Trip 27 (7 day) Sep 25-Oct 2 The Ridge
Hello anglers:
We had some excellent fishing today, starting with wahoo. And we finished up the day with some quality yellowfin tuna fishing.
Ezio P lands a nice yellowfin tuna, with the assist by the BIRTHDAY BOY, Capt Ryan Stahl–30 years old today!
Everyone had a great time and enjoyed a great day of fishing. We are looking forward to fishing tonight and tomorrow.
Jerry H from Kentucky is posing with crewman Ben and a nice yellowfin at sunset.
Team Searcher
Trip 27 (7 day) Sep 25-Oct 2 The Ridge
Hello anglers: We started our day with a beautiful sunrise and a calm ocean.
At our first stop at The RIdge, we got into some wahoo fishing which we had been preparing for. It was exciting when we first arrived with multiple hook-ups. As usual with wahoo fishing there were some losses, but we had lots of chances to land these prized fish. John Waggoner from Louisville, Kentucky is pictured with a nice troll fish.
We also landed a few nice-size dorado and some small yellowfin tuna for sushi later in the trip.
Team Searcher
Trip 27 (7 day) Sep 25-Oct 2 Rolling to The RIdge
Good morning anglers: Yesterday was a great day! We turned the boat around in record time, which meant that a great job was done by everyone on our team to get it done so fast. We arrived at 5:30 am and left the dock just after 8:30 a.m.. We have a great load of bait and we cleared Point Loma at 10 am. We are headed for The Ridge with high hopes of arriving before lunch on Tuesday.
Yesterday we watched football while travelling south and it was a great day for a nap. We ended the day with a dinner of beef bourguignon, mashed potatoes, fresh green beans, fresh bread and a really special dessert in honor of Capt Ryan’s 30th birthday coming up soon. Ryan’s mother, Vicky, is a top-notch baker and we had her famous banana cream pie to top off that delicious dinner. Nice job, Vicky!
Today we will give a seminar and go over all the options for rigging. After that everyone will have the rest of the day to play with all that tackle purchased prior to the trip, and enjoy a movie afternoon, complete with gourmet popcorn and Red Vines. Who needs the movie theater, when you can be aboard Searcher, heading to the fishing grounds?!
The weather is calm and sunny, it is going to be a hot one today. We are so grateful for good weather whenever we get it.
More later, Team Searcher
p.s. Read up on WAHOO techniques on our Ask a Captain feature.
Crewman Ben is setting up the maurauders for trolling gear.
Capt Aaron and crewman Roman (borrowed from the Polaris Supreme) are rigging wire leaders and lures for wahoo!
A fishing vacation involves preparation!
Trip 26 (5 day) Sep 20-25 Ultra-limited load
Congratulations to our jackpot winners!
- Ted O’miela, Oceanside, CA — 39/2# bluefin tuna (right)
- Ernest Ringgold, McKinney, TX — 28.8# yellowfin tuna
- Ted O’miela, Oceanside, CA — 28.6# yellowfin tuna
Trip 26 (5 day) Sep 20-25 Ultra-limited load
Hello anglers:
After a slow start to our day with more yellowfin tuna that didn’t want to bite, we changed things up and the second half of the day was much better! We found a school of yellowfin tuna that wanted to bite. Everyone had multiple chances at landing a good-size yellowfin tuna. Lots of fun and action!
Capt Aaron had a great afternoon fishing with our “Hook and Hand” outfits from Accurate Products and Seeker rods. He used 25 pound mono, 25 pound flourocarbon and an Owner mutu circle hook (size 2).
He was able to keep everyone busy by hooking and handing fish. Great job Capt Aaron and a big thank you to Accurate Products!
He is pictured with Devon Provance and her nice yellowfin tuna.
Capt Aaron and Devon P, who is on this trip with her dad and brother, a real fishing family!
Hoping to repeat our day tomorrow. Team Searcher
Trip 26 (5 day) Sep 20-26 Ultra-limited load
Hello anglers: We have spent most of the morning drifting with yellowfin tuna around the boat. The challenge has been to get them to bite! We’re trying 20-25 pound test line with flourocarbon and a #2 hook. Lots of fish have been hooked by the crew and handed off to the passengers. The encouraging sign is tha
t there’s plenty of fish around, just not too many landed.
Jereck Provance from Murrieta got this tuna landed!
Team Searcher
Yesterday day’s end report
Hello anglers,
We spent the day at San Clemente island. We saw some tuna in a couple of different areas. We landed a few yellowtail on live sardines.
We are moving east to try for yellowfin tuna. Wish us luck and biting fish!
Team Searcher
Trip 26 (5 day) Sep 20-25 Ultra-limited load
Hello anglers: We stated our trip close to home yesterday and managed to land a few 30-pound yellowfin tuna. With only 14 anglers aboard, we were able to give everyone the attention to gear and bait, and anything else they needed!
Due to the weather forecast and a tropical depression in our southern path, we travelled west. We are at San Clemente Island today where we see a sign of the nice-ize bluefin here. One angler landed a 50 pounder this morning! The current changed up, and so the fish we are seeing isn’t biting. We’re hoping for a change with the current later today.
In the meantime we switched gears to try for some yellowtail. We have landed a few, and Dan Carrier from Irvine is pictured with crewman Ben Hart and a good size yellowtail. (Sorry, we had a transmission error with the photo!)
More later, Team Searcher
Trip 25 (6 day) Sep 14-20, 2016 Penn sponsored Jackpot winners!
Congratulations to our jackpot winners:
- Steve Goldblatt, San Diego, CA — 34.2# wahoo
- Brian Virost, Westerville, OH — 31.8# wahoo
- Lloyd Ethridge, Santa Fe Springs, CA — 30.8# wahoo
Lloyd and his wahoo!
Trip 25 (6 day) Sep 14-20 Penn Open with Steve Carson
Hello anglers: We travelled north to the coast to try for yellowtail this afternoon. Unfortunately we had bad timing–the current went slack as soon as we arrived at our first stop. We saw plenty of yellowtail, it just wouldn’t bite for everyone.
However Team Ohio (Ron Shultz and Brian Virost) had some luck. Each of them landed a good size yellowtail.
The highlight of the day was the galley! Dan and Charley put out a spread of fresh yellowfin tuna sashimi and California rolls for this afternoon’s snack. Then we had fresh wahoo with a butter lemon sauce for dinner. Great job, chefs!
Team Searcher