I got out on an overnight trip with the Fishing Syndicate crew aboard the Vendetta 2 with Capt. Ray Summer. The trip departed on Saturday, September 19th, fishing on Sunday the 20th. After working on the Ocean Odyssey and getting to witness the current action (and fish a bit of it too), I was pretty confident that I’d be using the Ideal Light Line Setup that I described in my last article. As it turned out, I didn’t need to because it was so wide open it didn’t have to drop down to the light line.

The trip started off with getting really great bait. We had a tank each of sardines and anchovies. The sardines weren’t the massive saltwater trout-looking variety that we’ve seen this year when sardines have been available. They were normal 5=6″ sardines that appeared to have time to cure. Very healthy. As far as the anchovies, they weren’t the 2″ pinner choves, but the nice 3-4 inch variety that you could actually fly line. Maybe Ray has some pull with the bait dock guys, but seeing the state of the bait for our trip was very welcome and a sign of things to come.

After picking up bait, we made a quick trip (about 3 hour ride) close to where we’d be fishing the next morning. A check of my Google Maps showed we were just southwest of the of the Coronado Islands. Just before dawn, we were on the move to get to a kelp that another H&M boat had placed a beacon on and tipped Ray to its whereabouts. We setup on that kelp in the pre-dawn light. Since it was a low light scenario, I opted to start off with my 30# setup (Fishing Syndicate FSC 800M, 20-50, paired with a Trinidad 16A).

QUICK GEAR NOTE – I spool my bait setups with about 1/2 braid on the spool and then mono to top it off. I know a lot of you like going braid to a short fluoro leader, but I’ve seen a lot more people lose fish with that kind of setup, than that guy being high stick on the trip. Just saying…

Something that I observed from working on the OO was that if you want to target dorado, fish the sardine. If you want to target the yellowfin, fish the chove. I knew going in that the yellowfin tuna were on the small side, so I made a decision to target the dodos. I haven’t caught a big bull in awhile, and that’s what I hoped to do on this trip. So I tipped my 30# setup with a short fluoro leader (also 30) and a 1/0 bait hook to fish sardine.

It was wide open from the very first bait. It was so good, that after a few of my catches had swallowed my bait (forcing me to cut the line and re-tie), by the end of it I was fishing straight mono and a 2/0 circle hook. It was that good. I didn’t end up getting the big bull I wanted, but the nice female (top with Capt. Ray) was one of the bigger ones caught.

That was essentially it. I caught 2 YFT as bycatch doing what I was doing and knew I’d end up with 5 because even the newbies were jacking up the tuna on bait and colt sniper jigs. While all of this was happening, FS team member Elvis (I don’t even know his last name) was up on the bow targeting wahoo and had managed to hook up. With my big dodo tagged and dropped in the RSW, I decided to changeup and see if I could hook a hoo.

I didn’t end up hooking a hoo, but I realized after the trip I had done some things wrong after watching this video. So I would suggest you watch it too.

Thanks to Capt. Ray and his excellent crew for another memorable trip. Last year’s Coronado Island trip was a awesome as well, so Ray is really setting a high bar for these FS trips on his boat. Thanks also to Oliver Solis of Fishing Syndicate for putting together this trip and having me out.

Trip 2: Santa Monica Bay on the SS Waving

Few weeks back while I was on my Fury trip, my buddy Scott Swaving (SS Waving…get it?) fished Santa Monica Bay and scored a nice dorado. Since then, the yellowtail bite in SMB has been off the hook. All the local boats, the New Del Mar and Spitfire out of Marina del Rey, to the Native Sun out of 22nd Street in San Pedro have been whacking the yellows here. Scott has never gotten a yellow on his own boat and really wanted to get one on his new boat. I was making plans to get in on this bite by riding one of the MDR boats, so when I talked to Scott and he said he wanted to do it on his boat, we made plans to go together.

I met Scott and his other 2 buddies, Darrin and Mike, at the public launch ramp at Marina del Rey before dawn. Scott had called ahead to the bait dock and they told him they might have bait for private boaters. We were either going to pickup bait, or try to make bait with sabikis if it was unavailable. We lucked out and they had bait we could buy ($60/scoop).

We started off the day fishing nearby the oil refinery pipe off El Segundo. That’s where Scott had scored his dodo a few weeks back.

There were several skiffs out there when we got there, but we didn’t notice anyone hooking up (other than bass and bonita). We fished several drifts flylining baits for a couple short bass and a small bonita, but no sign of yellowtail. There was about an hour left of incoming tide, so we decided to make a move out to the Short Bank area and see if that’s where the action was.

We got out there and clearly this was where the action was as all the sportboats were here accompanied by a flotilla of privates. We did one half hearted drift to get a feel for which way the current was going before driving headlong into the fray and seeing if we could score our target fish. We found an opening and setup our first real drift in the new area. Scott and I both noticed that there was a lady on a private boat nearby who was full bendo off the starboard side of their boat. It definitely appeared to be a yellow based on how hard it was fighting. This area was deeper than by the pipe. Something was wonky with Scott’s transducer so we had no eyes on where the fish were. However, we both had gotten intel that this was a dropper loop/yo-yo bite. I had fished 30# flyline at the pipe, but I went 40# dropper loop here (Fishing Syndicate FSC 800H, 30-60, with a Saltiga 40 star drag). I dropped in and got hit immediately upon hitting bottom. I gave it a minute to see if my bait was still there before reeling it back. It was. Bit.

Before I had even gotten this fish into the boat, Darrin and Scott both got bit. You can see one of them bent in the far right of my pic. Darrin ended up losing his, but Scott got his fish. Boom! Mission accomplished. First yellows ever on Scott’s boat. We weren’t done though and kept fishing. It was slow though. I checked the time and saw we were past the high tide. Damn! I hope that wasn’t it. We kept at it though and the bite got going again once the water started moving after the slack tide. We found ourselves close to the Spitfire.

I heard Capt. Jeremy Maltz say over the intercom, “There’s fish all around the boat, about 100 feet down.”

“Get ready guys they’re here.” Shortly after saying that, I got bit again. This one was a bigger fish. I was glad I was fishing 40. He put up a good fight, but I got him.

Mike and Darrin both hooked up and managed to get their fish and that was pretty much it for us. It was both of their first yellows ever, so it was cool to share that experience with them. We were getting low on time and bait, so I suggested to Scott that we return back to the pipe and try a few halibut drifts before calling it a day.

I got the bite I was looking for, but despite trap rigging the bait, the fish somehow managed to not get hooked. Oh well. It was a successful day. Before going in, we approached another boat and proposed a trade. Take our remaining bait and in return, all we ask is a picture. They accepted our offer and we got the picture of all of us on the stern (above) to commemorate a special day.

It’s really good out there right now, but this season may be over as soon as we get some winter storms. Get in on it while you can. Good luck if you get out there.