just got back from san diego from a day of fishing aboard the legend off seaforth landing. i know everybody likes to see pics but i'm still in the stone ages and use a disposable camera rather than a digital one. anyways, the skipper decided to go pretty far south, about 90+ miles i think. we hit pretty big schools of albacore all in the 20+ pound range. the boat totalled 161 fish. haven't seen such a bloody deck in quite some time. i went on this trip wanting to catch a tuna on plastics for the first time but ended up catching all fish on fly-line anchovies on a #2 hook with a 1/4 oz sliding sinker. personally i caught 4 out of 8. 2 were sawed off and 2 were lost because i didn't set the hook very well, one of which took an incredible amount of 30 lb line. bluefin maybe? i guess i'll never know. i must say that the crew was extremely professional and very helpful for everyone. the only time i needed to yell for the gaff was when there were more hookups than there were crew. the crew was definitely on top of things. as for the fellow fishermen, the first jig stop, everyone communicated well and executed the "tuna shuffle" perfectly. there were minimal tangles and i don't think any fish were lost with the count totalling 70+ fish. i was so glad to see everyone working together. then starting from the 2nd jig stop, all hell broke loose and i guess people forgot they were fishing for tuna because nobody was shuffling for them. it became a night mare. everyone would throw their bait at the stern and just stay there. imagine about 25 people at the stern while few are hooked up with a 20 pound fish. if it weren't for the crew, the fish count would probably be half of what it is. i give the crew and boat an A+ while us fishermen get a B. overall we had C- performance but the first jig stop was so incredibly organized and amazing that i give us a B. all in all, the albacore are within 1 day range from san diego and almost every boat is whacking 'em.

Great report! I am going out there on the Pacific Queen on a 1.5 dayer in two weeks. I can't wait to get on them fishies! :9 I hope to get one or some on a plastics, but we'll see if that actually happens. It is tough to stray from a technique like live bait fishing if it is working perfectly and everyone around you is nailing them... Fly-lining is about as fun as it gets anyway, but we'll see! What line weight seemed to be the most successful? I know you mentioned 30, but were people going any heavier then that? Thanks for the report!

the fish didn't seem line-shy and the 30# setup worked fine for me. i'd recommend 25 or 30#. anything heavier was unnecessary and anything lighter, with 30 other people on the boat, you'll probably lose most of your fish. seemed to me that the chovies got hit better than the dines. the deckhands were sayin the farther south the better the fishing got. by the time you go on your 1.5 day trip it should definitely be WFO albie time.