After ten days on the water I finally got my equilibrium back and I thought I would share with Fish Taco readers about my recent 10-day trip. IT WAS GREAT! I was on the Royal Polaris, a vessel aptly named as they made me feel like a queen. I had the pleasure of fishing aboard her for the second time on the ultra-limited trip in November.
I shared a ride down to San Diego
with a friend, Gene Coombs, who is also from the Bay Area. Over breakfast, (the requisite fish tacos purchased locally), we awaited the arrival of the Royal Polaris. Soon we were being greeted by the crew and welcomed aboard.
On Nov. 2nd we left the dock in San Diego
slightly ahead of schedule anticipating an action-packed 10 days at sea. My nineteen “fellow” anglers and I quickly staked out deck space for tackle boxes and rod storage. From there we scurried inside to stow additional tackle and gear in our staterooms. Most of the veteran longrangers were already matching reels to rods as we sidled up alongside the bait receiver. Throngs of sardines had their fates sealed as they were hoisted in nets and escorted to the bait wells.
While traveling the first day Billy Santiago, our skipper, gave us a seminar on the species we would be encountering. I in turn gave a short speech on the ladies room. I don’t mind sharing but considering I was on vacation my one wish was to NOT have to put the seat down. Most of the gentlemen complied.
Once trolling teams were established the rotation began with Frank Matsuhara scoring the first large wahoo. This was impressive as we were still hell-bent-for-leather to get to where we wanted to be. Elmer Hess was fortunate as well and also got a monster ‘hoo. Since wahoo are extremely fast and actually prefer high trolling speed this was a nice way to start things off. I managed to rustle up a yellowtail while we made a short stop. Several small tuna hit the deck as well.
Nov. 5th found us parked on Morgan Bank, where we started kite rotation. Gene’s roommate, Tony Garza, hooked into a nice yellowfin and started to set the “bar” for the rest of us. A few others found nice sized fish but it remained hit and miss for most of the day. Just before dusk I briefly assumed the position at one of the kites. The sun set a few minutes later and I was retired to try again first thing in the morning.
The next morning I inhaled a bowl of cereal and harnessed up in the predawn. My first rotation turned into bitter disappointment as I proceeded to stand for two hours with the rising sun beating down upon my face and neck. If not for Gene’s application of sunscreen I would have fried. Sunburn had not been in the plans to start off my 44th birthday. Since two kites were up that morning two of us shared being “skunked”. My mood deteriorated rapidly as our two replacements hooked up within 15 minutes. I feared I would soon be referred to as “Bajabitch” instead of “Bajabev”.
By lunch I had redeemed both my attitude and my expectations for the trip. While most of the guys were busy having lunch, Roy Rose had slipped a sardine off the stern. He yelled at me to come down from the bow, where I had been plugging away in hopes of a grouper. Roy
handed off a freshly hooked tuna and I proceeded to reel in what I assumed would be a yellowfin in the 20-40 pound class. After about 25 minutes of coaxing with a Penn 4/0 the fish was gaffed and boated. I started a different kind of reeling when I discovered the fish was in the 70-pound region! I couldn’t believe I had just fought my largest yellowfin to date with a single speed 4/0. Icing was added to the cake when I was informed that I had used one of Gene’s outfits to land this tuna. I told Roy
, “If I could do that with a 4/0, I could handle a kite fish with no problem”. (This may have been the moment I jinxed myself as I would later lose an estimated 100+ pound fish at the bow with less than 100 yards left to retrieve from it.) Oh well, at least I could look forward to my birthday party that evening. I rewarded myself with an icy Parrot Bay rum & coke.
That night along with a delicious chocolate cake made by the crew I was given a special keepsake photo taken earlier with my first large tuna. Gene and I dug out our duct-tape-padded wineglasses and drank a bottle of good red wine. For entertainment after dinner we watched Spike & Mike animation films. I found a few minutes to sneak out on deck and place three of my fish tags among Gene’s fish as a prank.
On the next day I got up in the dark and pitched a glow-in-the-dark Tady lure off the side and pulled up a small yellowfin with it. By dawn fishing really picked up and we rapidly went through kite rotations as the big fish inhaled the squid presented to them. The kite fish were averaging 70-90 pounds and, as we later learned at the dock, we had landed 17 fish over 100 pounds. Top honors went to Milton Stout with a 165 pound brute. My three biggest YFT’s ranged from 70 to 96 pounds.
Kelp paddy hopping was next on the agenda as we hoped to add yellowtail, dorado and more of the highly prized wahoo to our hold. Just before dark on Nov. 8th we hit a frenzied
school
of dorado . The bite was wide open and we loaded up in no time. When the frenzy was over and steam started to billow from the heads, things got pretty wild in the galley as well. We dined on sushi, seared tuna, sweet & sour pork, and chicken & peas for dinner.
Nov. 9th dawned as what was to become my favorite day. On our first paddy the dodos went nuts. It almost made the previous night’s bite pale in comparison. The plan was to thin out the dorado so we could target the wahoo last. We never did make much progress “thinning out” those dodos, but we did progress to hooking into some wahoo.
I was busy breaking in a new custom Seeker 670 equipped with a spanking new Pro Gear Wahoo Special. I had 80# Spectra with 50# Izorline and made my first cast with a wired up Demon jig (3 oz. hot smoker lure HD 8/0 in black & purple feathers). Nothing. I made my second cast and hooked a hoo off the bow. After putting him in the boat I quickly repeated the process and nailed a second. I retired the jig while moving to our third paddy and changed to a Catchy lure. That’s when I picked up hoo # 3. We moved yet again. I once again pitched the Catchy and promptly hooked up hoo # 4.
After boating my fourth hoo I took a moment to drag one around to the stern for a picture. Dharyl had just finished a group shot and I had just missed it. So I ran back up to the bow to try my luck again. But all good things must come to an end sometime. I got a little too greedy on this last cast and let it drop just a little... too... long, and finally got “hooed”.
The Wahoo Special was amazing. Later, as we readied ourselves for dinner, a couple of the guys asked if I’d be changing my name to “Wahoobev”. I said I was happy to continue with Bajabev, secretly thankful that Bajabitch hadn’t caught on (at least not in my presence).
Mother Nature rewarded us for most of the trip with nice weather and a relatively quiet ocean. However she reminded us to appreciate it all the more by blowing up for a day and a half with 14’-17’ seas and sending one rod & reel outfit to Davey Jones’ locker. I made my way (very carefully) to the wheelhouse to buy a couple of shirts. There’s only one way to get to own Royal Polaris apparel, and that’s to buy it directly on the boat.
I gave away my entire limit of dorado to the Santa Ana fire department and several friends back home, seeing as how I still had some in the freezer from my trip to Loreto last June. I gave my buddy Gene my smallest wahoo (16 pounds) and carted two home, planning to dine on one of them that evening. However, it was still frozen solid by suppertime, so my husband and I carved it into steaks using a sawsall... makes a hell of a nice electric knife! My biggest hoo was packaged along with my three largest tuna and shipped to me later. Other honorable mentions included two yellowtail, the last one caught on the final drift of the trip using a new Pro Gear Yellowtail Special, plus two beautiful and very tasty grouper.
Special thanks to Roy who thoughtfully checked my drag and, after being unable to peel off any line, looked at me and said, “You WERE planning on going home?” All and all I regard this adventure as truly the “trip of a lifetime”.