BY GUNDY GUNDERSON
Fleet scores quality yellowfin tuna ranging from 130- to 190-pounds with a few cows
SAN DIEGO – The early signs on the traditional winter cow grounds have been good with the fleet reporting excellent catches of teenage-size yellowfin tuna ranging from 130- to 190-pounds to go with good numbers of 70- to 120-pound fish. Just a few cow catches were posted and several large fish were also reported lost. The weather was less than ideal, and the catches were all-the-more impressive in tough conditions. Most boats also posted two a round catches of wahoo. The quick stops at Alijos Rocks were also productive resulting in a catch of yellowtail, grouper, big whitefish and sheephead.
RP finds good fishing
With the satellite Wi-Fi going in and out, communication was spotty. But after three days with no word, the Royal Polaris sent this report, “Wow, what a 3 days we’ve had. We have had excellent yellowfin tuna fishing, some great weather and some bad weather, but all in all, it was a great three days. We are back in the Wi-Fi zone, and the reports will continue to fly out. The yellowfin were all in the 80- to 120-pound range, with a few going over the 200-pound mark. This has been a great trip so far, and it’s not over yet. We are now headed to Alijos Rocks, and are hoping the yellowtail want to bite. The seas are flat for our travel north, but we had some tropical weather as far as rain. It was like being at Clipperton Atoll. Thunder, lighting, and lots of rain. Giving the boat a good freshwater rinse.”
The boat found a nice sample at the Rocks and sent this report, “Today we stopped to fish at the Rocks. We got to fish all day. We started off making some nice bigger bait to fish yellowtail and grouper. We scored ten quality yellowtail and several nice grouper. There were also plenty of other great bottom fish to harvest such as white fish, threadfin sculpin, and even sheephead. All in all, today was a beautiful day with some very fun fishing before tomorrow’s full day of travel.”
Angler on the Hurricane
The American Angler was also on the cow grounds experiencing the same communication issues with poor Wi-Fi. The boat was able to get out this brief report, “Everyone is having a good time with a steady pick on tuna up to 170 pounds. The weather today is kind of rainy and the group is super mellow. In a nutshell, we’ve had good fishing on 50- to 170-pound yellowfin tuna. Not ripping bites but a steady plunk.”
Excel on the cow grounds
The large Poole-built sportfisher Excel was also on the big tuna grounds also suffering a Wi-Fi outage. The boat was able to file this brief update, “Wi-fi signal was a little spotty down below but fishing was on point. It was nice to go down there and get lots of bites. Good fishing on 50- to 170-
pound yellowfin tuna with 50 wahoo sprinkled in. We had a few chances at some real jumbos but just couldn’t close the deal this time. We are headed up toward San Diego now with a beautiful ride.”
Intrepid starts in tough conditions
The Intrepid arrived on the grounds on a United Composite Rods-sponsored trip with low pressure spinning around down below. The boat filed this first report after arriving at the Hurricane Bank, “We had a great start to our trip for our first day of fishing. Took a while for the fish to start bitting but we managed to catch a few. The weather isn’t in our favor for the next few days with wind and rain but hopefully the fish don’t mind. Going to try again tomorrow.”
The following day, despite the weather, the boat made a catch, “Mother Nature is making it tough for us today. Through all the pouring rain and wind the guys did a great job. We caught 23 fish today and hoping for another great day tomorrow.”
A few days later Capt. Bill Cavanugh was able to get this report over spotty Wi-Fi, “Very good fishing to start this trip. Most of our fish are 60to 180 pounds with a biggy taping out at 234 pounds. Everyone is stoked. We will see what today brings.“
