throughout the morning and up until 12:30 PM when the action slowed. The fish were still there, but they could now easily tell the difference between our flies and the live sardines.
Around 1:00 PM Captain Norm pulled the anchor, fired up the engines, and pointed the Shogun due West and then South once we were several miles off the bank. For the next two days the fishing took on a different flavor.
We traveled south trolling tuna feathers and Marlin teasers along the way. The decision to run south was made because 13 Fathoms Bank is near the top of the ‘ridge’, water temperatures were far only 69 F this far north and we really needed low to mid 70’s for better fishing, and lastly most of the passengers were getting off the boat in three days in Cabo San Lucas, more than 200 miles south of our current location. During our time heading south, Captain Norm concentrated his efforts on finding the school tuna that travel along with the big roaming pods of spinner and bottlenose dolphin. While this type of fishing is fun because it adds the hunting element back into the equation, for us it proved to be slow because the tuna once found wouldn’t say with the boat. Because the bite was very brief at every stop, stern anglers proved to be the most productive. So if it wasn’t your turn in the stern rotation when tuna came to the stern it was very difficult catch one. Up to 15 school size (15 to 28 pounds) tuna were caught each days 4 and 5 by hitting the dolphin schools.
http://www.shogunsportfishing.com/news/images/2005images/20050109-P1080004.JPG
While on the troll the crew was always on the lookout for floating debris and shark buoys which frequently hold dorado. When floating debris was located, the boat would motor around the object (wood, dead sea lions, dead dolphin, weeds) then sardines would be tossed overboard in attempt to bring the dorado to within casting range. During our time offshore we stopped to fish several floating objects, but we only saw two dorado and didn’t hook either fish.
Due to the deep depth of the water west of the ‘ridge’ (+50 fathoms), the Shogun was would drift after dark while passengers slept. The crew took turns in the wheelhouse during the drift to keep the boat out of harms way. The weather offshore was fantastic, little wind with seas less than 1 foot. Sleeping on the drift with this kind weather was beyond relaxing.
Fishing Day 6
A mixed bag of fishing was the order of the day, with a lot of trolling looking for dolphin schools on the way to the Morgan and Finger Banks where we fish schools of larger tuna. Finger Bank is around 30 miles from Cabo San Lucas. Only a few fish were taken from the dolphin schools and Morgan Bank held no significant life. However, within 2 miles of the Finger Bank we began to see more life including more schools of dolphin (black dolphin) that were holding a better grade of tuna (between 75 and 150 pound). Using binoculars I could see schools of large tuna foaming of bait balls all over the bank. Everything looked good get one of the Shogun anglers hooked up on a 100+ pound yellow fin tuna. We couldn’t get close to the foaming fish without putting them down. So tuna were located under the pods dolphin with the side scanning sonar and then copious amounts of live sardines would be tossed over the side in an attempt to bring them to the stern. Several times during the day the tuna started to boil on the sardines in the chum line, but for some unexplained reason, they wouldn’t come within casting range. The crew even fished live sardines at one point during the day and couldn’t get them to bite. This seemed like additional evidence that they just weren’t in the mood. No large tuna were caught but it was still a great day just seeing those big yellow fin tuna boiling on bait and foaming all over the bank.
The remainder of the day was spent trolling off Finger Bank and areas to the south on our way to Cabo San Lucas. The night was spent on anchor in the cove in front of Cabo San Lucas.
Fishing Day 7
The next morning we were treated to small 1 to 3 lb black skipjack feeding next to the boat. They were eating a tiny (<1/2”) bait that had been attracted to the boat lights.
These fish were tough to catch because of the small bait. It took me more that 30 minutes to get any of them to take my offered fly. In order to get hooked up I ended up changing flies at least three times before raiding my Atlantic Bonito box that I brought to find a tiny all white #2 bonito fly which did the trick.
Only a few people tried fishing for them because most everyone had packed their equipment the night before on the way down to Cabo. By 10 AM most of the passengers had departed the boat to water taxis where they were dropped off in the harbor. Most everyone went straight to the Cabo San Lucas Airport and home.
