I worked this week on the Ocean Odyssey (H&M Landing, San Diego) cooking in the galley. It was my first trip working on this boat this year, so I didn’t want to show up with a bunch of fishing gear and make the wrong impression. I only brought my bedding, change of clothes, toiletries, and my galley kit (santoku knife/chopper, slicer knife, meat thermometer).

Before the trip started, I was asked if I had a valid Mexican fishing license. I took that to mean we were going to head down the coast. As expected, we ventured south, and were in the zone really quickly (less than 3 hours). Once the sun was up, I realized we were just west of the Coronado Islands, fishing the offshore tuna pens.

This area and the Cortez/Tanner Banks seem to be the two primary areas the fleet is fishing these days. If you fish the banks, make sure you bring your heaviest night jigging tuna setup. The trip before ours they went out that way and didn’t catch a bluefin tuna less than 120 lbs and up to over cow status. They lost one that was probably over 300. And a commercial boat, the Shearwater, caught a fish that was over 400 gut and gilled, so pushing 500 lbs,!!! It’s thought to be a new Southern California rod and reel record bluefin tuna.

Meanwhile, in our zone, I saw several private boats and sportfishing boats from full day to multi-day trips fishing this area. In this area, the primary target fish is yellowfin tuna, but we also caught, hooked or saw yellowtail, dorado, striped marlin, and even a wahoo!

I had just finished my breakfast service, when Capt. Rick Scott came into the galley. “I’m going to need you to come out on deck and hook and hand fish for this group.”

Don’t threaten me with a good time. Second Capt. Griffin Doye reminded me we met awhile back when he was a pinhead on the Sea Watch and I was a frequent deadhead when I had my weekly article with Bloody Decks. Before he went to sleep (after making the drive out), he told me to feel free to use his setup if I had the opportunity to fish. Well here was my opportunity. His setup was a Calstar 800XL (composite graphite and glass, rated 10-25), paired with a Trinidad 14A. He had it spooled maybe 2/3 of the way with braid (30#?), and then filled to the top with 20# mono. There was some crew tackle to use, so I tipped it with 20# Seaguar fluoro and a size 6 bait hook to match the anchovies we had.

I managed to fish four baits before Rick decided to move. My stats…4 baits, 3 bites handed off, 2 fish landed. The cook gets bit! The yellowfin bite was pretty steady all day fishing bait. There were a handful caught on sardines, but they wanted the chove. If you were careful to pick a good one, they actually took out line. Even if you didn’t immediately get bit though, soak it. The drift allowed you to get your bait away from the boat. Out of the 5 bites total I got, 3 were on the long soak.

Key takeaways from fishing this setup:

Mono is important – I know it’s popular with some, but I’m not a fan of straight braid to fluoro in a flyline bait application. You need the stretch to mitigate the pull of the fish. The bend of the rod helps, but having the mono is still needed. There was a guy who was 0 for 4 landing fish. The other deckhands were busy, and he needed help re-tying. I saw he was fishing straight braid to fluoro. I told him, “Let me put some mono line in between your braid and fluoro.” If you think that’s best, do it. I put maybe 10 yards of mono on (so he wouldn’t get the connection knot in the way of his casting), then put a 3 foot or so topshot of fluoro and terminated it with one of the hooks the crew was using. He hooked up again and ended up catching the biggest yellowfin of the day (25-30). He couldn’t thank me enough.

The Trinidad 14A is the perfect reel – I had stripped the mono off my 16A down to the braid, and filled it back up with 20#. You don’t need this much line for the size of the yellowfin tuna or dorado getting caught. Also, I think the smaller spool size is probably better for getting a cast off with just a flyline chove which is the primary bait these days and preferable to the fish even if sardine is available.

You will lose some fish – I had some tri-tips in the oven and had my sides already prepared, so I went back out on deck to fish a little more before my dinner service. I managed to hook up and there wasn’t anyone to hand off to, so I was excited to actually get to catch one myself. Lost it to a sea lion. It’s going to happen. Go heavier and you probably won’t get bit. But you’re going to have to finesse it a bit to get it in. It is what it is. Expect it to happen and just keep fishing.

What I’m bringing when I work next week

Bait rod: Fishing Syndicate 800XL with my Trinidad 14A spooled the same way

Jig rod: Fishing Syndicate 900L custom spinner with the 13 Fishing Kalon 5.0 setup I had so much fun using on my Fury trip with that Keeling 105 lure (pictured below), the little Yo Zuri popper I connected on the dodo with a couple weeks ago, and an 80g Colt Sniper (purple seems to be a popular color with the crews). There were times that boils were a little further away, and I wanted to be able to cast on it. There were also times where Rick said they were under the boat and the Sniper was the vertical jig of choice.

That’s really all you need if you’re fishing this zone right now. Of course, if your trip doesn’t stick to this gameplan you may need other gear, but that’s what I’m going with since I want to keep things minimal. Good luck if you get out there.