Did a 3/4 trip with my wife's cousin. We both had hopes of catching YFT, but kept our expectations low so we wouldn't be totally disappointed if we skunked out.
Counts were low and rumors of 3-4 HR boat rides to get to the grounds tempered our excitement. We boarded with only 22.
She's looking pretty in the water. I like how it sits low in the water, already imagining swimming a surface iron ALL THE WAY to the boat. Was met with a familiar face as one of the crew members decked in the Malihini.
Man this boat is sweet! Galley was clean and relatively modern looking. Restrooms spacious! Bunks on a 3/4?!! No need to turn sideways to walk up the sides of the boat, even with someone walking past. Love all the tackle storage!! Plenty of room in the stern. And to top it all off, Taro was the captain! Dude works his butt off to get you on fish. Well on his way to being a future SD fishing legend in my book.
Spent nearly 45mins at the receivers making sure we have plenty of bait/chum. Saw these guys making bait. They were having no trouble doing that. Sometimes they had 5 macks on.
The Malihini was running a bit late. Almost 6:30a at the receivers for a 3/4 trip is late to me. Stinger was running it.
Finished up my breakfast and retired to my bunk. Life is good
Woke up and we were in the "zone" which was about 45 miles south of the Coronados. Thought it was interesting how it looked while trolling.
Well, 2hrs goes by and nada. No paddies either. Not looking good. This was the area they saw life the day before. Further south we continue on. We are now in 1 day range. Started to finally see some paddies. All dry
Finally come up to paddy holding some dorado. They continue to hold them as we couldn't get them to go. Time for a $9 burger. It was good, but not $9 good. Retired to my bunk. Sounded like there was a walrus sleeping across me. Snorts and loud exhaling! The guy was easily 100lbs over weight. I dealt with it. Got a 30min nap before we finally get word to reel in the trollers and bait up. I go with my 7'6 Teramar and a Penn Spinfisher 3500 with 30lb braid and 20lb flouro with a size 2 hook. The sardines were beautiful. There were even some baby macks mixed in. Toss in my bait and immediately hook a rat YT. It was maybe 2-3lbs. I make short work of it and the sack it goes. I always keep the first fish as it may be the only one I catch. Managed 4 more off the kelp and they were all released. Those little yellows are so fun on light tackle!! It was pandemonium for about 10mins and then we were off to the next paddy. This would be repeated 3 more times. Nothing but rats. I did switch it up and use my 4500 sized spinner and tied on a mega bait. Got 6 this way. I kept one more as it was pushing 5lbs. One of the larger models I saw.
That was all she wrote. We even went 60 miles and didn't get home until 8pm. Taro did his best. We even trolled all the way home until we hit the islands. I tip my hat to him. I have a new favorite 3/4 day boat. No pics taken of the YT, we've all seen rats before. Better than getting skunked. Season is winding down pretty quick!
