2020 Trip Reports

Trip #7 Report – 8/20 - 8/22/2020 Every fishing trip starts out with grand hopes. Whether those hopes are for a particular fish, new experience, a chance to clear your mind, the opportunity to be among friends and family, or any other hope. The experience of being on the water is unique and only really understood by the individual. These hopes are all that really matter as they are what is important and should never be taken for granted as we are fortunate enough in this life to be fishermen. (go ahead… read that again and take it in.) D.W.R.R.C Cast of Characters Luke, Ryan, & Nick Burson, Steve Sturm, Stewart Finley, Brian Upcraft, Mike Zinniker, BJ & Riley Dyer, Mike Castillo, Ed & Jake Chutney, Taylor Rodriguez, Brandon Lockwood, Mike Higa, Bill Parks, Jeffy Hinrichs, John Lenker, Hayden Claisse, Jim Bertella, Bing Metzger, and your scribe Mike Allen. T-Bird Crew Capt. Jeff, 2 nd Capt. Brian, Goofy on the grill, Cole and Rico on the deck, and helping out on the deck for the first time on the T-Bird was Leo. In true D.W.R.R.C fashion and in accordance with his Cal Ripken Jr.-esk streak (for the young guys of the club, Cal Ripken Jr. was a famous baseball player who started 2,130 games in a row), Hayden was the first of the group to arrive at the landing and secure the premier spot in line. According to our conversation he arrived around 9am complete with his strategically thought out cart of gear and a big smile on his face. It’s funny how the club members who are retired or semi-retired always seem to have an easy going s*#t eating grin on their face… One day we all should be so lucky. As Hayden waited for others to arrive, it was apparent that one thing was going to be with us for the whole trip, and that was the heat. It was muggy and somewhat nasty at the landing with many of the members taking shelter in the little shade that the landing had to offer. The good thing about the warm conditions was that it made the beverages go down pretty easily which many were actively partaking in while the occasional piece of eye candy strolled past. Gotta love Newport! Don’t get much of that at 22 nd St. (just saying) In advance of the trip, it had been announced that the club was going to be treated to a BBQ dinner prior to departure by two of the finest grill men we have, Mike C. and B.J. Everybody was told that the food would be there at 6pm and that was not a lie as the boys showed up almost spot on at 6. Who knew that BJ and Mike took punctuality so seriously? The boys started very early to smoke a couple of pork butts which their efforts paid off as the food was truly something special. Accompanying the main dish was salad, potato salad, corn bread, fresh onions, Famous Dave’s Signature Spicy Pickles, and your choice of Sweet Baby Ray’s BBQ or Sweet Golden Mustard BBQ sauce, and cookies! The group enjoyed the grub while jealous onlookers observed and inquired about the spread. The meal was truly delicious and a special THANK YOU goes out to BJ and Mike C. for their efforts and skills! With bellies full and the boat arriving at the dock it was time to hurry up and wait as the crew changed over the boat for our group and ran to get gas while after dinner drinking continued. The group boarded in an orderly fashion as rod holders, tackle boxes, coolers, and bunks all got situated and we made our way to the bait receiver. As typical with every trip that I have been on with the T-Bird this season, the bait was great! Sure some beat-up and bloodied Sardines could be found but that was certainly not the norm. Most of the baits looked like mini footballs and athletes as we untied from the receiver and listened to Goofy’s motivation safety speech as we made our way out of the harbor and set a course for the Tanner Bank. Fishing Day 1 As we made our way to the Tanner Bank the group started to get out of the rack around 6:30am, which was a much welcomed sleep-in for most of the group who are still working and accustomed to getting up much earlier. The seas were pretty lumpy as the boat rolled with the swell and we got ready to make our 1 st stop. A couple members decided that some early chum was needed to spark the bite, one was due to the always dreadful sea sickness, and the other was due to self-inflicted over serving of IPAs (yours truly!). With that behind us we made our first stop all by ourselves as Ricardo heckled us from the bait tank. First to hook up was Stewart on a Flatfall, which Ricardo had mentioned the BFT were prone to bite at this location of the bank. Stewart must have felt bad for that particular BFT and allowed it to saw him