Written by:
CharterMaster Charles Massingill
The FIB’ers had a team charter with The Calvery Chapel Reel Disciples Fishing Club, East Anaheim (CCEA). This September charter was on the Oceanside 95 out of Point Loma Landing in San Diego. The two clubs met at the landing at 7:30 a.m. and boarded the big boat around 9:30 a.m. This was our first time chartering the O-95 and people liked the size of the boat and the bunk rooms. Prior to leaving, the fish counts over the last few day looked good and the weather report was great so we had high hopes. We traveled the long trip south off the Mexico coast near Ensenada with hopes for a shot of big bluefin fishing at night but that was not the case for us.
At first light we put out the trollers and the hunt for yellowfin tuna was on. We had a blind jig strike about 8:00 a.m. for a small skipjack tuna. Not what we were looking for so we moved on. Around 9:00 a.m. FIB’ers club member, Tom Handzus sees a large kelp paddy and tells the deckhand. This kelp turned out to be the best stop of the trip with 9 skipjack tuna and 4 small yellowtail. The first bait fish was a yellowtail that was landed by Taylor Anson from The Reel Disciples. Taylor also landed a skipjack so I think she was the only two-fish person on the boat. The next hours were spent traveling the same area with 7 other San Diego boats looking for fish. Late in the day we did find the yellowfin tuna but the fish would not stay with the boat. We did get 2 yellowfin with the jackpot fish a 15.5 pound yellowfin going to Junior Banda.
