The Albacore season started very early this year and was mixed with some excellent Paddy fishing for Yellowtail. Our first trip of the year was to the 295 bank which turned out to be a cold empty desert. Nearly all of our Albacore came on a bait stop on breezing Tuna. Everybody was hooked up and the school hung around the boat for awhile. On the way back we found two Paddies which held 10Lb yellowtail. The Albacore were small all around 10 lbs. Our next trip still in May brought limits of these smaller fish mostly on jigs and the first use of the TSmith Remarkable TunaPither (Pat. Pending). Early june brought some sloppy weather which cancelled one trip and shortened another. The second weekin July brought our first two day trip in several years. Hard to imagine a better trip. The weather on our first day and well into the night was outstanding and the fishing matched the weather. We spent the two days about 15 miles below the 295 spot along with a school of hungry Albacore and the entire San Diego fishing fleet. We arrived a bit late on Thursday but managed to put limits of Tuna on board by about 3PM. We then deployed the Sea Anchor, cleaned fish and enjoyed a truely memorable dinner by Chef Ito and the Grill team of Schenk and Lannon. Beverages were supplied by the Award Winning Firehouse Brewery. Twoday The wind changed in the early morning hours and the ride became bit uncomfortable, and pulling the Sea Anchor as the fleet decended on the area was a challange. However, the Tuna seemed to enjoy the the change in weather and challanged the fishing skills of the crew (The Tuna lost). After 3 brief stops (one a 5 rod hookup) We put 25 fish on board in a single stop. We had now put full Seabear limits of Tuna on board by 7:30 AM, The ice chests were all full and ice was running low. We decide to leave the area and go look for Yellowtail. Later when we cleaned the mornings catch we ended up with both refridgerators and two ice chests full of fillets. 60+ Tuna and about a Dozen Yellowtail to 15 lbs set a Seabear record.

Trips in late july and throughout August were often on a bumpy ocean, and the fishing was a bit of a challange and often hard work. However, Limits of Albacore and a few Yellowtail were the rule. The August 8 run was typical. The trip out to the SW wing of the Butterfly Bank felt like you were riding that bottle cork you accidently left in the clothes washer. The fish didn't seem to mind and we picked up several nice albacore in a grey light bite in this area. The bait (fresh pin heads and Sardines ) didn't help a lot but there was steady Tuna fishing all day long with a few exceptionally good Paddies out of the many explored. We kept chipping away at the Albacore all the way in to 40 miles from Point LOma and didn't realize we we had 36 fish until we started to clean fish. Overall 36 Albacore and 10 Yellowtail one to 30+ pounds.

On the bumpy ocean of mid summer alll the fish were often caught on a single stop. In the last trip in August Arno spotted a huge Paddy near the 1010 trench. The fish seemed to prefer the Seabear to the Paddy and we enjoyed a 2 hour stop for Bluefin, Yellowtail and several Albacore with at least two fish on most of the time. Bluefin Despite a GPS fix we never found the Paddy or fish in this concentration again and scratched our way back thru a bumpy sea. Overall near limits of Bluefin (~25 - a few in the 30Lb class), a dozen nice yellowtail to 25 lbs, and several Albacore. The weather turned better in September and the Alabcore size began to improve.

The Make a Wish Tuna Tournament was our second overnight trip of the year. We fished the area above the 437 (about 80 miles) and did well on larger albacore (limits),a few smaller Yellowtail, a couple of Dorado, and two big squid. The weather was outstanding. The sky was overcast with occasional rain, and the ocean was calm. We fished all day and about 6Pm cleaned fish and a school of large squid joined use for dinner. We ate another great meal prepared by Chefs Ito and Schenk. Although this turned out to be the area where the winning fish were caught we were not successful in finding the larger Bluefin. On the way back we misinterpreted the advice from the Tournament weigh in site about whither we should weigh in and just came on home. It turns out at least one of our fish (Bruce's 33 lb Albacore) would have won a prize and one of the other fish would have been close. makeawish The winning Bluefin were caught slow Trolling Mackerel near Paddies in this area.

The good weather continued into October and although the albacore counts decreased there was finally some size to the fish. Twice our most successful stops came on fast troll on the way home. october

Return to Home Page