off under the boat taking with it some jewelry as a keep sake. Jim was quick to follow with our first BFT to hit the deck. Jim was using a “jig” and others landed some assorted Whitefish and Sheepshead. Steward re-tied another Flatfall on in a different color and managed to wrap that up in the prop and bust it off. It was looking like Stewart was going to have one of those trips until he was later able to redeem himself and land a BFT. Luke, being the helpful guy that he is, managed to later retrieve Stewart’s Flatfall while fishing a sinker rig, so Stewart’s luck certainly changed although his challenges are now documented forever. At this point the bite had slowed down and six BFT had hit the deck compliments of Bill, Ryan, Nick, Stewart, Mike Z, and myself. The BFT that Mike Z. caught was his first fish of the past two seasons aside from a short Calico in 2019. It is nice to see that catching BFT is a lot like riding a bike for some. As Jeff kicked on the motor, Luke did what Luke does and proceeded to hook up. I have seen this story play out several times this season. Luke is well known for soaking a bait as the boat is motoring away from a spot and has had great success utilizing this technique. I have been on three trips this season with him and I have seen him hook up when the motor gets kicked on during every trip. (not to give away any secrets) With now seven BFT in the RSW it was time to continue on and join the rest of the fleet on a high spot at the Tanner. We arrived at the high-dollar real estate portion of the Tanner Bank and joined up with about twenty boats including several from San Diego’s Long Range fleet. We saddled up alongside the Freedom, dropped the hook and started to work baits while Ricardo tossed a steady diet of Sardines. To be honest, I do not really recall who hooked up next or how long it took to start getting the Bluefin to play, but they certainly got with it. FUN is the only real word that I can use to describe the next couple of hours! For some members it was easy hookups with basically any bait that would swim. Others had to go through some soul searching and take on heavy casualties (B.J) but in the end all managed to get the experience of pulling on the 25-35# grade Bluefin. The fight of this grade of Bluefin is really fun and challenging as they were on a strict diet of 25# and 30# fluorocarbon (more on that later). It was also pretty muggy on the deck that morning so once the Bluefin was gaffed and flopped onto the deck of the T-Bird, the happy angler was left usually dripping in sweat with arm pump. I can still hear that special thump sound in my head that a Bluefin makes after being gaffed and brought over the rail on the T-Bird and dropped on the deck… I am pretty sure they teach that skill at deckhand school and the T-Bird crew are some of the best at getting that thump just right! As the bite forged on and many of the D.W.R.R.C fellowship were becoming content with their taking, the crew of the T-Bird took full advantage and began to wet lines. Hook and Hands became a real thing among the club members and crew. Goofy seemed to take a liking to Mike C’s Super Seeker set up and proceeded to grab for it every time that Mike would put it down to hydrate or use the facilities. Even Luke got in the act and started to grab several rods from his arsenal and send out a bait, get a bite, and pass it along. I am not sure how many times he did this but it was certainly appreciated by those members who were the recipient. At one point Mike C. got tired of reeling in Goofy’s Bluefin and refused to take his rod. Goofy was forced to reel that particular Bluefin in on his own which was met with plenty of kind words for Mike. Mike would later grab the gaff and finish off Goofy’s fish with a perfect gaff shot. Speaking of club members and gaff shots, many members (Ryan and John that I can recall, but I am sure more) got involved in gaffing a Bluefin in a nice change of pace from being on the other end of the practice. The crew continued to fish and enjoy the great bite and Cole hooked up on the port side of the boat and tried to put the wood to a Bluefin like he was a stud while cast and crew from the Freedom cheered him on and club member trash talked him to hurry up. The fish ended up being really mean and in the end Cole was left tired and exhausted as the Bluefin finally hit the deck. As mentioned earlier, using fluorocarbon was on a small scale proven to be statistically significant. Luke performed a study during the bite in which he got bit on five consecutive baits when fishing 30# flouro. On one of his hook and hands, he