We had a great trip planned aboard The Fury out of Dana Wharf Sportfishing, Dana Point, CA. All 27 angers arrived on time to get an update from Captain Rick. He said that the wind event from earlier in the week was over, but the fishing below the boarder we mediocre at best, and that the spots he’d like to fish at San Clemente Island looked like they were going to be closed by the Navy, so he thought our best shot at tuna would be to stay close to home and then make a decision from there depending on what we saw. The crew loaded the boat with a mix of small & large sardines and small Mackerel – Nothing cooler than a captain who get’s down from his wheelhouse to crowd and scoop the bait; that was cool to see! The decision was made to anchor up off Salt Creek and allow everyone to get some sleep before heading out to the inner banks for the gray-light bite. We were the first ones on the spots, but the morning started off slow. The skies were beautiful, and seas were calm, but the bite took a while to develop. Well after sunrise, the captain and crew started to see small spots of tuna breaking the surface with Terns marking the spots. We slid into several spots, and started to have the fish boiling around the boat. At first they were only eating the chum, but after a few frustrating stops, the fish started to cooperate. We started to catch Yellowfin tuna in the 10-30 pound range, but they were very picky eaters! It really helped to have light line (15#) tied to a 15# Flurocarbon leader, a small #4 hook and the liveliest/smallest Sardine you could catch. It also helped to change your bait every couple minutes, and to be able to get your bait away from the boat as far as possible – the fish were constantly boiling around the boat, but they rarely came to the corner and bit every bait with a hook in it. It seemed like they were being very selective at times, and after the bites died down, we found ourselves driving away from fish in hopes of finding a school that would bite better. Right at about 11, with around 15 YFT on the boat, the captain was tired of all the other boats dog piling on us, so we ventured off on our own to find schools of fish that would bite better. We drove through an amazing pod of dolphin, doing what dolphin do, and putting on a really cool show for us. Soon we found what were looking for – Tern birds dipping and diving on a school of feeding tuna. Each time we would slide into a new area of breezing fish, marked by Terns, lots of people would get hooked up. We continued to do this for the rest of the day, and by the afternoon, the YFT schools turned into Bluefin Tuna schools – not the jumbos they caught on the last trip, but fun 12-20 pound models. The bites died down at around 4:00, but Captain Rick kept moving around looking for more schools of fish. Not much was caught after that but were rewarded with a beautiful sunset, a steak dinner with all the fixings, and a calm ride back in. We were within 30 miles of Dana Point the entire day, but the fishing was great – it was really cool to be catching tuna in sight of the coast, with a great view of Catalina and San Clemente Islands with a great bunch of friends! I think we are going to try to book this trip again next year!
Neil Richey with a Horn Shark he caught while anchored up at Salt Creek.
Jackpot fish was caught by Mike Barnes – 30# YFT
We had 57 Yellowfin Tuna and 7 Bluefin Tuna for the day
Check out our Facebook page for some great videos from this trip