|
14 Days on the Red
Rooster III
If you're a local 1/2 day boat angler, or maybe you've made a 2 or 3-day
trip for albacore, you've probably dreamed of going on one of those
two-week-long trips for giant tuna and wahoo. But what's it really like?
What can you expect from one of these expeditions? Most of us only see
the pictures of big fish back at the dock or those 30-minute videos
jam-packed with exciting action. Well, here's another point of view---a
crew member's point of view. My day-by-day recollection of a 14-day trip:
Red Rooster III
14-day trip
March 28-April 11, 1986
22 passengers
8 crew members
Day 1- Depart
San Diego at 8:00pm . Load up with bait at the receivers and start
heading South.
Day 2- Very calm and beautiful weather. Sunny and warm as we spend
the entire day traveling.
Day 3 - Unsuccessful attempt to make bait around San Pablo area.
Quite a few barracuda and bass on the bait rigs, though. Left for San
Benedicto at 10:00am. Traveled the rest of the day.
Day 4 - Travel all day. Weather getting warmer. A little choppy
late in the day.
Day 5- Arrive at San Benedicto at 7am. An impressive looking
volcano island. We caught wahoo as soon as we got there. Average around
30-40 pounds. George the cook caught the first one, which turned into
dinner that night. We had about 15 wahoo by noon. Anchored on the South
end for the night but had trouble making bait because of the sharks and
high winds. Lots of flying fish around.
Day 6 - Traveled to Socorro Island in the morning. Weather rough
due to the high winds. Only 1 wahoo by noon. Tuna bit fairly well at
sunset. We caught about 20 or 30 averaging 40 pounds. Bait still tough to
catch that night.
Day 7- Fishing slow in the morning, so we went back to San
Benedicto. The 30 -mile trip was pretty rough, 6-9 foot seas. Caught 7
wahoo by 1:00. Anchored up for the night. Fair bait bite on the
caballitos. Headed for Roca Pardita at 1:00am.
Day 8 - Arrived at Roca Pardita at 8:30am. Saw lots of whales
(humpbacks) but only caught 8 wahoo. The largest went 60 pounds. Weather
was beautiful and seas not too bad. Headed for Clarion Island about
1:00pm. Traveled all night.
Day 9- Arrived at Clarion around 3:30am. I awoke to see a
150-pound tuna already on deck, and another we estimated to be 300-pounds
was just being brought on board. Wahoo trolling that day was pretty good.
A few nice amberjacks, black jacks, and football yellowfins rounded out
the day. Weather was exceptionally calm and nice. Although the sun didn't
shine much, I got fried. Bait bit pretty well that night, once we found
them.
Day 10- Another tuna around-300 pounds was lost at gaff early in
the morning. We almost went out to Hurricane Bank, but the fishing at
Clarion got better. 21 wahoo and 8 yellowfins by noon. Two marlin were
hooked and lost in the afternoon. Still decent weather. Both bait and
sharks were thick that night.
Day 11- Morning tuna bite yielded a 250-pounder. Wahoo fishing a
little slower , but steady throughout the day. Weather calmed down nicely
today. Hope it holds for the trip home. This is our last day of fishing.
Whew! We left Clarion around 8:00pm. Seas started to pick up later that
night.
Day 12- Travel all day. Weather pretty miserable.
Day 13- Travel all day. Weather got worse overnight. We took water
over the wheelhouse several times. Estimated 12-15 foot seas. Passed
Alijos Rocks at 10:00am.
Day 14- Travel all day. Looks like the weather is flattening out
somewhat. Tomorrow we are home.
Day 15 - Arrive in San Diego at 8:30am. Largest fish of the trip
was caught by lady angler June Pierce---Yellowfin Tuna weighing 302
pounds, if I remember correctly.
Total fish count:
141 Wahoo
45 Yellowfin Tuna
2 Amberjack
3 Skipjack
And one tired deckhand!
|
