Welcome to the Fish Stories section of our site! This is the place where we will sum up every fishing trip once we return whether we caught our limits or just a good buzz. So, enjoy the stories and if you have any of your own that you would like to share send them here.

8/11/2006 - Overnight on The Legend
Fingers, Myself & Billy took off from Seaforth Sportfishing aboard The Legend at about 9:30pm on Thursday, August 10th with high hopes of a kick-ass fishing excursion. On our way out to the fishing grounds we all gathered in the galley for the standard safety lecture. Once the meeting was over Rick and I noticed Billy wasn't around. We looked everywhere...in the bathrooms, in the control room, in the bunks...everywhere! Rick went up and told the captain that we couldn't find our friend and he was not very pleased to hear the news. He said "Do one more sweep then we're turning around!". Luckily, Rick found Billy crashed out in his bunk and not floating around in the ocean. Once that fiasco was cleared up, Rick and I soon went off to bed as well to rest for a full day of fishing. I was awaked by the sound of the boat's engines slowing to a stop at around 5:00am, before the sun even came up. I went up on deck and found the deck hands starting to get everything ready so I grabbed a cup of coffee (which I ended up spilling everywhere) and got ready for the day. We started trolling and next thing we knew it was around 9:00am and nothing had happened. Everyone was starting to get a little depressed but then we heard the guy on the lookout tower yell, "Paddy"! We floated up to the paddy and everyone threw a bait fish at it...myself along with 2 others hooked up. My fish made a run back toward the paddy and could be seen jumping on the other side which is not a good sign. I was tangled up. Only 1 of the other 2 fish were boated and mine was lost in the paddy. So far we had 1 fish on board & 2 farmed...not a great start. We stopped at 2 more paddies with no luck and then...finally! We found a paddy that would prove to be the fishing oasis of our trip. After a total of 3 passes this paddy produced 101 yellowtail and 21 dorado. It kicked ass! Rick caught 3 yellowtail, Billy caught 2 yellowtail plus a monster dorado and I was lucuky enough to catch 8 yellowtail, one of which was 17 pounds...my biggest yellowtail so far. After that action-packed paddy everyone on board was pretty damn stoked! But it was getting late and we started trolling toward home. About an hour after we tore up the super-paddy there was a jig strike...then another! Yellowfin!!! 5 lucky sons-a-bitches pulled in football-sized yellowfin tuna and that was the end of our time. We just got into the tuna water and it was time to go home. Bummer! Oh well, next time we'll do a day & a half. All in all, we had a great trip and partied all the way back to the landing. -mc
 

7/30/2006 - Seaforth Sportfishing on The Renegade
Raul & I booked an overnight fishing trip on the Renegade out of Seaforth Landing in San Diego. I recently purchased a new Shimano Baitrunner 6500B and was anxious to try it out. Raul borrowed a combo from Fingers and it turned out to be the exact same setup I was using. We even had the exact same seeker rod...so we used colored bandanas to tell them apart. We got a little bit inpatient and showed up to the marina a few hours early. So, we were forced to throw back a few beers at a seafood restaurant near the dock. We finally boarded the boat at around 9:30pm on Saturday (7/29) and were soon making our way toward the bite which was reported to be about 50 or so miles south-west, well into mexican waters. Once on board, we pounded a few brews and were off to the bunks. At around 6:00am we started trolling without much luck. After 2-3 hours of giving our feathers a tour of the pacific we decided to try some kelp paddies for yellowtail and dorado. This proved to be a great choice! The first paddy we hit produced at least twenty 10-20lb yellowtail (including Raul's and my first ever yellowtail) as well as quite a few good-sized dorado. It was the first time we had seen dorado being caught and watching them leap into the air and fight like marlin was an absolutely awesome sight. After we milked that paddy for all it was worth we moved on in search of more un-tapped kelp kingdoms. At this point, Raul & I both had 1 yellowtail each. We tried a few more scattered paddies with limited success. Then, all of a sudden, we had a jig strike! Which is usually very common. But, for some reason, trolling wasn't producing Jack-S#!t...which was pretty confusing to everyone, even the Captain. Anyhow, the jig stike ended up being a 20-25lb dorado and was brought in by a lucky angler who was deemed by all to be, one lucky bastard. After the lucky jig strike we set out to find more kelp paddies to try and re-kindle our luck. We found a few, each producing a few fish at a time. One of which was home to an unsuspecting little dorado with my name on it. As we approached the kelp paddy I ran to the bow of the boat and threw my bait about 5 feet from the paddy. My line was immediately hit and, in what seemed like no time at all, I had landed my first dorado ever! It wasn't very big, but it was a dorado and I was stoked. Then soon after I popped my dorado-cherry, the cook (Chef Jeff) hooked into a fish and told me to trade rods with him. I did and pulled in a nice 12-15lb yellowtail. It was starting to get late and the Captain decided to turn around and try to hit a few of the paddies we had already fished on our way back toward the marina. Our group ended up pulling in a few more fish, none of which were taken by myself or Raul. By the time 3:00pm rolled around it was time to pull in the feathers and haul-ass for home. The decks hands started pulling all of the fish out of the refrigerated hold to begin filleting. But, there was a problem. Raul's one any yellowtail was missing. We looked all over the boat and asked everyone on-board but had no luck finding it. Raul's fish was gone. The crew felt bad and was nice enough to give him the meat of a large dorado caught earlier that day, but it still kinda sucks not being able to bring home the fish you actually caught. The final count on The Renegade with 24 passengers was 41 yellowtail & 13 dorado. Raul caught 1 yellowtail. I caught 2 yellowtail and 1 dorado. All in all, we had a great time and the fishing was descent. We have another overnight trip bookedwith Seaforth in 2 weeks and we can't wait to see how it goes. -mc
 