I had originally planned to ride the boat back to San Diego because I wanted the full experience, but looking at Cabo from the water made me yearn for family and home. Coincidently, just before the boat departed for San Diego Captain Norm came to me and indicated that I probably wouldn’t make it back to San Diego in time make my flight in 3 days. That was all I needed! I decided to get off the boat with the Mexican immigration officials and get to Cabo San Lucas Airport. I bought a one way ticket to San Diego where I then took the ‘red eye’ home to New England. It cost me a lot more money (of which I really didn’t have) to get home from Cabo, but it allowed me to get home three days early rather than one to day late. My decision was validated by the excitement show by my 5 year old son and wife when I arrived home.
Reflecting of my trip, I had departed 10 days earlier on what I thought would be fishing trip of a life time. What I got was two excellent fishing days in one of the most beautiful places on earth and because I got there and back safely I accomplished everything that I intended to. This was without question the biggest and best adventure of my lifetime. I certainly yearn to catch more and even bigger yellowtail, yellowfin tuna, and some of other bluewater fish and I certainly can’t wait to do again, and yes, the fire still burns, but maybe not as deep.
Going Long…
By Rick Vandenberg, Berwick, Maine
A fire has burned deep inside me ever since sometime around 1992 or 1993 when I saw a brief segment on “Fly Fishing the World” featuring the then new world of long range fly fishing. I was amazed by the images of the 1st Bluewater Invitational, hosted by bluewater enthusiast Ed Rice and couldn’t believe how these fly rodders, as skilled as they were, could catch tuna, marlin, and skipjack with nothing more than a fly rod and of 20 kilograms (kg) breaking strength. Wow! Until then I had never associated bluewater with fly fishing. I thought that bluewater fishing was the realm of only conventional anglers equipped with massive reels and 130 pound line. Even so I remember thinking an “Invitational” …how could I beg my way onto one of these trips? This type of fishing seemed so exclusive and expensive and I didn’t really have any connections I could exploit or the kind of money it would take to go on one of these trips.
At Christmas in 1994 my wife gave me a copy of Trey Comb’s new book “Bluewater Fly Fishing”. Of all the fly fishing gifts I’ve been given by my wife, this book was only one of handful than I didn’t have telegraph (i.e. drop hints and detail lists) to ensure that she would buy the right thing. She remembered my interest and scooped it up when she was in the fly shop buying me some other fly fishing gadget that I just couldn’t live without.
The book only served to further develop my interested in bluewater fly fishing. After reading the book cover to cover at least 5 times I put my energies to better use, or so I thought, by trying some bluewater fly fishing on the East Coast. In fact, over the next several years I tried, with very little success, to go bluewater fly fishing in places like the Canyons off Rhode Island; Long Island, New York; and New Jersey to the Gulf Stream off Hatteras and Morehead City, North Carolina.
The results of my East Coast bluewater trips were always the same. No pelagic fish caught on the fly. Mother Nature would almost never cooperate either. She usually would whip up unfavorable winds and high seas the day of my scheduled trips. Ideally I should have planned better and booked more than one day on the water on these trips but my fishing budget usually wouldn’t permit it. So, after years of trying and with exactly zero fly rod pelagic fish caught, I traded in my 12 weight rod for a second 8 weight to chase inshore game fish like striped bass and bluefish in my home waters of Maine. I did take a yearly trip to Newport, Rhode Island to fish for false albacore and bonito. So, I while I had caught plenty of inshore pelagic fish on the fly not they weren’t the ones I had dreamed of catching – yellow fin tuna, dorado, and wahoo.
Several more years passed by with little to no thought of bluewater or long range fly fishing until 2004 when my first significant fly fishing first trip, a trip to Panama from wife for my 40th birthday, had to be cancelled. The group I was to be fishing with fell apart when one of the guys wives became pregnant and was due to deliver their second child a month before the trip. Left holding an American Airlines ticket to Panama and no trip to take, I had to reschedule my unused airline ticket before I lost it thanks to new airline regulations. My travel agent suggested that I book a phantom flight, which is a short flight cheap flight, that you don’t ever intend to use, but meets the airline requirement that your rebook your ticket prior the original date of departure. So, I booked an American flight from LaGuardia Airport to Boston which left me with a $550 credit that could be used for another ticket, but I now I had year to use it.
