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Report for TRIP ELEVEN
10/10-12/03 - Relentless
Fall yellowtail, lings and tuna at
San Martin Island
a great end to the 2003 season
As I fastened my seat belt on the Boeing 767
pre-departure to the Island of Oahu, Hawaii, I realized that this was the first opportunity I had to relax and unwind since the return from San Martin Island on J.E.S. trip 11 in October.
My Life had just been crazed lately with business, the Bahamas wedding excursion and preempted reservations due to cost factors on charter vessels for the 2004 season had ALL been a struggle. When we finally reached our cruising altitude of 36,000 feet I started to think of the days to come…..would there continue to be a successful trips with catches like that from trip 11? Gosh, I hope so.
Trip 11 was a great success and as the 15 passengers boarded MV Relentless that Thursday in early October, skipper Joel informed me of his decision to make the 160+ mile run south to San Martin Island.
The San Diego local 1-2 day trip bite had all
but dissolved, but there were good reports of yellowfin and yellowtail coming in off the
beaches from the 160 mile zone. This late October trip had always been designed for this
location since its inception 5 years ago, so why not….!!
As we approached our destination the next morning in gray light the Island looked liked something depicted out of a mystery novel. As the sun rose to the East the fog lifted some and gave us full view of the small but rich Mexican location.
We started fishing off shore on some of the mapped structure and immediately had legal size lingcod hitting the deck. Wow, these were nice ones and great eating as well.
Some of the anglers were fly lining baits and
that’s when the first of Yellowtail struck. Unfortunately, the first one hooked by my
buddy Jeff Von Glodfelter from Vegas was eaten by a seal prior to being boated, but it
was a great start to the day a many bigger fish to come.
Joel knew that this location wasn’t going to be the stop, so he quickly got the crew and anglers prepared for fishing Ben’s Rock. This spot is great when the tide right. The waves break on a high spot off shore and suck your bait back to the ridge where predators group up on the ledge and wait for bait fish to be caught in the current. A perfect feeding environment if all the factors are right.
The instant Relentless backed down on the rock and dropped
its anchor, anglers tossed feisty 6 inch sardines, 5 inch plastic swim baits and iron
off the stern.
It only took a minute for the first of us to connect to an awaiting yellowtail. Wham, there was another bite and then another. Rods were bending 3-4 at a time as fresh baits were cast into the swell. Anglers had to be careful fighting these fish, they were tough local boyz and we were only in @ 130 feet of water with a rocky bottom. Tight drags and 30lb string was the minimum if you wanted to win the battle on these 15-25 lb class yella'.
As
we started to boat some good early scores for the day I say the Big Game backing in on
the Rock…They had seen our bent rods and
decided to take a position below us for an
opportunity at the fine yellowtail below. As the two vessels worked the area laughter
broke out between them, especially when a swell at the rock would crest and break just
starboard of the Big Game. It was beautiful to watch as we fished from the stern of our
platform we could see right down the tube of the wave as it crested off the shallows and
headed toward those fishing below…
We ended up the day with near limits on the yellowtail and set up in the kelps of San Martin fishing calico bass and bonito. Fun as it was, most of us were tired and hungry so we settled in the galley for a wonderful meal and to make plans for the next days fishing…
Reports from the Pegasus stated that there were Yellowfin at
the Colonet which was easily within reach from our current location. We could travel
during the night, set up for some rockfish in the dark and as the sun rose we could box
the area for the Tuna. With our course set, we made plans to be up early to make the
predawn passes in search of large reds and swallow water rock fish.
As
we set bait on the bottom early the next morning we immediately has a repeat of the
previous days fishing, lingcod, salmon grouper and reds. These are great for freezer
filler and always good on the grill or broiler. As we finished a great breakfast and
prepared to get started in our search for Ahi (yellowfin tuna) things changed quickly…..all
of sudden we had a number of bites from the bottom and these weren’t reds. "breezing
yellowtail" our skipper exclaimed and big ones, too. "You might want to
yo-yo the iron right now".
At that statement I dropped a Kicker 15 heavy over the side and let it sink out.....I was dying because anglers were hooking fish left and right. As my jig hit the bottom I looked over to see John Mc Farland land what I thought was a 25 pounder and saw Joel hook and hand another to Jim W.
