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8 Day Long Range Trip on the
Independence Summary
(not to be confused with the
U.S.S. Indianapolis)
May 23rd-May 31st
Saturday, May 23rd
After a
day of preparation, fresh line and a few extra hooks, I loaded
up my Dad’s SUV with 11 rods, a reel bag, 2 tackle boxes, an
ice cooler filled with 3 x ½ gallons of Lactaid, a large
duffle bag filled with clothes and extra tackle, a pair of
boots and a back pack filled with odds and ends. One would
have thought I was going on a 16 day trip as I have always
been know to bring too much in lieu of too little. As it
turns out, this was the type of trip that you wanted to bring
lots of extra gear. I arrived at the dock at about 9:20 for
the 12:00 noon departure to find out that I was only 1 of 4
people who hadn’t checked in and were not on the boat. It
turns out that some people had been at the docks since
5:00AM. I had better things to do like sleep in the morning
and give my nearly 3 year old daughter Amelia a fond
farewell. Given that this was the Independence’s first trip
of the year, all were eager to leave the dock early.
As it
turns out that at 10:00, only 1 passenger was not on board.
There is always one isn’t there? Later in the trip, I learned
that it was long range veteran Jason Hong who under the guise
of returning his rental car, snuck off to a Korean market for
some last minute tasty refreshments (Sake, rice wine and
various Korean delicacies). In any case, Jason returned
safely and we motored away at 11:00 AM to the bait dock.
One
benefit of taking an early trip was that the bait had been
sitting in the bait dock for a while curing. We filled two
huge slammers with some beautiful sardines in addition to the
bait tanks up high. I did note a few small mini macs and a
handful of very fresh looking anchovies mixed in. After 2
hours at the bait dock, we cleared “the point” just after
1:00PM.
Captain
Jeff Debuys introduced his crew of Kyle, Frankie, Jesus, Dave,
Justin along with cooks Tom and Ed. Next up was the
obligatory fishing seminar on how not to farm fish along with
the proclamation that Jeff predicted tangles as they have
happened on every trip in the past 30 years. He was right.
The game
plan was to “straight line it” to the Alijos Rocks (a volcano
upcroping about 450 miles south of San Diego that sit 200
miles offshore). The good news was that the Shogun had been
there 1 month prior and had 66 degree water with good
fishing. The hope was that the water would be blue, warmer
and with eager fish. We were also introduced to photographer
Barry Wiggins who has worked out a sweet heart deal and
provides professional photography services to the clients on
the boat. Basically, he helped with a few odds and ends and
took pictures (for purchase) the entire trip.
After the
seminar, trip sponsor Dick Shaffer owner of Purfield’s Pro
Tackle in Marina Del Rey gave out tackle goodie bags and
embroidered hats to all on board in addition to having a
separate tackle raffle. Dick bought Purfields a couple of
years after we moved to San Diego and we frequently bought
various odds and ends pre-Dick. As it turns out, I was
bunking with Dick and an older gentleman named Jeff who was a
pilot. While I had been assigned one of the lower bunks, I
gave it up as neither one of them would have had an easy time
climbing the upper bunk. Fortunately, both traveled very
light, because I was armed with a stateroom full of crap.
That
evening we had a beautiful prime rib dinner while watching my
beloved Lakers on satellite. Unfortunately, the satellite
took a crap during the game and that was the last we saw of it
the rest of the trip.
That
evening I woke to what I thought was a lumber yard dream.
Alas, it was Dick sawing wood so awful, that it penetrated my
ear plugs. Unable to sleep, I went to the galley at 1:30AM
and watched the movie “Norbit” starring Eddie Murphy and Eddie
Murphy. It was pretty dumb and probably will not make
anyone’s top 10 list.
Sunday, May 24th
We woke
to great weather, calm seas. I immediately put my black and
purple cedar plug in the water after downing a hearty
breakfast. As it was, I was on trolling team 1. Dick also
sent a black and purple jet head out down the middle and damn
if he didn’t get bit at 7:30 AM on a 20+ pound albie. As it
turns out, this would be the only fish of the day. Basically,
we had the entire day to tune our tackle.
