yft-bft-yt Excalibur 2.5 Day 8/24-8/25

[Swivelhead]

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. 

 

[NewlyMinted]

Awesome! That's a monster! good eating!

[biglakejake]

and lucky bag number 13 takes the jackpot!  bluefin will make anybody a believer in offshore.  looks like a good trip for some real quality fish.

lee

ps curious how much they charged to loin out a 40-50# tuna?

[PRDATR]

What's a breezer and what is scratch fishing?

[biglakejake]

17 hours ago, PRDATR said:

What's a breezer and what is scratch fishing?

breezer. 

scratch fishing means you always have 1 or 2 going so you can't leave but its not wide open.  plunker bite.  photo credit dar colburn and family.

[Swivelhead]

8 hours ago, biglakejake said:

and lucky bag number 13 takes the jackpot!  bluefin will make anybody a believer in offshore.  looks like a good trip for some real quality fish.

lee

ps curious how much they charged to loin out a 40-50# tuna?

We paid $7 for smaller fish and $10 for the 40-50# fish.  I've been told the crew splits the filet & galley tab also tips.  Hope this is true, when I get good service I spend accordingly.

[Swivelhead]

3 hours ago, PRDATR said:

What's a breezer and what is scratch fishing?

BigLakeJake answered perfectly.

[PRDATR]

10 hours ago, Swivelhead said:

BigLakeJake answered perfectly.

 

So breezer and scratch are the same thing?? He posted Breezer then explained scratch fishing unless the picture of fish hitting the surface was supposed to mean breezer.

[BowHuntAZ]

Did you guys make it down into Mexican waters?  We made sure our whole crew has passports in case the fishing is better down there.  Sounds like you had a good trip overall but I'm a little bummed to hear the food wasn't all that great. I've been spoiled in the past like you said with great cooks in small galleys.  We head out Friday night.  Any last minute advice?  Sounds like 20-30# fluoro with #2 or #1 hooks?  Any particular hook style seem to work better?

[biglakejake]

4 hours ago, PRDATR said:

 

So breezer and scratch are the same thing?? He posted Breezer then explained scratch fishing unless the picture of fish hitting the surface was supposed to mean breezer.

the other term for a breezer is puddlers but i hear that rarely.  he even mentions that puddlers look like a breeze on the surface

 

[biglakejake]

19 hours ago, Swivelhead said:

I've been told the crew splits the filet & galley tab also tips.  Hope this is true, when I get good service I spend accordingly.

all tips and cleaning fees(galley tab is the boats) are usually combined and divied up with the cook and hands but not the skipper or 2nd ticket.  i used to bring shirts and hats for the skippers when i worked at the gm desert proving ground-we had some great custom artwork.  jackpots i won half or all went to the deckhands.  i would always get my value back the next few times on that boat.  shirts, hats and dvd's are always welcomed by crew.

lee

[Swivelhead]

8 hours ago, BowHuntAZ said:

Did you guys make it down into Mexican waters?  We made sure our whole crew has passports in case the fishing is better down there.  Sounds like you had a good trip overall but I'm a little bummed to hear the food wasn't all that great. I've been spoiled in the past like you said with great cooks in small galleys.  We head out Friday night.  Any last minute advice?  Sounds like 20-30# fluoro with #2 or #1 hooks?  Any particular hook style seem to work better?

We went prospecting on our 2nd day into Mexican water to no avail.  Turned around and headed up to where the bulk of the fleet was.  Things change, being prepared with passports gives you options.  You will be fishing a new moon, should be good.

20 - 30# Fluoro and #1 - #2 hooks was perfect for our trip.  I used Owner flyliners.  Consider bringing some beefy gear as the captain would call out large marks deep under the boat, especially when we had the bluefin bite going.  Nobody on our trip was prepared for that type of bite.  I'd recommend bringing some squid jigs, would have been interesting to drop a live squid 300' down at night for a long soak while the filet crew was working.

 

[yotebuster]

I went out of Westport WA for albacore last weekend.  My wife booked a 6 pack day boat for family.  Everyone but my father and law and I ended up dropping out for various reasons.  We went 45 miles off shore.  First time tuna fishing and it was incredible!!!  Most fun I’ve ever had fishing!!  Sounds like it only gets better and better when you have more people on the boat.  We ended up with 27 between the two of us.  The captain actually jumped in on one bite and jackpoled one!!!  Cool to see.  Got hit on the troll within a half hour every time but had trouble keeping them up on the bait with only two fisherman.  150# of fresh albacore for us!!  I’ve never had it fresh, it’s incredible!!!   Now I know what tuna fishing is all about.  I want to get down your way and try for bluefin and yellowfin!!  

[Swivelhead]

3 minutes ago, yotebuster said:

I went out of Westport WA for albacore last weekend.  My wife booked a 6 pack day boat for family.  Everyone but my father and law and I ended up dropping out for various reasons.  We went 45 miles off shore.  First time tuna fishing and it was incredible!!!  Most fun I’ve ever had fishing!!  Sounds like it only gets better and better when you have more people on the boat.  We ended up with 27 between the two of us.  The captain actually jumped in on one bite and jackpoled one!!!  Cool to see.  Got hit on the troll within a half hour every time but had trouble keeping them up on the bait with only two fisherman.  150# of fresh albacore for us!!  I’ve never had it fresh, it’s incredible!!!   Now I know what tuna fishing is all about.  I want to get down your way and try for bluefin and yellowfin!!  

Albacore used to be the mainstay out of San Diego, no more.  Albacore seem to bypass SoCal and go to Oregon/Washington.  Lot of fun, pull hard.  What was the average size of your catch?

[trphyhntr]

22 minutes ago, yotebuster said:

I went out of Westport WA for albacore last weekend.  My wife booked a 6 pack day boat for family.  Everyone but my father and law and I ended up dropping out for various reasons.  We went 45 miles off shore.  First time tuna fishing and it was incredible!!!  Most fun I’ve ever had fishing!!  Sounds like it only gets better and better when you have more people on the boat.  We ended up with 27 between the two of us.  The captain actually jumped in on one bite and jackpoled one!!!  Cool to see.  Got hit on the troll within a half hour every time but had trouble keeping them up on the bait with only two fisherman.  150# of fresh albacore for us!!  I’ve never had it fresh, it’s incredible!!!   Now I know what tuna fishing is all about.  I want to get down your way and try for bluefin and yellowfin!!  

Jealous.