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| Subject: Fishing with the Aluminator | |
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Author: Jim Day |
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Date Posted: 1029092714PDT |
 |  Short version: Thursday 40+ albies just short of the sixty in a couple of hours. Long Version: You know I haven't fished with Dennis in a while and I forget how fun it can be. Since I needed to install his new bait tank we planned a trip for Thursday heading out with a couple of his buddies from work. Hey: I build install and even test. How about that for customer service? Of coarse first I had to put on the bait tank so it was down to Escondito on Wednesday. The install went great. http://www.momentoffame.com/snapshot.html?id=19296 Dennis has a lot of access under the deck so attaching the mounting blocks and fitting the tank over them was no problem. I was a little concerned about his pump set up. Spidery is a apt word for it. He had some Shur flo's I've never used before and a manifold set up that rivals my friends new fuel injected Saab. I figured as long as we got water in there it would be up to the test Made Shelter by 1:00 and loaded up. These guys pack some gear. I checked the pumps and the said 3.5 GPM Hmmmmmm maybe I'm slow in math, maybe it was late but it just didn't click. I mean it sounded like a decent flow. At any rate we made the bait dock and they were full by the time we got to the right side Dennis said: "Four scoops" and the guy got to work. I've never seen so many dines come on to a boat. And that was just one side. Then he went for the pinhead chum mix. Lots-O-bait here, when he got done you could of walked on it. http://www.momentoffame.com/snapshot.html?id=19291 As we pulled a way from the dock I started working the math over in my head. 3x60 would only be 180 but that's nothing.... Well 3.5 would be..... only....... 210!!! With a pump on each side that's only 420 GPH running a 90 gallon tank. As Dr. Smith used to say: "We're Dooooooomed" Totally convinced it was all going to roll I laid down on the deck and went to sleep. What's that they say. The d@mned sleep well or is it the condemned. I'm not sure which but the next thing I knew it was gray light and we were almost to the sixty. I got up rubbed my eyes and checked the tank. Much to my surprise it was all good. Sure some bait rolled, but not much especially considering the pump flow. All I can figure was those Shur flows with their High psi rating at least were giving us a full 420 gph unlike a centrifugal pump. At any rate I was glad to see some bait in there. Dennis was determined to get to the colder water and about halfway between the 371 and sixty it dropped from 67.5 to 65.5. Personally I like 63 for albies but 65 crystal blue water looked good to me. We put out the jigs and actually managed a few minutes before they went off. Multiple right off the bat. I reached in took a full net of chovies and flung them over the side. The whole stern just exploded. I think we managed 6 bait fish that first stop. Just too fun. Fish just zigzagging back and forth slamming baits right on the surface. I've seen it that way on sport boats but never on a PBR. After a while they quit so we fired up again. We didn't even get all the jigs out before we hooked up. I'm not sure how many we caught or what the ratio of bait fish to troll fish was but I can say by 10:00 am the coolers were completely filled with bloody beheaded albacore. It was so hot I didn't even take any pictures. We just kept tossing bait and they kept coming. I took this shot during a lull when I got a drink. http://www.momentoffame.com/snapshot.html?id=19292 Not much to see just a full chest and one on the deck. Fully loaded there wasn't much point in playing with the albies. We still had plenty of bait. http://www.momentoffame.com/snapshot.html?id=19307 Now it was time to find some Bluefin. Since we didn't want any more albies so we switched to bigger jigs and trolled for a while. The problem was they just wouldn't leave us alone. Even with only the big stuff we were still hooking up. I was even hooking them up on my bigeye speedster. Tired of messing with them, we pulled the rigs and just cruised around and looked for a good bluefin paddy. No such luck. On the way in we set up an assembly line for fish cleaning. Tom would skin them on the bait tank, I'd cut them at the stern, and Steve would bag in the middle. It's always great to see how new guys react to this kind of fishing. The "New guys" just had a blast. http://www.momentoffame.com/snapshot.html?id=19293 Dennis ever watchful kept one eye on the cleaning and another eye on the horizon looking for Kelp: http://www.momentoffame.com/snapshot.html?id=19297 Didn't find a piece the whole way home. About 20 miles out we put out a spread of Marlin jigs in 68 degree water. Couldn't raise a thing. Finally just short of the point I took one last look and pulled the drains on the tank. Lots of bait still, http://www.momentoffame.com/snapshot.html?id=19294 What can I say. It was an outstanding trip. The bait tank worked out and we just had some great fishing. I always have a good time fishing with Dennis but there was something special about this one. Maybe it was watching the new guys have so much fun or maybe I just needed a break but I had a great time. Stayed over and actually overslept the cleanup this morning. Took a pic though when I got up;-)
I got up made my goodbyes and as I was headed out Dennis gave me the big "Don't let the door hit your @ss on the way out" routine. I said "Well I hope that tank makes a differnce" "You know d@mn well it will" he said. What can I say: It made my day.
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