Qualifier 105 - Trip Report July 4-9, 2008
By Dave Braun
This year's Long Range trip was a five day trip aboard the Qualifier 105 out of Point
Loma Sportfishing, San Diego, California
. A 5 day trip can target different locations and can provide
different fishing experiences. I was a late addition to the Boss Hoag /
Brawley Boys/ Open charter. I was sure glad there was an opening during
Albacore season which just is beginning to heat up.
The tackle requirements include the normal Albacore tackle but there
are times where you need to include heavier matched rod / reel outfits
for 60 lb. and 80 lb
Our trip left the dock on Friday morning July 4th, 2008. I was
pleasently suprised that there was severial open parking spots right
next to the landing. I signed in
at the Q 105 office on the second floor and got my
Boarding Card with bunk assignment. Due to increased security you need
a photo ID and / or Passport. I then loaded my gear into a Point Loma
Cart and waited for the remaining anglers to queue up for the boarding
call. We had some time to introduce ourselves to our charter
buddies. We all passed the security checkpoint and showed our
ID's to the guard. The crew members transfered our gear to the
boat and gave us directions to our staterooms. The whole process
was quite easy. The entire boat was very clean and the rooms are
quite nice. I have fished the Qualifier 105 many times before and
I have never been dissapointed. The boat is a fishermans dream come
true. It has a wide stearn, is low to the water and is very
comfortable. Rooms have individual A/C controls , TV / DVD and plenty
of storage room.
There was 24 anglers aboard our
trip. I shared a room with Mike from the Brawley boys group., the
empty bunk was used
for
storage. It seemed like most anglers were seasoned veterans to long
range fishing. This was evident by the high end tackle that was on
display. There
were many open rod holders and
empty places on the shelves for tacklebox storage.
We arrived at the bait dock and The crew took their time handling the
sardines with care. It takes more time to load the bait with only
partly filled scoop nets. It really paid off , because we had awsome
quality bait the entire trip. Capt. Joe had us in the galley
for the usual safety briefing and ship proceedures and crew
introductions. By around noon we were on our way The capt.
informed us that we were going to be
going after Albacore that were over 60 miles away . A few boats
reported fair Albacore numbers previous day but we were hoping the new
moon would help our trip. I landed one of the first few albacore on a
sardine flylined on 25 lb line with a 2/0 Gamakatsu live bait hook. We
landing only 9 Albacore in the 25lb class the first evening (partial
day) we made our way to the Yellowfin area much farther south. We
picked up a few Yellowtail on kelp patties on the way down. The second
day provided action through out the day we had many stops on Yellwotail
and a few nice Dorado (mahi mahi). The crew found a breaking school of
20 lb Yellow Fin Tuna and the fire drill was on. Many of us were hooked
up almost instantly. I pinned on a sardine
and made a good cast to the breaking fish within seconds I was bit. I
waited a few seconds in free spool before throwing the reel in gear and
setting the hook. The rod bent an the reel screemed as I shuffled tward
the stearn to keep the tuna in front of me. The crew did a great job of
keeping the tangles and lost fish to a minimum. This group of guys
worked quite well together and the few new guys were quick learners.
There are a few sayings that you hear on most boats fishing for tuna on
the drift. "No Angles - No Tangles" and "Wind in your face,
you're in the right place."
Each boat drifts a little
differently. The Qualifier 105 drifts where every fishing line
eventually winds
up in the upwind stern corner (with the wind in tour face). A cast from
the bow will give you a long soak opportunity with 105 feet of rail.
This is useful when the fish are boat shy and bite farther from the
boat. When the fish are boiling in the stern , just cast in the down
wind corner and you will need to reel in sooner if you don't get bit.
For our basic bait stick we use 7 foot or 8 foot rods with shimano
conventional reels with 25 - 30 lb Berkley Big Game line. My jig sticks
have
40lb line and I had two setup and ready to go. On the 7ft rod had a
Newell 338 with a blue / white Salas 6xjr.
and My 8ft jig stick I had a tricked out Penn 4/0 with 4 oz slider
sinker with 40 lb.flurocarbon leader. .
