What a trip!

I had written this about a month after the trip to reflect on this most recent long range trip. In our quest to try each long range boat at least once - we went on the Royal Star. The preparations and the amount of time we had to build up for this trip was the usual. As the departure date got closer - so increased the anticipation. A bit at a time, slowly but surely - my mind was thinking less and less about work, and more and more about the fishing. The ritual has become almost routine, except for the pre-trip dinner. Butch's Italian restaurant was being renovated - so we ended up at a Mexican place nearby. Here we were, at the Point Loma Inn in the same 'Presidential Suite'. We also bought the usual losing (mostly) lotto tickets and scratchers. But wait. This time, Mark actually has a winner - not multi millions, but $20. This must have been the sign, as this trip turned out to be absolutely the best long trip I have ever had. In many ways, this trip turned out to be the trip of my dreams. Which brings up an interesting dilemma. What the hell am I going to dream about now? For most folks that have a hobby that they are passionate about, there is a dream. A dream that motivates continuity. A dream that continues to nag you to keep going. Before I go down that path - let's start at the beginning.

For the most part - the front office ladies (not to be sexist, but fishermen are mostly men - and therefore, most of the front office contacts are women) are friendly and pleasant. Tracy was great. She assigned us what she thought was the best stateroom (which it was), and we kept in regular touch until the trip. The check-in procedure is the usual 'first-come, first-served' affair. I think all the operations would benefit from the check-in procedure we had on our last trip. Loading was preassigned according to when you signed up for the trip. There was none of the waking up at 'oh-dark-hundred' to get in front of the line. Nor was there the usual scrambling for carts. Oh well, back to what we knew to be normal. In the realm of long range boats - this was not the fanciest, nor the biggest we had seen or been on. But certainly more than adequate. As we learned from the last trip, the best trips are not necessarily made of nice check-ins, fancy food and new vessels. The best trips are made of the whole experience - from the initial contact with the front office to the loading up with fish for the drive home. It really is about all of that. I have known Randy since the days when I was fishing Bluefin at Northwest Harbor/San Clemente Island in the early to mid 80's on the Toronado out of Queen's Wharf in Long Beach. We were certainly not that well acquainted at the time - but we were there at the same time. Nothing against his partner - but I had thought if I ever went fishing on the Star - I wanted to fish with Randy. So we selected one that he was going to run. The preliminaries were the usual and the food was good. There were other boats ahead of us that made the decision for a starting location easier - not that there is all that many choices anyway. Hurricane Bank or the Clarion Island buffer zone. What followed was some of the most phenomenal big-fish fishing I have ever seen. I know there have been bigger numbers of deuces (200 lb tuna) caught at the lower banks on shorter trips - but I think island fishing is different. The fish just seem to be meaner at an island. I noticed the same thing with Bluefin at Catalina and San Clemente. The open water fish just did not pull as hard - nor were they as line shy as the island fish. Anyway, for the first day of fishing - I had the biggest fish, a 167 lber. Also had the biggest fish on the second day - a 240 lber. Wow! Those two days were the only ones with the biggest fish, but hey - it worked for me! There is a story behind the 240 lber. I had started to really like using the Accurate 30 with 130 lb. Compared to the 50's, the rig was so much lighter and easier to use - and it was just fine for the 167 lber and some others. Well, this fish turned out to be the meanest big fish I hooked this trip - or any other trip I have been on. Not the biggest, but hands-down the meanest. Just a few hours before I hooked this fish, Paul (one of the deckhands) and I were talking about the finer points of catching big fish. We both agreed that throwing a rod over with a backup was not an option. We would just lock the drag and see what happens. If the line breaks - well, too bad. So I hook this fish sometime mid-morning. It took off as usual - perhaps a bit slower than usual. About 50 yards into my spool, it paused, shook his head and took off at much faster pace. Now I usually fish a pretty tight drag - and this really was no exception. But this thing just kept going. It could not have been much longer than a couple of minutes at most - I was down to 20 yards of line. The crew was already there with the backup and into the water goes my rig. Huh? I was NEVER going to throw my rig over. So much for that idea. This fish took another couple of hundred yards off the backup and finally stopped. Slowly I start putting line back on the backup. I was pretty wiped out just doing that. So here comes my rig with the