Any input on the fish is welcome. I had great luck trolling a black and green Zucker last year and was wondering about the size of the bait out of Point Loma? and hook preferances? are they line shy? etc. etc. I'll be out next Wednesday back on Friday and will try to get in a report as soon as I can.

Kelly

I'm going on an overnighter this Friday night so I'll report back over the weekend. Light line never seems to hurt unless you hit a school of bluefin. Bait will probably be mostly sardines with a few anchovies mixed in. I plan on bringing a 15# rig, 20#, 30#, and 40#. Unless the bite is good, I'll be fishing the 15# most of the trip.
Later,
Adam

Report from yesterday's overnighter on the Endeavor - Fished 60 nm south of SD on a 208 heading for 31 albacore and 2 bonito for 23 people. Out of the albies only about 6 or 8 of those were bait fish. Another 4 were on fish traps (3 on the troll by the deckhand who drug it along next to the jigs) and the rest were jig strikes. Double and triple jig strikes were common, but they just wouldn't eat the bait. The bait pretty much sucked. The anchovies were weak and rolled quickly, but the few sardines in the tank were decent. I got bit on both. I had the first bait hookup of the day on thes second stop on an anchovy fished on the slide. The hook pulled after about 10 seconds on that fish. A few stops later I landed a 17# albie on a chovy. Later in the day I was bit again on a sardine, but the fish bit, ran for a second or so, and dropped the bait. I waited but nothing bit again. Reeled it in to find the back half of the bait void of scales. I prefer not to troll so I didn't get any jig fish.

Definitely bring your heavy gear, as well as stuff to troll if you're into that. Small to medium sized, dark jigs worked in the morning, lighter in the afternoon - the standard. You might even try trolling a fish trap if they'll let you. It was bit before the jigs each time it was out there. The fish were definitely no line shy, biting 30# just as well as 15# (though they really weren't biting well in general). The sardines will fish much nicer than the anchovies if you do choose to work the heavier line.

The boat, Endeavor, was great and crew excellent. Great charter boat at a reasonable price.

TL,
Adam

The albacore are really starting to bite down there. They are eating the sardine fished on 25lb and 30 lb. The legend had 155 today on sardines and fish traps. The fish traps have begun to do much better. Anchovies should be fished on 20lb. You should have a good trip and a great time on the AA. I am on a 2.5 day charter in a few weeks on the Sea Adventure. Maybe Bluefin will be here by then.

I have a 3 day on the Vagabond next week and can't wait. Will take the usual #20,#25, for albacore, #40 for yellowtail and fishing the slide, and the tackle list suggests 60# in case we hit the bluefin - I want a bluefin!

Word of warning along with the rigs noted above do take that sixty or even eighty # rigs, last year on a 2 day trip on the AA fishing the albies, we accidentally came accross a school of big eye, and gess what over 2/3 of us hooked up almost instantly and lost the shish almost as fast considering that we were all using 12-20# string, all but one guy that was using a 60# tuna rig (which by the way we all thought from the get go that he was going to get skunked with that rig, no albacore would bite rope right?....wrong!) he was abouth the only guy that managed to stay buttoned to his fish, him along with just one of the trolling rigs. the trolled fish I remember was about eighty something pounds the baitfish I dont know but lloked much much bigger.
The moral of the story is just take that big rig, you never know whats coming up to chew.

Good call. I do always bring a heavy hitter - this time the 6455xxh and accuratized 6/0 with 100# :)

hopefully some of those nice bluefins or even better those big eyes will want to play, good luck.

Thanx guys for all the expert advise....Looks like dark fishtraps...Megabaits and heavy line and dine's //// Should be my kinda trip as I'm Known to be heavy handed!
Kelly

when using a fish trap, what kind of action do you give the bait,
straightwind?

If you drop it back on the slide, they usually hit it on the sink. If you don't get bit on the sink, a stop and go retrieve seems to work well. If you troll one, glue it to the head and make sure it's rigged perfectly straight or it'll spin. Personally, I prefer to drop back a live bait on the slide with a 1 oz torpedo sinker in front of it. First bait in the water almost always gets bit.

TL,
Adam

Would that be 4 inch or 5 inch Ch. Island Chovie fish traps - or does it matter?

Just got finished flex coating my Megabaits for Thurs. - but I'm neurotic like that.

along with the plastics, another bait that has worked awesome for me are the bungy falls, they are small, heavy enough to cast a mile and sink fast and on top of it all they rattle. at 20+ bucks each they are not the most common sight in the slide but that rattle really helps get bit, at least for me. p line came out with "replicas" for about 15 bucks