Calls were made out to all of the FIB’ers to bring their 20-30 and 40-50lb bait setups and be at the landing earlier than our scheduled departure of 9pm. 22 of the FIB’ers began boarding a little before 6pm. Captain Jim gave his speech and Rick Chalmers prayed us in. Once everyone boarded, Captain Jim “Rambo” (I still need to ask where he got the name Rambo) said we were heading south into Mexico. We turned left outside of the break wall, the ocean had a mild bump and south we headed. We motored all the way into gray light and put out the trollers. It wasn’t long before we found a kelp that had a beacon on it. We were greeted by a few Dorado putting on an ariel display and then the fun began. So many people hooked up at once that I couldn’t tell who landed the first fish. I think it was Rob Whittiker, but who knows because everyone was hooked up all at once. The Dorado were very small, but this was all you can eat style of catching. Drop your bait in wherever and you were bit. The bait was the best I have seen it in a while. Lively sardines that were all nice size and ready to swim. We headed back north and ended up back in US waters where we proceeded to quickly fill our bags with limits of smaller grade Dorado. We stopped on around 3 kelp patties that produced a lot of Dorado for us. Unfortunately, the rest of the day was used hunting for tuna, but it wasn’t meant to be. We rolled up on a half-eaten giant squid. The tentacles were around 8 feet long and the head was huge. You can see from the pictures that whatever feasted on it did it shortly before we came up on it. That was one of the coolest things I have seen in the ocean. We had a few blind jig strikes on Dorado and a few more stops, but the afternoon into the early evening was spent searching.
Jeff served up tasty burritos in the morning, delicious fish tacos for lunch and steak dinner to close out the evening. It was nice catching up with the FIB’ers and meeting new members like Dave Balsam. I was amazed at how well the FIB’ers handled the wide-open bite and bouncing their fish rather than having them gaffed. The crew did a great job keeping everything in order. There weren’t a lot of tangles which is a result of everyone listening to the crew. Hopefully we will get into the tuna on the next trip. I’m sure we will all remember the over abundance of US limits on smaller grade Dorado. I know I will. Thanks again to all those who came on the trip. Thank you, Floyd, for praying us out on this trip. It was great to see you out and moving around on this trip. Until next time, tight lines and safe journey on your next hunt. – God Bless, Dan Ross