buoy. Then the real work started - I had to put another 300+ yards back on the Accurate 30. What a nightmare! The whole affair took an hour and a half or more. In my fishing life, I have never had my ass kicked so bad. There was the two hour 130 lb Bigeye on 40 lb on the New Lo-An. There was the one hour 100 lb Bigeye on the BR90 on the Apollo. Yeah, they were more than a few years ago - from my 20's to my 40's. And I do remember being wiped out - but nothing like this. I literally could not and did not fish any more that day. I thought I was having some kind of heart attack or stroke or something. Interesting part was - I had this sort of elated feeling, while at the same time thinking I was going to die. Die doing something I so thoroughly enjoyed. It just doesn't get any better than that. I really thought I could have died.....and been OK with it. Admittedly, I did drink coconut juice (for potassium) and take a couple of aspirins - just in case a band-aid would work. Enough of that. I did fish a bit the next day, and was back at it pretty good the after that. In the meantime, my partner Mark had his usual 198 lb fish. I have seen Mark catch lots of 198 lb fish. If there is a 198 lb fish to be caught - you can be sure it was Mark's! In the midst of that, he hooked a nice one and got it - 252 lbs. The next day he hooked a bigger one. He must have been yanking on that fish for an hour or more. The fish initially came up tail first - which made judging the size a bit difficult. And to make it worse - the tail wrap came off and the fish took off again. In the end, the fish was just out of gaff range and took one last dive under the boat, hit the propeller and broke off. We did have a damn good look at the fish - and we were all convinced the fish was 300+. By this time, we were catching big baits (salami's - sort of an overgrown Pacific Green Mackeral) every night and getting big fish early morning and late afternoon every day. With the exception of lighter gear during the day, I was using the big rig. A Penn 80S with 200 lb and a top-shot of 200 lb. A bit cumbersome using such big gear - but let me tell you, it was sure nice when you had a fish on the other end. I hooked and got a fish just over 200 on this big gear and had this fish up in 10 minutes or so. Nice. And yes, it is a pain in the ass to cast a two to three pound bait on this big rig. But another nice thing is....I am in passenger kingdom. I can ask one of the deckhands to cast it for me! Double Nice. The day before we were to leave, I was fishing the big bait on the big gear when I got in a tangle. As I waited patiently for the crew to get the tangle out - I noticed a nice splash below one of the kites, and my line starts to take off. Put the reel in gear and gently set the hook. When I finally got out of the tangle, the work started. By the time I realized the 'invincibility' of 200 lb, I set the drag to full and even used both thumbs to put more pressure on this fish - so much for finding out what it is like to bottom out a 6465XXH. I need more stick if I am to continue fishing 200 lb on subsequent trips. Not sure how long it took - but I don't think it was much more than a half an hour - 281 lbs. I now had three big ones - two of the deuces in the RSW and decided that was good enough. We had a great morning bite on the last morning - seven fish over 200. I leisurely watched as we finished putting the fish in the refrigerated salt water (RSW) and the fish holds were now filled to capacity with over thirty (30) two hundred pound tuna. Randy decided to leave a few hours early as there was a bit of badd weather above us -and our holds were full anyway. I want to take a moment to describe the fish handling incorporated on Royal Star. During the beginning of the trip - the usual brine freeze method is used. As fish were landed, they were carefully bled, gilled and gutted and gently put in the holds. Even when the fish are gaffed and brought aboard, they were never thrown on the deck. One time I saw one of the deckhands allow a fish to drop on deck with a thud - Randy immediately came down and quickly reminded the crew to be careful with the fish. About the fourth day or so when the RSW system was started - the fish were immediately dispatched using a long wire through the spine, bled, gilled and gutted then allowed to lay on the deck for a bit to cool down. Never have I seen such attention go into the care of fish. I know some of you readers out there are thinking - 'what if the bite is full-bore and every deckhand is needed to help on deck?'