Talking it over with my wife at dinner after my booking my phantom ticket, my wife casually said “why don’t you see if you could go on one of those fly fishing trips off California?” Man, was she good! Her idea worked on a couple of levels. First, she was right I could use the balance of my Panama ticket to fly to California and secondly I could go solo! Well, of course that was all I needed. Being from the school of thought that ‘you don’t have to hit me in the head with a tire tool twice’ I immediately leaped into action.
That night I searched the internet for information on bluewater fly fishing trips. I didn’t find specific information any trips, but managed to find some references to some past trips run out of Fisherman’s Landing in San Diego, California. From the search I got the telephone numbers for the Royal Polaris and Shogun boats, which have run fly fishing trips in the past. Both these boats are owned by California sport fishing legend Frank Lopreste.
The next morning I inquired with Andrea in the Shogun Sport fishing office about planned future long range bluewater fly fishing trips that might be running soon and hit pay dirt! She told me that Steve Abel of Abel Reel fame had set up a long range bluewater trip to in January 2005, but he been recently diagnosed with cancer and was going to cancel the trip when developer and bluewater fly fisherman John Hertzberg from Washington state stepped in a took over the trip. At my urging Andrea gave me John’s telephone number and a quick call to him revealed that there was only one spot remaining! The biggest attraction for me was that Trey Combs was coming along on the trip as a co-host. Only one catch…John needed a check immediately from me for half of the trip cost before he could secure my spot! Hey, it was the trip of a lifetime for me so I did whatever was necessary; I called Visa to up my credit limit and took a cash advance for the balance of the trip.
John notified me upon receiving my check to inform me that I was the last person to be included! I was in! I couldn’t believe it! For a week or so I couldn’t get my head wrapped around the fact that I was one of 16 fly fisherman (19 people total) on this trip to the holy grail of bluewater fly fishing. The realization of my participation finally set-in and was quickly replaced with the stress that it was June and the trip was to begin in January and I needed to get going tying flies and acquiring new equipment or I was logistically not going to be ready!
After thoroughly researching the flies necessary for long range trip off Baja I began to understand that those recommended in Trey’s book Bluewater Fly Fishing would be most appropriate so I began tying during off hours when work and family obligations would allow. I ended up with a dozen mylar/epoxy covered 2/0 poppers in silver, pink, blue over white, and green over white; a dozen 2/0 and four dozen 4/0 Sea Habit Bucktails and Sea Habit Deceivers in anchovy green, anchovy blue, pink lady, and white knight colors; and two dozen 6/0 Sea Habit Bucktail flies. In addition, I brought my wallet of false albacore and bonito flies just in case in needed even smaller flies.
On Ebay I found three important items that I used on my trip. The first was an Abel 4 anti-reverse big game fly reel and the second was a Sage Xi2 13 weight fly rod to go with the 8 and 10 weights that I already had. I chose a 13 weight because I wanted a rod big fight large hard pulling fish and small enough to cast for a large part of the day. The third essential piece of equipment was a quality tackle bag to hold all this equipment. The tackle bag was the most used and best investment I made for the trip.
I was helped tremendously by two fly shops near where I live. I was impressed by how much these guys knew about bluewater fly fishing, it was great to have excellent resources like this nearby. To round my equipment I needed, I bought a second 10 weight, a Temple Fork TiCr 4 piece, from nearby First Light Anglers, in Rowley, Massachusetts. I also bought fly lines, gel spun backing, leaders and lots of other miscellaneous equipment like mini-flashlights, knot tiers, and fly tying materials at Eldredge Bros. Fly Shop in nearby Cape Neddick, Maine.
Between family obligations, work, and fly tying the time from June to Christmas flew by as any in my life. Before I knew it I was a week away from the trip, but through hard work and help from others I was ready. The only left was to get threw the week and the flight to San Diego.
Work that week flew by with apparent light speed and I would like to say that my American Airlines flight from LaGuardia to Dallas and on to San Diego was uneventful, but it wasn’t. On final approach to Dallas/Fortworth International Airport our landing had to be abruptly cancelled because the pilot and co-pilot couldn’t get an indicator light that the landing gear was down. He indicated that the gear was probably down, but without the indicator light, they couldn’t confirm that it was locked in-place. After about 20 minutes of circling around the airport, our plane made another approach and landed without incident. There were a few upset people on the plane, but everyone was orderly during the incident.
I was lucky because I happened to be sitting across the aisle from another American pilot who was ‘dead heading’ (which means he didn’t have a working flight from LaGuarida and had to fly back to his home airport as a passenger). Good for me because during the ‘little incident’ he gave me the inside scoop on what really going on. He didn’t seem concerned at all so it immediately put me ease. As the crew was working on the problem and we didn’t know if it was going to even be fixable he leaned over to me and said “don’t worry the MD-80 is the best belly landing plane we have in our fleet”. I imagine that I could have allowed a statement like that to panic me, but there was some something about the casual way he said it and his brutal honesty that made me laugh out loud.
The one thing that the landing incident made me do is significantly change my goals for the trip. Before I began traveling I decided that I wanted to catch a yellow fin tuna over 40 pounds, a 20+ pound dorado, and a wahoo of any size, but after I incident I just wanted to travel there and back safely. It’s amazing how fast a slight brush with the Grim Reaper with correctly realign your priorities.
I didn’t include a striped marlin or a marlin of any kind for that matter on my original list of fish I wanted to catch because of a previous bad experience. I once spent what seemed like the longest day of my life on a 38 foot Bertram off of Grand Cayman Island trolling huge marlin teasers around in marlin empty seas. It was truly one of the most boring fishing days I’ve ever spent on the water. To make matters worse it was made very frustrating too when the captain proceeded to troll his marlin teasers through a school of skipjack tuna that were crashing bait all over the surface for as far as the eye could see! Radio reports from other captains had to school of skipjack at 10 miles long! I had brought a 10 weight rod rigged and ready exactly for this scenario, but the captain just laughed when I asked for him to stop so I could fish. He was obviously inexperience with fly fisherman because he just kept shaking his head and saying in a jovial way that these fish wouldn’t eat my flies. He may have been right, but I would have loved to at least cast to these fish. Fish is at its highest level when you can cast direct to your quarry. I was left pacing around the deck just watching the skipjack have their way with the bait. That the poor experience jaded me toward trolling for scarce fish. I would have much rather cast to the skipjack all day long and not caught any than troll for marlin in a seemingly empty marlin sea.
The remainder of the journey to San Diego was easy and uneventful. I was a little worried about how much I going to have to pay to take a cab solo from the San Diego Airport to Fisherman’s Landing. My uneasiness grew when I asked to the cab driver to take me there and he had no idea where Fisherman’s Landing was. Although, he probably didn’t understand English well because I had a hard time understanding his broken English through his thick Middle Eastern accent. I had visions of being driven around in circles for hours only to arrive back at the airport. He finally discovered from the office that Fisherman’s Landing was only a little more than a mile from the airport. With tip the cab ride was less than a $7. In a pinch or if I didn’t have 60 pounds of luggage I could have probably walked from the airport to the Landing in no less than 15 minutes.
After arriving at Fisherman’s Landing I walked across the street with my luggage and checked in at the Comfort Inn. After checking in to my hotel I met up with trip co-host John Hertzberg and the other two fly fisherman, Jim Sonn and Tony Snow, that were traveling down to the fishing grounds aboard the Shogun. The other 15 passengers were not riding down in the boat instead they all opted to meet the boat in the quite coastal Mexican town of San Carlos. Boarding the boat in San Carlos not San Diego eliminates a three day 600 mile boat ride down the Baja coast and serves to maximize the fishing time on the boat, which is why most of the experienced long range fisherman opted not to ride the boat down. For me, I wanted the entire experience because I wasn’t likely to do this trip again for a while.
