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Art Taylor brought his Searcher home to Fisherman’s landing June 23 after the five-day Qualia reels trip with 22 anglers and chartermaster Kent Cremolini.
Art had some good news for San Diego anglers in regard to bluefin and possibly albacore moving up toward the border.
“We had great yellowtail fishing,” Art told dock reporter Bill Roecker, “and ended up with about two-thirds limits by drifting the South End of Cedros Island. They wanted the blue and white yoyo jigs, and stayed down near the bottom for the most part, in 60 to 90 feet.”

On the way home, Art talked with other skippers and saw fish at a couple of new distances.
“American Angler is having some good fishing at 160 to 185 miles,” noted Taylor, “and we got a half-dozen coming through there, mostly 15 to 18-pounders, but up to 40-pounders. We saw jumpers at 60 to 70 miles, too, but they weren’t biting yet. There’s lots of clean water. It looks right.”
“Froggy” Patricia Atkins of Palmer Lake, CO won first place for a 52-pound bluefin. She worked at H&M Landing from 1969 to 1974 for Ralph Miller. She said she hooked her winner on a sardine and a 2/0 Mustad 94150 hook. She used 40-pound Blackwater fluorocarbon leader and 40-pound Ande line on an Avet JX reel and a Calstar 700 M rod.
Bill Zemba of Castaic won second place for a 34-pounder and Wilma Atkins of Santa Rosa won third place for a 33.7-pounder.
Two youngsters were also aboard, and both got bluefin. Anthony Altieri of Toluca Lake is 16, and made his first-ever fishing trip with his dad John. Tony goes to Notre Dame High, where he’s an honor student who wants to study medicine.
“It was fun,” said Anthony. “I’d do it again.”
Joey Johnston of Haliwa, HI is 13, but has fished before. He got the trip’s best bluefin, a 54.8-pounder, on a handoff from his granddad Gary Dittmar, who is related to the boat-building family.
Joey spent an hour and a half on 25-pound line fighting his big tuna. Dittmar said it took 200 yards of line, and then went up and down several times in the water column. Joey’s best fish came on his second long range trip. He goes to Kahuku High School.

Captains Art Taylor and Aaron Remy
(619) 226-2403 – Fisherman’s Landing

Art Taylor’s last trip to Cedros Island for the season paid off with a catch of yellowtail and a brace of white seabass. The Searcher’s 14 anglers, some from as far away as Michigan, enjoyed a five-day trip with at least one night bite.

Five AM was the time when the whites came up, both on dropper loop rigs with squid. The best one won first place for a Duane Weston of Vista, who said he got his with 16 ounces of lead on his loop. He used a 5/0 Mustad hook on 100-pound P-Line, a Tiagra 30 reel and a Calstar 6455 XXH rod.

The other white won second place for Mike Meinecke of Otter Lake, MI. It weighed 30.4 pounds. Russ Baker of Millington, MI won third place for a 29.8-pound yellowtail.

Captains Art Taylor and Aaron Remy
(619) 226-2403 – Fisherman’s Landing

Searcher returned to Fisherman’s Landing October 14 under skipper Aaron Remy’s hand. She’d been on a five-day trip, and spent two days fishing at Cedros Island, where squid was made and used for yellowtail bait, along with sardines.

Anglers said the squid seemed to work best in the early mornings, and skipper Remy agreed. He reported flat calm weather, much enjoyed by the ten anglers.

Craig Provance of Murrieta, somewhat of a regular on the boat, won first place for a 36.8-pound yellowtail he bagged on a sardine. Craig said he used a 3/0 Owner Super Mutu hook tied to 40-pound Seaguar fluorocarbon, 80-pound Izorline and 65-pound Power Pro Spectra. He fished with a new Accurate BX-2 400 reel and a Seeker 870 glass rod. He said the fight lasted 20 minutes.

Jeff Kealoha of San Diego won second place for a 36.2-pound yellowtail, and Walt Graham of Henderson, NV for one that weighed 32.8 pounds, good enough for third place.

