San Diego Sportfish 5/12/2011 Just another fuel run
by admin on May.19, 2011, under May 2011 SD Sportfish reports
I called my buddy Adam to see if he could help me go get gas for the trip tomorrow, its a much better chore if you involve a fishing buddy and a 1/2 scoop of killer sardines 4″-6″ with about a 50% mix of shit hot chovies. We fished the incoming tide in 10-12 knots of wind, clean green and 62 degrees.
it was almost instant bendo from the start and we never
really got to sit and BS.
Adam and his first BUTT
De Ja Vue...Butt #2
California Horn Shark
Spotted Bay Bass
Butterfly Ray
Juvenile White Sea Bass
It took me 1/2 hour to eat my burrito.
Our final count for 4 hours of fishing was:
21 shorts with 1 keeper, (I farmed one at the rail)
23 spotties, all legal, all released more than once we had doubles
1 short WSB
a cool horn shark
a butterfly ray
a few smoothhounds
and a killer afternoon getting gas with adam.
we are headed out tomorrow on a full day looking for yellows….cant wait.
we are open both days this weekend and a couple openings early next week.
contact Capt Rod to go get on this early summer bite today!!!
San Diego Sportfish SWEET TERESA “Our biggest Halibut ever”
by admin on May.19, 2011, under March 2011 SD Sportfish reports
I had Ashlee Fuller and Timothy Pickett of LINDGREN-PITMAN, INC. out for a quick trip before their flight home to Florida tonight. They were out here for the Fred Hall Del Mar Show. If you made it to the show then you already know they manufacture the top of the line complete longline fishing systems. Their techniques combined with their line of products have revolutionized the catching of deep water daytime swordfish on the east coast. They are both Captains and run Sword Charters. These guys are the ones to go see for a shot at a Swordie. Its very cool stuff if you haven’t seen how they do it.
We got our baits in the water around 0830, the conditions were nice but chilly. The wind was on it early, probably just enough to blow out the surf but made for the perfect drifts. We had our first of only 2 fish by 1000, and Tim lands his first California Halibut, a nice grade 25″ hen.
A nice California Halibut
It was really slow for us the next 6 hours but we had enough fishing stories between the 3 of us to pass the time and the day went by really quick.
I was clearing one of the rods from some kelp when one of the other rods gets absolutely CRUSHED. Ashlee was on it so quick I wasn’t sure if she had the rod in her hand when the bait got picked up. I saw the rod load up out of the corner of my eye, it was in the rod holder, but up and out in a blink. She was across to the port side and working this fish and its peeling line big time!!!
Tim and I cleared the other rods and had the gaff at the ready in less than a minute and Ashlee has this fish turned and is absolutely kicking its ass!!! I’m thinking maybe this isn’t a bat ray or least maybe not a big one. It’s no more than 3 minutes, and she has it about 25′ from the boat, but it’s too deep to see.
This fish stayed right at mid-beam, never made a run for the props or the bow and this wasn’t Ashlees’ first rodeo pulling on big fish. We are all standing at the rail side by side, me on one side, Tim on the other and from about 15′ away we see what it is. About 10 things go through your head in 2 seconds. Your heart starts racing, your stamina for sticking with the slow day and cold wind (cold for Floridian blood) has just paid off, you squeeze the gaff any tighter and you break your hand. All I could say was, “Tim could you please grab another gaff just in case.” We had a heart stopper moment, when this fish decided it didn’t like seeing a boat and did its best to spit the hook.
She came up out of the water about a foot and went batshit for about 5 long seconds, then sunk out for another run to the bottom. Ashlee put the hammer down, turned this fish and Tim helped leader it into perfect gaff range. I went for the stick, but the angle wasn’t good and I’m gonna get one shot at a trophy, very green fish, “dont F this up”. It turned for a really short 15′ run, circled back towards us, straightened out, Tim again helped leader it ever so softly into the kill zone and I buried the gaff in the shoulder. This fish is in the boat!!!!!!!!
We all just stood there with our mouths open, silence, nobody could believe what we were seeing. This was Ashlees’ first halibut ever!!! It was so cool, such a rush the when a fish like that comes over the rail and slams the deck. It’s just as good as it gets. It was such a beautiful fish, not a mark on her. The biggest fish on the boat so far was 34lbs and this fish looked alot bigger, alot bigger!!!
Ashlee with her trophy California Halibut
She was 47″ long and weighed 42.8 lbs!!! This fish took all of us, working together to get in the boat. It was a real team effort, West coast East coast. I could see Tims swordfish experience come into the mix when he leadered the fish to the rail. Ashlee just fought it like most people fight a 20lbs class butt. We all made it happen together
The rig was a Calstar 870M, an AVET HX Narrow with spectra and top shot of 40lb flouro. It’s not exactly a finesse rig but it got the job done. She at a sardine on a dropper loop stinger rig.
They had a flight to catch, so we got back to the dock and slabbed out some fillets to be eaten in Florida tomorrow night.
Thanks to Tim and Ashlee for a great day on the water and the best butt on the boat. I think this one is gonna be tough to beat.
