Producer 9/30

[Redjim]

Left the dock with Captain Frank in the galley and head deckhand Riley in the wheelhouse, it was his first trip at the helm. Grabbed bait and made the steam due west towards the zone. We made a feeble attempt at dropping jigs once we got to the area around 0400. Nada til greylight and then we went sniffing around with troll lines astern. A few single fish troll stops, maybe a double. Dorado....yellowfin...bluefin. I believe one or two were hooked after the boat stopped, flyline sardines. We stopped on a few decent looking kelps for zippo, back on the hunt with trollers astern. Riley comes over the speaker and says "let's wind in the trollers and give this little kelp a shot..." At this point many anglers were bummed on the slow catching, most of our fishing time was over, and we were 42 miles from Point Loma. I handed my flyline setup to my buddy Albert and wound in a troller as fast as I could. I went to stow the troller and grabbed my friend's setup for him. As I came back, he had shoulder hooked a lively dine and we traded setups. I was first in the water and within about 4 seconds had line peeling off, BITER!!!!! The boat went apesh!+, people getting hooked up and trying to stop the run->SNAP! I decked the first dorado at 5 or six pounds and got into fish killing mode. Four more dodos followed by a yellowtail for me and then something different. It's not usual when the yellowfin chase off the mahis but that's how it went. I put my first tuna with Captain Riley's assist on deck and went to grab my other flyline setup as floro was snarled, hook down in the stomach. My cut down truline d8 had my gold shimano trinidad 30 on it, braid for the most part with 150 yards of 40 pound izorline XXX mono and a 3 ft piece of 30 pound floro terminating in a #2 mutu circlehook.... Earlier I had been telling Jackson (one of the other deckhands) about a problem I had two seasons ago with my gold trinidad 20. What had happened with the 20 earlier in 2021 was this-> I had been on the Grande and hooked the first fish on the stop. Bait was decent but nothing was interested in my 30 pound floro, the only fish that were being caught were 20-40 pound bluefin so I decided to drop down to 20 pound floro. Around the boat I went and then my drag all of a sudden would only give like 8 or 10 pounds of drag(instead of the 30 that it is capable of). After an a$$ chewing from Alec and 4 trips around the vessel, he asked me what the hell was going on. Anyone else would have been told i was using 30 pound but when the skipper asks me a question, he gets the straight answer. I told him I had dropped down to 20 to get bit but that my drag had faded to about a third of where it should be and it was buttoned down. Unhappy was an understatement, he was shaking his head at my choice since he had told everyone that 30 was the lightest they should go. He followed me around for half a trip around again, leaving me to gaff a fish. He came back in 20 minutes and was giving me hell for the situation I was in. I told him that if the fish stopped coming over the rail, I would snap the line so we could collectively go find something more productive for everyone to enjoy. There were still fish snapping so he once again bailed to assist others. He returned as I had the fish at deep color but it kept trying to dive into the screws of the motor. Fishing was slowing down and he asked for the rod. I handed it off to him and 20 minutes later the one dumba$$ 80 pound fish was gaffed. Time from hookup to gaff was a bit over an hour. I learned that the stock shimano drags will cup under the pressure of heavy continous runs, greatly diminishing stopping power and need to be changed to Carbontex to alleviate that issue. Back to the present---> after telling Jackson this story of the 20 and the Grande, he told me his buddy had a 30 and had the same issue. He was just going to junk it. This story i shared with him at the beginning of the trip, and wouldn't you know it that's exactly what happened to me once I grabbed the d8/trinidad 30 combo. I had the fish to color 3 times and then within 5 ft of gaff. HOOK PULLED, deckhand Charlie took a swipe but to no avail. Damn 50 pr 60 pounder. I stowed that rig and went back to the trusted Truline 5x65 with the trinidad 20 (and carbontex drags). The bite was so hot that I cut the floro off and went straight 40 pound mono to the old trusty #2 Mustad j hook. When all was said and done I had 5 yellowfin from 25-40 pounds, 5 dorado upto 12 pounds or so and a ten pound yellowtail. Now i have to get those drags swapped out to carbontex. Tight lines and following seas!