BY GUNDY GUNDERSON
Special to Western Outdoor News
SAN DIEGO—The long range fleet launched a series of 8-day trips probing the southern Baja peninsula. The initial results have been good with skippers reporting above average catches of big yellowtail and speedy wahoo. The fishing on both the banks and Alijos Rocks has been good. Guadalupe Island has also become a factor with schools of yellowfin tuna breezing the lee. Several boats have now made island catches. The trips have been a nice break from the offshore bluefin scene. The reports from down below were very promising and bode well for good late summer and fall fishing.
Angler catches
The American Angler returned from a limited load 7 day trip with an excellent catch of coastal yellowtail, quality Guadalupe yellowfin and a sample of local bluefin. The boat sent this first message, “After traveling all night, we stopped along the coast to fish and found a mixed bag of fish that wanted to bite, We ended up catching yellowtail, white sea bass, calico bass and a few grouper. We will do it again before heading north.
The boat made the move to Guadalupe Island and made a catch of quality yellowfin. The vessel sent this final result, “Finished off at the ‘lupe by touring around, goofing off and checking spots. No home runs but we sure enjoyed playing the game. What a switch seeing beautiful 100-pound class yellowfin instead of bluefin. Thank you Matt Salas for your sponsorship and generosity. Everyone missed Al Tokunaga – see you next year!”
Indy 8-day
The Independence embarked on an 8-day trip with lots of options at hand. The first move was to bee-line down the coast to the yellowtail and wahoo grounds. The boat with Capt. Mark Piasano at the wheel, found good fishing and filed this report, “We have been very busy the last three days fishing both daytime and nighttime. Fishing has been good on the yellowtail and wahoo. The yellows have been super nice size fish in the 25-to 45- pound range for the most part. We also had some school type fish in the 12- to 180- pound class, but very few. The wahoo are mostly 30 to 50 pounds. Weather has been beautiful every day. We are planning to try for tuna on the way home.”
Intrepid 8-day
The Intrepid was also on the Ridge and Rocks in search of big yellows and wahoo. Capt. Bill Cavanaugh was at the wheel and sent this report, “We departed a few days ago on our annual Ray Jarvis 8-Day Memorial Trip. After traveling south, we began fishing yesterday and our fishing has been nothing short of amazing. Limit-style action on good grade yellowtail up to 30 pounds. Our weather is beautiful and everyone is stoked.”
After making a catch inside, the boat moved outside to take a look at Alijos Rocks, then filed this report, “After an amazing two days of wide open yellowtail fishing, we moved out to Alijos Rocks for the next stage of our trip. Incredible is almost an understatement to the fishing and the weather we experienced yesterday. Good action on wahoo for the first half of the day and really good yellowtail fishing on bigger fish in the afternoon. We also had a pretty good night-bite on yellows last night that finished off our trip limits on yellowtail. The weather was flat calm. Everyone is happy. We are going to try for more wahoo today.”
Rooster 8-day
The Red Rooster III was also down on the ridge on the annual McVey “Tuna & Tails” 8-Day. Captain Andy Cates was on the bridge and sent this message, “We have 41 wahoo this morning. We had a nice first day with good action on a nice grade of wahoo. We stayed busy until lunchtime on the wahoo then dropped the anchor and scratched a mixed grade of yellowtail. Most the wahoo were in the 40-pound range with a few bigger. The yellows were 12 to 40 pounds. A really nice start for the Mcvey Charter.”
The next day another report, “Really nice night on quality yellows. It took 100- pound test to drag these monsters from the bottom. As soon as it hit the bottom, you’re on. We had another nice hit on the wahoo. Flat calm weather with wahoo racing across the stern. The afternoon brought more of these nice yellows