Jason and
his Canadian contingent had some of the nicest collection of
reels that I have seen. Avet reels, Accurate boss reels and
Tiburon smart shifts made up the collections. Everything was
impeccably packed, marked and organized. All reels were
filled with spectra to be completed with top shots. I
searched in vain the entire trip for a single mark of
corrosion and I am still searching. Tackle bags were
beautifully organized, it was like looking at a Henry Ford
assembly line in harmony. Upon surveying the rest of the
tackle and anglers, it was apparent that the trip had a strong
contingent of anglers with excellent tackle. I only spied a
few potential farmers on a crew of 31 anglers.
My other
note is that I managed to land myself on a boat load of
smokers. From young to old, there must have been a dozen
smokers. As I came to learn, some managed to keep their
cigarette lit even while they fought their tuna. My other
great discovery of the day was that I discovered that my
electric shaver accidentally discharged during the boarding
process and I didn’t bring the charger. To the rescue came
Jason who had a shaver and was trying to sport a gotee during
the trip. No shaving cream though so I used the soap
dispensers in the bathroom. Given that I break out pretty
bad, it saved me big time.
Monday, May 25th
Memorial
Day. We awoke once again to calm seas and 66 degree blue
water that was inching up by the mile. An air of anticipation
filled the deck as everyone double and triple checked drags,
hooks, etc.
By 9:30
AM, the rocks were sighted from afar and we expected our
arrival by 11:00 AM. Up nearing the rocks, we decided to
troll and look around for fish signal. Within 5 minutes, we
had a double on very nice tuna on the troll. One of the two
females on the trip Jenny Smith fishing with her father
Charlie hooked a nice bait fish along with tackle shop ace
Chris Wise who was fishing with his father Alan. Several of
us hooked yellowtail including myself and I tagged my first of
many 15 pound yellowtail. Since we were still on the slide,
we drifted precariously close to the rocks. At one point, I
viewed an underwater rock below the surface and Jeff had to
slowly motor the boat away.
Chris and
Jenny both got their fat 50+ pound tuna after long fights.
Chris loved using “the rail” and Jenny really put the wood to
her fish.
One small
anecdote. Jenny used to fish with Buzz Brizendine on the
Prowler for many years and was his cook for 2 years as well.
She was a very well-seasoned angler. As many of you know, I
have ridden the Prowler more than any other boat and Buzz was
a great mentor to her.
Back to
the fishing, we anchored up on the chosen spot and almost
immediately, we started hanging fish. As the afternoon wore
on, the fishing only got better. From the onset, hordes of
yellowtail hung out under the boat eating anything in sight.
Unfortunately, some of the “rats” or “shakers” were good at
wrapping around bigger fish and causing terrible tangles. I
grabbed my iron and went to the bow and every drop was a fish
on the drop or on the retrieve. On the second drop, I tied
into a very good fish. Unfortunately, the fish worked to the
back and somebody sawed me off after 10 minutes. Meanwhile,
the tuna started foaming off the back and boiling everywhere.
I heard Jenny and her father remark that they had 5 tuna on
the boat. Meanwhile, I couldn’t get bit on the tuna. Nearly
every cast I would be bit and another yellowtail would grab
the bait. Some big, some bigger. Finally, after 11
yellowtail in a row, I finally hooked a tanker tuna, 45+
pounds.
Soon,
they announced first call for lunch. Who the hell eats in a
bite like that? Anyways, I went to rest, had a half a
sandwich and downed some fluids. From there, the bite got
silly, I land a couple more tuna and then tuna started just
sitting off the starboard corner about 50 feet back munching
on the chum. The guys with the long rods and Salas 7X and 4X
lights started tossing them and the fish absolutely blew up on
them every cast. After a while of watching them, I threw my
7X jig on 40lb out there with my Sumo Special/Blue Accurate
Reel combo. Crappy cast with a few loops of line on the reel
that came free. No matter, before I turned the handle, a tuna
inhaled the jig and I got my first tuna ever on the skip (sort
of) jig. I decided that I had enough embarrassing casts and
went back to a mix 30, 40 and 50lb and ended up with 11+ tuna
to 55lbs for the day (I lost track) in addition to near limits
of tagged yellowtail (I had over 20 yellows between tagged and
released).