took the rod that the handed off angler was fishing which had 20# mono only and proceeded to not get a bite in four consecutive baits. I’ll admit this is a small sampling and the data lacks the replicates needed to draw a strong statistical conclusion to fully reject the null hypothesis, but as a fisherman I deliver this information for you to do with it what you wish. When the smoke cleared and many were finally able to eat a Goofy breakfast burrito, it was DOUBLE LIMITS for the entire group before noon and time to make our way for the Cortez Bank in search of Yellowtail! The high spot on the Cortez that we were heading for was about 15 miles away from our location on the Tanner, so plenty of time for some food (Goofy made really good steak sandwiches), a nap, and a beverage. While in route to the Cortez high spot (about 8 miles away) we came upon another high spot that Jeff stopped the boat on. This spot immediately produced some nice Bonito (8-10# range), smaller grade Bluefin, some assorted rock and whitefish, and a Yellowtail. From there we continued on the high spot on the Cortez that we were originally motoring towards. Once we arrived to the desired spot on the bank, we were greeted with all the Bonito (more of the 8-10# range) you could want. Luke managed to get a really nice YT on one of the larger Sardines in the tank and the group got called a bunch a “fish snobs” by Jeff as many of the Bonito were released and the attendance at the rail had been significantly reduced. Jeff and the crew making fun of and trash talking the club members is one of my favorite things about T-Bird trips! Those guys are really a special crew and make the experience that much more memorable and fun. You really can’t say enough about them and their ability at their jobs! Next, we pulled the anchor and in the process broke the trip wire… The crew was quick to rectify that situation and we were off to go and try to replenish the bait we had gone through with some Mackerel. Sabikis were tied on in hopes of filling the front two tanks of the T-Bird. The club members worked hard at the rail to catch more bait and were rewarded with many Spanish, Greenies, and Jumbo Sardines! Before long the front two tanks were filled and we were on our way to San Clemente Island (SCI) for Day 2. Mixed in with the Macks and Dines were various rockfish and enough Perch to even make Gary (who wasn’t on the trip) jealous. Visions of what the Macks might do with the Yellowtail and Calicos at SCI danced in all of our heads as we sat down to a Lasagna and Pasta Dinner and made our way toward the island. The top 5 fish were taped and the jackpot was settled. When it was all said and done, Luke came out with the patch after much effort and determination to ensure the process was conducted effectively. Here are the results on the tape, congrats to all! Riley Dyer – 32.42# Ryan Burson – 32.47# Nick Burson – 32.75# Bill Parks – 32.87# Luke Burson – 33.76# Now it was time to get out of the way and let the crew process the catch and clean the boat for Day #2. I got up around 4am to re-write my notes and enjoy the morning and was greeted by Cole who was obviously running on fumes and was in Zombie Mode. He would end up working 26 hours straight before getting some much needed rest. While I was working through my notes I was greeted by some nice conversation with the 2 nd Capt. Brian and Stewart as we yapped about whatever would come to our minds. It was a nice start to Day 2 already and I was looking forward to seeing what the day would bring at SCI. According to Capt. Brain, we were posted up at the Dunes, south of West Cove as we waited for grey light to form. While in the dark a school of about 6-10 Flying Fish stayed near the boat and swam in and out of the deck lights which was something that I have never seen before. Around 6:30am or so many were up and at the rail in search of a Yellowtail. Jim was the first to hook up on a surface iron. He made really impressive work of the fish as he managed to bring the fish to gaff without it taking a single inch of drag and keeping its head out of the water as the Yellowtail struggled to figure out what was going on after hitting his jig. A quick look around and only another skiff was within eyesight as it was apparent that we would have the island mostly to ourselves as the fleet was elsewhere (probably working over the Bluefin at the Tanner). We later made a move (not sure to where) and more Yellowtail were caught. Most of the yellowtail had a craving for the various Macks that were made the evening prior at the Cortez. Full disclosure, I am not sure