We are running daily halibut trips and the weather is gonna be awesome starting wednesday.Contact San Diego Sportfish to book a trip with us today.
Good luck and safe travels to everyone. Let’s go get some!!!!!
Capt Rod
San Diego Sportfish 5/13/2011 “The Bachelor” gets his last BIG BUTT
by admin on May.18, 2011, under May 2011 SD Sportfish reports
SD Sportfish Sweet Teresa report for 5/13/11 The “Bachelor” gets his last BIG BUTT
We had a great group of guys fly down from SF to get on the Sweet Teresa and try to get on some Halibut action. Capt Tony drove down from OC to give me a hand for this 14 hour marathon charter. It was a bachelor party for 4 days, interrupted by a fishing trip. I had high hopes of a mixed bag with a whisper of cudas and yellows trying to move in and give us a start to our summer season. The guys got in no problem, even a bit early and dialed, totally ready to hit it hard today.We had a nice smooth morning with glassy conditions for our run to pick up bait.
The last two days the bait has been as good as it gets! Perfect sized dines at 4″-6″ and well cured with a perferct mix ratio of some very strong chovies. We ran outside and started looking for bird schools, metered some bait, saw bait breaking, saw the mammals, but it wasnt happening yet. It looked really fishy early, 2′, well spaced, wind swell out of the west, just a puff of wind, water was a beautiful clear, clean green, trying to be blue really hard. Temp was 60.5. The sportboats were working it hard on the outside, so we looked up and down inside of them. We saw bait blowing up, I wanted to see the right kind, the more you want to see, the more you think you see it sort of thing.
Capt Tony had some numbers for us to try so we plugged em in and went for a look see. Our first fish was a big Spiny Dogfish, right kinda pull, wrong kinda fish.
right kinda pull, wrong kinda fish
Sculpin...like playing a hand grenade
Sculpin..."Like playing with a Hand Grenade"
A face only a mother could love
Hold on tight
Kiss the Catch
We pulled up and changed gears, I wanted to cover as much ground as possible with the glassy waters, so we headed up north to take a look at the water MB to LJ. Stop to see what was under a group of lazy birds with no boats around. More mammals on a slow commute.
We decided to try for some more taco meat and wait out the Barracuda to get going. We got all the rods out, everything is quiet, and “The Bachelors’” rod, in his hands, gets CRUSHED!!! I knew immediately it was the right kind!!! We cleared the other rods in the stern and coached him through a nice fish. It seemed like forever getting this fish to color, alot can go wrong in 140′ of water. He is doing a great job, had done alot of Striper fishing up north, so he had the tools just needed a little hint now and then.
Its probably close to 10 minutes into this fight and we see deep color….it’s a absolute PIG!!! It’s always about now that you you hope the decision to go with lighter tackle to make the smaller fish fun isn’t going to bite you in the ass! We had this fish hanging on 20# but it really start s looking like 10# when the fish sees the boat for the first time and turns for the bottom. We had a couple of those oh shit “runs” but this fish never made a run for the props or ever had us in trouble. A couple tense tweaks on technique at the rail and I get a head shot gaff and this trophy is in the boat!
The Bachelor with his big butt
I was so STOKED for these guys, it really was cool to see how stoked they were too! This was a personal best for him and a 3rd best on the boat at 37.4#. We got this fish on a dine, 20#, outside the curve, waiting for barracuda to give us something to pull on. It was funny because these guys wanted to know if they were going to ever get to taste barracuda, I said, “probably not on this trip”.
The wind picked up and it got nasty quick. We switched out to 5oz and even some 6oz and couldn’t hold the bottom, even with 2 drift socks out. We are done out here, pull em up and we run for the bay. We set up our first drift after an hour run back, I was glad to be going down hill in the swell, had to be a long ride back for guys coming north from the nados. The bite was slow early in the afternoon, tide was slack and the sun was hiding. Once the sun came out and the tide got going, incoming yesterday, the bite picked up and we had steady action the rest of the day.
We caught another big Butterfly Ray, a cool Angel Shark, 26 Spotties, and 2 more keeper halibut.
Pound for Pound...one of the strongest, meanest fish you can catch inshore!!!
Butterfly Ray
The day went by really quick and before we knew it, we were on our last drift in front of the Midway for our “Sunset Spotties”.
Spotted Bay Bass
Sunset Spottie on San Diego Bay
USS MIDWAY
Our final count was:
3 Halibut
16 shorts
26 spotties (released)
7 Sculpin
10 octopus
1 Angel Shark
1 Soupfin
1 Butterfly Ray
1 Sandbass (released)
These are the days that you will always remember. I made 5 new friends and Captain Tony is an excellent addition to the crew on the Sweet Teresa. Not a bad start to our many fishing adventures to come. I didn’t think about it until later but yesterday was friday the 13th. Never under estimate the power of the “Lucky Rock”!!!
Thanks to Mike, Dan, Kris, Tony and of course Anthony, “The Bachelor”.
Our final haul of "Good Eats"
We are running daily trips.
Contact Capt Rod to get a shot at your personal best today.