
Friday was a decent day for local fishing, with 587 fishermen posting a catch of 1,756 yellowfin, 148 Dorado, 51 Yellowtail, 25 Skipjack Tuna, 13 Bluefin Tuna, four Bonito.”
Nine-Day Bruisers

“Boil, Boil, Boil”
“What a drastic contrast between yesterday and today,” wrote Bill Cavanaugh from the Intrepid September 21. “We awoke to a calm ocean and dark clouds. Today's game plan is to spend the day looking offshore for schools of yellowfin tuna. We located a small school associated with a kelp paddy shortly after first light and had decent action on school sized fish that were mostly 12 to 18 pounds. If was short lived but a good start. About an hour later we picked up a school on the sonar. Steady chum on the starboard corner, and as we came around on this school, all four trolling lines went off. Hook up!
“Boil, boil, boil. The school charged the boat and it was on. Wide open. Every bait that hit the water was a fish, for a couple of hours. It was awesome! Everyone had such a great time. We caught most of our fish on flylined sardines but the guys fishing the small flatfall jigs and the colt snipers were getting bit too. Oh, they were eating the skip jig good as well. When the dust had settled we had our fill. The rest of the day we spent looking for dorado on kelps and we found 2 kelps holding fish and managed to pick up 21 dorado to go with the best tuna bite most of our group has ever seen. A great day to say the least. I was too busy to take any pictures today. We will try our luck for yellowtail tomorrow.”
No Kidding, They’re Big

Leg In The Sand

“In weather far more agreeable than forecast we trudged up the line with ‘one leg in the sand,’ avoiding the offshore wind and swell dished up courtesy of Mother Nature. As luck would have it, and it definitely was luck, nothing else, the storm fizzled out, opening the door for us to proceed with our original plan. To everyone's benefit that storm actually receives credit for spreading out the fleet making plenty of elbowroom at all destinations. Final voyage photo features Steve Dennison with his 64-pound wahoo coming over the rail.”
Classic Night Bite
“We took off,” posted Red Rooster III skipper Andy Cates September 19, “and we are heading up in hopes of yellowtail up the beach.
“A few nice yellows mixed in. The action lasted until Ten in the morning and after all night we were done. What a great bite on quality fish.
“At 11:00 last night we dropped the anchor and had a great night bite on quality yellowfin tuna. Classic ridge night bite.”
La Paz: Las Arenas/Muertos Fleet

“It started a little sticky but no doubt the tuna that were there before the storm were still there. It got a little better every day until it was pretty much up to full speed. Football 10 pounders up to 25 pound yellowfin seemed to be in a nice line from the lighthouse at Punta Arenas then south through Muertos Bay and south again to Boca de Alamo, about a three-mile stretch of fish. Best of all, the fish were literally 100 to 200 yards from the beach.
“Later in the week, the sardine schools moved right into Muertos Bay and so did the tuna schools and we were catching both tuna and dorado as well as rooster fish right within sight of the boat ramp! Our pangas were limiting early then chasing other species. On the days when there were fewer limits it might have been a direct correlation to the fact that larger fish were hitting that day and more fish lost. Overall, just some really nice fishing.”