Sportfishing Report Volunteer Dave Klein just returned from the Sport Chalet charter on the American Angler and here is his report.

Oh what a trip this was! In fact catching wise it was the best Long Range trip I have ever been on. We plugged the boat with 2 full days left.

1) Day 1 - Arrived down at Point Loma about 6am. The American Angler loads first come first serve...so I was fearful I would be last in line again. The boat was scheduled to leave at Noon so I figured I would have a decent chance....and Indeed I landed about 15th out of 25 in the line. The Indy was in the process of unloading a massive load of fish...and I a mean massive...both the size of the piles...and the size of the fish in the piles....we had all read about the crappy weather but man did the Indy kill the fish.....we were practically drooling as the carts seemed to pass us by in an endless stream. Finally we worked out some kind of deal and got some carts from them so we could load our gear. On that note we all boarded and had cleared the lines by 9am.....3 hours earlier than the scheduled departure time. Awesome! The crew would Capt. Sam, Taro, Ray, Cameron and Jordan with Greg and Paul in the galley. Sam gave us the game plan and away we went. Good news from the wheel house...Ahead of us the Vagabond had caught some albacore and bluefin. We would be in the zone by noon!

2) Day 2 - Mostly a travel day. We had a tackle seminar and rigged our gear. Traveling in flat calm weather with tons of good food to fill our belly's. In traveling saw some good nature. Both Laytan and Black footed Albatross. Good luck omens! We messed around in the zone that the Vagabond had for 7 albacore and 14 bluefin...then it was straight for the rocks!

3) Day 3 - Arrived at the rocks around 11 am....reports were mediocre from the Star and the Vagabond so Sam bails for the Alijos Banks...another 2 hours....We were dying to fish. Hit the bank at the same time as the Star...for 2 Tan Grouper and not much else. Back to Alijos! First Chum circle and the Yellow Fin Tuna are breaking everywhere. Amazing! Boat managed 15 Yellowtail to 35#'s and 41 Yellow Fin Tuna to 63#'S. I managed what would be the second place in Jackpot on a Salas 6x Blue and White ...straight Yo Yo'ing for what I thought would be Yellowtail.

4) Day 4 - Pretty much just stayed anchored all day. The Star left but the Vagabond was still around. The fish would come in waves. It was by no means wide open or even steady. Long long soak with the short top shot of either 40# or 30# was the ticket. Sporadic Yellowtail on the Yo Yo jigs. Salas 6x'es were the best bet. 6x Jr's second best bet. Dropper loop was not really working this trip. Less than 5 caught on the entire trip. Frustrating day for me. I only got one keeper tuna...and it was the last of the day. Boat had 44 Yellowtail and 55 Yellow Fin Tuna to 106.5 #'s. Some of the heavy hitters were having great success with the tiny Avet SX's with 60# spectra and 5' floru top shots. Towards the end of the day the current got funky and the bite shut off

5) Day 5 - Started off looking like shit. Current was going opposite of the wind...meaning the current was going from stearn to bow. No fish boiling...no life....Very scary...Sam made a couple of moves....the guy is a crack up....no fish in a few mins...he is out of there....no wasting any time with him. On third move we line up and current is a little better....kind of moving perpendicular to the boat...at 8 am he says we have until 10 for things to turn around or we were out of there....oh man! I don't want to leave already. Moral was low. Then a couple of blow ups....only about 10 of us our soaking a bait...I am the lucky one and a 50# class Yellow Fin Tuna takes the bait. Everyone joins in...and it goes crazy. 5 - 10 fish going at all times....nice fish....Yellowtail to 40+ pounds and Yellow Fin Tuna to 60#'s with a nice 50# average. I quickly knock out 7 large Yellow Fin Tuna and 2 yellowtail in the high 30's. Boat ends up with 33 Yellowtail and 103 Yellow Fin Tuna and we quit fishing at 2pm and left the fish biting!

6) Day 6 - Code boats let us know where the fish are...fishing for Blue Fin Tuna and Alby's is quoted as being stupid. Ha ha! Can't wait. ETA to the zone is 1pm. Sure enough....we hit the zone and there is tonnage of fish around. First few stops are 5 - 20 fish stops on really nice Blue Fin Tuna to 50#'s and nice Fatso Albacore. 25# - 30# fluro leader is the key. Hot Hot Hot were the Megabaits. There were even better than bait on the slide. Didn't notice any particular trolling jig that worked better than others. Normal albacore size feathers and cedar plugs. About 5pm we hit the motherload....crew is screaming for the heavy gear. Everyone is bit all at the same time. Mostly were a well oiled machine thanks to our expert crew. Bluefin Tuna and mostly Albacore covered every inch of the deck. There was no time to drop the fish and kill box was quickly filled. Amazing! Sam pulled out the double trouble Kite rig and tried to bounce 2 albacore at the same time....resulted in a busted trolling rod! Ha ha! Amazing! After an hour Sam had us stop to check the fish hold space....we get the green light to kill 20 more....the fish are still there...we kill 20 more! Final tally for the day is 202 albacore and 86 Blue Fin Tuna. The boat is plugged and we leave them biting for the second time.

7) Day 7 - Head in for a relaxing night in the lee of Cedros. Most folks are packing up there rods. There are about 10 die hards that continue to fish. The calico bass fishing is epic. Were nailing them left and right on plastics. Epic! We also hooked and released around 10 yellows to 35#'s....crew was amazing on letting these big fish go while getting the jigs back and the fish never touching the deck. Sam decides to go exploring for the Albacore and Blue Fin Tuna for the next trip. It's the same as the day before....quick troll stops with 5-8 fish landed...then the evening rolled in and it was WFO on hook and release fat albacore and bluefin tuna. It was strange having a wide open bite without a fish hitting the deck. It was a crackup watching the crew hook up and land 25# Blue Fin Tuna on 15# spinner gear. We left em biting for the third and final time!

8) Day 8 - Travel day. Ended up spending the night anchored in the Lee of the Coronados for the whole night.

9) Day 9 - Unloaded the catch. Five Star was amazing for me again. 400#'s of fish processed and I was out the door by 8:30am and on the road back to the Bay Area. Jackpot

1) Joe Ferris - 106.5 Yellow Fin Tuna

2) Me - 63# Yellow Fin Tuna

3) Judge Larry Knupp with a 60# Yellow Fin Tuna