Seven Was Enough

by Bill Roecker

Art Taylor docked his Searcher at Fisherman’s Landing October 11 after a good seven-day trip to Alijos Rocks and San Pablo, where his 21 anglers caught tuna, yellowtail and an excellent bag of wahoo.

“We had a pleasant surprise this morning,” wrote Art October 9. “We woke up to a really good wahoo bite. I saw a few fish in our lights before daylight and when the sun came up it was game on. We had 33 wahoo before 7 am. We tried to get everyone up during the bite but not everyone had a chance to get a wahoo. For those passengers that were awake, they experienced wahoo fishing at its best.

“After that we tried for yellowtail and found fish on a couple different spots on the coast. We had good fishing and the majority of the fish were caught on yo-yo jigs. The yellows were 12-20 pounds so we had a great day.”

Two tuna and a wahoo shared the jackpot honors. The best tuna was an 89-pounder caught by Jim Berg on a sardine and a 3/0 Mustad hook. Jim said he fished with 40-pound Izorline and 65-pound Spectra on a Torium 30 reel and a Seeker 660 rod.

Dale Bunting of Cambria won second place for his 83-pound tuna.

A gold Raider jig accounted for a 58-pound wahoo presented at the scales by Dave Buck of Altadena, who won third place for the big ‘skin.

“We also had a good catch of dorado,” noted skipper Taylor, who was reloading Searcher for a shark trip leaving the same day.

By Bill Roecker

Art Taylor docked his Searcher September 10 after a five-day Let’s Talk Hookup/976 TUNA open charter with 20 anglers.

“It was slow at Guadalupe,” said Art, “so we went down to Benitos for yellowtail and fished offshore on the way back up.”

Bill Zemba of Castaic won first and second places for his yellowfin tuna of 35.2 and 33.2 pounds. He said they came on sardines and 3/0 ringed Mutu hooks. He fished with 50-pound Blackwater fluorocarbon and 50-pound Big Game line on a Penn Torque reel and a Calstar six and a half-foot Grafighter rod.

“It took about ten minutes on the big one,” he said. “I was lucky; I got the only two tuna we got on the boat.”

Delane Lytle of Granada Hill won third place for a 30.2-pound yellowtail. Another angler remarked that he had a yellowtail much larger than the other fish up to the boat when a white shark ate it.

Guadalupe is slowly rounding into shape, thinks Art Taylor, Searcher owner-skipper. He docked his boat at Fisherman’s Landing August 24 after a five-day trip with 17 anglers.

“Whitey’s getting his share, too,” noted Art at the scales.

George Hartlmaier of Brianhead, UT won first place for a stout 88.2-pound yellowfin. He bagged that baby with a sardine on a 2/0 Mustad hook and a 40-pound rental outfit.

“Please put in a plug for my shop,” he said. “It’s George’s Ski Shop in Brianhead.”

Tanner Huffer of San Clemente made his second lineup shot in the past few weeks. He took second place for a 62.4-pound tuna he caught on a Tady AA jig in blue and white, on 30-pound line. The young waterman is on the surf team at San Clemente High.

Damon Nahem of Islamorada, Florida, won third place for a 34.8-pound yellowtail.

By Bill Roecker

Art Taylor docked his Searcher at Fisherman’s Landing August 19 after a thee-day trip with 26 passengers. He remarked that the trip found tough fishing.

Ken Roberts of Fullerton won the jackpot for a 36-pound albacore. He found it with a sardine on a 3/0 Super Mutu hook, and used 30-pound Big Game line on a Shimano 20/40 reel and a Seeker six-foot rod.

Richard Hoagland of Newport Beach won second and third places for a 32-pound albie and a 30-pound yellowtail.

Art Taylor brought his Searcher home from Guadalupe Island after a four-day trip with 27 anglers. He docked at Pt. Loma Sportfishing, as the Royal Polaris was occupying the facilities at Fisherman’s. Chartermistress Jan Howard, a Braid rep, made several notable catches, including a yellowfin on 12-pound line and a large yellowtail on 30-pound.

“We started out on the North End near Pilot Rock,” said Jan, “and we got some big yellowtail there, and some bigger ones on the weather side not far away. We had a night bite on slabs of scad mackerel, until the boat ran out of sinkers.

