Hank Fohring of Signal Hill won first place for a 34.2-pound yellowtail. He bagged it with a sardine on a 2/0 Flyliner hook and a dropper loop with 50-pound Seaguar fluorocarbon, 65-pound Power Pro Spectra on a Trinidad 16 and a Calstar 700 H rod.
Joe DeMarco of San Gabriel, formerly partnered with Jack Nilsen at Accurate, won second place for a 31-pound bluefin. Joe said he got his fish with a sardine on a 2/0 Mustad hook on 30-pound Big Game line on an Accurate 870 reel and a custom Accurate seven-foot rod.
Dave Woody of Huntington Beach won third place for a 29.4-pound bluefin tuna.
Baja Paddy HoppersIndependence arrived at Pt. Loma Sportfishing July 29 under Jeff DeBuys’ hand. Jeff took his 30-passenger charter group on a six-day flyer to Alijos Rocks and also visited Cedros Island.
“We spent two days at Alijos,” Jeff told dock reporter Bill Roecker. “Fishing was excellent, they were biting. When they came around to us each day it was very good all day. You needed to get a morning position. There was a good show of fish at the surface, but we only got two wahoo. The water’s still cool at 70 degrees.”
All three of the biggest tuna came on the kite. They were eligible for the jackpot spots because there was a full rotation.
Mike Takaki of Torrance won first place for a 110-pound yellowfin he took with a sardine on 7/0 Hayabusa hook and the boat’s kite rig.
David Foreman of Studio City won second place for a 109-pounder, and John Carmadella of San Dimas got third place for a 101-pound Alijos yellowfin tuna.
“Stingy”“The offshore grounds continue to be very tough,” reported Brian Kiyohara for the American Angler July 28. “Water conditions are very streaky but the killer is when we find good conditions there is no fish and or when we do finally find some they don't bite. We found a few kelps that had some good grade yellows and a token dorado. On the bright side there was an area of scattered albacore meter marks which was very encouraging except for the fact that it gave up only a few fatsos.
“In that same area we saw a couple of mystery marks that we have come to associate with the not so commonly caught opah. Last trip we had the very same style of mark and Chris hooked a fish on a jig only to have the hook straighten out on what we all assumed was an opah. Today we spun around and stopped on the same kind of mark and Tony Contreras hooked a mystery fish right away. After about a half an hour the unmistakable pink sides came into view. Tony ended up landing an incredible 125-pound opah on thirty pound line as this seemingly once in a lifetime catch seems to now become more common.”
Intrepid Fishes The Beach"We had a slow day on the catching side of things as we made our way up the beach," Intrepid reported July 28. "We stopped in many different areas and tried our hand at some halibut drifts for nothing. We did catch a yellowtail along some kelp and had some success fishing for cod this afternoon. Highlight of the day was a nice cow cod coming on board. A few bass and the assortment of bottom dwellers such as ling cod made up our catch today. We will spend the final day of this voyage on the offshore grounds hoping to catch an albacore or two."
Young Man Goes West
“We got an early jump leaving the dock today on our Stout/ Eppler 3 day,” reported Excel skipper Justin Fleck July 28. “We decided to make a pass through the local offshore grounds. Although we can see incredible signs of fish, we only managed a couple short stops on albacore for our afternoon. Tomorrow, we will be doing some exploring out to the west to see if we can locate some biting fish. The weather forecast looks favorable for the next couple of days.”
“We got the trip off to a nice start here at the rocks with a nice steady pick on 50 to 110-pound tuna that bit until just before dark,” noted Royal Star skipper Randy Toussaint July 27. “Very good show most of the afternoon but they didn't let their guard down, most of the bites were on 40-pound and even 30-pound line. The conditions are good for wahoo but aside from a few bite-offs they were absent from the mix. We are going to spend the night and hope for another good day tomorrow.
“Today's shots show Erik Masuda with a 115-pounder while Kelley Hall gets a hand from Blake 'Beefcake' Wasano with her 75-pounder."
“Early Report”
“We had great fishing this morning,” reported owner-operator Art Taylor of the Search July 28. “Everything is the same as yesterday; same conditions, methods, and great fishing for yellowtail! Also we caught two 30-pound white seabass last night at anchor.”
Yellowtail With Thanks
“We arrived to the yellowtail area around 06:00 hours," read the Royal Polaris report July 28,"and it didn't take long before we were bendo. We had a stiff breeze for about two hours, then it was beautiful. Then in the late afternoon, we had a stiff breeze again, but that didn't stop the yellows from biting. We had limit-style fishing on 14 to 20-pound yellowtail.
“After we had our fill of yellowtail, Roy made a few drifts for calico bass. We didn't catch many, but we did release three black sea bass. We will give this another try tomorrow morning, then Roy will make a decision on what he will do.
“We would like to thank a few people for their donation for the trip, Richard Hightower, Calstar fishing rods, Lead Masters, Izorline, Bill Roecker, and Katy Tanaka for the ride down.”
Rocks Are Kicking“Today (yesterday) the 'Rocks' kicked out some fair tuna fishing,” said the report from Norm Kagawa’s Shogun July 28, “for The Flash Sport fishing gang, but the yellowtail played a little hide and seek from us. After lunch we pulled the pick and pointed the Shogun for another hot spot. We should be there in the early morning hours of the 29th.
“Shogun fans, we have a few open spots on some future trips here on the Shogun: one spot on the Aug 1 Willfish Tackle five-day and five spots on the Aug 18 Seeker Rods seven-day. Give Andrea a call at the office and book your spot for a fishing trip of a lifetime on the Shogun.”
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