Shimano/Let’s Talk Hook-up On the Water Seminar finds Albacore by Pete Gray

Our second Shimano/Let’s Talk Hook-up on the water seminar returned to the Fishermans Landing docked Thursday morning with a nice load of albacore and some very happy anglers.  Captain Art Taylor was behind the wheel of the Searcher and took our group of 29- 115 miles from Point Loma to the fishing grounds.  The seas were flat and the fishing was steady.  Captain Art pulled the throttles of the Searcher back about 5:30am and within minutes we saw our first school of "puddling" albacore and proceeded to start the day with a few "bait fish". The morning progressed much the same way, stopping on puddling fish and jig strikes.  Though the fishing was better in the morning hours, we had steady jig strikes and bait fish throuthout the day and early evening.  The bite seemed to shut off about 7pm. The total count for the day was 64 albacore from 15 to 31 pounds.  Most of the fish were over 20 pounds and several anglers on the trip caught their first tuna, including young Joey Johnston pictured with his grandpa Gary Dittmar and Searcher deckhand Dustin Madruga.