Local Southern California BFT fishing / Sept - 2017

After at least a couple of years of banner fishing for crewcuts (BFT) in socal, I finally broke down and went on a 11 man charter on the MV Outrider. JimmyL and JohnK put the trip together from some of the guys that used to either work at Yo's or just hung around the shop. When I worked in the 80's, Jimmy would come in the shop often and talk fishing. He was going on a lot of long trips (16 day) on the Qualifier 105. I did not go on a long trip on it - but some one day trips. Extremely comfortable boat for shorter people like me. Kind of a wet boat as it was so low to the water - but what a comfortable fishing platform. John wrapped rods for Yo. DarrenK went too - and he also wrapped rods, repaired reels as well as worked in the shop. GeraldC used to come in the shop from time to time. He was the one that got me on the Scotia to fish with Lee Wong. Banner trips fishing Catalina - absolutely spectacular fishing. CraigS also hung out in the shop a lot. He would volunteer his time and work the counter. SteveT also would come into the shop often. JonH - his dad would come into the shop from time to time with Kobo. His dad was instrumental in getting me into party/charter boat fishing. We all converged on one of everybody's favorite places to eat and gather - Gardena Bowl. Home of the best Bacon Fried Rice in LA.(Well, some of think so anyway) I had not seen most of these guys in 20 years or more. Jeeeesus, they got old....just like me, I guess. We were a raucous crowd in there, making all kinds of noise. Then it was down to 22nd Street Landing to get on the boat. The schedule was, leave the landing around 8pm Sunday night, fish all day Monday and come back to dock on Tuesday morning. Like I said, the crewcut bite had been awesome for the last few years. There is definitely better days than others - but overall, awesome. When we woke up at 430/500am, we were in a very familiar place. A few miles off the Runway at the West end of San Clemente Island. Wow...what memories I had of fishing this area! Crewcuts no less! Another boat the Ultra was on the same schedule and had gotten there before us. The change in the pitch of the engines was Tucker (owner/Outrider) kicking the boat in the ass to get there quicker. Jacob (Ultra) was already bit. We meter around and stop - right away three (3) of us get bit. I went in with 20# gear - don't ask me why - I just did. Without much fuss - we get three crewcuts around 10/12 lbs. I thought - see that, there was a reason I went in with 20# gear. That was it for the little ones. I went back in with 20# and was sadly outgunned by fish that were all 40# plus. So much for the 20# gear. I switched over to the 40# rig.....much better. The bite was not WFO, but a nice steady pick bite. Soak your bait for 5 minutes - and you were bendo. Even with 40# gear, these fish would take a while to bring to gaff. I lost a few, but also got some too. After the first wave or two, there were yellowfin in the mix. The same size as the crewcuts - and bigger....up to 60#. By mid-morning, we were done on the crewcuts and working on the yellowfin. Good fishing! In the afternoon, Tucker announced we would now go trophy hunting at the East end. An area I had not heard of - Desperation Reef. We got there just before dark and hooked a few more of the 40/50 lb fish. About that time, Tucker announces he has bigger fish on the meter. It is just about dark - and Darren gets bit on his flatfall. While Darren is pulling on his fish, I look around the boat - and with squid lights and deck lights, we can see the surface of the water is alive with activity. As far as the light would reach - the water was full of baby sauries. And to make it even more interesting - there was squid underneath the sauries picking them off and eating them. I see now why the fish we caught were so fat. They had been feasting on the abundant forage in the area. Darren is still pulling on his fish. The fish does not spool him - but would not give him much. After over two (2) hours of going around the boat and not making much headway, the hook pulled. It was 9 or 10pm and we would start our ride in. I'll add more as I think of it - but suffice to say, this is definitely one of the better crewcut bites I have seen. As previously mentioned, I had fished for tuna around the West end of San Clemente. Those bites were never all that great - but we would invariably get a few. Also fished the same tuna at Cortez Bank. We did not have small 2 speed reels, nor did we have spectra or small circle hooks. It was straight monofilament. So many time we would fish with bigger baits and wire. Not many bites, but we would get some of the fish - 100#+. I also happened upon a good BFT bite in the 90's - straight BFT's....all 60 - 100 lb fish. We were fishing straight 50 and 60# gear with sardines. It was a good bite. I think I ended up with 8 or 9 nice fish. (no limit on these tuna at the time).