The Shogun departed the dock a little after 2 pm on New Year’s Eve after crew cleaned and fuel the boat. The boat had just returned from a 5 day San Martin Island yellowtail and bottom fishing trip (which is along northern part of the Baja west coast) only hours before it was turned around. After a brief stop at the San Diego bait pens to replenish the live bait wells back to their capacity of 400 scoops of sardines, we left the San Diego harbor and turned south toward our destination- ‘The Ridge’ a series of banks or shallow spots that starts about 600 nautical miles (nm) south of San Diego and runs about 200 nm all the way down to Cabo San Lucas. In a few days the fishing was to begin.
For me the sense of adventure set immediately because everything is different about this experience - the boats, the coast line, the people, and even the style of fishing. One of coolest things that I noticed was that over the first 4 to 6 hours of travel the broadcast television signal which had been excellent at the dock slowly faded to complete snow, which drove home the point that were headed far away from civilization. You may have already guessed that cell phones were also of no use after about the first hour underway.
My home for the next 10 days was the confines of the 92 foot long 30 foot beam California long range sport fisher named the Shogun. The 13 staterooms sleep up to 30 people on the busiest of trips, but because the low number of expected passengers I got my own stateroom. My room was on port side just in forward of the engine room. I loud place to sleep while underway, but after a while the drone of the engines would put me to sleep. I was most impressed with the how well appointed the boat was to accommodate fly fisherman. The boat has vertical rod storage along her starboard and port side that can easily hold at least 80 rigged fly rods. The boat is large enough to for everyone to fish with room to spare. They also brought along 3 inflatable skiffs to aid anglers with chasing down big fish and to spread people even further. The Shogun’s aft area is open from the galley back to the stern giving anglers lots of room to move.
Each day as The Ridge got closer the sea state went from lumpy to near glass which made travel very comfortable. Of course, the 92 foot length of the Shogun has a way of smoothing out most seas. The balance of the next three days aboard the boat was spent preparing tackle, tying leaders, watching DVD movies, and eating.
The cuisine served aboard the Shogun is absolutely first rate. Foods like poached eggs, breakfast burritos, veal, pasta, Chilean Sea Bass, Tuna, and tenderloin were served with fresh baked bread daily. For those who like sushi, we had sushi one night that was the best I have ever tasted. The two chefs, Peter and Robert, did everything in their power to completely satisfy the passengers. I can honestly say I was never hungry aboard the boat.
After 2 days of traveling and one day spent picking up the remaining passengers in San Carlos (up in Magdalena Bay), we finally began fishing for striped marlin, yellow fin tuna, black skipjack, skipjack tuna, pacific bonito, and other pelagic fish. Fishing was done by searching the banks and other likely areas for sign of game fish. The biggest indicator of fish were the ‘birds schools’ (terns, gulls, and frigate birds), especially at long distance. Once a bird school was found, the crew would pinpoint the position of fish using the side scanning and the ‘up/down’ sonars. From this the crew could tell the size and species of the fish which was nice because then they could advise on the most appropriate weight rods to use. Another indictor of fish was the schools of dolphin (black, spinners, and bottlenose) that roam almost everywhere around and especially offshore of the banks.
[B]Fishing Day 1
Much of fishing day 1 was spent searching for tuna and marlin in an area of life (bait, birds, whales, dolphin and sea lions) about 15 miles south of Magdalena Bay. Despite the life that was found spread out across the area there weren’t enough fish around to warrant staying. So, off to the north we went trolling tuna feathers and marlin teasers along the way. The nice thing about seeing so much life on the water is that it keeps you optimistic that a great bite is only a short distance away. During the trolling segments four anglers were ‘at the ready’ in the stern for 1 hour shifts. If a fish was hooked by the stern anglers and the bite continued new people would be rotated into the stern.
If fish were found using the sonar or via bird schools or when one of the trolling feather or teasers were struck, Captain Norm would put the boat in neutral so the fly anglers could begin casting as the boat slide to a stop. Normally, it was most productive to roll cast your fly in the foam once the announcement to fish was heard on the PA system. Fish were usually on there way toward the stern because the crew immediately starts tossing live sardines overboard once fish were spotted.
Until 2 PM on fishing Day 1 we didn’t have to worry about fighting fish. Most people took their turns at the stern uneventfully until the Shogun reached area just off Tosca known for its large population of black skipjack. It took Captain Norm a very short time before he found a school of fish that were willing to come to stern and eat our flies. In less than 30 minutes 8 to 10 skipjack between 5 and 10 pounds were boated released. The bite died, as it normally did when it was my turn in the rotation, but everyone was now clear that this fish could be fast and furious.
Fishing Day 2
We started fishing the morning Thetis Bank which is due north where we finished day 1. Captain Norm had moved the Shogun to Thetis Bank before dawn and anchored the boat on the high spot to make sure we were there for the morning bite. Morning brought brisk north winds and 4 to 6 foot seas.
Like the other areas to the south, Thetis Bank held good sign of life. Numerous bait and bird schools were found all over the bank especially along the offshore edges. However, after chasing the ‘bird schools’ for a while with little success, Captain Norm moved the Shogun to another promising sign of fish the crew had glassed and the sardines were deployed by the crew. Unlike the recent stops on the back this time the fish cooperated. Within a few minutes, three of the anglers in the current rotation were fast into fish. Two of the fish that came over the rail were a bottom fish that they generically refer to as ‘whitefish’ and the last fish to the boat was a California yellowtail. The fish weight almost 22 lbs which is 7 pounds heavier than the existing 10 kg fly rod world record (15 pounds). These fish are caught with great regularity by conventional anglers, but not by fly anglers on these trips. In fact, this yellowtail was the first caught by fly on any of their fly fishing trips.
http://www.shogunsportfishing.com/news/images/2005images/20050106-P1050011.JPG
At the time of the catch, the angler and crew thought that the yellowtail would qualify for that world record, but it was determined that the leader did not conform to International Game Fish Association (IGFA) rules. Nobody knew it at the time, but that yellowtail was a sign of good things to come.
http://www.shogunsportfishing.com/news/images/2005images/20050106-P1050017.JPG
The yellowtail is a hard fighting fish, related to the greater amberjack that ranges from Baja California, Mexico to Los Angeles, California. According to the 2005 IGFA World Record Game Fishes book the yellowtail is easily recognized by its bright yellow tail and characteristic brass colored stripe that run along the median line of the fish. Coincidently, the All-Tackle World Record yellowtail was caught on November 21, 2003 aboard the Shogun by Tom Lambert and weighed 91 lbs 9 ounces. The fish was caught near Guadalupe Island, Mexico.
Over the next several hours the Shogun would repeatedly motor to the high spot and the boat was allowed to drift with the wind into deeper water. Once the chumming began Captain Norm would come on the radio and ask the anglers begin fishing again. Subsequent drifts yielded two more nice yellowtail, a few trigger fish, and more whitefish. Both of the yellowtail were larger than the current 10 kg world record, but again leader issues prevented the larger of the two from being submitted. The smaller fish, caught by Geoff Clark of Gig Harbor, Washington weighed (at sea) 19 lbs. This fish appeared to qualify to replace the existing record.
http://www.shogunsportfishing.com/news/images/2005images/20050108-P1060051.JPG
Once the fishing slowed and the birds began to raft up on the water and began to show little interest eating, the Shogun was moved off Thetis Bank to the north to 23 Fathoms Bank. The boat was anchored on the high spot for the night.
http://www.shogunsportfishing.com/news/images/2005images/20050108-P1060037.JPG
Fishing Day 3
In the morning after the anchor was pulled and the search for fish began on 23 Fathoms Bank. Almost immediately the lack of life on this bank was noticed. Captain Norm moved the boat off the bank and we headed north trolling tuna feathers and marlin teasers. I could only take so much trolling before sleepiness set-in, so I headed to my cabin to take a nap. There is nothing better than taking a nap at 8 o’clock in the morning. Before heading down to my cabin, I asked fellow passenger to wake me if anything happened.