as to how many Yellowtail were caught and by who… but some were definitely caught. Now on to the club doing what the club loves doing, FISHING CALICOS!!! We pulled the hook and were told by Jeff that we were going to anchor up on some kelp and try and catch a Bass. This was music to everybody’s ears as we had plenty of Macks in the tank and were looking to put a respectable grade Bass on the board. As the hook got settled, the kelp was laying down nicely, indicative of decent water movement (aka CURRENT). Several baits hit the water and were eaten up by a smaller grade of Calicos who were quick to jump on the easy meal. Some stood atop the really nice sun deck of the T-Bird enjoying the sun and a beverage or two as others zoned in on the Calico fishing that was available. Things were really starting to get good, it was instant bite on any Sardine that was thrown out and then Luke tossed a Cortez bank transferred Spanish Mack deep into the kelp and towards the SCI shore… The energy really got serious as his 7.8# Calico came over the rail! Finally, a decent bass was atop the leader board! Ryan followed up with another nice Bass and things were really looking good! BUT then two things happened. The current backed off and the Navy advised that we leave the area because they were about to perform an underwater detonation… … … So we left and went in search for more Yellowtail and Calicos. More Yellowtail were caught, Mike C. got bit on a nice meter mark and surface action of good grade fish. He managed to be the only bite and took a fair ration of crap for it from everybody else as he nursed his Yellowtail to gaff. Soon after it was time to motor back home. All in all it was a great trip! Lots of fun was had by all. Many of the reasons why we are fishermen were satisfied as we settled up jackpot, which Bill won with a beautiful Yellowtail that he caught on a Mackerel. As we steamed toward port, I was reminded of moments over the past few days where I didn’t think about work, didn’t stress over the many chaotic things that are happening around the U.S, and even for just a few days was fortunate enough to be a part of something that we all strive to be a part of but truly struggle with achieving… Being truly in a moment, focused on what is happening around you, and caring about nothing else as you give your 100% attention to something. It is therapeutic in a way that no other will ever understand and a big reason why I pride myself in being a Fisherman. (mic drop!) 

Trip 6 Thunderbird 2 day Scribe: Mario Jr. August 6th boat departs, well before that it starts at the boardwalk. Surprise, surprise Hayden is yet again the first member there! By dusk just about every member is there. Everyone is hyped up on what’s in store to come. But we have options, which is nice to have. If we as a club pick wisely… Go south and fish the zone that’s been hit hard and has fish that’s had a few off day’s and could bite any day now? Fish the back side to the ridge off of Clemente? Or go to the tanner? The choice was made and we decided to place that burden on captain Jeff to decide. (Now we don’t have to blame ourselves if we don’t catch them!) But mostly because Jeff is on the water everyday and we trust in his decision making. So we go to Clemente and fish for bluefin. Great! Finally board the boat and the last minute top shots and hooks are tied on. Light line 20#-25# maybe 30#, small hook. Stupid bluefin stuff. Fish could be 12-50 pounds. Sounds fun! Then typical island gear consisting of 30 pound fly line, dropper loops, surface irons and yo-yo jigs. 3:45 am boats finally comes to its first stop and it’s on a sonar school. Immediately hop out of the bunk and go up top. Kitchen sink was the tactic until someone could get bit and narrow it done for the rest of us. Flat falls of all sizes, sinker rigs of all sorts, fly line baits hit the water. And all for nothing. 5:45am boats in gear and on the move. 6:15 boat slows down the throttles, battlestations was taken around the bait tank. Bluefin boiled in the chum line! so it was go time. Toss em back! Two immediate hook ups on the slide! Then a third as the boat comes to a stop. Few more might of been hooked but all said in done after about 20 minutes on the stop, 3 bluefin hit the deck. 25-30 pounders, solid fish on the 20-30 pound line. 7:00am boat stops again (third stop) and short hit and run style fishing, right when we slide up we get a couple to go and then they sink out for no reason. Something we’ve all seen and been a victim to. We managed to get 4 more bluefin and our first yellowfin on the boat. Start thinking this could