Well, it was bound to happen sometime in this year of "different" economic opportunities. . . . . here's a ghost written report from your JES webmaster TunaQ because our esteemed CharterMaster Jamie Spencer is on his way to Palm Springs calling in a "report" and giving me details over the phone. No worries though, we got it covered! 

NO, he's not on a landlocked vacation, just a little higher education to be able to better support his CTX loan clients. 

SO, here goes nothing ( I'm glad we have a lot of pictures on this one! ).

Note the pic at right of your hosts . . . . Joel Ralston and Jamie. . . . . . yes, spirits are ALWAYS high no matter what the weather forecast is !!

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We've really had a strange year in some regards for this offshore fishing group. Sometimes the weather has been just perfect, sometimes it has just been downright ugly, but this is exactly what you can expect when a weak El Niño effect starts rearing it's head. Expect a wet winter this coming year, and for now expect just about anything offshore in the way of weather. THIS trip was one where we had a pretty mixed event, some slow fishing on day one, and a second day of great albacore catches with many limits of albacore caught.

We all met at Fisherman's Landing on Thursday 9/12 and marveled at just how few folks were there. . . . . . NOT! 

When schools are open and the crowds start dwindling away at the Big Three you might anticipate you could easily find a parking space. Wasn't gonna happen this time, and as we all gathered waiting for Skipper Joel Ralston to bring his boat Relentless back to the docks we talked about the fish counts. Catches were down some over the previous few days, wind was up again, swell was gathering, but we were all in pretty good spirits and raring to go anyway.

A quick dockside seminar to refresh memories of how to do the tuna shuffle ( more on that below ) and then the boat was cleared for boarding and we were off. 

Joel said "we go LONG!" and with that we hit the Everingham bait barge, filled the tanks with mixed 'chovies and 'dines, and headed out. Destination, about 95 miles southwest, where a new bunch of fish were waiting to be had, IF, and only IF, we all did what we had to do. No worries, we all knew what was in store.

Friday's early morning call found John Branum trolling the "morning woody" (the infamous plain-Jane cedar plug) and myself dragging a dark green and black chrome hex head at cruising speed while Joel continued to move Relentless further into the zone we were after. 

I knew there was something in that jig I had on, and shortly John called me over to my corner saying "hookup, but just pull on it, it's probably small 'cause it's not taking much drag". I proceeded to pull on a small skipjack as the boat continued at cruising speed, easily reminding myself why they are called Skip, Jack as the fish came up and bounced over the water on it's way to the boat. 

A quick release ( it came off, must have ripped it's lips off ) and we were back into the high speed troll. I'd call it the first fish of the trip. . . . but. . . . . well, you know, it never had a chance to hit the deck. Joel never even heard we were hooked up, never stopped, and it was about 30 minutes later as several anglers enjoyed breakfast that the Detroits throttled back and we heard the call for the first trolling team to get back there and get to work.

Did I mention the gathering swells ? We were in windy, snotty, 6 to 8 foot swells with 3 to 4 foot chop, and everyone carefully picked their way across the deck bouncing off objects and grabbing handholds wherever possible. This was going to be an interesting day to say the least. 

BUT, while we were in lumpy conditions, the sky was already clearing and the water was a deep purple blue. Note some of the pictures here, as this was possibly the best water we had seen all season, regardless of swell. Pristine clear water you could see down into 30 or 40 feet deep, really amazing.

NOTE: for those who need coaching on the "tuna shuffle" multiple times each day, THIS (pic at

OK. . . OK. . . end of my one allowable per season webmaster rant. . . no worries ! Most of you do really well most of the time and help each other out with big grins! :o]

The third or fourth trolling team stopped the boat and we were into a couple bait fish as well, slightly larger albacore units, and the day progressed pretty much the same way until evening. We ended the day with around 40 nice fish on board, and many bruised hips from hitting the rail in the rolling swell. This is why you do a 2 day trip, with day one over we all settled into a nice porterhouse steak dinner and retired below as Relentless moved through the night to an area closer to shore that brought some increased catches for the fleet during that day.

Saturday found us a lot nearer to shore but still more than 80 miles south of the landing, and conditions were decidedly different. 

A LOT less swell and wind, and the water had changed from pristine clean blue to kind of off-colored. . . . but we were metering some large schools of fish. It wasn't long before the first fish came aboard before we even got "off the bag" and had the trollers out. These were also bigger units, and they were hungry! Many bites were had by butthooking full size 'dines and letting them run from the boat.

At one point we were catching albies and even the occasional skipjack when we had the first for the season appearance of our mascot

This fish would be the one that told us the next trip on the following weekend could be entirely different as we approached the full moon cycle and quieting weather. This is why we plan the schedule we do, picking prime time for the best possible fishing and weekends sometimes following closely together.

Our fishing day ended shortly after 1:00 PM and the Relentless turned for home with a score of 130 albacore, half-a-dozen skipjack, 35 yellowtail taken off a couple of productive paddies and one obviously confused dorado. After many naps and showers we all gathered later that evening in the galley for the normal raffles and Jackpot trophy events.

William Thornton, Andy Holloway and Bob Eades gathered up brand new Kicker Jigs. John Adler and Kelly Moore brought away JES Jumpin' Jimmy fleece outerwear (nice stuff!). Gary Reid grabbed a Seeker CJBF65H blank, with Ron Lopinski taking a Seeker 270H blank and ol' "Hot Hand" John Branum taking home a much needed Seeker 670 blank (which will fill out his already nice collection). William Thornton took home a Progear Pacifica 3500 reel, something he will make GOOD use of on further ventures offshore soon.

The Jackpot trophy this trip went to the very worthy Jim Weyenberg for his handling on a nice 23lb albacore, Jim, on this trip, you da' MAN!!!! You showed real talent at the rail this trip, as did many others!

Apologies to anyone whose name was misspelled here, as cellular calls are sometimes less than clear!!

This was a very fun trip with some great guys, I enjoyed myself to no end both days fishing with you all in spite of the possibilities of adversity! We had rough weather the first day, but it never stopped the smiles and helpful hands, please DO all get aboard with JES again in the future!

Jamie (and I!) would like the thank the JES sponsors trips would not be possible.

The next trip, September 21st, Trip 10 for this season, leaves Fisherman's Landing THIS Friday night 9/20 at 8:30 PM. This is a sold out, one day, full moon trip targeting more offshore tuna, with more nice albacore, the

Standing in pounding out this report for your JES Sportfishing CharterMaster Jamie Spencer, this has been Al Stankewicz ( just call me TunaQ ). We'll see you all at the rail soon!!