It didn’t take long for something good to happen. I was only asleep for about 20 minutes when I heard the engines idle down from trolling speed and go into neutral. Figuring that some fish were located, I headed up to the stern to see what was going on. Coming up from below deck, I immediately saw five or six anglers with bent rods scurrying around the stern. All fish that were boated were yellowtail between 8 and 12 lbs. Still half asleep, I asked someone where we where and the response was 13 Fathoms Bank! The bite was on!
http://www.shogunsportfishing.com/news/images/2005images/20050108-P1060039.JPG
Over the next 6 hours the yellowtail bite continued to grow to the point where yellowtail could be seen free swimming all around the boat. At any given time there were between 5 and 15 anglers hooked up and fighting yellowtail. With each successive drift off the high spot the quality of the fishing improved. At one point it was so easy to get a bite that I tried experimenting to see if different retrieve rates would make a difference. I tried presenting the fly dead drift, slow retrieve, fast retrieve, and super fast and they all worked! Retrieve rates didn’t matter, but it became clear after some additional experimentation that the yellowtail preferred smaller flies of 2/0 size to larger flies in the 4/0 to 6/0 range. Anchovy green, anchovy blue, or white knight color patterns worked best, but fish were taken on many different patterns, colors, and sizes during the bite. Leaders didn’t make much difference either. I caught fish on 20 lb, 30 lb and even on straight 50 lb. All my leaders were less than 5 feet in length. It seemed best to keep leaders simple especially because I wasn’t trying to catch a record fish. I believe that this significantly increased my hookup to landing ratio.
The constant chumming of live sardines coaxed yellowfin tuna to with casting distance of our flies. The yellow fin were small (8 to 20 lbs), but were a blast on a 10 weight rod. Despite their size they still pulled up to 150 yards of backing off my Ross Big Game Reel with ease. After having some fun on my sinking shooting head set-up I switched to my rod equipped with floating line and a mylar covered popper. This worked great too and it was exciting to see the tuna blast the fly and take off in a blur. Occasionally, I would hook a large tuna or a large yellowtail that would take me 200 to 250 yards deep into my backing. Unfortunately, my 10 weight was no match for these large fish. The tuna would initially run straight out away from the boat before eventually getting vertically below the angler. The large yellowtail would run straight down to the bottom a wrap the fly line or leader around some kelp or a rock and it was game over.
The bite slowed late in the afternoon and then Captain Norm steamed the Shogun to the top of the 13 Fathoms Bank where he anchored boat for the night. After that good bite, all the passenger and crew were in a great mood. Good fishing has a way of relaxing people. That night Phyllis Kvinsland from Washington State had the best reason to be happy with three (6 kg, 8 kg, and 10 kg) potential women’s fly rod world record yellowtail caught that day.
In addition to the record fish, most anglers opted to keep a few caught to bring home. This was made easy as all anglers aboard the Shogun because all anglers were assigned a tag number that corresponded with their rotation number. Once a fish that was to be kept was landed all you had to do was tell the mate what your tag number and they would staple it to the gill plate of the fish. The fish then went directly into the 12 ton hold which was equipped with an ultra fast spray brine freezer system which ensured that the catch remained in ‘just caught’ condition.
Fishing Day 4 and 5
Day 4 was a repeat of Day 3 except the fishing began just after breakfast. However, the boat was left on anchor because the school of yellowtail we fished the day before were just milling around the boat waiting to eat our flies. The bite was every bit as good as Day 3 and for a time it was even a little hotter! Lots of yellowtail and yellow fin were caught throughout the morning and up until 12:30 PM when the action slowed. The fish were still there, but they could now easily tell the difference between our flies and the live sardines.
Around 1:00 PM Captain Norm pulled the anchor, fired up the engines, and pointed the Shogun due West and then South once we were several miles off the bank. For the next two days the fishing took on a different flavor.
We traveled south trolling tuna feathers and Marlin teasers along the way. The decision to run south was made because 13 Fathoms Bank is near the top of the ‘ridge’, water temperatures were far only 69 F this far north and we really needed low to mid 70’s for better fishing, and lastly most of the passengers were getting off the boat in three days in Cabo San Lucas, more than 200 miles south of our current location. During our time heading south, Captain Norm concentrated his efforts on finding the school tuna that travel along with the big roaming pods of spinner and bottlenose dolphin. While this type of fishing is fun because it adds the hunting element back into the equation, for us it proved to be slow because the tuna once found wouldn’t say with the boat. Because the bite was very brief at every stop, stern anglers proved to be the most productive. So if it wasn’t your turn in the stern rotation when tuna came to the stern it was very difficult catch one. Up to 15 school size (15 to 28 pounds) tuna were caught each days 4 and 5 by hitting the dolphin schools.
http://www.shogunsportfishing.com/news/images/2005images/20050109-P1080004.JPG
While on the troll the crew was always on the lookout for floating debris and shark buoys which frequently hold dorado. When floating debris was located, the boat would motor around the object (wood, dead sea lions, dead dolphin, weeds) then sardines would be tossed overboard in attempt to bring the dorado to within casting range. During our time offshore we stopped to fish several floating objects, but we only saw two dorado and didn’t hook either fish.
