Over the past month, anglers fishing the offshore waters of the Northern California Coast from Bodega Bay to Crescent City have hooked an array of exotic warm water pelagic species, including striped marlin, dorado and three species of tuna: yellowfin, bigeye and bluefin.
The majority of these warm water travelers have been hooked on the temperature break between offshore warm water and the colder inshore water as anglers have been trolling for albacore tuna.
While some big tuna have been caught off the North Coast, none was bigger than the estimated 240 pound yellowfin tuna that Dylan Taube of Valley Ford, Edmund Jin and Frank Lovelady teamed up to catch on Thursday, Sept. 22 with Captain Dave Li of Sebass Sportfishing on Jin’s new Skipjack boat.
“When we got back to the hotel, we measured the fish,” said Taube, who works for Hog Island Oyster Company in Tomales and is a master chef, kayak angler and mushroom forager. “It measured 61 inches in length and 54 inches in girth.”
“Based on the calculation of the measurements, the fish weighed 240 pounds. It could be an unofficial northern California record. It was a monster fish; after it was gilled and gutted, it took four to move it in the fish bag with ice,” he noted.
Up until this unusual catch, the 151-pound yellowfin that John Neill of Shelter Cove caught while trolling for albacore at Vizcaino Knoll out of Shelter Cove on Sept. 11 was the largest yellowfin ever reported off the Northern California Coast. “We didn’t expect to get a yellowfin, especially one that big,” Taube said.
The current California state angling record for yellowfin tuna is 265 pounds, caught off Oceanside in San Diego County by Bo Scanlan on Sept. 26, 2017.
After Li trailered the boat to Fort Bragg from Edmund Jin’s ranch in Hollister they put the boat in a slip on Wednesday morning.
After launching at 6:30 a.m., the captain drove the boat seven to 12 miles offshore, but couldn’t find warm water. From 7- 9 a.m. he drove to find the right water 25-to 30-miles offshore. Finally, they found a 61.5 degree temperature break.
“We put out a big spread of different lures on Phenix Axis bluefin tuna rods and started trolling. We put out Mexican Flags, jigs, Green Zebras and other lures,” stated Taube.
At 9:30 a.m. the anglers landed two small “peanut” albacore weighing 5 or 6 pounds ,but didn’t hook any more fish until 10:30 am.
“At that time the middle rod that was furthest back, 250 feet, a Phenix Axis 7’ 6” rod with an Avet 2 speed reel, got hit hard and the line began to peel out. The fish hit a Pit
Bull Mexican Flag lure on a â˜daisy chain’ of hoochies above the lure. The fish hit the daisy chain first and then was hooked on the Mexican flag,” said Taube.
“I was the first to grab the rod as line peeled out,” said Taube. “We pretty quickly realized the fish wasn’t an albacore â” we knew that we had hooked a tuna over 100 pounds. We brought in the gear and the captain slowed the boat down. We took turns fighting the fish â” I fought the fish for the first 20 minutes, Jin battled it for 20 minutes, and Lovelady fought the fish over the next 20 minutes.”
In the first hour, they made little progress on the monster tuna, gaining line only to have the fish take back all of the line gained.
“The only reason why we landed the big fish was because Lovelady and Li teamed up to circle around the fish so we were finally able to gain line. We kept reeling until we saw color. We handed the rod to Jin so he could fight the fish the last 10 minutes,” he explained.
“Finally, Lovelady and I gaffed the fish and put it in the boat. We thought we would get a bluefin or bigeye, but instead it was a huge yellowfin tuna,” he added.
After the fish was in the boat, they celebrated the catch, took photos and iced down the fish. The fish was subdued on 150 lb. test Seagar fluorocarbon line at 12:30. p.m.
“We trolled for albacore for three more hours and never got another bite. Jin broke in his new boat with a fish of a lifetime trophy fish,” he observed.
“We got very lucky. We were at the right place at the right time with the right gear and it all came together,” he added.
While Jin went home, Li, Lovelady and Taube went out the next day on the Skipjack and landed 14 albacore ranging from 20 to 40 pounds.
Most of the albacore hit pink Cedar Plugs and Mexican Flag lures. The albacore were again feeding on the temperature break between cold and warm water.
“In the past several years, an occasional marlin, bluefin and dorado have been caught off the North Coast. But it is unprecedented to have marlin, dorado, bigeye, bluefin and yellowfin tuna all showing at the same time. The warm water and bait is there now and it’s drawing in the tuna and other fish,” Taube said.
Move over uncle Earnest Hemingway. It is a great fish story and proof of our warming ocean. I was a bit bothered by the next day’s catch of another 400 pounds of albacore bringing the total to over 600 pounds. This looks like the mindset of the buffalo hunters. I would also recommend having the big tuna tested for mercury since there are risks in eating at the top of the food chain in today’s world.
Let’s see what’s in your creel, Cotdebigun?