I haven't posted for a while, so I thougth I would put up some photos from the American Angler. This trip left on 11/11/11 for an 11-day trip. With all those 11's, it was bound to be lucky. We left Point Loma early on Friday the 11th, and headed SSW for the Clarion buffer zone, 900 miles away. We all spent the 3.5 days of travel time playing with tackle, watching movies, making new friends, reading, etc. Here is my top shot work station:
I didn't know anybody on this trip, so I made new friends. That's Steve on the left and my roomie Eric on the right:
We got to Clarion Tuesday early and checked in at the military station.
After that we headed outside to begin fishing. This day I did rather well. I caught a couple of smaller fish, plus this new personal best, at 143#. I also caught a wahoo on the troll, so I was off to a great start.
Around dusk, a school of big ones came through and 7 or 8 people hooked 180-200 class tuna. Alas, I was not among them. Here is one that Rube caught.
Wednesday was the best fishing day overall, but I had used up all my luck the day before. 55 tuna were caught, mostly over 100#. I caught two 50# models. Boo hoo, poor me. Here is Bill with a 212# cow, that would prove to be the JP fish for the trip.
Thursday was a slow day, with only 19 caught. I caught one at 60#, and was definitly feeling the itch for another bigger model.
Friday, skipper Sam said we could only stay until noon, so we started fishing before dawn to get the most out of the day. Friday was as good as Thursday was bad. We had 30 tuna by 8:30 when the skipper said to stop fishing because the RSW hold was full. About then chef Greg came out and ask for one for the galley. Sam invited a few people to throw out a heavy line and crank one in. He then threw out some huge scoops of bait and soon the tuna were boiling around the boat. Nobody hooked up immediately, so I threw out my 150# line and immediately hooked up. Here is the 100# model that came over the rail.
While I was fighting my fish, the crew egged Jordan (also crew) to show us how it was done. So he pinned on a huge flying fish and immediately hooked a big tuna. After about 20 minutes, he landed this one at 268#, the biggest fish of the trip. That's Jordan in the foreground, helping with the gaff. Oh to be young again and full of enough energy to fight the fish and then help to gaff it.
Here is the poster shot, with the fish stood up, and the four crew gathered around.
Sam found some room in the RSW, and my take for the day was two 100# class tuna. Not a bad morning overall. Jordan's big one was filleted and became poke for snack, and Thanksgiving dinner for the crew.
It took until Tuesday morning to make the long haul back. Once on dry land, Sam asked everyone to bring over their biggest fish and pose for a group shot. I'm fourth from the left, in case you are checking.
My take for the trip was eight tuna and two wahoo. I also threw back six or eight school sized tuna as being too small to keep.
Great trip, and I already signed up for next year.
P.S. Yani, when are you going long range with me? It is a serious kick in the pants.