Later in
the day, I hooked a big yellowtail on a fly lined ‘dine that
swam deep. The yellow slowly peeled off line and rocked me on
50lb. By the time we finished, there was only 4-5 people
fishing on the stern at a time, because the rest were too
tired or hooked up along the sides of the boat. About 6:00PM,
the bite shut down and they quit chumming (or they quit
chumming and it shut down). Everyone looked like they had
been through a war and the tackle looked worse. The boat had
tagged over 300 tuna and 300 yellowtail in 7 hours of
fishing. It is rare that I have described fishing as Epic,
but this was one of those days. The only thing I can compare
it to was the 35 marlin that Daniel, Mike and I released in 6
hours of fishing at Cabo a couple of years ago. Needless to
say, it looked like everyone had been through a war. Blood
was everyone, reels were destroyed. I got an ulcer on one of
my fingers on my cranking hand from knicking it against the
star controlling the drags. There were so many saw offs that
a couple of my reels were left with 20 yard top shots. I
ended up taking our Avet 30 and stripping the 30lb top shift
and replacing it with a 50lb top shot and moving it to another
rod, I replaced a 40lb top shot on another reel and moved the
30lb line to the 25lb torium reel. Half the boat looked like
it could barely move, the other half couldn’t move at all. I
have no idea what I ate for dinner, only that I ate pre-shower
and I was filthy. I also only know that I could barely close
the stateroom door that evening and I don’t think that Dick
woke me up for at least 4 hours with his snoring.
Tuesday, May 26th
Despite
being told that we would be awoken to catch bait, nobody awoke
us. A couple of guys stayed up late catching bait and put
100-150 pieces in the well ranging from smallish to fatsos.
Chris was one of the guys catching bait and threw one out on
50lb and then rather pedestrian like quietly wound in a
yellowtail that later hit the scale at 50.5 pounds back at the
docks (biggest yellow for the trip). He managed another that
was 40+ on the big baits that AM. I more or less fished for
tuna and shook off rat yellowtail and tagged a few bigger
units. I could barely move my lifting arm and decided to
throw out a bait first thing so that I could actually hook
something to stretch out my arm. It didn’t take long to hook
a decent fish that did the trick. I think I managed 4-5 tuna
for the day and plenty of yellows. I dumped several tuna in a
row right after hook set, which I can only attribute to some
bad line possibly due to all the burn offs, knicks and
tangles. The skip jig only had a couple of fish taken on it.
The boat had a “slow” day for 125+ tuna and 125+ yellows.
Normally, that would be a very good day at the Alijos Rocks as
the bite can be touchy. The highlight was when we decided to
move to the shallows for the night to fish yellows and catch
bait. Upon kicking the boat forward, the bait that had been
congregating all day slid out and there was a full on foamer
going behind the boat. Daniel would have been proud. A
couple more tuna got landed and I had enough and merely just
watched the foray. Upon setting up on the shallows, several
people got rocked on yellows while fishing the iron. Due to
my roommate waking up the boat with his snoring that night, I
got up at 1:30 and fished bait until 3:15 catching 150+ pieces
myself. Bait was from mini sized to jumbo 2+ pound sized
scads.
Wednesday, May 27th
Hell if
the bait catching karma didn’t work first thing in the morning
for me. The first big bait I threw out landed me an 18 pound
yellow. The 2nd bait got me a 25-28 pound yellow
and the third one got me my biggest yellow ever at 38 ½ pounds
(as weighed at the dock). I fished one more big bait for
naught and managed a couple more tuna. 1 was a good one and
the other was a paltry 25 pounds that I released. At about
11:00, we were pretty much limited out on yellows and tuna and
the captain pulled anchor at 11:30 and decided to go to a
heralded grouper spot. We set up on a spot 380 feet or so
with 80lb dropper loops. Jason dropped down right next to me
and got hammered. He deftly brought the fish off the rocks
and then coasted it in from ½ way up when its bladder got
full. At the docks, it weighed 45 pounds. 4 others got nice
grouper from 15-30 pounds and then someone got a yellowtail on
a jig. I decided that I had enough and started cranking up
when about 25 feet off the bottom, my pole got heavy all of a
sudden. I couldn’t believe my luck that I nailed one cranking
off the bottom. Unfortunately, the sucker fought all the way
to the surface and as it got close it turned out to be a 30+lb
yellowtail that I had to fight 350 feet to the surface. It
made for a nice picture and is the one in the trip DVD. We
took off at 1:00 or so from the Rocks and from there, the plan
was to go to Cedros Island and fish for White SeaBass, fish
offshore on Friday and Halibut on Saturday at San Martin.
