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By: Sherry Ingles
LONG RANGE RESULTS!: Bob and I went fishing during August with 20 friends of the Queen of Hearts on our sixth annual long range trip, a five day trip aboard the Royal Polaris out of San Diego, from August 13 through August 18. As usual, the trip was fantastic! We had a "grand slam", catching bluefin, yellowfin, albacore, yellowtail and dorado! It was crazy; we fished every day, even the first afternoon! We started off catching literally tons of albacore (Bob and I alone had over 1,000 pounds!) and then found a couple hundred bluefin chomping. After we had loaded up on those, we headed down to Guadalupe Island (about 280 miles south of San Diego). We caught around a hundred yellowfin, most running in the 40 pound range (and I was hot, landing 8 yellowfin myself!). Later in the day we landed some "sluggo" yellowtail (40 pounds plus) at the "Big Fish" boiler near the north end of the Island. I hooked up two huge yellowtail jigging a 6 ounce chrome bar and was rocked by both of them. They are so stinking strong it's not even funny. Those fish definitely took me to school! Hope I learned something for next time. The last day we fished the kelp patties and loaded up on dorado and "cooler size" yellowtail. The highlight of the trip was one day when we stopped on what Capt. Frank said looked to be only a few fish -- but what we didn't know was that they were all huge bigeye tuna, 100 pound plus fish! |
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One was hooked on the troll and another six or so fish were immediately hooked up on the bait stop. No one was expecting these monsters, so one by one we lost fish after fish to too light of gear (most guys were using 30 pound test at that point). Then we lost the troll fish, and were down to three fish left hanging. A good hour into the fight, those of us on the bow heard the disappointing news that another one broke off on the starboard stern corner. Two fish left. The two contestants left standing were both from the Queen of Hearts gang: Mike Forgey, and, guess who, Capt. Bob (who ALWAYS, I mean ALWAYS, hooks up with a monster every year!). intent on winning. Mike had a two speed reel with 40 pound test with a harness. Unfortunately Bob was one of those using a light rod with 30 pound test on a Newell reel. By this time everyone had stopped fishing and were all watching the two guys go at it. Mike was slowly gaining on his fish, but Bob couldn't get much ground on his. Finally, after a good hour and a half fight, one monster was finally landed as Mike's fish finally circled up to the gaff. It came in at 115 pounds, the largest bigeye caught so far this year.
Now we were down to just Bob and his fish, which was still half a spool of line away from the boat. Capt. Frank fired up the engines and tried to run down the fish, but it just kept hanging strong. After battling this giant for almost two hours, and circling the boat at least half a dozen times, Bob's line gave way at the port corner and one very tired fish swam away. We never had a good look at it, but the crew said it had to be 130 pounds plus. We joke that one of the deckhands, Darril, jinxed Bob because as soon as he made a comment, Bob's line broke, which was: "Isn't that 30 pound test Izorline you're using that's rated to break at 95 pounds?!" It's like that's all the fish needed to hear! I just want to know what Bob does to hook these every year! |
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