I
took several cranks on my Shimano Trinidad and WHAM! I was on…This was a nice one
headed right for the bottom, pulling line off my spool. A few minutes later I was
successful in landing the fish and once evaluating its size decided to step up in line
class for 
the next cast.
As
the drift progressed the fish started to move up from the bottom. Some fish were being
bit bait in the middle zone and then dragging anglers around the boat a few times…Nice!
This was just great fishing and everyone was having a ball, even black diamond Sam, Bob
Eades and Bob
Nemo.
We made this drift a few more times with success and when the bite died we turned our sights on tuna and headed further off shore to locate the migrating species.
Hour, after hour we searched without prevail. The anglers had time to get their rest and were becoming restless…...I was up on the sun deck helping Joel look for anything on the horizon. About 3:00 PM I was trolling a cedar plug and bang, HOOK UP!
It had been some time and most of the anglers were in the
galley passing time watching movie. As I wound of the 50LRS, anglers ran to their rods
and tossed fresh bait on the slide… Fresh one exclaimed Rody! These were a good grade
of fresh, but what were they? As I pulled the lure back to the boat and called for a
gaff I could see that my strike was a nice Albacore, maybe in the 40 lbs class.
As
my fish hit the deck, I ran to get a new rod for bait I saw a number of anglers working
bait and bent rods. As I threw a new sardine just off the corner, Jeff yelled fresh one
and as I turned to view his expression I saw TunaQ smile with his camera and wink just
like Saint Nick.......and then Wham I was picked up once
again.
This
bite produced 9 fish to @40-45lbs and then turned to smaller Yella. As the bite slowed
we were off again, but knew this was probably it for the trip. Joel was giving us every
minute of the fall day and with time running out we passed a small paddy and slowed on
the turn to throw chum… As we passed 
and the sun hit the paddy you could see the
Yellowtail stacked up and charging the boat…. Bling, the lines of the trollers went
tight and the boat went wide on yellowtail. This was great because these were the ones
you could slam the drag on and deck in a hurry… using the surface iron as I did found
to be even more successful. Slowly the bite changed and I believe Gayle, Dave and Glenn
were on what seemed to be Yellowfin. Quickly changing to the 20lbs outfit and tossing a
small bait I confirmed my thought. Slam, I was immediately hit and this was definitely a
tuna.
As the bite died our day was over and the trip came to a close… We finished our outing with LIMITS of Yellowtail, 9 big Albacore, 20-25 Yellowfin and a lot of Rockfish…
Thanks again to the crew of the Relentless…...... You guys are great and provide a wonderful fishing experience.
As we close out another great year and look back at some memorable fishing, I must thank all of those people individuals that make it all possible. Seeker Rods, Kicker Jigs, BC Distributing, TunaQ, CTX Mortgage, Aswell Trophy, Tiburon Engineering, The owners and crew at Relentless Sportfishing and all the great anglers that have become my friends over the years…Thank you!
Jamie Spencer
Charter Master
I am pleased to announce the first two trips of the 2004 trips scheduled will be aboard the long range vessel Excel, leaving from Pt. Loma, San Diego. They are both 5 day trips, falling on 2 different areas of fishing, and different seasons. Please check the website for all the details and dates pertaining to these special charters…
Web Master's note :On this last report for 2003 working with my good friend Jamie Spencer on getting his trip report to the internet, I wanted to say a little about the report itself, and the components that have been going into them.
This was the first year of attempting to include web video using inexpensive digital gear and no post production work, and the second year for digital still photos. Jamie and I both take, review, modify and select the best still pics we have available, and sometimes it means not getting a shot of every angler, or missing some great action because somebody's head was cutoff or the image is blurred!!
We apologize in advance if we missed somebody in particular in these reports and end up with somebody else in our reports, sometimes it's unavoidable due to something else being technically hosed!! :o]
The videos at this point, have all been my fault, and I will hopefully improve both the equipment and camera technique in the coming 2004 season as we go long range with JES trips. I hope they capture some of the great fun and wonderful things we experience fishing together, at the very least, and maybe let you, the report reader, understand why we love to fish this way.
Everything else considered, I can't think of anybody else I would rather collaborate on fish reports like these than my buddy Jamie. We both get a lot of fun out of doing these. We hope y'all enjoy reading them as well.