2007, 2008 and the beginning of 2009 / long range fishing

2008 was not a particularly busy fishing year for me. But in October of 2007, I went on a 10 day trip on the Shogun. I hadn't seen my buddy Norm in a long time, and it would be a good chance for me to catch up with him. And catch up we did....we talked about all kinds of old memories. When he was running the original Shogun - a rocky and rolly Seaway, with his crew - Allan, Vince and Mark. I don't know what happened to Allan, but Vince went on to become a Ventura Sheriff - retired now I think. I saw Mark a few times much later - still working on the sport boats. I had been looking for a Roddy BR100 for a long time - and Mark had one. Bought it and rewrapped it. Nice rod. Anyway, the 10 day trip was mediocre at best. They had caught larger yellowfin tuna outside Magdalena Bay the past year on the 10 dayers, at about the same time of year. But this year, we must have been too early. We caught small tuna and yellowtail at the Ridge. We also fished at Alijos - for small tuna and yellows here also. The best thing to come out of this trip was my roommate Mark. He and I promised to make more trips together. We eventually planned a 15 day trip on the Red Rooster 3, leaving on 02JAN08. We took a straight shot to Clarion and fished outside for nothing. After a look around, we left for Hurricane. Slow plunker bite for 8 or 9 days. We were the second boat to get there out of 4 boats - the Royal Polaris was already there and had great fishing, almost filling the boat, the Qualifier had fished with us at Clarion and stayed a bit longer for nothing and the Independence had left a couple of days after ours and were on their way. We caught good tuna - but you had to soak your bait FOREVER. I hate soaking bait. I finally had to do it, but I hated it. Mark had done well - 3 or 4 fish really close to 200. Until the 3rd or 4th day, I had not caught anything. Finally when I made myself soak a bait - I finally started to catch fish. I did have an exciting moment though. One of the guys had caught a skipjack and hooked a larger fish. So I did the same thing - caught a skippie and started to soak it. With most of my line out - I got bit. I could not have had much more than 150 to 200 yards left on the spool. In retrospect, it was probably a good thing I didn't hook it. So the trip went - a few wahoo every day and a few tuna - for the people who soaked their bait for long periods of time. By the time we started for home - I had maybe 10 fish or so. Mark fared batter - he had at least 3 fish pushing 200 and various others. The only other thing that stands out about this trip was after we got back in. We gave the RSW fish to 4-star and the trade-for-cans to World Famous. The guy from World Famous had run out of cans and promised to send us the cans the following week. A year or more later - and we still haven't seen the cans. The next trip we have planned is a 15 dayer on the new boat - 'Intrepid'. I'll write about that after the trip.