The Starkist report… Sorry Charlie!
As I greeted Joel Ralston and the crew of the Relentless on Thursday afternoon prior to departure I heard a bit of excitement in their voices and sparkle in their eyes.
They had returned early from their last outing with "LIMITS" for the 17 angler on board (and for the previous 5 trips!!). Hopes were high as for the past several days the fleet out of San Diego sport boats filled their holds with the prized "Chicken of the Sea", Albacore tuna.
I have been here before, the anxiety, the stress… It's
fishing and it can change in a day. Hopefully it wouldn’t change on us.
As I prepared my gear, my Father-in-Law, Carlos stood taking inventory over the gear I assembled for this outing… This was his once a year trip on the water and it looked promising for a good catch and great weather.
As the rest on 
the Anglers joined me I prepared them for a potential good bite, Joel even made a wise crack that if it was anything like the day before we might even forget the rods and reels
and hand line the fish as they charge the boat! What? Hand line Albacore! We have all seen the Tribute to Tuna, but come on, he is such a kidder!
As the 17 anglers, including 3 women joined me in the galley for our brief preview and seminar we became comfortable that Joel and the other crew members really knew where the fish were… We would be in the Zone around 6:30AM and trolling the volunteer group at grey light. As I excused myself 
for the night and started down the stairs to my stateroom, I overheard the Skipper telling Dan the 2nd ticket in a humorous tone not to forget to make up hand lines during the night…Here he goes again… pulling my leg as I head for my bunk!
Rested from a great nights sleep I awoke later than usual… The ride down was smooth and quite. As I hit the deck I saw flat seas, no swell and warm, balmy temperatures. I had coffee with TunaQ and John Branum and started the trip the way we always do. Laughing and chatting with the anglers… John and I already
had out our
early morning woodies and within no time John stopped the boat with the 1st fish of the day! ALBACORE!
This stop produced several bait fish but Joel said that the bite was a bit later in the morning, so hold tight.
As we motored to a location some 80 Miles south, south west of Pt Loma, some anglers of the new J.E.S clients adjusted to the carefree atmosphere of our group. "FUN, FUN, FUN" I heard one angler state to
his wife… "That’s all we are going to have" and with that trolling team 1 stopped the boat on a triple hook up! As I pinned a bait and made my
way to the rail on the slide, crew member Larry called out the boils as the fish started to work their way up the chum
line to the boat.
"Fresh one" echoed through my ears and I was on immediately! As I followed my fish to the corner, I saw Joel man the bait tank and start chumming and I knew from experience what was about to unfold… Excitedly Joel told everyone to drop their light gear and go with the heavy gear, "This meter mark is the biggest I have seen in years".
As my fish hit the deck I cut the hook, ran to my 40 lbs 2 speed and tossed a new bait! I was on again and handed it off the newbie Ramona from Arizona…. "Here" I said, she replied that it wasn’t her rod… "Here, take it… It’s yours" I said and she then knew what the term "hook n hand" meant!
I got the picture of her afterward, but then heard a familiar statement come from Joel’s mouth! "Use the Hand lines! Wrap the cord around your wrist and collar hook a bait and put it
in the water, when the fish boils, pull hard grab low and flip the fish over the rail".
What I saw next was the most incredible sight I and several others have ever seen… A few of the of the anglers took Joel’s advice and grabbed the hand lines made of parachute cord tied to 150 lb mono and a circle hook, pinned a bait and went to the rail… As I looked over my shoulder bent on my on fish on
the 50 lb string, I saw one of the girls yanking on the cord and immediately a 20lbs + Albacore was flying over the stern rail of the Relentless to the deck…
That was it! As I turned back to the water tracking my fish I laughed, but when I looked again at the water, it was incredible…Fish were everywhere, boiling on anything that hit the water. It was Chaos!
The crew and anglers were working in perfect unison and just loving it! The excitement was incredible! I landed my next fish and just took a look around…There was TunaQ bent, New comer Glenn Sugiki slammed on the rail, Capt Nemo with a hand line, the new girls Ramona and Tammy "walking the fish" like a dog to their bags as flying long fins hit the deck beating their tails expelling adrenaline created the sounds of helicopters blades hovering overhead became the only sound you could hear on the deck.
As the bite continued the decks of the Relentless turned red and several anglers were forced to shut down for the day as for they had their "Limit"!
As I clipped off the feather of my troll stick and tied a 6/0 circle hook to the main line and hammered the drag of the Shimano 50 wide, I saw TunaQ take to his camera on the upper deck, capturing the event for our report. As my bait hit the water, 3 fish boiled the spot and I jack poled the crazed fish over the
rail. 
Turning back to my webmaster with the thumbs up I saw Barbara Cogswell leaning into the house for balance, fighting her fish and looking up from the bait tank pinning a new bait I saw her husband Dale and Wes Scott strong arm tuna on hand lines over the rail in unison. Amazing…This was the most incredible
"foamer" this Charter Master has ever seen and 
with that Joel and I decided to start the motors and pull off of the self-sacrificing school of tuna…As the Detroit’s Diesels of the Relentless pulled us away, I took an assessment of the damage…Tired anglers, dirty clothes and
hunger overtook the 18 on board. It was 11:15 AM, time for breakfast and we were done for the day.
Our afternoon idea was to motor south @ 20 miles and see if we could find some paddies for Yella’s… At 18 miles we put out the foot long feathers and artificials to see if we could raise species other than Albacore, but wouldn’t you
know it! A hooked a longfin on the Dorado colored 7" marauder!
I was done, in the next hour we had 
lunch, found a Kelp motel and landed several nice yellowtail finishing our day and adding to our incredible day on the water.
After a great stuffed pork chop dinner with all the trimmings a glass of merlot and strawberry cheesecake for dessert, I met with Joel in the wheel house a decided to go to the west, bag up for the night and relax. Tomorrow, we would explore some area that hadn’t been looked at for a while in hopes of finding
Yellowtail
under the kelp.
Day two was another beautiful day on the water with little or no swell…Lots of life in the blue, blue water with Boatmen Jellyfish and Mola everywhere. We found a lot of kelp, but there were no takers… We were still pulling the bigger jigs and still picking up a few scarce albacore… With the Holds filled with "LIMITS", we decided to make the run for home and arrived at the dock at 4:30 PM.
Thanks to the great people at Seeker Rods, Kicker Jigs, CTX Mortgage and BC Distributing we
had our fantastic prize give-way and Sir Fry lunch on our way in. Winners of Seeker blanks were Ben Cartago and John Branum, The Shimano TLD 20/40 Star reel went back to Arizona with Sol Vaita, Gene McNany got another Kicker Jig, Carlos Solimo and Glenn Sugiki won tackle boxes an TunaQ won a new manta day belt.
Big fish of the trip and Jackpot trophy went to Wes Scott
of Moorpark with a nice 30 lb. Albie, Congratulations Wes! 2nd place, day 2 JP was awarded to Glenn Sugiki of Alta Loma…for a 20-22pounder.
Again, congratulations to all of the anglers aboard the Relentless on Trip 4… You witnessed an epic event on the water… It doesn’t get better than that!
Take care and stay tuned for upcoming reports from your host and Charter Master,
Jamie Spencer
(805) 371-7315