# Rig report last Sat/Sun (9/6-9/7)



## Meagans Choice (Oct 10, 2007)

Unfortunately, not much positive to reportfrom our last rig trip. We left out of DayBreak Marina Sat. about 2 p.m. and first tried to find some live hardtails, but no luck. Headed out to the Petronius and the water looked good, a blended blue. Caught a nice amberjack 50-60 lb range at the 255 rig and then a small blackfin near the Petronius. We fished the Petronius, Marlin, Ram-Powell, and Horn at night but they were dead. We swordfished close to Horn, but no bites. In the earlya.m. we caught a few blackfins chuncking at Horn, and saw yellowfins busting all around. We tried chuncking,poppers,and trolling, but no yellowfin bites,....ugh, frustrating. There was a charter boat nearby, "Vixen" who we saw bring in a few nice yellowfins. We tried to talk with them on the radio, but no response. I guess they did'nt want to reveal any info, but we suspected they might have been using some live bait. Welater caught some more blacfins trolling between Horn and Ram before heading back Sun. afternoon. One thing interesting we saw on two occassions while trolling, a large billfish swimming in the middle of the schools of blackfin. One time we trolled into the school, butthe billfish did'nt seem to be interested in our baits. There were also many yellowfins busting up around the Ram-Powell, but again they were'nt intersted in our baits. The weather was fantastic.Despiteno yellowfin in the boat I still had a great time, thanks to a super crew. Thanks again to Mark, Tim, Fergie, and Josh. Lesson learned, don't leave home without plenty of live hardtails!


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## captbuckhall (Oct 18, 2007)

Tom,

We were on My Dinghy, left about 11pm sat night, saw you guys out there. We managed @ 60lb yellow, missed several other bites on live, small hardtails. We spend a couple of hours sat afternoon trolling sabikis along the beach to get the small hand-sized ones...it made the difference. Managed some small yellows on jigs and a few big blacks on jigs. trolled up a dolphin on the way home....live bait made the difference for us. Good report and glad everyone had a good time. Weather was great.


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## gator7_5 (Oct 4, 2007)

Next time you see a big marlin eating BF, bridle a couple up and bump it in and out of gear just enough to keep them behind the boat. May be too irresistable for her to pass up. When there is that much forage around they'll rarley hit a trolled lure.


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## rauber (Oct 10, 2007)

thanks tom for the trip and the report. i only took some pics cause my camera broke in the night. we also caught a skipjack tuna, a kitty mitchell at mp 255 and i chaught some strange looking fish butterflyjigging while swordfishing. they looked like ribbonfish but had a little different head... my guess is some kind of snake mackerel


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## Tenderloin (Jun 26, 2008)

We saw you all out at Horn Mountain that night, we were in the catamaran and we left around midnight. Llike you we did not have any luck getting live bait. We arrived at Beer Can around 5 Sat. evening, and saw a couple yellowfin jump, but that was about it, we trolled to the marlin picking up a small dolphin about midway. Once arriving at marlin, we picked up two big blackfin the first lap around it on naked ballyhoo. We tried jigging/throwing poppers at dark, but it was dead, so we headed to horn mtn. We landed a couple blackfin and had two school sized yellowfin get bitten off, except their heads by sharks, but enough to start chunking with. We made several drifts and decided to go back to marlin to try at midnight, and chunked their till 2 with no luck, so we caught some z's, woke up and motored back to Marlin at 5:30. We doubled up on chunks right at daylight, but pulled the hook on one, and landed a nice 65 lb yellow. We made a couple more drifts and then trolled and picked up 2 more nice blackfin on naked ballyhoo, now out of ballyhoo. A school of chicken dolphin came up so we boated several of them when the blackfin started smashing a bait ball consisting of very small cigar minnows, we boated a 3 more blackfin on the popppers. After that, we trolled back to beer can with naked islanders and then to the ship north west of Beer Can trying to pick up something, but no luck. I think live bait would have allowed us to boat some more, but none to be find. Cant complain, the blackfin (8) we caught were really nice ones compared to usuall, had some chicken dolphin to fry, and a 65 lb yellowfin on top. I am done for the season, as it was not a great one for me with the water clarity, oh well, theres always next yr.


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## Dylan (Apr 15, 2008)

3 good reports in 1 thread..Well done guys


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## [email protected] (Oct 4, 2007)

man fergie you got that jigging down. nice AJ again.


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## gamccp (Oct 9, 2007)

Nice report Tom. Talk to Jimmy(Amy) about a Marlin spitting out the black fin.


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## YakAttack (Oct 8, 2007)

The water looks pretty rough out there.
Thanks for the great reports. Nice AJ!


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## Kevdog540 (Aug 7, 2008)

How are you guys rigging the hard tails? Do you slow troll or drift? Thanks


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## Captain Woody Woods (Oct 2, 2007)

Choice-



a word of advice. never drive right in the middle of tunas. be it blackfin or yellowin. this will 99% of the time drive them down and away. if you can manage to catch one of the smaller blackfins, bridle his ass up and slow troll them.



as for the busting yellowfins which were seemingly not "hungry," these tunas are definately feeding. if poppers doesnt work (and that is strange that that happened), try chunking. if still no avail, try slow-trolling hardtails. bridle-them up with floss or those new nose clips that they started making (i am sure J&M has them) if you arent good with a needle. you should have a bit more success next time.



oh and that amberjack is a pig. good work. fine eating right there


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