Around 7:00PM Wednesday, August 9, 2023 Fib’er Members and their guests departed Seaforth Landing aboard the Cortez, for a day and one-half of fishing. There were 19 of us, plus crewmembers. The weather around the dock was calm, and not windy. It was a nice, fairly clear night.
After departing the dock, Cortez Captain Jim Hughes held a meeting in the galley, explaining the boat safety and emergency procedures. Captain Jim mentioned we would be heading to San Clemente Island. Our primary target fish would be Bluefin Tuna. We would also target Yellowtail and Dorado. The bait acquired was medium-size sardines. Captain Jim suggested initially setting up our fishing rigs with 2/o or 3/o hooks, and suggested a dropper loop, or alternate 6-10 oz. weight set up, as we would initially start fishing for deep metered blue fin tuna prior to dawn. He said we would later be surface fishing hoping to spot or meter Bluefin Tuna. We would also be kelp paddy fishing, and probably do some trolling. Trolling would be on a rotating basis, rotating four trollers every 30 minutes. After Captain Jim finished his seminar, Charter Master Bernie Clayton led the group in prayer, thanking the Lord for the opportunity to fish together and fellowship, also petitioning the Lord to guide us safely as we traveled, and that we would have enjoyable trip, and catch fish!
The ride down to the targeted fishing area was nice and smooth. There was very little wind, and a very minor swell. We started fishing in the dark, around 4:00AM. Captain Jim said the fish were being metered between 240 – 290 feet. No hook ups initially, so around 5:00AM we started looking for another fishing spot. We stopped about 5:45AM, and dropped our set ups down again, this time around 200 – 240 feet. Around 6:30AM, Fib’er Rob Whittaker had the first hook up. It was a bigger fish, and after a short fight, the fish snapped Rob’s 40lb test. Shortly after that Tom Hinmon hooked up, and landed the first fish of the trip, a nice Bluefin Tuna weighing approximately 35 lbs. Ron Withers decked the second fish, another nice similar size Bluefin Tuna. As things calmed down, the Captain decided to move on, looking for surface Bluefin. We were still on the backside of San Clemente Island. It was about 9:45AM when another school of Bluefin were spotted. Captain said this was a good volume of Bluefin. Crewman Chris started to chum. Bluefin started to boil on the chum! All of the sudden there were multiple hookups! Chaos and excitement ensued, but Fib’ers did an excellent job following their fish. A few crossed lines occurred, but the crew quickly were there to untangle crossed lines. We fished this school of Bluefin for about 90 minutes. I looked at my watch as the Captain got ready to move on, and it was 11:15AM. That was a very good stop. A good number of Bluefin Tuna were caught. Ranging from 25 – 60 lbs. Tom Hinmon and Larry Swift each caught a Yellowfin Tuna. Tom’s weighed 25 lbs, and Larry’s was slightly smaller, approximately 24lbs. Floyd Spangler’s Bluefin Tuna looked to be the biggest fish caught so far.
After moving a short distance, about 15 minutes later, another school of Bluefin were metered. Crewman Chris started to chum, and again the Bluefin started to boil on the chum. Captain said this was another good volume of Bluefin. Again, there were multiple hookups! Again, chaos and excitement ensued! The crew were untangling crossed lines. Even the Captain got into the action, and was guiding Fib’ers “over and under” lines. Captain Jim even jumped up on the bait tank, and continued chumming while the crewmen gaffed fish. The fishing was so good Captain Jim shouted out “everyone should be hooked up, if you’re not hooked up, change your bait”! We continued drifting, and fishing that school for almost 90 minutes. When we stopped fishing, Bluefin Tuna were scattered all over the deck, and Bluefin blood was everywhere. The Bluefin caught were similar in size as those caught on the earlier stop. Ed Waites decked a good-size Bluefin, and it looked like it would rival Floyd Spangler’s for the biggest fish.
It was slightly after 1:00PM, and after the crew hosed down the decks, we checked the fish count. We caught limits of Bluefin Tuna – 38 for 19 Fib’ers, and 2 Yellowfin Tuna. Captain came over the loudspeaker, and mentioned that we would begin heading South in search of Yellowtail and Dorado, as we had caught our limit of Bluefin Tuna.
We trolled and kept searching for fish, until around 4:45 where we neared a small kelp patty and a medium-sized Yellowtail was caught on the troll. As we stopped, Dan Shultis hooked up and decked a medium-sized Yellowtail (12.5 lbs.). No other fish were caught, so the Captain started moving again. About 30 minutes later we came upon another small kelp patty. A medium-sized Yellowtail was caught on the troll. The first and only Dorado was also hooked and decked. It was a very unusual Dorado catch, as the Dorado was hooked by Bernie Clayton, Dan Shultis, and Ed Waites. The 10lb Dorado swallowed Bernie’s bait & hook, was corner jaw hooked by Dan Shultis, and roof of the mouth hooked by Ed Waites. All three of the Fib’ers had been fishing next to each other on the port side, near the stern. No other fish were caught at that stop, so the Captain again moved on, in search of Yellowtail or Dorado. Captain kept trolling, but no more action occurred. Around 8:00PM, as it started to get dark, Captain Jim said we had to head for the dock.
Our final trip fish count was 38 Bluefin Tuna (limits), 2 Yellowfin Tuna, 3 Yellowtail, and 1 Dorado. Ed Waites caught the largest fish, and won the trip Jackpot with his 61.1lb Bluefin Tuna. Floyd Spangler was a close second place with his 60.5 lb. Bluefin Tuna. Tom Hinmon caught the largest Yellowfin Tuna, a 25lb’er. Dan Shultis caught the largest Yellowtail, a 12.5 lb’er. Dan Shultis, Ed Waites, and Bernie Clayton caught the only Dorado of the trip, and it weighed 10lbs.
We arrived back at the dock at 5:30AM. Before departing the boat, Crewman Noe took our group picture.
We had an excellent trip. Great fellowship, great fishing, great weather, great food, and a great Captain and crew.


Tom Hinmon caught the first fish!

Ron Withers caught the 2nd fish!

Dan Shultis landed the biggest Yellowtail.

Ed Waits won the jackpot with this 61.1# Bluefin Tuna!

Rob Whitaker landed these two nice Bluefin Tuna!

Dan Shultis, Ed Waites and Bernie Clayton landed the ONLY Dorado.
This little guy was hooked by all three anglers! AMAZING!