be a good day, as long as we manage to get 5 or so fish a stop and we’re stopping every 30 minutes. Might be a good scratch fishing day and we’re one school away from “the school” that could be our one stop shop. After some breakfast beers and burritos the boat slows down again and finds another sonar school. Mix bluefin and yellowfin We get 7 in about 30 minutes. Decent morning so far, it’s only 9:30 and we have 8 bluefin and 8 yellowfin and plenty of time to go. All we need to do is go search for another school. So we go searching. Keep searching...while you’re at it search some more. It was at that point you get the feeling of damn this ocean is pretty big after all. Boat never stopped again but one last time around 3:45pm. Nothing got hooked though. Looks like I spoke too soon to when I said this could be a one of those killer scratch days. Lucky to get what we did, the Thunderbird got the second highest fish count in the fleet. By fleet I mean SoCal. Every boat from Long Beach to San Diego was tuna fishing… that’s why we let Jeff make those decisions on where to fish sometimes! Now head to the island and salvage a decide sun downer bass bite. Get to the island and right in tight with the kelp line inside of pyramid. Fish bass come over the rails, nothing crazy in size but fun size to catch. Few yellows move through and the kelp made short work of them. Lose 3 yellows. Hmmm there’s yellows and people are breaking off on the 25-30 pound test in the kelp. Better use 40 pound. Go mid ship to the deeper end of the kelp and bam a few more come over the rail. 8-12 pounders, 3 yellows before dark in about a 30 minute span. Little icing on the cake after hearing we had the second highest tuna count. For those of you that don’t know, there’s this crazy member named Mario Jr. Who will fish any hour the boat is stopped and is known to fish through the night. It paid off, after dinner around 10pm a dropper loop yellow hit the deck, solid 12 pounder. Naturally a few others take notice and a the stern is fanned out with dropper loops. About 30-45 minutes later 2 more hook ups and we land those! End of the day we total 8 bluefin 8 yellowfin and 6 yellows. And the patch goes to Luke with 33 pound bluefin. Day two and last day to fish, we pull anchor and start hunting. Stop right away and Gary hooked the first fish, solid 20 pounder and we get a couple more of the 8-12 pound stuff. Next stop about 7:30 we get into them to come up in the chum pretty good. We end that stop with another 6-8 fish. Then we go in for a bass sesh.yough bite for even a bass... Catch some decent 4-5 pounders but nothing worthy to measure. Or a short. Nothing really in between. Then throw in a few surprise yellows in the kelp line. 11:15 the call was made to start to head back in a little early, mechanical prevention related issues but with only 2 maybe 3 hours left to fish. It wasn’t worth the risk and we weren’t missing anything, yellows weren’t really there and where did all the epic bass fishing go? So with that being said, it was an easy pill to swallow that we were going to head back a little early. Ended with roughly dozen yellows and patch honors goes to Bill Parks. (Good luck finding room on your jacket for this patch!) 

DWRRC, Trip #5, July 17, 18 (2 day)  We left the harbor at 11 pm with many of the usual cast of cretins, criminals, and dope fiends (u can assign urselfs) and guest Chris Arechaederra of CCA, with the destination being the area near the USA/Mexico border and hopes of vast quantities of tuna. As you will hear, the tuna didn’t have the app. Jeff at the helm, Boo Boo #2, with Goofy, Cole and Rico in the galley and on the deck. Jeff started metering fish deep around 6-7 am, with no response to chum and no bites. Other boats in area, all slow. Several stops on breezers of tuna but with no luck with bites, and no real response to chum. We finally had some luck with Mr. Ramsey’s favorite fish, nice sized bonita, eager to bite but didn’t invite their friends (tuna) to join in. Several stops on these until everyone had had enough. At about noon, stopped on a large B/F breezer, and despite several anglers claiming to hit them on the head with colt snipers and the like, no hookups. Took a vote on whether to have tuna (bonita) salad sandwiches or some sausage concoction Goofy was putting together for lunch, and the ratfish won out, and, actually was not bad ( I think Luke rigged the vote). Goofy being a waste not/want not type of dude, we got the sausage in burritos the next morning (either that or it was portions of his cut off fingers, or worse). At this point, Jeff decided