“Whitey showed up,” continued Jan, “and he got a lot of the sinkers. Once he breached on somebody’s yellowtail coming to the boat.”

Gary Holpuch of Golden Shores, AZ won first place for a 40.8-pound yellowtail. He said he got it with a sardine on a 2/0 Gamakatsu hook and 50-pound P-Line. He used an Avet LX reel and a Seeker 670 rod.

Greg Locke of San Diego tied with Ron Servis of Escondido for second place. Both men had 40-pound yellowtail.

Using one of the boat’s trolling rigs, Janelle Ross of Lake Forest cranked up a giant black sea bass estimated at 200 pounds, and released it.

Slam for Youngster

“That request we made did some good, I guess, because look at our catch,” said Searcher skipper Kevin Ward at Fisherman’s Landing August 12. On his last trip, Kevin had said, “They need to stock more fish out there…”

Ward continued, “On the first morning we started a drift, and when it ended we were 12 miles away, with limits of bluefin!”

In the end, Searcher anglers managed a great three-day catch of mixed cool and warm-water species.

One angler who got ‘em all was nine-year-old Bo Thevelius of Tehachapi, who sported an array of yellowfin, albacore, bluefin, dorado and yellowtail.

“Where’s the fins for your fish?” I asked Bo.

“On my hat,” he replied.

I asked Bo if he played sports at his school, Cummings Valley Elementary.

“No,” said his mom Melissa, “but he can ride anything that moves; horses, dirt bikes, whatever.”

Bo was proud of his catch, and posed for numerous cameras.

Bryon Mathieson of Napa won first place on the trip for a 34.6-pound dorado he got with a sardine on a 2/0 Mustad hook He said he used 40-pound Stren line on a Penn 240 reel and a Calstar 700 rod.

James Wagner of Napa tied Bryon with a 34.6-pound yellowfin tuna. Dale Dowling of Vacaville took third place for a 34.4-pound yellowfin tuna.

Kevin Ward docked Searcher at Fisherman’s Landing August 9 after a three-day trip with 28 passengers.

“They need to stock more fish out there,” he joked, as he weighed the best of the catch.

Tom Meck of Buckeye, AZ won the jackpot for a 26-pound albacore. He bagged the longfin with a sardine on a 3/0 Mustad hook on 25-pound P-line. He fished with a Torium 20 reel and a Shimano seven-foot rod.

Dan Carrier of Irvine won second place for a 21.4-pound yellowtail and retired fisheries biologist Steve Crooke of Irvine won third place, for a 21.2-pound yellowtail.

Young Stick Is Hot

Tanner Huffer of San Clemente is 15 and already a waterman, on the surf team at San Clemente High. He took a ride on the Searcher with skipper Art Taylor, and came back to Fisherman’s Landing with a first-place fish.

The trip was an Izorline Open, and chartermistress Shauna Barton was aboard as a rep. She presented Tanner with the Izorline Trophy, after Searcher regular Mark Seals of Cambria made a generous offer.

The pair were tied for first place, with identical 35.2-pound albacore. “Let Tanner have it,” said Seals. “He earned it.”

Tanner said he fished a sardine on 20-pound Izorline, an Avet SX-2 reel and a Kencor seven-foot rod.

Tanner and Seals posed with Steve Kivo of Camarillo, who had the third-place fish, a 33.6-pound albacore. The albacore bit better for Searcher anglers than they have for anyone else just recently, so there may be hope yet that they’ll stick around through the fall months.

Kelp-paddy hopping anyone?

Searcher Finds Some Mossbacks

Art Taylor docked his Searcher at Fisherman’s Landing July 27 following a five-day trip that visited Cedros Island. Some big yellowtail were taken there, including the first one caught, by Joe Dunn, 88 and a San Diego icon, the former owner of the Champ.

Matt Rohrs of Placentia got first place for his personal best yellowtail, a 49.8-pounder. He said he fooled it with a Salas 7X jig in green sardine swirl color. He used Izorline XXX line on a Torium 20 reel and a Calstar 800H rod to do the job in ten minutes.

Jack Simplicio of Redondo Beach won second place for a 33.2-pound yellowtail, and Matt Gilchrist of Long Beach took third place for a 36.6-pound yellowtail. They were joined by Tyler Kimbrough with a nice dorado.