22nd/23rd Chinco overnighter (Late Report)

[Mako22]

Sorry for the late report, but I am just now getting back to a computer...

Fished an overnighter last thursday night out of Chinco with my brother. Started out at the tip of the Washington on the troll for a couple hours, but didn't do a thing. Started our first drift at sunset in about 400ft of water at the tip, but wasn't marking a whole lot, and couldn't buy a bite.

About 10:00 moved inside to the 30 fa lumps where we fared better. First tuna on about 11:30, and then at 4:00 all hell broke lose. Couldn't keep a line in the water for about an hour - went 3 for 6 on run offs on yft averaging about 50lbs, and one mahi. Everything on live and dead squid, nothing on butters. At 5:30 it was over. Picked up one more at about 8:00 while we were napping. Once that one was in the boat, we were done. Packed up and headed in about 8:30.

The best depth seemed to be about 160-165ft outside of the NSSS.

With only two of us on the boat, we had a busy night and come daylight, we were spent.

Total for the trip was 5 YFT (two about 30 lbs, and three about 50 lbs), and one Mahi. We debated trying to bail mahi on the way in, but the boxes were full enough for the two of us, and we had had enough!).

The weatherman lied on this one. Had a great day on thursday, flat calm seas - but at about 9:00pm or so, the wind picked up to about 15 where it stayed for most of the night and for the ride in (Obviously, it had to blow from the west, giving us reel nice ride home...) As we were on a 22ft center console, I was looking with envy at every boat with a cabin once we were back on land!

The one downside of the night - as I was plugging in the stern light post, one of the prongs in the plug broke off. Without a spare on board, we spent the night with our running lights on, and a close eye out for passing boats. There were a ton of scallopers anchored for the night in about 170 ft outside the NSSS - so as they stirred, we had to shine the spotlight to make sure they saw us.

Overall, for our first overnighter we had a blast. Plenty of fish, and the seas weren't too bad. We were both surprised how quickly the night passed. I'll definitely be planning more in the future.

[TerpHeels]

Nice job on them tuna. The nsss lives on....!

[TommyTuna]

congrats, it sure is more fun in the dark.

try to borrow a small 1-2kw generator next night - plenty of light with a couple 500w Halogens and most have a DC charging circuit to keep boat batteries charged

[Mako22]

TT - Thanks for the tip.

We pulled a car battery and brought it with us for insurance - and used a flouresant light in the water to attract the squid/etc ... which we had tons of around the light for much of the night.

Speaking of the squid, I am still finding stains in odd places from the ink they were spraying...

[swhit]

nice, we fished somewhere near you, we ended up w/ 4 yft and 7 smallish dolphin. lost either a big bluefin or a big shark while chunkin.

[fish22485]

Nice job on the tunas, I'm presently lookin fer a bigger mako now w/a cuddy 23-25 as i've been cc to death and would appreciate a little comfort also. We went to nsss and like you met plenty of traffic from scallopers also, with little boat it jumps the pucker factor up a bunch! Cathin them squids for bait is a treat too, kinda enjoy it and if they are there the tunas won't be far.......like candy.................Bill 79 mako 20 cc Holy Mackerel

[fullrut2]

man I love it..I cant wait to get my rig all fixed up.
26 world cat 266sc with new radar.Just need to rerig my trailer brakes and I will be joining you out there..what types of reels did you use??? 30 or 50 class? shimano or penn??? trying to decide what to buy.New penn 50's or shimano 50's?
thanks, doug[grin]

[Mako22]

Fish 22 - I hear you on the CCs. I love the boat I have now, and like the open front 90% of the time. For my next boat I am drooling over a Carolina Classic 25.

Full rut - I use Penn 114's. I've only been doing this for 3-4 years, so cost has been a factor as there is alot of gear to buy.

I have been perfectly happy with the 114's - and they have done fine with BFT up to about 100 lbs. That being said, any reels I buy in the future will probably be lever drags, but I don't plan on replacing what I have now.