That night, I huddled in the Captain’s bridge and listened to
the Lakers take a 3-2 series lead against the tattoo studded
Nuggets.
Thursday, May 28th
We awoke
once again to stellar weather. I don’t think we ever hit 15
knots of wind the entire trip. Overnight, the game plan
changed as Cedros was said to be cold and we decided to go to
San Benitos, which is further West. We arrived mid-morning
and anchored up on a spit mid-island. Yellowtail fishing took
a little bit of work and several nicer ones were landed. I
only really half ass fished, because I didn’t need any more
fish. Of course, when I would get bit, I kept getting Calico
bit and suckers kept diving for the kelp. About noon, there
was no wind and the captain decided to make a move to his
secret Red Snapper spot West of San Benitos. Would you
believe that I actually had a 2 hook shrimp fly gagnion with
me. I attached a glow in the dark Salas PL-68 that I
specially brought for such an occasion. I also had the
foresight to bring 2 packages of Berkeley Gulp (the slimy
baits that are said to work good for cod). Well, I never
actually pinned on a sardine the entire time. On the first
drop, I got hammered on the jig with a really nice red. 2 or
3 times I had 3 fish on the hooks and jig. Unfortunately, a
couple of boccacio climbed on and I donated those. I think I
ended up with a dozen snapper or so. It was the most wide
open snapper fishing on quality reds that I have ever seen. 1
cow cod and 2 ling cod also came over the rail before we moved
back to the Island. We fished a couple more spots. On the
last stop, I decided to fish the big baits. I pinned on 2 of
those 2 pound Spanish mackerel and would you believe I caught
2 calico bass on them. The bass were barely bigger than the
mackerel. During the day, someone managed to catch a bonito.
Daniel would have been thrilled. Jason made short work of it
carving it up and the table had fresh bonito sushi. It is the
second time that I have had it and it was quite good. It
needs to be bled and chilled immediately and it was quite
tasty. On the last spot, we anchored up for the night. I
tied on a seabass jig and was bouncing it around in hopes of
finding a nice seabass. On the flop, I actually got bit and
it turned out to be a 15-20lb yellow. That evening, a
gentleman named Bill was fishing and hooked a tanker yellow
that took him around the boat and weighed in at 47+ pounds.
Alex the Dentist also got a nice one that was over 35 pounds.
Friday, May 29th
After
leaving San Benitos at 4:00AM, we worked offshore 25 miles to
the West where a seiner was seen working previously. We
managed one albie off a meter mark and then we managed a
single jig strike and a bait fish shortly thereafter. We
worked the area a bit for a few stops on single albacore meter
marks. What does it mean to meter “a single albacore?” After
crapping around we worked North and at 6:00PM, we got a couple
of short bites and then my roommate Jeff got a 18 pound BFT on
the troll. Charlie managed a sole baitfish and that was it
for the excitement of the day. Next stop, San Martin Island.
Saturday, May 30th
We
arrived at San Martin Island at around 1:00AM or so. I got up
and jigged a few times with no action. At 6:30 AM, we pulled
anchor and began drifting on the Southeast side of San
Martin. We had a wonderful meal of Eggs Benedict that my
father would have surely enjoyed. Each drift, we would get
1-3 bites and slowly halibut came over the rail. Midmorning,
someone hooked a nice one and one of the resident fur balls
took off with a 20 pounder and scarfed it down. Meanwhile, I
could not buy a bite with 30lb fluorocarbon. I worked the
front, the back and the side with no luck. Of course, I was
the only one who had those flat halibut sinkers with a special
rig. A lot of good that did. At 2:00, the captain announced
1 more drift with only 8 halibut hitting the deck. He set up
just outside the kelp in a new area and 8 hours after soaking
my first line, I got absolutely hammered as my bait hit the
bottom. I let it run and unfortunately just sort of slowly
lifted the rod up instead of doing one of those Ray Hsieh hook
sets. I came tight however. Right away, I could tell it was
a really good one. The 30 pound rod was doubled over big
time. The captain came down and I babied the fish up with
loose drags. Slowly it came into color and it was a really
good one. It looked to be 40 plus! As it swam closer to the
boat, it did one shake with its head and wouldn’t you know,
the #$%$&*@ thing unbuttoned. I have never caught one locally
bigger than 15 pounds and this would have easily eclipsed
that. After several more quick drifts, 12 more halibut came
aboard in a flurry and alas that was my only bite of the day.
