Written By: Shirley Bruhl, CharterMaster
For our 3rd FIBer’s trip we were on the Relentless boat out of H&M landing for the first time. Captain Mikey and his crew were fantastic, and made it a very enjoyable trip. We loaded onto the boat by 7:45 PM and soon everyone found their bunks in their stateroom and got settled. We then took off to collect our bait. Unfortunately, we were only able to get 3 inch anchovies which would limit the kind of game fish we were hoping for. Since the bluefin had headed up north west, Captain Mikey decided to head south to Mexico to the tuna pens, to go after the smaller yellowfin tuna. Captain Mikey then gave us a chance to get our tackle set up before heading out. The recommended tackle for the small yellowfin tuna we were expecting, was 12 to 15 lb. test with size #4 or # 6 hooks or 40 to 60 gram jigs. After setting up our rigs, we headed out and had a very smooth ride down to Mexico with excellent calm seas.
We started fishing at the tuna pens around Coronado Islands pre dawn. Several other boats had joined us. Some decided to fish bait, while others tried their luck fishing vertically with 40 to 60 gram jigs. Soon Ken, Max and Shirley hooked up to some much bigger tuna starting at 6:30 a.m. With the smaller hooks and light gear, it made it especially difficult to land the bigger tuna. All 3 were lost, but the the fight was fun, and the excitement was revving up. Then Shirley was able to land the jackpot 39.8 pound yellowfin tuna with a 60 gram colt sniper on a star drag reel with 25 pound test. All together, 8 yellowfin tuna were caught that morning with Valerie and Sam catching 2 each and Max, Charlie, Bill, and Shirley catching 1 each. The seals also made it difficult to land the tuna, and several were lost to them. Valerie lost one at the gaff and Charlie came up with only a head left on his hook!
Soon after lunch, the Captain decided to try and find some kelp beds to look for mahi mahi or yellowtail. On the way we tried some trolling, where Brian hooked into a smaller Mako shark on the troll which was released. Unfortuantly, no kelp patties were found so we then headed inland towards Rosarito Beach to fill our bags with bottom fishing. A good variety of lingcod, reds, misc. rockfish, white fish, sheepshead and bass were caught. Charlie caught the biggest ling cod, weighing in at 8 pounds. Tom caught some nice calicos and Charlie caught some nice sandbass, with Charlie’s weighing in at 3.9 pounds. All together; the boat’s totals were: 53 rockcod, 56 reds 56, 7 lingcod, 6 white fish, 6, 16 Calicos (many were released) and 2 sandbass.
After fishing we all enjoyed a wonderful delicious pork loin dinner served over mashed potatoes and gravy with cooked carrots. We all crashed into our bunks for a well deserved night’s sleep until……around 2:30AM….we woke up to the boat’s fire alarm going off, and hearing over the loud speaker “EVACUATE, EVACUATE!!” Fortunately, it was a only a false alarm due to a very sensitive system, and the Captain apologized. The rest of the night sleep was uninterupted and we arrived early to the bait barge at about 4:30 am, and then to the dock. We gathered for a group picture and prayer before off loading. We all were off the boat, and to our cars by 5:30AM.
Even though the fishing wasn’t what we had hoped for, we all agreed that we had a great time together, and really enjoyed each other’s fellowship. Sam Samuels made it down from Arizona, as well as Floyd Spangler from Big Bear. We made some new friends as well; Keith Spangler and William Martin (friends of Derek Uncurl). On board we also had 17-year-old Max Roberts with his grandmother Diane Roberts who has been coming on the Junior trips for 10 years! We especially want to thank Captain Mikey and his great crew for making sure we all had a great experience! Looking foward to our next trip on The Freedom!
“INDIVIDUALLY, WE ARE ONE DROP. TOGETHER WE ARE ONE OCEAN” …by Ryunosuke Satoto.
With care,
Shirley Bruhl, Charter Master.
