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Keith Poe wrote:

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Left out of Long beach Monday at about 2:00 PM headed for Osborne bank with a cooler full of 2 pound salt brine red dyed squid.

The weather said it was only blowing 12 knots but seemed much more as I was taking them over the windshield on the fly-bridge.

Stopped and tossed on the Grundens then proceed towards Catalina side ways from the wind about mid island.

Worked up the side of the island very close till I got to the west end.

Saw severail guys lobster fishing

The wind had calmed down some as I headed on wards.

Got to the bank and headed towards the SW corner metering across the bank.

A little further towards Nicolas there was a decent break according to Terrafin SST charts but I believe the Swords might be after the Humboldt's
that seem fond of banks where I believe Humboldt's are after the market squid.

Saw some decent marks and set up 4 Accurate 80W at just above the bottom and 250' 200' & 150' as it was a full moon and very foggy the entire trip for the most part.

Picked up a Mako that got tail wrapped in two lines. She seem very interested in the boat and Hydro glow lights. Set her free.

One good thing about the full moon Swordfishing is they are usually below 230' because the Humboldt's and other prey are usually at least that deep
as they want to stay out of the moon light. This creates an advantage to stay away from the Makos as they rarely venture below the thermocline.

Then a blue shark gets it's self hooked in the side trying to get the bait, released it. Pretty much it till first light picked up another mako on the 150' bait.
The 12/0 hook was right in the top of it's head. Did not seem deep or bother it at all so I left it in place as the release stick would not remove it.
I thought about slicing it out but figured it would be better off with the hook rather than a slice potentially allowing an infection or causing bleeding.
I ain't no brain surgeon. So if you see a mako with a really interesting hook piercing you will know how it got there.

Sent some baits down 1250' 1350' 1500' on the out riggers with 5 pounds of lead on them and one out the center of the transom.

Drifted all the way across the bank to the explosives dump all day and picked up another Mako on the sink after checking the baits.
She got it right in the side of the face infront of the gills. Released her.


Just before Tuesday night I got set up to start trolling again still in the explosives dump & set the auto pilot towards the west end of Catalina.

Set up 4 Accurate 80W at 300' 250' on the auto retrieve down riggers fully extended port & starboard spread out with the out riggers.
The deeper they are the harder it is to keep them apart.

I set the other two at 200' & 150' then tied balloons on the sending them back away from each other and the deeper down out rigger ones.

The balloons have chem. lights in side them so I can see them incase they get picked up.

At 3:00 AM all hell broke loose when I saw a large mako right behind the transom checking things out in a frenzy.

At first I thought it was cool as everything was deep out of site out of harms way WRONG all of a sudden the starboard down rigger went off dumping cable
as fast as you can imagine along with the Accurate 80W with 30 pounds of drag. I am not sure what amount of drag the down rigger is capable of but has held 2, 15 pound weights and the 2 LB of squid LP light & another 2 LB of lead. I'm guessing at least 30 LB of drag along wit the 30 LB the Accurate is set at plus the salt slicer.

The gimbal pin in the rod holder snapped as the down rigger twisted aft when the cable came to it's end digging in the gel coat.
SNAP it broke at the end knot. The ATD 80 W still screaming out rigger bouncing violently as the release clips are set tight because of all the pressure and in the moon light I get a look at this monster silhouette rocketing flipping skyward crashing down.

On the second running out of the water flipping it was free.

I was happy it was gone not my target but had a really big smile on my face from ear to ear as I felt she was saying see what you are missing.

As luck would have it some how I got the salt slicer and all the cable back still attached to the 80W as the angle of the attack did not allow for the release clip to
trip.

Set back up minus a down rigger but could have spooled up some of the spectra as the cable was wasted in knots.


I rounded the west end and rolled in to twin harbors to re fuel at 6:45 AM Wednesday morning.

Waited till 8:00 Am to refuel then ran out 1 mile and set up 2 baitomatics and two of Fred Archers Out laws with squid attached.

Set the Auto pilot for Los Angeles gate at 4 knots for an un eventful crossing as the sun was up and the wind was as well.

Trolled right in side the harbor adding a Rapalla to the mix and raised the down rigger up.

Heard the commercial halibut guys on channel 88 talking threshers.

Trolled all the way to Queens gate saw little life inside till I got to the queen marry inside the 5 knot markers.
The bait was solid with well over 100 birds crashing down.

It was now Wednesday night and I had a lot of cleaning to do and the low tide left the ramp only 1.5' deep.

Swords a big fat zero as I hear the commercials inside are having a really bad year that's why I tried out side.

The 12/0 is deadly if anything gets near it and if that does not work if I ever get near a swordfish all the gear in the water
will snare it like the sharks.

I am learning a lot every trip dialing everything in sorting different things out in different conditions trying everything different ways different ideas getting ready for a showing of swordfish as when the makos Marlin or threshers show I hope to be as ready as I can be to try my best, I think I can I think I can.

Till then I am all ways interested in what will happen next what will show up, big eye thresher thresher mako tuna marlin so much fun so much to learn and enjoy.

Purple twin fin or bust till next time your admirer an Elvis fan the one and only true King"

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Bud wrote:

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Chasing obsessions beats the hell out of catching the familiar.

Enjoy the pursuit.

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Mojomizer wrote:

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Keith been on long range trips at night we would get 2-5 lb.squids for Bluefins at night. Nothing like the bioluminescence of a live one.

40 lb. Humboldts are just terrorists on the fishing grounds.If there ever was a fisheries to exploit they would be the ones to remove from our waters. Even the suction cups have teeth. Was thinking that the deep squid jigs would verify the proper bait size and feeding depths.

Great Idea Mark

Usually those Humbolts are eating machines. I would think that they would just devour a bait in minutes.

When out in your prefered areas have you seen any Risso Dolphins or Elephant seals?????

Mark
2325 Wa Pacificskiff

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