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CharkBait Charters
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 For our
four day charter of the 2006 season we again headed towards Guadalupe
Island. There had been a bit of a hurricane the week before, so the
offshore scene had changed a bit. The island had been doing well, but
with the change in the water things had the potential for doing
getting better (hoped) or worse (dreaded thought) .
This was our fifth trip to the island on our RRIII charters, and each
was different, but very enjoyable. We again ran a limited load, with
26 folks on the boat. The RRIII again provided a great platform for
fishing, and the deckhands were super helpful. As the rip progressed,
we'd have to say it was a pick at the fishing, but fish were caught -
a lot of personal bests taken.
 We
arrived at Guadalupe in the morning and had a slow bite our first day.
The second day provided a little better fishing, though we were
visited by a pack of sealions the entire day. No great whites were
sighted, no fish given up to the "tax collector." So, the sealions had
little reason to be wary I guess. The island is a bit fickle.
Sometimes you're on, and sometimes you're snake-bit. For me, I was
snake-bit this time around. I couldn't buy a yellowfin this year. I
got one hookup, got too aggressive and didn't trust my drags to do
their thing. The fish came in easily, so I buttoned down the drag to
bring the tuna in more quickly. Wrong move. The fish then took off on
an extended run and I pulled the hook. That was my only bite in a day
and a half at the island. But, for others that wasn't the case.
Brandon Wallis was the hot stick, pulling six yellowfin, including the
jackpot winning fish at 105#.
Folks were fishing 40# with
fluorcarbon leader for the most part. Some dropped down to 30# to try
to finesse 'em, but that would definitely make the fight longer, and
add to the odds of loosing fish. This time out, the kite proved VERY
productive. It seemed that the guys on the kite stood a better than
50/50 chance of getting hooked up. Mike (from our shop) even got a
kite fish probably only 10 yards off the stern as the line was going
out. The kite was a great way to go!
We finished the trip at San
Martine Island looking for yellowtail, and even did a drift for island
halibut. Along the way we fished some kelp paddies for dorado and some
high spots for yellowtail. We also got into a bonito bite, hit up the
bottom scratchers - redfish, ling cods and whitefish. All in all, we
did okay at the island despite the conditions. Anytime you can boat 30
or more yellowfin at the island you're doing pretty well. The downside
was the offshore scene being slow and hard to find the kelp pads for
nailing dodo's. Had we done some fishing off Benitos and Cedros we
would have no doubt put more yellowtail on the boat, but that option
wouldn't have produced much size at this point, and it was even harder
going there after the hurricane. We did pretty well given the
conditions, and that's fish'n.
| DAY |
YELLOWFIN |
YELLOWTAIL |
DORADO |
HALIBUT |
| 1 |
12 |
1 |
- |
- |
| 2 |
34 |
2 |
- |
- |
| 3 |
- |
6 |
7 |
1 |
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