The plan was to fish the Cortez or Tanner Banks if the weather was good but the wind was blowing 20 knots on the banks so the plan was to fish the front side of San Clemente Island.
18 of us boarded the Fury about 7pm and we left the dock at 9pm. A hour stop at the bait barge to fill the tanks with 4-5 inch sardines. The second captain Sam gave us the safety speech and a low down of next day’s fishing.
We dropped the anchor just off the Nave base on the West end of San Clemente Island about 4am. At grey light a few started to fish with a blue/white surface iron being the hot ticket. Every cast brought back a short Calico.
We started working our way down the front side of the Island in beautiful clean blue water. Because of the bad weather on the tuna grounds we had a few boats from San Diego fishing the Island also and that helped keep the seal lions off us. Marcus the owner operator of the Fury was not happy with the current so we moved offshore for Rockfish. The wind was blowing and we had some trouble saying on the bottom but some people did get a few lingcod and nice Reds. Two huge seal lions found us and they were taking every nice fish so we went back to the Island.
Back at the Island Marcus found a little cove and dropped the anchor. Club member Junior Banda starts us off with a nice size yellowtail. Junior tags two more yellowtail before anybody else gets a yellowtail.
After a while the seals find us so we pull anchor and move on. This will be the plan for the rest of the day. We had a study pick for Calico Bass, barracuda, whitefish, sheephead and yellowtail all day. 90% of the calico and barracuda were too small to keep. The schools of yellowtail would come through and we get 2 or 3 hook ups and all the fish were 15-25 pounds.
The day ended anchored in a small cove where the crew tried to catch squid for bait while Sam cooked us a steak dinner.
Fish Count.
30 yellowtail 15-25 pounds with Jr Banda winning the JP with a 26.5 pound YT.
Val Handzus was the lady angler winner with a 16 pound YT.
25 keeper Calico, 15 keeper barracuda, 2 lingcod, 2 sheephead, 40 misc. rockfish.