. Well, when there were fish on deck there was always one deckhand taking care of the fish. Sometime you just do the right thing. The right thing in this case is assuring the best possible product for the customers at the end of the trip. Despite this set procedure - we suffered no more casualties (i.e. loss of fish) than what I would consider usual. When I used to work on the charter boats - we were always cognizant of the results of taking care of fish when they were caught - and periodic care during the day. At the end of the trip, the fish that came out of the brine/freezer - looked better than the fish we have seen come out of their RSW tanks on other boats/trips. The fish coming out of the Star's RSW tanks far surpassed any fish we had seen come off of a long trip. I think the fish processing services are fairly similar. With the exception of one trip - where the fillets were a bit thin from one of the processors, we have had great luck with the other processor. This time, we opted for the service provided by the processor newly opened by the owners of the Star and RP. The prices were competitive, and it was refreshing to see Tim and Frank both on the processing line cutting fish. You know, most of the recent trips I have been on with available RSW - it is tough to time the catching of fish with the activation of the RSW system. Almost invariably, the bite would be good right up until the RSW system was started. Catching enough fish after the RSW system is turned on had been my ultimate goal on every trip - even more than catching larger fish (all right, maybe it's a push). On a previous trip, we caught good fish right up until the RSW system was started. Then almost nothing. When we were unloading from that trip - my friend Brian gave me a fish out of their RSW system. It was in amazing condition. I thought - if I can only catch a few fish like that to take home from one of these trips.....Well, this trip more than fulfilled that wish. Mark and I had more fresh fish in fabulous condition than the last few trips put together. The fish cleaning bill could have made a nice down payment on another trip!

Perhaps given a bit more time, the desire to go on another one may start to burn. But I must admit, this last trip was the type of trip I had aspired to since I started fishing. This will be the true test of exactly how much passion I have for this type of fishing. Additionally, going on other boats will be tough knowing the fish I catch will not be the same at the end of the trip. Why is this important? With the volume of fish you can potentially catch and bring home, giving fish to your family and friends is inevitable. On shorter tripe of one day or so, most of the fish you bring home is in relatively good condition. Not all the time - but as long as you are careful to take care of your catch during the day the fish stayed reasonable - squirting seawater on your gunny sack whenever possible, keeping your bag in the shade (if, possible), gilling/bleeding your catch, etc. Besides, my oriental culture dictates that I like fish. I also like to share what I catch. If I am to share my catch, I want my catch to be of a quality I would like to receive myself. On previous long trips, going back to my first sixteen day trip in the mid-1980's, the fish were not worth cutting up to give away. The canners got everything - tuna, wahoo and assorted other fish. If you got lucky and had any time left on the trip and room in the fish holds - a short stop at Cedros or Benitos added fresh Yellowtail and maybe Rockfish to your catch - which WAS in good enough shape to take home and maybe share. But otherwise, you brought home many, many cases of canned tuna. I still remember calling my family and friends - 'Hey, I just went tuna fishing....you want some canned Tuna?'. Boy, did I get sidetracked. Anyway, suffice to say good quality fish is hard to come by on these longer trips. And the fish we got from the processors after this latest trip was of astounding quality. I would pay good money for this at any restaurant. For all intents and purposes, this is restaurant-grade fish. Hands down. Enough about the fish we came home with. There are other factors to consider. In the support of any customer dependent business, the cognizant customer considers more than just the product and brand (company) he/she is supporting. I think we should all consider what we support. Because at the end of the day, most of us are consumers who support the companies offering these products. Yes, the packaging is important, and product inside the package is important. But I think it is worth considering what goes into the final product. This Royal Star operation offers something I had thought was non-existent in the world of working on recreational fishing vessels. Health care and retirement benefits for their crew. Perhaps I am just currently ignorant and these benefits are now offered by other fishing boat owners. But I do not think so. In talking to the crew - most of the crew had been on this boat for many years and have no intention of going elsewhere. This is relatively rare for any operation - fishing or otherwise. In my meager experience in the field, the world of the 'professional deckhand' was a transient one. Going from one boat to the next was often the norm. As soon as you would hear about better 'side-money' (i.e. tips) on another boat, better food, newer boat and what have you - you would try to get a job there instead. While I know this operation is not the only one that takes care of its help - I do think it is rare. This is basically a case of the proprietors putting more back into their business. This is just plain good business. I think my partner Mark would agree that we should try other vessels we have not fished before. However, like I said before - it's going to be tough knowing what we already know.