Slightly off topic. Yellowfin Trip

[Mr_Fixit]

Gentlemen,

I suppose this is a 'what not to do' kind of message.

I went on a 1.5 day fishing trip. Overall the experience was good, and I learned a lot. Our boat had 18 people and we ended up with 71 fish. My catch? Zero. Big skunk from hell. Only dude on the boat to catch a goose egg.

What I expected? Well, I expected the fish to be much larger. The largest fish we had was 29 pounds. I was expecting fish in the 40+ range. So, given this, I brought my heavy gear including: 2/0 and 3/0 hooks, 40#, 30#, and 15# leader material. I had two heavy rods with Fathom 25N and 30 reels.

Lesson 1) Fishing Style: I was fishing my bait like you would for YT. Let it run out a bit, put on clicker, raise drag a touch, wait for a bite.... WRONG.. Fishing off a boat, you let the bait run. Let it keep on running in free spool.

Lesson 2) Gear: I should have brought lighter gear. Realistically, I should have brought a medium baitcaster setup, possibly two, and one heavy conventional setup. Lighter rod could have been used to cast flat fall irons, and the heavier baitcaster could have been used to cast my bait out further and on target. I cant cast conventional reels (Something I need to work on). So I ended up waiting for my bait to swim in the right direction and such.

Lesson 3) Hooks: Size hooks to the bait, right? Well, the bait we had was pretty small. Size 2 hooks were what was needed on this trip. So, next trip I am going to be bringing Size 2, 1, 1/0, and 2/0 hooks. This was the second major contributor why I caught nada. I was using 2/0 hooks. WAY too big.

Lesson 4) Lures: Bring a flat fall or two. Cast them where the fish are boiling, and you are going to catch. I saw this a number of times. I saw Squish and other lures catch several fish.

Lesson 5) Muscles: Bring Icy Hot, especially if you are not a young dude. It seems stupid, but the rocking of the boat, as nice and soothing (For me at least) as it is, really takes its toll on your knees and hips. Your body is constantly adjusting to the motion while you dont even think of it. All these muscles working that usually do little really starts to hurt like hell towards the end of the day. Next day, I was just trashed.

Lesson 6) Boots: Bring rubber boots. Deck hands are constantly rinsing off the boat, getting the blood off. If you have street shoes, you will soon be wearing soggy sponges.

Lesson 7) Fish Prep: At the end of the trip, the crew offers to fillet your fish or just send you home with the whole fish. Thinking I didnt want to deal with the effort of filleting my fish, I opted for having them do it ($7). What I didnt know is that when you get off the boat, another dude comes up and offers fish processing. Option 1) Fillet, vac-sealed fish steaks. Option 2) Same as 1, but smoked. Option 3) Jerkied! Had I known this, I would have taken Option 1, though I did a good job at home with my goodies.

I did not learn about the hook issue until well into the fishing trip. The morning the captain put us on this HUGE school. These fish were boiling left and right for at least a couple hours. It was awesome! Dudes were hooking up 3-4 at a time. Deck hands were running everywhere gaffing fish. The deck was a bloody mess! We had fish flopping on the deck all over the place. Stacking up and sliding everywhere! Faster than the deck hands could gaff fish. It was GLORIOUS!

Did I leave empty handed? No. The deck hands helped me out as much as they can. Tips and advice were abundant, though honestly a little late. So, the chef caught a couple fish and they gave me one. 20#. Its all nice and snug in my freezer now.

[chris138]

Nice work... sounds like you learned enough to slam them next time. A couple more tips are to seek out the liveliest and most spastic bait in the well, and change bait constantly. Grab a couple dines and hold them in a cup or in your pocket then chum them right where your are going to cast your line. You should constantly be feeding your bait line. If you don't feel it swimming on that light 20-30# flouro, change it.

Check out this video my dad made on a yf trip last summer. He gives some good commentary about how the live bait tactics change as the "bite wears on". Sometimes they will only bite just as it hits the surface... like at min 6:40.

[YakDout]

How did you opt for them to fillet the fish you didnt catch? Thats impressive. Get yourself a pair of Xtra tuff boots with a good insole. Super green feet work well for me. Got a pair in tememcula recently at socal rod and reel for $65

[Mr_Fixit]

Originally Posted by YakDout

How did you opt for them to fillet the fish you didnt catch? Thats impressive. Get yourself a pair of Xtra tuff boots with a good insole. Super green feet work well for me. Got a pair in tememcula recently at socal rod and reel for $65

One of the crew caught a fish. They gave that to me. They wanted to make sure I dont head home empty handed. I am grateful for that, but would have been FAR happier catching my own.

[YakDout]

Oh thats cool man. At least you had some fresh ahi one way or another. Get em next time

[RedSledTeam]

Good information! You should write an article for WON titled 7 tips to a successful 1.5 day trip for Tuna. Good stuff!

[Mr_Fixit]

Originally Posted by RedSledTeam

Good information! You should write an article for WON titled 7 tips to a successful 1.5 day trip for Tuna. Good stuff!

LMAO! By a failed fisherman. hahaha

[Denis_Ruso]

Originally Posted by Mr_Fixit

LMAO! By a failed fisherman. hahaha

A lesson learned is not a failure.
A man may go all his life without realizing it's not the fish he's after.

[Mr_Fixit]

Originally Posted by Denis_Ruso

A lesson learned is not a failure.
A man may go all his life without realizing it's not the fish he's after.

Not for the first time I wish there was a Like button or icon here. hehe

[Aaron&Julie]

Once you've learned the ropes and applied it to tuna fishing and get into just a decent bite you'll be hooked, much like getting that first yellow off of the kayak.

A couple of other key points to know about tuna fishing, follow your line as everybody does the tuna shuffle. And definitely watch your line closely when hooked up, so you know AHEAD of time whether to go right or left, and over or under. Knowing this last tip will make things go so much more smoothly in all of the chaos that is tuna fishing.

[Dingokevin]

Wait.... They gave you a fish but no one had a hook/leader line for you. Get them next time.

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

[ful-rac]

When you can't get bit a hand off is all that's needed to take the edge off. Sometimes you just have to break down and take one, again it's a pride/stubbornness thing, you just have to get over it...just don't tell anybody that you did though...

When the day comes you are the hotdog, make sure you give the hand off when somebody needs one. It could be me! !


...And yes I'm talking about fishing, not ugly fat chicks!

[Aaron&Julie]

Originally Posted by ful-rac

When you can't get bit a hand off is all that's needed to take the edge off. Sometimes you just have to break down and take one, again it's a pride/stubbornness thing, you just have to get over it...just don't tell anybody that you did though...

Yeah, that should have happened, regardless.
That's over 4 per rod on the whole boat, that's pretty good fishing, I'll take that count any day on an overnight or 1.5 day trip. I'm sure the hot sticks had 9 or 10 fish, that's when boat limits come into play.
Since you were the only skunkee, it would have been nice if somebody paid closer attention.
The crew should've noticed and gone out of there way to get you on a bent rod.
When I worked albie boats, it was a something we paid attention to, it's a great way to get return customers. It's one thing when they give you a fish at the end of the day, which is often a boat fish on the hand line, another when a crew member baits and hooks one up to hand to you. Not that they had to give you that fish, but it still resulted in $7 more for the crew, yet still nice you didn't go home empty handed.