By: Bernie Clayton, Chartermaster
The FiB’ers second 2024 charter trip aboard the Cortez was a 1.5 Day trip that departed Seaforth Landing at 5:00pm Tuesday, October 22nd. There were 13 of us, plus crewmembers. The weather around the dock was pleasant, and not windy and it was a clear night.
After departing the dock, Cortez Captain Jim Hughes held a meeting in the galley, explaining the boat safety and emergency procedures. Captain Jim mentioned we would be heading to the Tanner Bank area and our target fish would be bluefin tuna. He also mentioned the schools of yellowfin tuna that we were initially hoping to target, had moved to an area about 150 miles south which was too far for us to travel, given the amount of time we had.
The bait we acquired was large sardines. Captain Jim suggested setting up our fishing rigs with 2/0, or 1/0 hooks, and suggested a fly line setup. After he finished his seminar, Charter Master Bernie Clayton led the group in prayer, thanking the Lord for the opportunity to fish together and fellowship, also petitioning the Lord to guide us safely as we traveled, and that we would have enjoyable trip, and catch fish!
The ride out to the targeted fishing area was a little bumpy, with some wind, and 2-3 foot swells. As it dawned, the Captain began looking for tuna. Unfortunately, we searched and searched for tuna all morning, and did not spot fish, nor have the opportunity to drop our lines in the water. With our search for tuna being unsuccessful, it was around Noon that Captain Jim mentioned we would change our target fish, and head to an area that has a large volume of assorted bottom fish. He recommended changing our set ups to dropper loop style, with 12 – 16 ounce weights and the crew began helping us with our dropper loop set ups.
Around 1:30 pm we stopped to fish. Immediately, everyone started hooking up with assorted bottom fish. Charlie Massingill caught and decked the first fish, a red snapper/rockfish. FIB’erette Val Handzus caught and decked the first double hookup. Two red snapper/rockfish. Shirley Bruhl decked a nice salmon grouper. Everyone was decking various rockfish, such as salmon grouper, grouper, boccaccio, and vermillion rockfish.
We stopped fishing around 3:30pm. The crew laid all the fish out on the deck, and crewman Noe Vargas looked at all the fish, and determined the largest fish, and jackpot winner, was a red snapper/rockfish caught by Tom Handzus. Tom’s fish weighed in at 6.4 lbs. A red snapper/rockfish caught by Junior Banda was a close second. Since no pelagic/prize fish were caught this trip everyone elected to donate the jackpot money towards the 2025 FIB’ers Kids Trip expenses. All anglers were given the option of a refund of their $10 Jackpot contribution, or donate their $10 to the 2025 Kids Trip expenses. All anglers unanimously agreed that the $130 jackpot money will be earmarked for application to the 2025 FIB’ers Kid Trip expenses.
Our final trip fish count was approximately 45 assorted rockfish. We arrived back at the dock Thursday at 5:30 am. Before departing the boat, Crewman Noe Vargas took our group picture. Although we didn’t catch our targeted Bluefin tuna, we caught some nice eating assorted rockfish fish. Cortez Captain Jim Hughes, and his crew, were friendly, knowledgeable, and provided us excellent service.
