It was not the best trip at all...probably there worst in years according to Greg the guy who does there website who came out and fished with us. First off I'm glad I brought my rain gear as I almost froze to death. 3 shirts,a sweatshirt,and my raingear and I was just comfortable. I'll start out by saying that the A.A. is an extremely well run boat and Brian "my Capt.for my trip" worked really hard to do as well as we did. I ended up with a 25 albie on the second jig stop and that held for jackpot until the last drop of the evening when I got beat by a pound or less...That's the breaks we've all been the guy who gets beat out at the end or comes out smelling like a rose at the end. Fishing was extremely tough with very few fish caught on bait an almost exclusive jig bite..Black/Puple and Zuccinni...If you had a Dine and a 2 oz. torpedo sinker and got back there fast you might get one on the slide ....My problem was everyone of the 31 guys onboard not trolling was sliding all over the top of one another and it just wasn't worth the hassle....We had some guys who refused to do the tuna shuffle which cost not just a few of us fish. I think I landed 40% of my bait fish by being sawed off by people who tossed bait on a hot rail....and got bit....so while your fish has slowed and your working her in ZING the fresh one takes you out. I was useing 25#test a tuna ring with 20 florocarbon and a 3/8 oz sliding sinker and a 1# flyliner on chovie and 2# circle on the Dine's while sliding the 2 0z sinker rig....I did not see one fish caught on iron or Plastic lord knows everyone tried....The hot ticket was the kid who was loaded up with 15# florocarbon an ultra small hook and tiny splitshot.....I wouldn't recomend that rig in the gorilla warfare that was going on at the rail except that when his fish bit it would sizzle away "kid had a "GROAN"..... COFFEGRINDER" because his drag was so light get away from the crowd and he would eventually end up in the bow by himself and land his fish....I doubt that it would have worked that way had we been on a bite like my trips from last year but I think it might behoove a guy to bring that set-up "Minus the Coffegrinder" for some of the tough bite situations that come up.....You did spend bucks to get there you just might want that option... I ended up with 4 20-25# albies and a huge bone that went 12 and change that put up a hell fight..American Angler is WORLD class....Captain,Crew,Chef's and acomendations....Food was KILLER and it's always good to be away from work. Thanks to you guys who gave me some tips and ask away and I'd be happy to help out with anything I missed.

KELLY

glad yo did ok, and I agree, the AA is a top notch boat with an awesome crew, about the same situation last year on that boat, you'd figure that the bulk of the people on these trips would know better than to cast into a hot rail and to shuffle, I mean this is not your average 1/2 day or 3/4 cattle boat outing, its a couple hundred venture that you'd expect some level of etiquete among its participants. never the less you caught a few of them speedsters, myself last year almost got skunked, thank the lord for those last two stops where I got one on the troll and one 35-40# on bait.

good going.

I fished the AA on a 2 day 3 years ago. On our last day we were done fishing the crew was allready fileting fish and the captain stopped on a paddie, 1 last stop, the crew put there knives and table away and started gaffing.I have never seen that before.

was it rough out there?

Sounds like you still picked up some good fish for the fillet bag. Just got back from a 3 day on the Vagabond (report to come) and it was kind of snotty conditions - chilly and windy but the fishing turned out to be good. We had to contend with some aggressiveness at the rail to. It never ceases to amaze me that the guys usually barking the most about stepping down the rail are the same ones who pitch a tent when they make it to the hot corner. However, as we started to catch more fish, people worked together a little better. But, I did have this little old man with a hearing aid elbowing me in the ribs - no joke.

Cheers.

This must be the little ole' man that was on our boat too! Except he dropped the cap off his pill bottle into the head and rather than tell someone he flushed it.....The deck hands worked for hours and finally they had to stop our fishing and put on of there guys overboard in that nasty cold pitching sea without a wetsuit to blast the sucker out from the outside as nothing they tried including removing the guys from a stateroom and snaking would work.....I didn't mind them stopping. Hell Brian the skipper is trying to run a class act and he had to get back and turn around the whole boat toot-sweet and the last thing he needed was a reeking 2 million dollar boat! Yeah it was rough out Scott but not as bad as Morro Bay last year!

Kelly

Oh my. Luckily no one had to go overboard on our trip. This l'il ole man was senile and enjoyed that fact. He was drinking red wine which probably didn't help. It was a bummer but he took a spill and did a face plant on the edge of the bait tank and got a couple of nasty cuts - people have to be careful out on the water, it's to easy to get hurt. That didn't stop him though, his sharp little elbows went to work again and I had to tell him that he really needed to cut it out. Oh well, as you know, there is usually a couple of sore thumbs that stick out on any albie trip.

Yeah, it wasn't too rough, just chilly most the time.

seems that the old guy hops in on about every trip available, I recall seeing one and sometimes He's along with a buddy on quite a few trips. On one outing about two years ago, the grumpy thing cast out right behind me to boiling tuna, which is fine by me, the problem was that I was right in front of him and in the process of the cast he managed to clip me right in the back of the head with the rod butt, and to make things even better I dont think he even noticed the fact that he managed to toss my cap oberboard with the whack, no I'm sorry or anything, he just proceeded to force his way in the line as opposed as taking the end of the line and waiting to be rotated in position.

Yeah, I got the whack in the head too, it just happened to come from this old guys buddy. This guy had a hearing aid and the batteries were conveniently dead so he couldn't hear when you asked him to move down the rail. No joke, I later found out that this same guy was notorious for such behaviour - I talked to a guy on this trip who had been fishing long range for many years and he told me that he had to share a state room with this guy several years earlier on a 10 day trip and that the guy brought a milk crate for one reason only - to piss in the sink. He was short so he needed the extra foot - and no I am not joking - it really was the same guy!

sorry but I couldn't help to laugh my a## off
Being considerate the stairs from the staterooms to the can must have been a bit too much of a burden for the old guy. maube he forgot his walker :7

kelly when is school in session for some topwater action at cachuma, I saw your name in WON a while back you own that lake.

Read my Cachuma post for 7/4 it ain't good ....Maybe we can do Lopez as she's in my vest pocket also!

works for me! let me know when your ready?
fishtrax@earthlink.net

I dominate Lopez and it's kicking out lots of 4's and 5's on the walls now through September 21st. If you're not tossing a 6" red worm you're wasting your time. In October look for the lizard bite to take off. I got it down...

BC