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The fourth day found us further south chasing bluefin tuna. We picked up 5 bluefin and 80 yellowfin tuna and another 75 yellowtail under the kelp paddies. The hot trolling jig for albacore, yellowfin and yellowtail was the BraidRunner. It stopped the boat every time!
We decided to stay another day but when we awoke, we were surrounded by purse seiners trying to wrap the bluefin. We managed to steal about 50 fish away from the purse seine fleet before they were entirely spooked. A couple of these fish hit the 50 pound mark and took the lucky anglers into the winner's circle when we returned to dock.
Day six we moved up the line where some of the larger bluefin were being seen. It was 240 miles from Pt. Loma, offshore. We found a few bitng 30 pound class yellowfin tuna but the bluefin remained elusive. Although Captain Steward found plenty of schools of bluefin, none were in the biting mood so we headed back to the albacore grounds to finish the trip. We fished our last day until 6 p.m. picking up a few more bluefin and yellowfin tuna to finish our trip.
We fished 7 days out of the 8-day trip and returned to dock with over 900 fish for 32 passengers. The jackpot winners were Roland Reesley with a 57.6 pound bluefin tuna, Jeff Newell with a 53.5 pound bluefin tuna, and Dennis Williams with a 49.5 bluefin tuna. Honorable mention went to Kaz Nakata with a 40.9 lb. albacore.
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Captain Steward put his expertise to work placing us in the hot albacore zone 75 miles from home. Near limits greeted us on our first day of fishing. These albacore were not the normal early season babies either with the biggest topping 40 pounds.
Thirty pound yellowtail bit full speed on surface irons, yo-yo jigs, fly-lined bait and dropper loops. These fish were just plain hungry.