One other gentleman fishing next to me never had a single bite
for the day. Chris Wise caught 3. That is halibut fishing.
At about 3:30, the captain announced that it was time for home
and everyone needed to breakdown their tackle. Off came the
hooks, sinkers and reels. I loaded everything into my reel
case for a hose down the following morning at the house. I
must say that I was mesmerized by Jason and crew’s rod and
reel breakdown. Each rod had its own rod felt condom. The
reels were brought into the galley where all received
Corrosion X spray, some greasing, internal cleaning, rub downs
and massaging. I have never seen such mastery in reel
maintenance, but the reels looks like they came right out of
the box. I continued to put my tackle collection away and
started to pack all of my crap, which was borderline
excessive. The last supper was a yellowtail concoction and
tasty like the other meals.
Sunday, May 31st
Awakened
at 5:00AM, anglers hastily scarfed down a last meal and lugged
their baggage to the top deck. We arrived at the docks at
6:15AM and unloaded rods, reels, tackle boxes, etc. Meredith
and Amelia were just awakening so I carted my stuff over to
Fisherman’s Landing and temporarily stored everything in the
rental tackle room. It helps to have connections. Soon
afterward, the anglers were split into two groups. Those with
muscles were ordered down to the docks to start pushing
cartload after cartload of fish. Those more seasoned anglers
(or those with injuries both fishing related and non-fishing
related) stood by at the top of the ramp and unloaded the
carts and distributed the fish to the 31 distinctive piles
demarcated by cones with numbers on them. As the piles grew,
the fish spilled into respective piles. I met Mike Burns from
World Famous at the docs and his crew piled my fish into a
dock cart. By the end of the day, I had completely filled a
dock cart full of red snapper, yellowtail and yellowfin tuna.
I pulled several of the bigger units out of the cart to weigh
in for Jackpot. 4 of the tuna weighed in at 51+ pounds and
the top 3 places in the jackpot ranged from 54.5-56.5 pounds
so it looked like I was going to be aced out of the money.
After 2 hours, the last cart was unloaded and 1 last tuna made
it to my pile. One of the other anglers remarked that it
looked like a good one and I said, “what the heck.” I dragged
it over to the weigh in scale and wouldn’t you know that it
weighed in at 55 pounds even edging into the 3rd
place money. Along with Chris Wise’s 50.5 yellowtail and Big
Tony’s 34.5lb halibut, Dave (2nd Place), Bob (1st
place) and I shared some final limelight. At the scales, my
cart load of fish weighed in at an obscene 1170 pounds. I
said my goodbyes, gave a few hugs as the epic trip had ended.
After dropping off the tackle, I went to Mike Burns fish
processing warehouse where he had his crew cut a yellowtail,
tuna and 4 snapper for me. We had fish tacos that night and I
had seared tuna the following evening. The fish was beyond
tasty. Mike brought the balance of the fish to my father’s
house on the Thursday following our arrival to our docks and I
brought a huge ice chest of tuna to the clinic staff who were
foaming at the lips in anticipation.
I have
since received my Barry Wiggins trip DVD and CD Photo
collection. I will send out a few photos for those that are
interested. For $150, it wasn’t a bad deal. The DVD is
basically a series of photos with music. Several of us wait
with baited breath for Jason’s video DVD. He was kind enough
to capture several classic moments in between catches and we
all know that the finished product will be a classic.
For more
information on the Independence, go to
www.independencesportfishing.com If you click on the
“fish reports” link you will several of us, yours truly
included with pictures of fish, food and folly.
--Ken
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