4/20/2004 - Dana Wharf 3/4 day
Raul, Tupps, Tommy and myself took advantage of a 2 for 1 deal they have going on at Dana Wharf and decided that we'd try out the so-so waters of April '04. We all crashed at Tupp's pad in Mission Viejo the night before and we ended up staying up until like 2:00am because he had almost every Nintendo game ever made saved onto his Xbox. We finally arrived at the landing around 5:15am, just in time to board and set out for the day. Rockfishing has been pretty steady lately so the Cpt. took us out to some 300ft water and we started dropping 1lb pieces of lead to the oceans floor. Having only 25 people on board a 60 passenger boat made it really nice because the current was taking our lines all over the place despite the herendous amount of weight we were using. We all started pulling up rockfish after rockfish that were all basically the same size, around 10" - 12" inches or so. After a few hours and a relocation we started pulling up lots of Chili Peppers which are apparently pretty good to eat (I've never tried one, so I don't know). At this point Raul was kicking all of our asses with about 3 keepers while the rest of us only had one each. Around this time I hooked into an interesting fighter and pulled up a 2 1/2 foot Horn Back Shark. I brought him aboard long enough to take a photo with him and threw it back. Tommy brought up a good sized sculpin and we all laughed because it looked like kermit the frog (We were getting a little drunk by then). Tupps scored a good sized sculpin too but left it on the boat. His fish was actually the second heaviest fish caught that day and just barely lost the jackpot but he still celebrated with his catch anyway (see photo). We stopped off to do some bass fishing on the way back in. A few bass and whitefish were brought aboard but they were nothing to write home about. Someone caught a Halibut but it was a few inches too short to keep. We ended up heading in early but I think it's because the captain was a little bent outa shape. I mean, I would be too if someone clogged the head and I had to go down and dig it out. He was seriously pissed off (or pissed on). -mc
 

9/21/2003 - Tuna Fishing on the Sherrita
Don, Fingers and myself set off with the crew of the Sherrita out of San Diego at about 3am. We were fishing by dawn and got an almost immediate single jig strike, a skipjack. While I cranked that one in Don threw a line in the water and hooked up too. He fought what looked like an alby fight for about 20 minutes but when he pulled up another skippy it was clear that he needed to be using heavier gear. Back on the troll and another almost immediate jig strike, this time a double. Fingers and I pulled in two nice 20-25 lb Albacore! Trolling again, got another double jig strike, 2 more skippies. Fingers took a second alby at the same stop on a sardine. One more skippy stop and Fingers manages to pull his third albacore out of the water. Don and I were doing well but Fingers was definitely the "Hot Stick" of the day. Next, we targeted some kelp paddies and while trolling along side of one we got a single jig strike. Don got him close to the boat but he jumped off the hook before we could land him...looked like a yellowfin tuna, Damn! We came across a large paddy with breaking fish and worked it with the time we had left. Don hooked into and landed a good sized yellowtail and Fingers did the same but his was a bit smaller. I scored a nice Yellowfin tuna that was kind enough to break my reel on his way in. Daiwa makes some good spinning reels but I had no business grinding coffee on this trip. I think it's time to break down and buy a conventional rig. The weather was great and the crew of the Sherrita really went out of their way to show us a good time. The final fish count for the 3 of us was; 4-Albacore 1-Yellowfin 2-Yellowtail 15+Skipjack. Well, the trip was a big success and as tradition goes, once we got home Sushi Scoops deuced us up some seared peppered ahi sashimi, garlic albacore belly sushi, yellowtail steaks, albacore steaks, and so on and so on. A tasty end to a loooong day. -mc
 

