The bite started with a slow, but steady, pick in the grey. The seas were like glass, and the fish were in the 20-26 pound range. While most were albacore, there were bluefin in the area. The school finally moved off so we started up the trolling rotations. Every shift was getting stopped! Before we had gone through the second shift for everyone we found the long stop. We stopped at 8:30 in the morning, and stayed with the school until 4:00 in the afternoon! The Bluefin and Albacore were putting on quite a show with acrobatic displays along with the boils. It became quite normal to see a tuna completely airborne! The bite never did go wide open, but a steady pick yielded plenty of fish for all. The first day ended up with 137 albacore, 60 bluefin, 1 yellowtail and 1 dorado. Just one fish shy of a double hump day, for 16 tired fishermen. Tosh Fujimoto, for years the chartermaster of this group, won the jackpot the first day. After steak dinner, the giant squid made a showing to provide some calamari steaks.
The next morning started in the grey again after Scott slid over a nice school just before dawn. The bite was more of the same, a steady pick on the schools, without a wide open bite. That constant pick provided another 86 albacore and 2 bluefin, for a two day total of 213 longfin and 62 bluefin. Tosh quietly went about winning the second day jackpot as well!. Another great September trip to finish of the season.