The Fib’ers last 2022 charter trip was a 1.5 Day trip aboard the Voyager out of Seaforth Sportfishing. We departed Seaforth Sportfishing around 7:00PM, on Sunday, October 23, 2022. There were 15 of us, plus crewmembers. The weather around the dock was pleasant, and not too windy. It was a clear-sky night.
As we departed the dock, Charter Master Bernie Clayton led the group in prayer, thanking the Lord for the opportunity to fish together and fellowship, also petitioning the Lord to guide us safely as we traveled, and that we would have an enjoyable trip, and catch fish!
Voyager Captain Chuck mentioned we would be heading about 100 miles west, to fish the area around the Cortez Bank. Our target fish would be yellowtail, blue fin tuna, and assorted rock fish. Captain Chuck mentioned if a school of blue fin tuna tuna were spotted on his sonar in the early morning hours, he would stop, and we would fish for deep water tuna using heavy rig set ups. The bait acquired was medium -sized sardines. Captain suggested setting up our fishing rigs with, 3/o, or even 4/o hooks, or large flat-falls jigs, for deep water tuna fishing. Once we get to the targeted fishing area, Captain suggested changing to a fly line setup, as we would be surface fishing. It was recommended we us size 1, 2, or 4 hooks.
It was a long-rough ride down to the targeted fishing. The Voyager was really rocking to and fro. It was quite windy, with 4-5 foot swells. We didn’t end up stopping in the early morning for deep-water blue fin fishing. We started surface fishing around 8:45AM. Within a few minutes Val Handzus hooked up a bonito, then Tom Handzus hooked up. Tom decked the first fish, a bonito weighing about 3 pounds. Val quickly followed, decking a similar-size bonito. Daryl Evans quickly followed with a slightly larger bonito, around 4 pounds. Almost immediately, it was wide open bonito fishing for about 20 minutes.
Captain Chuck moved the boat a short distance, and as soon as we stopped to fish, the bonito hit again. Shirley Bruhl quickly decked the first fish, a bonito about 3 pounds, and immediately, again everyone started catching bonito. Rob Whittaker landed a large bonito about 8 pounds, that ended up being the largest bonito caught on this trip. Daryl Evans decided to fish the ocean bottom, and decked the first rock fish, a nice-size sheephead. We fished for only about 15 minutes, then Captain Chuck wanted to move on, and look for yellow tail or tuna.
Although the sky was clear, there still was a good swell, and the Voyager was still rocking left and right. After about 30-45 minutes of not spotting yellow tail or tuna, the Captain stopped and anchored in an area for us to fish for rock fish. Jr. Banda quickly caught the first deep-water fish on this stop, a nice-size white fish, using cut squid for bait. Shortly thereafter, Sam Camarillo brought up the first double hookup, two red rockfish. People were catching a lot of rock fish. Shirley Bruhl caught a nice sheephead, Jr. Banda brought up a good-size salmon grouper, and Daryl Evans decked a big Chucklehead, which ended up weighing 5 lbs, 13 oz, and being the biggest rockfish caught.
With a lot of various rockfish caught, Captain decided to begin looking again for yellowtail and blue fin tuna. The Captain metered yellowtail so we stopped. Robert Gist hooked up, and decked the first yellowtail, about 18 pounds. Yellowtail were starting to bite! Everyone started to hook up. The yellowtail were nice quality, 15 to 21 pounds. Ed Waites and his daughter Nicole each brought up nice size yellowtail, as did Tom and Val Handzus, Frank Sawyer, Shirley Bruhl, Tom Hinmon, Sam Camarillo, Perry Fanuef, JR Banda, Rob Whittaker, and Bernie Clayton.
Shirley Bruhl hooked up, and decked of all things, a mako shark about 4 feet long! Shirley caught the mako on a sardine using 30lb test. Crewman Travis said it weighed about 35 pounds. Val Handzus also caught, and then released, a mako shark that was about 3 feet long.
Ed Waites, using a dropper loop set up, hooked something very large. Ed battled the fish for quite a while, then the fish finally snapped his line. Shortly thereafter, same thing with Val Handzus. She hooked something very large, even using the rail to support her rod, and get leverage on the fish, but after a long fight, the fish snapped Val’s line. We were talking, and we’ll never know what Ed and Val each hooked up, but maybe a large black seabass, large white seabass, big halibut, even bigger blue fin tuna, who knows? But whatever it was, it’s still out there to be caught!
In the early afternoon, Tom Handzus caught the first blue fin tuna, about 25-30 pounds. A little later Val Handzus brought in a similar-sized blue fin tuna, that a shark ate the tail and lower portion of the fish. At lease the prime filet section was left for Val to bring home for eating.
As the afternoon wore on, the Captain again metered blue fin tuna. This would be our last stop of the trip. It was about 5PM. This time more people hooked blue fin. We were fly-lining sardines, most using 40 lb test, or 40 lb fluorocarbon topshots. Perry Finauf, Robert Gist, Sam Camarillo, JR Banda, and Bernie Clayton all decked nice blue fin. The blue fin were all similar size 42 to 51 pounds. Bernie’s blue fin ended up being the jackpot fish, weighing 50 pounds, Sam Camarillo’s blue-fin was second largest at 47 pounds.
We finished fishing around 6:45PM. Captain Chuck started the long trip for home.
Our final trip fish count was 11 bluefin tuna, 34 yellowtail, 21 bonito (plus at least 20 more released), 21 white fish, 7 salmon grouper, 5 sheephead, 5 copper, 14 rockfish (including 1 large chucklehead), 1 mako shark (plus 1 mako released), and 1 bat ray released.
We arrived back at the dock at 5:30AM. Before departing the boat, Crewman Trevor took our group picture. Although we experienced adverse weather conditions, we caught a lot of nice fish, and had a great time doing it!

FIB’ers Trip Report for Voyager Trip on September 14th, 2022
By Dan Ross
Theme of the trip: Prayer does change things!

Until next time…….. Tight Lines and may God bless you and keep you all safe!