Captains Art Taylor and Aaron Remy
(619) 226-2403 – Fisherman’s Landing

Art Taylor brought his Searcher home from a week-long trip October 9. He docked at Fisherman’s Landing and his 22 happy anglers got off to stow their gear and take care of the plentiful catch: almost ten quality tuna around for the fishermen.

“Just to recap this trip,” skipper Taylor wrote the day before, “we saw some of the best tuna fishing ever at Alijos Rocks in the three days we were there. And I can’t remember having two trips in a row with that degree of success on the size fish we landed. It just can’t get too much better than what we just accomplished.”

Ace Neely of Lancaster had the best, qualified yellowfin, a 97.4-pound tuna that bit on a sardine and a 4/0 Owner gorilla hook on 50-pound Seaguar fluorocarbon leader. He said he used 50-pound Big Game line and 80-pound Power Pro Spectra on a Pro Gear 45 reel and a Calstar 700 H custom rod.

“I was after this one,” said Ace. “My best one before was a 67-pounder. This one fought me for a half-hour, and took me around the boat one and a half times before he came up midship, thanks to some good deckhands.”

Bob Yoshimoto of Tthousand Oaks won second place for a 96-pounder, and Nanette Smith of Huntington Beach got third place for an 87.6-pound Alijos Rocks yellowfin tuna.

Captains Art Taylor and Aaron Remy
(619) 226-2403 – Fisherman’s Landing

Art Taylor docked his boat at Fisherman’s Landing October 2 after a good seven-day trip to The Rocks, with a stop at Benitos on the way home. His 22 anglers scored very well on quality yellowfin tuna up to 100 pounds.

Doug Nance of San Diego took first place for a 109.8-pound yellowfin tuna. He told dock reporter Bill Roecker it bit a sardine on a 3/0 ringed Owner Mutu hook tied to 40-pound Blackwater fluorocarbon leader and 65-pound Power Pro Spectra. He used an Avet JX reel and a Calstar 700 MH rod.

Steve Heffner of Hailey, ID won second place for a 108.2-pound tuna

Jeff Nagel of Laguna Niguel won third place for a 75-pound Alijos Rocks yellowfin.

George Guardino of San Diego (featured for the month of September in the new 2011 Sportfishing Calendar with the year’s best halibut) caught the trip’s only wahoo, on a sardine without wire. He said that luck hook was a Gamakatsu 2/0 in the J-hook style.

Captains Art Taylor and Aaron Remy
(619) 226-2403 – Fisherman’s Landing

Hookup On Searcher

A Let’s Talk Hookup trip aboard the Searcher arrived at Fisherman’s Landing September 15 after a five-day trip with owner-skipper Art Taylor and 26 passengers. They got another nice catch of larger yellowtail, many by baiting live market squid.

Taylor said green water didn’t diminish the bite or the squid fishing very much.

“We got our best fishing in the gray,” he noted, “and we had on good night bite for yellowtail on the dropper loop. The white seabass were mixed in. the weather was calm, and it got hot in the daytime with the sun out.”

Glen Kerr of Cypress won first place for a 39.8-pound yellowtail he bagged with a squish on a 3/0 ringed Owner Super Mutu hook tied to 40-pound Izorline. He had 60-pound Izor Spectra backing on a Saltist 40 reel and a Shimano seven and a half-foot rod.

Jeanette Caldwell of South Lake Tahoe was thrilled to take second place on her first trip. She got a 39.4-pound yellowtail. Bob La Hue of San Diego won third place for a 36.8-pound mossback.

Captains Art Taylor and Aaron Remy
(619) 226-2403 – Fisherman’s Landing

The big schools of yellowfin tuna that began arriving last Friday drew Art Taylor and his 16 Searcher three-day anglers to try fishing in a tongue of warm water below Ensenada.

