6/10 Islander SCI...pays off

[madscientist]

Long story, here's the condensed version. Set sail Friday night on the Islander with a good group of 20+ yakkers after a smooth load up. Since they had been forced to fish Cat the last trip because SCI was hot, they had loaded up on live squid. A good sign. Dice and beer with the boys on the rode out, but fortunately didn't overdo it. Almost overslept anyway because the bunk was so comfy, but by 6:00am the most the of us were starting to get eager to go. One by one the yaks were lowered and the anglers headed out, including this guy...



There was a bit of a west breeze up that strengthened steadily. I went with my plan to get the meat fishing out of the way so I tied of on a stringer and worked the cut squid with an iron below. Couple goats and some toad whitefish later, it was time to move on. Wind was blowing pretty good by this point so I was flying along the kelp edges looking for a good CTF calico entry. Best I manage was a little over 3#, but they were coming fast and furious. Must have C&R'ed 30-40 calicos. Stupid fish.

I was tied off to a stringer screwing around with the little fish when Chris says over the radio, "Get out here". "Where?" "130". Uh, okay. The whole island is surrounded by 130. He had his hands full so I headed out of the kelp and let the wind start to blow me along the deeper edge. One zing of a bait lures me into paddling up wind to do it again. See Brian go bendo on the same drift so again I paddle against the now 20kt wind. Repeat one more time and decide I'm burned out, ready for lunch, and will just drift the rest of the way to the boat about 0.5 mile away.

Drifting two squid and throwing the iron. About halfway to the boat I'm winding the iron right off the bottom when it just stops. Then the line starts peeling off. Down to half a spool immediately. No time to clear the other lines as this fish means business. Long steady fight with the brute, all the time worried I'm going to pull the hook. He spins me three times so my boat and myself are completely wrapped up with my other two lines, but I kept the fish rod clear. After about 30 min it finally comes up and after a fortuitous belly shot, the 31.7 lb yellow is on board!



Come in for lunch and the word is that that's the current jackpot leader. I'm also thinking its a good fish for the CTF, but I know there's a lot of talent on the water as well. Afternoon was unproductive for me but others had chances. Sure enough, Andy hooks up on a fish with shoulders. Word is its a contender. Kept me out there looking for another. Finished at 8:00pm as the sun went down. After dinner we checked out the carnage wrought by the plastic fleet. 6 or seven big YT, some nice halibut, and some enormous calicos, including one over 8lb. Andy's fish weighed in at 28 and change so I had the pleasure of taking my first jackpot ($220) in a long time. Subtracted my beer and tackle costs and gave the rest to the crew.

All in all an incredibly fun and productive trip. Shane and crew really have the Islander dialed in for mothershipping and the boat was very comfortable. Between the crew and the other yakkers it was a great bunch of guys all serious about getting some fish and having fun doing it. I think we succeeded. Others will undoubtedly have more stories, better pictures, and video. Cheers!