August 10, 2022 Fib’ers Cortez 1.5 Day Trip Summary

The Fib’ers second 2022 charter trip was a 1.5 Day trip aboard the Cortez Wednesday, August 10th. We departed Seaforth Sportfishing around 7:30PM. There were 20 of us, plus crewmembers. The weather around the dock was pleasant, and not too windy. It was a clear, full moon night.
After departing the dock, Cortez Captain Jim Hughes held a meeting in the galley, explaining the boat safety and emergency procedures. Captain Jim mentioned we would be heading about 70 miles south, and fish in Mexican Waters. Our target fish would be yellowtail and dorado. Captain Jim mentioned if a school of tuna were spotted, he would stop, and we would fish for tuna. The bait acquired was large sardines. Captain Jim suggested setting up our fishing rigs with 2/o, 3/o, or even 4/o hooks, and suggested a fly line setup. He said we would be kelp paddy fishing, and trolling. Trolling would be on a rotating basis, rotating four trollers every 30 minutes. After Captain Jim finished his seminar, Charter Master Bernie Clayton led the group in prayer, thanking the Lord for the opportunity to fish together and fellowship, also petitioning the Lord to guide us safely as we traveled, and that we would have enjoyable trip, and catch fish!
The ride down to the targeted fishing area was fairly rough with the Cortez rocking to and fro. It was quite windy, with 3-4 foot swells. We started trolling around 5:30AM. Around 6:00AM a dorado hit the trolling rig. Immediately we started fishing. Tom Hinmon caught and decked the first fish, a nice dorado weighing about 10 lbs. A couple minutes later, Dave Shill decked the second fish, a dorado, similar size to Tom’s. A few other dorado (8-12 lbs) and medium size (12-16 lb) yellowtail were caught. We rotated trollers, and started trolling again. About a ½ hour later, another dorado hit the trolling rig. We started fishing, but the dorado caught on the troll by Bob Beyer was the only fish caught that stop. We started trolling again (rotated trollers), and found a nice kelp patty. As we neared the kelp patty, a dorado hit the trolling rig. This time there was some chaos. As the trolling rigs were reeled in, and we casted out, there were multiple hookups. A good number of fish were hooked and caught. We fished for about an hour. The stop yielded a good bounty of yellowtail and dorado. Shirley Bruhl caught a nice dorado that ended being the largest dorado on the trip, and weighing 14lbs. Robert Gist caught an 18lb yellowtail, that was the largest yellowtail caught on the trip. All fish were being caught on the large sardines. It was windy, and the boat was rocking back and forth, but we were catching fish!
We started trolling again, but this time we didn’t find any kelp paddies or have any jig strikes for the next three hours. With the windy conditions creating white caps, it was getting harder to see, or find, the kelp patties we hoped to fish. It was around 1:00PM when we had a trolling jig strike. A dorado was quickly decked, and we started fishing. A number of nice size (8-13lbs) dorado were caught.
Around 4PM the Captain spotted a school of Bluefin boiling. We didn’t get a jig strike, but as the boat got close to them, we tried our luck. Unfortunately, no hook ups. The school disappeared. The Captain slowed the Cortez, and we stayed in the area. A little time later, the Captain spotted the school again. We got to the school, and they were boiling again. Trolling rigs were reeled in, and we casted sardines. This time Rob Whittaker hooked up, as did Bryan Franco. Crewmember Justin casting a Popper also hooked up, and quickly handed his Bluefin off to Brian Chichi. Dan Shultis also hooked up. All four decked their tuna. Rob’s Bluefin was the Jackpot Fish, and weighed 42lbs. Bryan Franco’s Bluefin weighed 36lbs, and Brian Chichi’s Bluefin weighed 28lbs. Dan Shultis decked a yellowfin tuna that weighed 27lbs.
We started trolling again, but no more luck. It still was windy, with whitecaps, although the wind seemed not as strong as earlier. We finished fishing around 7:30PM. Captain Jim started heading North for home.
Our final trip fish count was 26 dorado, 9 yellowtail, 3 bluefin tuna, and 1 yellowfin tuna.
We arrived back at the dock at 5:30AM. Before departing the boat, Crewman Jeff took our group picture. Although we experienced adverse weather conditions, we caught some nice fish. Cortez Captain Jim Hughes, and his crew, were friendly, knowledgeable, and did an excellent job. In fact, we are planning to Charter the Cortez again next summer

The trip was GREAT! We caught 27 WSB, 3 halibut, and 11 lingcod, plus 130 quality rock fish. The fishing was GREAT but the weather not so nice. We had a rock and roll ride out to Santa Rosa Island. The crew on the Mirage stayed up most of the night catching squid and some of our brave fishing buddies helped with squid rigs.
The top gun fisherman or should I say fisherwoman was Shirley Bruhl; she caught 4 WSB, the largest was 16.4 lbs. She gave one away to an unlucky fisherman who did not catch a WSB. Dan was also so kind to give one of his hook-ups to a young man so he could land his first WSB. The whole trip was so cool everyone shared and the FIB’ers spirt of helping one another was prevalent through out the whole trip. Other proud fishermen were Adam Ho who caught the first fish, a WSB at 6:10 am. Andrew Gomez won the Jackpot with a 21lbs WSB. Ed Waites landed a 10.12 lbs. sheephead. We also had a Junior hero, Tyler Biegler, who landed a 20.2 WSB. Special Hats Off to the Mirage crew! They were excellent at keeping us in the water and fishing by tying up our terminal tackle for WSB and cod. Plus untangling the inevitable knitting parties that occur when fishing.
We celebrated Paula’s 80th birthday with cookies and a rendition of Happy Birthday that did not lack volume but maybe harmony.
Respectfully Written, Ken Kunkel