I had my favorite flat head chromed jet head with a green / yellow /
pink skirt on my trolling outfit for the first two days , but switched
to a "Catchy Tackle" spinning head, with Green / black skirt and got a
Yellowfin Tina and Yellowtail on the troll.
Our second day of the trip had more action farther down in the tuna
grounds, I caught 1 Dorado , 2 Yellowtail and 2 Yellowfin tuna.
Capt Joe Informed us that we would be fishing at the south end of
Cedros Island on the third day for big yellowtail. The early morning
bite showed promise. We landed a dozen or so of nice 30lb class
Yellowtail and a 38 LB Halibut. A passenger named Dino hooked up on
another nice halibut but a sea lion chompped it for a snack and left
him with only the head for a keepsake of his first Halibut. The Fog
rolled in and limited our ability to spot fish, so the Capt moved to
the south west part of Cedros Island. We spotted
hundreds of birds sitting on the water. There was huge balls of krill
and sardines all around the 5 fathom bank but no yellowtail boiling.
Later in the afternoon the entire area was boiling with activity. The
sardined began boiling on the krill and Calico Bass and Yellowtail were
boiling and the entire bird population was hovering and dive bombing
the boiling bait. What a sight to see. The trick to getting bit was to
either throw an Iron Jig on the surface or drop a sardine to the bottom
with a dropper loop rig. There were too many sardines breesing on the
surface and you chances were quite slim with a flylined bait. I got a
nice big Yellowtail on the Salas 6x jr. and one on the dropper loop. I
tried to use my trolling outfit for the dropper loop but the line was
too heave ad did not get bit until I rigged up a dropper loop on my 60
lb outfit. This consisted of a 6/0 Huyabusa ringed live bait hook tied
to a 3 foot surgons knot / double San Diego knot to the hook. with a 12
oz torpedo sinker on the tag end of the line a couple feet lower than
the hook. Tim the deckhand gave a few of us a lesson on how
to tie the double San Diego knot and now I use it instead of the
palomar knot on the dropper loop setup.
The forth day we headed back up the line to the albacore
closer to home. By 10:00 AM we were in the middle of the Purse siener
fleet there were 2 choppers and a fixed wing spotter plane. We watched
severial tuna cowboys round up tuna in pens to be dragged to
Ensenada harbor to be fattened up for market. I'm sure I would
not knowingly buy tuna raised in pens. We caught a mix of Albacore ,
yellow fin and yellowtail. We were encouraged to release any fish less
that 10 lbs. I released 6 or 7 fish on this trip as part of the code of
ethics to conserve our fishery. In the evening the extra lights were
put out to get the giant squid to float. While others went to sleep 5
of us hard core fishaholics caught 2 milk crates full of small giant
squid for bait. I rigged up a swordfish rig with a squid
pinned on a 12/0 sea deamon hook on a 6 ft 300 lb Jenkai leader with a
glow stick and a heavy sinker. I double strapped my penn 50SW to the
rail with the clicker on and fished it for a couple hours with only
getting bit by giant squid.
The last day of fishing we fished with the other long range boats
and had a good day landing severial nice Bluefin Tuna up to 40 lbs,
Albacore around 25 lb class and a mix of smaller yellowtail and
yellowfin tuna. It seemed like everyone was getting bit very well and
this was the best day of the trip.
My total was 1 bluefin tuna, 2 Albacore, 3 yellow fin tuna , 10
yellowtail and 1 dorado. I never had a diverse mix like this on any of
my many prior trips. The first place jackpot was won by Patrick Cain
with a 40 lb Blue Fin Tuna, second place was a 38 lb Yellowtail and 3rd
place was a 37.8 lb hailbut .
.
The Qualifier 105 now uses a Refrgerated salt water fish hold that
keeps you fish in 30 degrees. The fish then can be processed by 5
star fish processing comany. They pick your catch up at the dock and I
had my fish done in less than two hours and I was on my way. The
fillets were vaccum packed in meal size portions and labeled by
species. The provided 40 lbs of ice for my 100 qt cooler and I needed
my 40 Quart cooler too to hold all the processed fish. The whole
process was quick and easy from start to finish. 5 Star even called me
later that day to verify that I was satisfied
