Tuna???

[ship 4 brains]

I'm thinking about going on 3/4 day boat next week. Any suggestions on boats and what type of gear to bring.

[inbx3]

San Diego out of Seaforth. 20-40 would probably be fine. Whatever boat you choose try and get one that has a RSW fish hold and not the Gunny sacks. You don't want your fish in the sun for 8 hours. Good luck and have fun!

[Widgeon]

I had a great day on the SD a couple weeks ago. Those guys WILL put you on fish!
If I had it to do over, I might go for an overnight. Just for the sake of being able to forego the waiting to fish of 2+ hours on the ride out. Just go to bed and wake up fishing.
Otherwise, definitely the SD.
Bring at least 2 rigs. 3 are better. Cover the 20-40# range. You can get more specific if you care to.

[Jkfish136]

I had a great trip yesterday hooked 8 and landed 7 Yellowfin boat had 100 YF 45 people. Great crew they work very hard to put us on fish but the boat is small and slow crew and captain made up for it. All on 25 lbs fluorocarbon leader with ringed hook. Just get on any boat and get some good luck.

[October]

going on the 3/4 day on the San Diego tomorrow. This is my first time going for tuna. Ill report back.

Does anyone know if they clean fish anywhere around there? i have never seen them cleaning tuna for some reason, they just always bring the big carts up with the whole fish and hand them out.

[cell128]

I wanna do an overnight on Sunday. Anyone wanna go?

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[joezee1986]

October that's the long range boats and they have their fish processed on 3/4 day boats they will go around asking how you would like your fish whole, gilled and gutted, or filet.

[October]

Ok heres my report.

here was my boats count:
20 Yellowtail, 3 Dorado, 17 Skipjack Tuna, 131 Yellowfin Tuna

2.5 hour drive out. Hopped around patties, trolled some schools and went looking for birds. The crew knows what they are doing for sure. The anglers, not so much. I would say about half the guys knew how to handle themselves but the other half may have never seen a fishing pole. I hooked into 6 and lost 3. 2 of those three were because of tangles. When the captain says to walk with your baits, DO IT! People were at the back of the boat with their fly lined bait all the way underneath and towards the front! it was mayhem.

I caught them on a mint Tady AA, chucking it out as far as I could, letting it sink 10 seconds and then fast retrieve. Also caught two on the Coltsniper with assist hook but the last one I knew my knot was funky (but ignored it because it was a fast, hot bite) and my fish broke off while the guy tried gaffing it. Thats another thing, the crew needs to get a little better at gaffing. They did a good job all around (I wouldnt want to deal with a bunch of ding dongs) but some of them really sucked at gaffing. I also got one of the trolling fish and then hooked into 2 with live bait. Wish i would have stuck to live bait more because that was the producer today for sure. Sardines.

I was using 25lb flouro and 30lb mono on my rigs. Dont need much more than that as most the fish were in the 15lb range with a few 40lbers and the dodos. Trip was fun, wish I was more aggressive out there though, you kinda gotta throw elbows to make sure you dont loose a fish. People literally go full tard for some reason.

p.s. I thought I was paying to go on a limited load boat. 51 anglers on a 60 person boat? The last few months they have been doing 40 anglers but now i guess "limited" means 9 less people... And even though the printout they give you says 5$ per tuna to clean, they charged six. kinda odd. I guess they are trying to squeeze every dime out of this awesome fishing right now. I didnt mind too much though because they definitely put us on fish and knew when to leave dead spots.

If I were to go again tomorrow I would stick to my 8+ foot rod, have a 6 foot flouro leader of 30lb and just chuck fly lined dines over everybody else, way out there.

EDIT: oh and all the YT were like 3lbs. We looked down after the trolling rod got hit and, I kid you not, there was a school of like 200 of them. As soon as bait hit the water you got hooked up. I released them (my first yellow tails!) because they were rats but a lot of people kept them. Saw some big ones in the schools but the captain decided it wasnt worth it so we moved off that school.

[Jkfish136]

I hooked all my fish at the front of the boat away from rental rods on live bait. Make sure to change your bait I was changing my bait every 30 to 40 second.

[October]

Ya changing bait frequently was key. I couldn't get away from the rental rods though, they were jammed pack everywhere. I was trying to fish the bow with iron and they would just come up, throw out like 6 feet, next to me, and watch as their baits went in every direction

[Jkfish136]

Malihini count for today 46 people 121 Yellowfin Tuna, 3 Dorado, 230 Yellowtail, 4 Skipjack. I'm thinking of making the long drive from OC for another trip while the YF still around.

[Widgeon]

When I was out there, a while back, I caught two on bait.
Both on the long soak.
Then again, I was fishing off the bow to avoid the tangled, clusterfukation in the back.

[dewinwa]

Next time take your catch to 5 star fish processing. They are usually at the docks when the boats come in and are located over by sports arena. They charge $0.75 per pound to process the fish but they do a very good job. They have less waste, they vacuum seal, and label everything for you. I know the deck hands can sometimes butcher a fish especially when your still out and they are rushing to do a lot of fish then hand it to you in a plastic trash bag. Last time I went out the difference between having 150 lbs of fish done on the boat or done at 5 star was about $20. Well worth it to just go home and put all the labeled packages right in the freezer.

[blitzburgh]

Originally Posted by October

If I were to go again tomorrow I would stick to my 8+ foot rod, have a 6 foot flouro leader of 30lb and just chuck fly lined dines over everybody else, way out there.

^^^^^This. If you can cast a bait a good distance, you will get bit a lot more than the rest...

[outdoorzen]

I went out on the Daily Double on Labor day and couldn't have been more disappointed. The boat had a hard timefinding the fish. All the other boats out that day had 100+ counts, we had like 15 YFT, 4 DODs and some rat yellows.Thank god for the one kelp paddy we found or the entire trip would have been a bust. I had to play deckhand to my family since the deckhands were more concerned about waiting for color on anglers already hooked up ( i think you should wait until they call for gaff). Anyways, I did gt to help a young boy get the birdnest out of his rental rod and hook and hand what turned out to be a nice Dodo! That was sweet! I used 65# PP with 30# fluro and a ringed 2/0 on an Avet SX and boated a nice YFT. My wife did hook a 10ft hammerhead righ next to the boat, though I don't think he knew he was hooked. The deck hands just butchered the one fish I did get. I wish I had spent my $160 3/4 money on another boat as I can't afford more than a couple trips a year with those prices. Still happy for the one fish though, It was nice to pull on a tuna after going years without.

[ashmoz]

Coral sea! Good guys. 193 yellowfin between 21 people last week.