to cut our losses and head to an area off San Clemente where larger bluefin (140-200lbs) had been biting, about 4 hours away. Somewhere during our voyage to SC we found a kelp with a few biters, Luke Bill and Mario Jr?. About 3:30-4:00 pm we finally found some B/F willing to bite for a few lucky anglers. Gary hooked up with what he described as Moby Dick (it was probably a 30 pounder), who proceeded to spool him, much to the delight of some of his friends??. BJ also hooked up twice but didn’t keep them on. Finally Cody and Bill hooked up and both landed nice fish. Cody about 60+ lbs and Bill about 70+ Spent the nite in China cove with no further action. Plenty of booze was consumed but brought no solace. Jeff’s plan for day 2 was to leave in the dark to secure a good spot in Mosquito Cove on the lee side where yellowtail had been biting on previous days-you can probably guess how this is going to go. As light appeared, Nick and Chris landed 10-12 lb yellowtails but the bite was very slow and we left to chase Calico bass at many of our favorite spots. Bass action was pretty good but no real standouts until Hayden landed a whopping 20 incher for the club lead, only to be unseated by Chris with a fish ¼ inch longer a short time later, probably about a 5 pounder. One of the best spots, which I did not recognize, produced quite a few 3-4 lb calicos. When I asked Jeff the name of the spot, he said it was Tommy’s unmentionable, liking it to Roy’s crack. We made one last shot at Mosquito Cove and Jeff and Tony both hooked nice yellows. A sea lion liked Tony’s fish more than him and left with the beast, bummer. Jeff landed his and won the 2 nd day jackpot. Final results: Two Bluefin, a bunch of bonita, 6 yellowtail, lots of calico bass but none of epic size (sorry Hayden and Chris) Day 1 jackpot to Bill with 70+ Bluefin; Day 2, Jeff with a nice yellow The rest of us went home with what would make the cat angry. Goofyisms: “The Thompsons are all rich” In response to a comment from someone “That’s the nicest thing another man has ever said to me” And my personal favorite: “The only thing Tommy brings to the picnic is an empty grocery bag” 

Fortune, July 3rd, 1.5 day Hayden may have had breakfast on the dock, as he arrived to get in que around 9 a.m. The remaining 17 boys arrived with all the normal BS. The masked excitement was about the previous week of white sea bass fishing which Bruce had been doing real well on.We're told he didn't do so well today. We board the Fortune at 8pm. Shortly after we hit the bait receiver, Lori, the cook, set up a nice load of chili dogs for the group. Bruce gives us a safety seminar, then proceeds to talk about the fishing, the decision to return to San Nicholas Island, give us the dope on how the fish have been biting, excetera. About three scoops of squid we're left over from the previous trip, but Bruce wanted to stop at Catalina and try to make more. Didn't really happen. We woke up to very calm seas at San Nicholas Island with what appeared to be plenty of squid, and really nicely cured sardines. The routine was going to be to sit and wait for the White sea bass to come through, the current was running well. They just didn't show for us. Mike Allen was the first to hook up a Yellow Tail. Throughout the day we put on six more yellowtail and had a nice round of Rockfish and about a dozen lingcod. Fishing was on the slow side. But most everyone stayed on deck and fished really hard throughout the day. Around 4 p.m. Bruce tried to pull the hook but as soon as he fired up the engines, Tommy Hill got bit, we wait another 15 minutes, fires up the engines again, Oscar gets bit, wait another 15 minutes, fires the engines again, Luke is on. Oscar and Luke both got their fish. Bruce was headed for Catalina to try and make some more bait, and see if we could scratch out a white sea bass in the dark. Lori really put together a nicely prepared, tri tip dinner, for us. Conditions, at Catalina, just didn't happen for us. I think there was one Barracuda caught along with miscellaneous sharks, skates and rays. 4am, headed for home. That's the trip. Fishing scores, Mike Allen one yellow, Hayden-1 yellow, Bill-1 yellow, Mike Higa (previous member)-1 yellow, Oscar -1 yellow, Luke -2 yellowtail. Cody first legal halibut 15 lb, congratulations Cody. Chris Jr? Gary Thompson wasn't able to land his hundred pound Sheepshead. Beautiful weather. Lots of rail time, with good conversations. Good foodand drink. A pleasure being alive and doing what we love. JP + Patch -A surprise winner, Luke with a very pretty -23 lb yellowtail. That's the trip. P  arks