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I just got back from an overnight that went down to Mexico about 40 miles offshore. It's the 3rd year in a row for our group of 21 that charters the same boat every year - Relentless! Aside from the great crew and solid socializing on the boat we almost hit our boat limit on yellowfin and grabbed a few bluefin. 93 tuna on the boat and a fair number of ones-that-got-away and we each got a few mako steaks to bring home. Our tuna was all between 20-30lbs with the jackpot winner pulling in a 40lbs monster. I had a 110qt igloo max in the car and opted this year to have the boat gill&gut the fish and I'll fillet and pack. The 110qt cooler held 5 gutted fish and 40lbs of ice easily. Might have been tight if I'd been lucky enough to bring home either bigger fish, or a bluefin! My trolling set-up (we didn’t snag any trolled fish this trip) was a 85lbs braid with 60lbs fluoro leader on a Squall 60LD and a 6ft heavy action Squall pole with a bunch of lures I had rigged up. Next year I’m bringing Ballyhoo for the fun of trying it. My fishing set-up was 40lbs braid with 30lbs fluoro leader and a #2 hook on a fathom 2 speed 15LD2 and 7.5ft medium action carnage II. 6 of us brought our own stuff, and everyone who rented had slightly larger reels with 25lb braid and 20 mono topshots. They were equally successful. I chose to buy the 15LD2 to have a more versatile pole for other fishing if I wanted it. (I’m also as new to fishing as I am to hunting). The trip was a weekend trip and I was working in San Diego for 3 days afterwards, so brought along my vacuum sealer, knives and snippers, and cleaning supplies. I set my hotel bathroom up as a cleaning station. triple bagged trash for the bloodline trimmings and the carcass, 20lbs ice as a platform to keep the chopping board and the tools cold as I went along. Cleaned the shower down between every fish, and kept my tools, the chopping board, and myself clean between every stage for each fish. For the vacuum bags, the closing seal was 2 seals for top half of the fish, 3 seals for the bottom half, with the belly and collars for all 5 yellowfin being consolidated into a single bag for. Saved on labelling and adding a step. Once the fish were packed up in their bags there was 2 day old 40lbs ice underneath, a towel laid down, the packs spread out evenly and more towels, another fresh 40lbs of ice on top, and finally 2 towels on the top of the ice. I've found the igloo MAX 110qt to hold temp well except at the top. In AZ and road-trips to CA the lid gets very hot and the top ice melts fast warming the top layer of food a little. The top towels eliminate that. I drove home about 3pm from CA to AZ along I8 and it was 100+ outside from east of alpine until the sun set, with the sun always shining in the rear-hatch window pounding the ice-chest. After 6 hours of driving there was very little water to drain and the fish was nice and cold. I popped the fish in the freezer and we had poke bowls for dinner last night. Great trip.. wanted to share.

Well I'm back from a quick trip over to San Diego to fish for Yellow fin. Had a pretty darn good time and caught a few fish. A friend of mine set up a private charter with a friend of his that is part owner of the Invicta out of H&M Landing. He then got a group of us together for a 2 1/2 day trip. The first morning we got into a couple of frenzies that were just absolutely crazy! By 10:30 am we had 79 fish boated. Unfortunately at this time one of the guys helping out (not a true deck hand) fell and broke his ankle so we were done for day one. By the time we got back to where we were slaying them the previous day the majority of our bait was in bad shape and we counted 35 boats in the general area. We decided to take a gamble and head out to find some areas a little less crowded. All in all it was a great trip with 140 yellow fin, 5 skip jacks, and 1 Dorado for our total count. Richard and the entire crew were great and I will definitely be returning next year.