8/1/2003 - Tuna Fishing in Ensenada
Fingers, Maw, Don and myself took off from work early on Thursday and we met at California Baja Rent-A-Car in San Diego at about 4pm. We rented a Dodge Caravan and made a run for the border. We ended up arriving in Ensenada at about 9pm and had to stock up on beers for our early morning departure. We promptly boarded the Ensenada Clipper, an 85ft vessel which births out of Sergio's Sportfishing and began slamming beers to make the time go by a little quicker. During this, A man who worked on a nearby Yacht came aboard to drop off his son Brandon, who turned out to be a totally cool kid from Big Bear with some mad fishing experience. After telling us about a 42 lb bluefin he caught on a previous trip we decided he was cool and made him a part of our group for the rest of the trip. After a couple of beers each the boat was underway and the time was about 2am on Friday morning. We all took a quick power nap then before we knew it we were awakened by the sound of the captain killing the engines and you all know what that means!!! We had chovies in the water within 2 minutes of our eyes opening up and the fish were hitting hard. The first stop was a great one. We sat there for about 2 hours and were constantly hitting 20-35 lb albacore. I even think at one point we had a chinese fire drill going, which was a first for me. We trolled along and had a few more hook ups but most only produced a couple of fish per stop. When all was said and done the boat of about 13 passengers had pulled in over 70 fish! Out of our group Fingers did the best with 3 fish, Brandon pulled in 2, Maw and myself pulled in 1 each and poor Don got skunked. Our fish count was ultimately low but we actually had the opportunity to pull in at least 5 fish each but for some reason the fish were really good at jumping off the hooks that day. Lots of times even after we got color on the lucky bastards. The only thing left to do now was head home but first we went and drank a bunch more beer and tequila just because we could. I was so drunk on the way back home that when asked to show my ID at the border I apparently yelled at the federali, "NO, I'M TOO DRUNK!!!". Thanks to Maw, who was kind enough to dig through my pants to get my wallet and got me home safely. I honestly don't remember that one bit but I really don't remember anything from that ride home so it doesn't matter I guess. Oh well, even with lots of fish farmed and my drunken episode we still had one hell of a trip and threw a big sushi party as soon as we got home. Fingers actually drank a few beers on this trip, looks like we're starting to rub off on him, lol. - mc
 

7/26/2003 - Irvine Lake
Fingers and I took off to Irvine Lake really late, at like 11am. We were partying the night before so it was kind of hard to get up but as soon as we did we were out the door quick style. We rented an aluminum motor boat for $45 and hit the lake. They were holding a wake boarding competition that day so the water was pretty choppy near the docs, luckily the fish were biting way back by the dam where the waters were less disturbed. We trolled out to the dam with a rooster tail and a rapala but nothing hit so we rigged up some Power Bait and started drifting with it. The current was moving pretty fast and we kept drifting into the restricted area near the dam. But that was where the fish were! So, we tied off to the buoy and as soon as we made our first cast the patrol boat came up and made it clear that was not allowed. That ended up being fortunate because as soon we set ourselves back from the dam a bit my UltraLight got hit! This was my first fish on the new UltraLight so I let it play for a long time before we finally landed a nice 12" rainbow trout, which is a very common catch at Irvine Lake. He was taken on green Power Bait rolled up like a worm on 2# line. Not long after that we began drifting in the same fashion but with night crawlers this time and my second rod got hit. This time it was a much harder bite. The fish took a few good runs and proved himself a tough fighter but at the end I was posing for pictures with a beautiful 2-3 lb rainbow trout. Better luck in your next life, buddy! As for Fingers, he skunked that day but I did get him to drink a beer, which was pretty cool. -mc