“It was clean and 67.5 degrees,” said Art, “and we had jig strikes over a 45-mile stretch on mixed grade tuna and skipjack. We also got some fish on kelps and bird schools on the first day when it was calm. The good fishing extended from about 95 to 130 miles south.”

The trip was sponsored by Accurate, who sent Gary Gillingham along as chartermaster, with 12 sets of loaner rods and reels from the factory.

“They were BX-2 400 and 500 models,” he said. “We also gave away a BX-2 400.”

Gary Cotter of Santa Barbara won first place for a 22.6-pound tuna. He said he got it with a sardine on a 2/0 ringed Owner Super Mutu hook on 20-pound Seaguar fluorocarbon and 20-poundIzorline. He used a Trinidad 16 reel and a Calstar 700 ML rod.

Pate Machlachlan of Port Townsend, WA tied with Willy Lewis of Mission Hills for second place, as both men had 22.4-pound yellowfin.

Captains Art Taylor and Aaron Remy
(619) 226-2403 – Fisherman’s Landing

A five-day limited load trip with only ten passengers aboard the Searcher arrived at Fisherman’s Landing August 27. The trip was skippered by Aaron Remy and visited Cedros Island for some extra-large yellowtail.

“It was good fishin’,” said Remy at the dock. “The weather was hot and sunny, the way it’s supposed to be.”

Jennifer Funk of San Pedro fished with jigs, and yoyoed up a toady 43.6-pound mossback on a Salas 6X Jr. in blue and white for first place. She said she fished a 50-pound Izorline and 65-pound Power Pro Spectra and an Avet HX reel and a Calstar 760 M rod. The fight lasted ten minutes.

Jack Rauch of San Rafael got a 39.8-pound yellow for second place. Dave Easton of Pt. Loma took a 38.8-pound yellowtail for third place.

Captains Art Taylor and Aaron Remy
(619) 226-2403 – Fisherman’s Landing

Art Taylor brought his Searcher home from a five-day trip with 22 anglers that produced the best yellowtail catch of the season so far: limits of mossbacks that one angler weighed out at an average of 36 pounds. At least a dozen fish were 40 pounds or more, and a huge halibut graced the bag of forkies.

“It was Cedros Island at its best,” said Art. “Each angler had a personal best. It was world-class fishing. They were fish of a lifetime!”

George Guardiano of San Diego fished up a 42-pound halibut out of the congregation of toad yellows. He said he got it with a green mackerel baited on a 4/0 Gamakatsu hook tied to 40-pound P-Line. He used a TLD 30 reel and a Calstar 6460 H rod and brought the big flattie up to gaff in about ten minutes.

“He swallowed it, and I didn’t know he was there until I set the hook,” said George.

Rob Geiger of Simi Valley got a 43-pound yellowtail for first place. He said he took it with a mackerel flylined on a 7/0 Mustad hook and 40-pound Izorline. He used 65-pound Power Pro backing on an Avet JX reel and a Calstar 700 H rod.

Jim Hartwick of Harbor City won second place for a 42.6-pound yellowtail, and he also tied for third with a 41.6-pounder. Mart Pierpoint got one that weighed 41.6 pounds to get the other half of the tie.

The yellowtail catch may have been the best for Captain Taylor since 1988, when Bill Roecker went to Cedros with him, where they found 40-pounders thick as flies in a barnyard. That story is in Roecker’s forthcoming long range book, due from the printer right after Thanksgiving.

Captains Art Taylor and Aaron Remy
(619) 226-2403 – Fisherman’s Landing

Searcher Tries Benitos

Searcher returned from a four-day trip to the San Benitos Islands with skipper Aaron Remy and 21 anglers aboard.

Dave Bell of San Diego won first place for a 28-pound yellowtail and posed with it on the dock at Fisherman’s Landing. He said he got it with a blue and white Salas 6X Jr. jig on 40-pound P-Line XXX, and Avet LX reel and a GRUSA six-foot rod.

Captains Art Taylor and Aaron Remy
(619) 226-2403 – Fisherman’s Landing