On June 17th, 2022, 27 anglers set out on a quest for the elusive, Bluefin Tuna. According to reports from anglers and crews returning from previous trips, there were lots of Bluefin to be had, however they seemed to have a case of lockjaw. We all hoped we would be responsible for breaking the curse of the depths and catch our limits.
Captain Mike piloted the Searcher away from the dock at Fisherman’s landing around 10:00 am as scheduled and the usual activity was well under way on the deck of the boat.
June 17th:
According to the captain and crew, things were looking better than in the last couple days. The water was cleaner and the masses of bait that had been previously seen and keeping the fish from biting weren’t as prevalent.
We located good numbers of fish in the 80 pound to 200 pounds or more. These fish weren’t biting much during the day but we got a couple of bites on the kite and Dean Benavides landed one that weighed190#. We were hoped the night bite would bring better results.
Photo Courtesy of the Searcher
June 18th:
There were plenty of fish to find and even a few foamers were seen as we continued our hunt for some that wanted to play. There is no shortage of them. We got two bites all day and managed to land them both–one was on the kite and the other one on a sinker rig.
June 19th:
We arrived at a new area at around 1030 pm on the 18th. There was very good sign of 40-100# fish. We had some opportunities, not great, but the crew said things looked better than they better than they had seen in the past 4 or 5 days. The fish disappeared when the sun came up but seemed to come back at about 9 am. We got a few bites, but nothing landed. There were plenty of fish in the area giving us high hopes for some afternoon action. Unfortunately the afternoon came and went with no better results. Some of us fished the night bite as fish were metered on the ride home, however I don’t recall any results and most of us retired around 2 am.
June 20th:
We safely arrived back at the dock at Fisherman’s Landing around 6 am.
Despite tough fishing as is sometimes the result when fishing exclusively for Bluefin, the trip was a god trip on an excellent boat with an excellent crew. The food was gourmet quality and quantities were substantial. My personal thanks go to Josh and Danny in the galley. Captains Mike and Ryan worked extremely hard to keep us on the fish. Shane, Justin and Nico are super good guys and awesome deck hands. All did a great job helping people with all the usual activities on deck from rigging up to tangles.
Dean Benavides caught the first BFT, which weighed 190 pounds. This fish was caught on the kite and easily handled using an Accurate ATD-50. Dean’s fish turned out to be the biggest fish for the trip so he was the recipient of a new Accurate BV-400 reel for his efforts.
Congratulations to those who landed fish on this trip.
Thank you to the Searcher, Art, Celia, Erin and the rest of the crew for making the Searcher such a smooth and pleasant fishing experience.
Trip Photos:
