BY GUNDY GUNDERSON
Special to Western Outdoor News
SAN DIEGO- An old long range maxim goes something like this, “You take what old Neptune gives ya.” There is no better example of this than the Royal Polaris’ latest long range trip. The storied sportfisher shifted back and forth from targeting trophy yellowfin tuna to hoards of marauding wahoo as the fishing on the Hurricane Bank reached epic proportions. When the smoke cleared, the boat had two supercows and a handful of cows in the slammer, big numbers of 100-pound class fish and limits of wahoo to 55-pounds. On the days where the tuna were down, the wahoo were up, breezing the bank. The boat shifted strategies on a daily basis putting together enough good days of yellowfin fishing augmented by the spectacular wahoo fishing.
RP finishes up
The Royal Polaris wrapped up an excellent spring cow trip that saw a pair of supercows, a handful of cows and a host of welterweight yellowfin to go with excellent wahoo fishing. After a run of larger yellowfin, the bite slowed and the wahoo fishing picked up. Capt Roy Rose was at the wheel of the big sportfisher and sent this report, “The weather continues to be excellent, with a slight breeze, sunny, and warm. Things changed a little bit today, the wahoo made a showing for us, with 56 fish being caught, but the yellowfin tuna fishing has slowed a bit. Most of the wahoo were all good size, up to 55- pounds. The yellowfin were in the 80- to 120-pound category. We didn’t catch any fish over 200-pounds today, but we could see them chasing flying fish off the bank. We will give it another try tomorrow.”
The following day was down on the tuna up on the wahoo, “It was overcast most of the day, which made it very pleasant. We needed to put balloons on the kite, as it was a very long day. And it was a very long day for tuna fishing. But the wahoo fishing was very good, once again. The skinnies kept our anglers busy most of the day, as we think a new batch of fish moved on on the bank. The water temperature is rising, which is not good for the bait. We will try to put a few more wahoo and yellowfin in the boat today. The wahoo are all good size, with most in the 35- to 50- pound range, and the yellowfin were in the 90- to 170- pound range.”
The next couple of days, it was the same scenario, slow yellowfin fishing, hot wahoo fishing. The boat focused on wahoo and experienced some of the best fishing in recent memory, “Over the past two days, we’ve had excellent wahoo fishing. The best I’ve seen in the past 10 years. Most of the wahoo are in the 30- to 40- pound range, with a few going close to 50. The yellowfin fishing has slowed down a bit, but the ones we are getting are going in the 90 to 120 range with a few larger ones. We are on the move once again. We are heading to an area and try for bait and hopefully some nice yellows and grouper. That will get us closer th the bluefin grounds. We will try to finish off the trip fishing for giant bluefin tuna.”
AA on the bluefin grounds
The American Angler kicked off the summer schedule with a 3-day trip targeting local bluefin tuna. The boat arrived on the grounds and was pleased to find a good sign of fish. The boat sent this message, “We were greeted with phenomenal sign upon entering the grounds but the fish lost interest by the afternoon. We only put 3 on board but those deserve bragging rights with a 211, 129 and 50 pounder.”
The report continued, “We recommend that you have a 60-to 80-pound outfit for the sinker/rubberband rig as well as for daytime jig fishing. For bait, a short flouro topshot of 60-pound with 80- to 100-pound Spectra backing and 2/0 to 4/0 circle hooks. Bring a smaller rig for kelp paddy yellows as well. Ocean was chilly so bring a jacket.”
Intrepid returns
The Intrepid returned from its first trip of the season with an excellent catch of local bluefin. Capt. Bill Cavanaugh sent this report, “We returned home from a very successful 3-day trip this morning at 0700. Final tally for our trip was 42 bluefin tuna, 27 of those were over 100 pounds, 3 were over 200 pounds and one was 188 pounds. We also picked up 70 yellowtail. Most of our bluefin came during a night bite that was nothing short of epic. It was every drop for 4 straight hours on the Flat-Falls and sinker rigs. We had 5 to 10 fish hooked the entire time. It was crazy good fishing, a night that none of us will ever forget.”
The report continued, “Our jackpot winners are as follows: third place went to Michael Frawley with a 188.1-pound bluefin tuna, second place went to John Keeler with a 202.4- pound bluefin tuna, and first place goes to Patrick Wade with a 215.7- pound bluefin tuna. Honorable mention goes to Nicko Carcich with a 200.7- pound bluefin tuna that he landed while fishing the kite.”