Due to the deep depth of the water west of the ‘ridge’ (+50 fathoms), the Shogun was would drift after dark while passengers slept. The crew took turns in the wheelhouse during the drift to keep the boat out of harms way. The weather offshore was fantastic, little wind with seas less than 1 foot. Sleeping on the drift with this kind weather was beyond relaxing.
Fishing Day 6
A mixed bag of fishing was the order of the day, with a lot of trolling looking for dolphin schools on the way to the Morgan and Finger Banks where we fish schools of larger tuna. Finger Bank is around 30 miles from Cabo San Lucas. Only a few fish were taken from the dolphin schools and Morgan Bank held no significant life. However, within 2 miles of the Finger Bank we began to see more life including more schools of dolphin (black dolphin) that were holding a better grade of tuna (between 75 and 150 pound). Using binoculars I could see schools of large tuna foaming of bait balls all over the bank. Everything looked good get one of the Shogun anglers hooked up on a 100+ pound yellow fin tuna. We couldn’t get close to the foaming fish without putting them down. So tuna were located under the pods dolphin with the side scanning sonar and then copious amounts of live sardines would be tossed over the side in an attempt to bring them to the stern. Several times during the day the tuna started to boil on the sardines in the chum line, but for some unexplained reason, they wouldn’t come within casting range. The crew even fished live sardines at one point during the day and couldn’t get them to bite. This seemed like additional evidence that they just weren’t in the mood. No large tuna were caught but it was still a great day just seeing those big yellow fin tuna boiling on bait and foaming all over the bank.
The remainder of the day was spent trolling off Finger Bank and areas to the south on our way to Cabo San Lucas. The night was spent on anchor in the cove in front of Cabo San Lucas.
Fishing Day 7
The next morning we were treated to small 1 to 3 lb black skipjack feeding next to the boat. They were eating a tiny (<1/2”) bait that had been attracted to the boat lights.
These fish were tough to catch because of the small bait. It took me more that 30 minutes to get any of them to take my offered fly. In order to get hooked up I ended up changing flies at least three times before raiding my Atlantic Bonito box that I brought to find a tiny all white #2 bonito fly which did the trick.
Only a few people tried fishing for them because most everyone had packed their equipment the night before on the way down to Cabo. By 10 AM most of the passengers had departed the boat to water taxis where they were dropped off in the harbor. Most everyone went straight to the Cabo San Lucas Airport and home.
I had originally planned to ride the boat back to San Diego because I wanted the full experience, but looking at Cabo from the water made me yearn for family and home. Coincidently, just before the boat departed for San Diego Captain Norm came to me and indicated that I probably wouldn’t make it back to San Diego in time make my flight in 3 days. That was all I needed! I decided to get off the boat with the Mexican immigration officials and get to Cabo San Lucas Airport. I bought a one way ticket to San Diego where I then took the ‘red eye’ home to New England. It cost me a lot more money (of which I really didn’t have) to get home from Cabo, but it allowed me to get home three days early rather than one to day late. My decision was validated by the excitement show by my 5 year old son and wife when I arrived home.
Reflecting of my trip, I had departed 10 days earlier on what I thought would be fishing trip of a life time. What I got was two excellent fishing days in one of the most beautiful places on earth and because I got there and back safely I accomplished everything that I intended to. This was without question the biggest and best adventure of my lifetime. I certainly yearn to catch more and even bigger yellowtail, yellowfin tuna, and some of other bluewater fish and I certainly can’t wait to do again, and yes, the fire still burns, but maybe not as deep.