Day 1: Zero jig strikes all day. Stopped on a kelp @ 8:00 am, wide open rat yellow tail (4-6#) for about 15 minutes. Left them biting. Boat stopped on a breezer of YFT, scratch fishing for 2-3 hrs. Bite stopped, found another breezer and again, scratch fishing till near dark. The boat landed 70+ YFT 15-25#, 3-4 BFT 25-45#, not sure how many YT were landed, I did not participate.
Day 2: Zero jig strikes all day. Spent the bulk of the day chumming breezers that would sink out and not stick. Not a single hookup. About 3 pm, "Old Glory" (who had a scratch bite going) had run out of bait and was leaving. Their captain graciously allowed Excalibur to slide in and keep Old Glory's bite going. The grade of fish was 40-50# BFT. Scratch fishing till dark. I'd guess we picked up 15 fish. Most of which took well over 30 minutes to land as it seemed to take light gear to get bit. The youngest member of our group (a 12 year old who was quite a fisherman) had a fish hanging for 1.5 hours before it came unhitched. Quite a few fish were lost due to light gear. It was a great stop provided by the captain of the Old Glory.
Excalibur: Nice boat! A/C worked well, slept cool. Big bunks. Galley was large enough to seat all 30 of us at dinner. Head/shower (2) are spacious and clean also an additional head with a urinal + handwash. Big bait tanks although I felt a few more handwells would ease crowding. The crew did a good job, the captain is a riot and should consider a career in standup comedy. Food - It was adequate but I am used to being spoiled at sea by cooks working in a tiny galley producing outstanding food. Adequate is the key word, nothing to rave about. The fishing platform is large, my only concern is the fish hold hatch covers, the got very slippery when blood soaked. Nobody fell but some type of high friction coating ought to be applied.
Conclusion: We had a great trip. My son in-laws won 1st and 3rd in the jackpot with their BFT. The son in-laws are hooked! In all, we brought home 12 YFT and 3 BFT. Plenty of fish for the next year. We had good bait. Areas fished looked like a parking lot, the whole fleet was there along with numerous private boaters. Light fluoro and small hooks got bit way more. The bite never went wide open. Although I got my BFT on 20# I switched my son in-laws to 30# fluro as they were breaking off with 20# fluoro.
Photo of son in-law with his jackpot fish.