A pair of longfins.
Name=Jeff
Date=7/5/99
Boat=Outer Limits
Area=70 miles SW of Mission Bay
Bait=Sardines, trolling feathers
Water_Temp=
Captain=Shane
Weather=Overcast
Seas=Rough
Report=Just finished up with my yearly "Fourth of July Fishing charter" aboard the Outer Limits. We left the landing around 10 pm after a spectacular fireworks show provided by Sea World. Our hopes were high for some wide-open albacore fishing as they had 100+ fish counts on this boat the last 2 days. After a brief instruction on fishing technique by capt. Shane, we loaded up with bait and headed out. There was a slight chop and wind on the way out. Hmmm. This isn't the glass-like conditions that I have been hearing in the reports for the last few days. We woke up to some bumpy seas and a nasty little wind that had a slight chill to it. From what I have seen in the past, any time there is a sudden change in the weather, the albies will stay down. I'm not saying that they won't bite in rough weather. If it stays choppy for a few days they'll get used to it and will likely go on the feed again. But if you go out in that interim point of the change in the weather, it is likely you will have a slow day. That was just our luck today but we fished on and had our first jig strike by 7 am. The typical pattern for the day was jig strikes every half hour or so with 1 or 2 (sometimes none) bait fish on each stop. Twice we had quadruple hookups and a few triples too but the albies just would not charge the boat. We ended up with 30 albacore for 20 anglers, most of which were newbie, first-time albacore fishermen. Everyone was very happy with their catch though, only three guys didn't catch anything but they all were hooked up at least once. Surprisingly 2 of the 3 who did not catch any were friends of mine who are very good anglers with lots of tuna experience. The hot shot of the group was Alan Chong who caught 4 albacore, all on bait and he took the jackpot. I took 2 albies, one of them on #15 test. Boy was I sorry!! The fish ran me all the way up to the bow for a long tussle and then back down and across the stern in what seemed like forever before deckhand Paul stuck him expertly, right in the head. The Owner Mutu light circle hook did it's job and hooked him right in the corner of the mouth, and I remembered not to swing on the fish! just put the reel in gear and start turning. When we got back to the dock, I saw that we were still one of the better boats for the day, averaging 1.5 fish per angler. I can go off into a whole other story about the Outer Limits and her crew but I'll keep it short and just say that they are the best. Period.
Rating=Good
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