October 16 2013 American Angler Trip

The Fishing trip departed on time with no problems, loaded up with a beautiful load of bait and headed out to sea. The night was highlighted by a Family meeting with Captain Sam Patella, along with loads of gifts and great info from Penn reels Charter Master Steve Carson. The plan was to start out the next morning at the Tuna pens about 160 miles south and try for some bluefin Tuna. The day looked bright and everyone was itching to start fishing. Unfortunately, the tuna didn't want to play with us, so after a frustrating morning we continued our voyage south.

 Day two of fishing kicked off when we arrived at Turtle Bay and started to fish for Yellowtail, the fish were willing, and we had a great morning landing 15-25 pound yellows, and after a great lunch we continued south. 

 Day three we started kelp paddy fishing, looking for tuna and what ever else might be under the kelp.  What we found was an epic Dorado bite. This was one for the record books, we stopped on two different kelp paddies that each held 10-15 pound Dorado. Wide open fishing followed, the Dorado we're hitting every bait thrown, jumping in the air and dancing across the water. This went on for about 3-4 hours and after the dust cleared everyone had full limits. After another great lunch we decided to move further south to an area know as “The Ridge”, to hunt for Wahoo and Yellowfin Tuna. 

Day four we arrived at the northern end of the ridge and started looking for the very elusive Wahoo. We took turns trolling and ended up getting a total of 8 Wahoo mixed with a handful of smaller Yellowfin tuna. 

On day five, we found ourselves at the southern end of the ridge, and this time we had better luck. We continued to troll and landed another 20 Wahoo mixed with several Yellowfin tuna. I was lucky enough to catch my first Wahoo and it was very exciting. Later that afternoon we started north to avoid bad weather our destination was back to Turtle Bay to give the Yellowtail another try.

 Day Six of this adventure treated us to another epic day of fishing, with everyone landing 20-30 pound Yellowtail.  Everybody was instantly hooked up with most of us pinned to the rail by these hard fighting fish, they gave everyone a real work out. After several hours of this type of fishing, and everyone getting limits we called it a night. 

The following morning after moving north all night we stopped outside Colonet to give the Bluefin another try. This time the Bluefin were hungry, and everyone got a few fat tuna to take home.  Most of the fish were 15-25 pounds with one 40 pounder mixed in. We ran out of bait about 12 noon with the Bluefin still biting, so we pulled the anchor and headed home. 

This was a great trip and a perfect example of the many different types of fishing one can expect on a long range trip out of San Diego in the Fall. Not to be over looked was the truly outstanding service we received from the crew of the American Angler. This is a first class organization from top to bottom, everything you need is taken care of.  I've been on many long range trips on many different boats, and I can truly say the American Angler is definitely one Premier Organization.