Pete Gray’s 10-day Let’s Talk Hookup trip with skipper Tim Ekstrom aboard the Royal Star returned December 9 to Fisherman’s Landing with three cows and a good catch of tuna.
“I didn’t get a big one, just some 100-pounders,� said Pete. “But we saw a lot of big fish blowing out around us.�
One of those big fish made an error on Steven Burnst’s sardine, one of the few baits with a hook in it to be gobbled. That one weighed 298 pounds on the boat, just missing the 300-pound mark.
“I went out slow with a butt-hooked sardine,� said Burnst. “I had a slow take. When I set the hook he woke up and made two long runs. Then he got tail-wrapped, and that was his undoing. He came up in the port corner. I never had to move off the stern rail, just went from side to side.�
Steve said he pinned his sardine on a 7/0 Eagle Claw hook he ringed himself (he’s a goldsmith at his store “Golden Treasures,� in Solana Beach), tied to 100-pound Blackwater fluorocarbon leader and 130-pound Izorline Spectra backing on a Penn 50 W reel and a Calstar Boomer Jr. rod.
Why weren’t the big ones biting hook baits? Dr, Andy Cooperman of Encinitas was aboard, trying to entice one of the whoppers at the surface.
“I talked with skipper Ekstrom about it,� said Cooperman, “about the way the fish were coming up on those natural baits. Maybe it’s related more to the depth of the baits than how close they are to the boat.�
Riggs Smith of Fremont won second place for a 276-pounder.
“That one was possessed,� said Ekstrom. “It was a devil fish.�
“That’s right,� agreed Riggs. “He fought really hard for two hours, and then he busted the tip off my rod and we had to splice the line.�
Smith baited a mackerel on a 9/0 Eagle Claw hook, and tied it to 100-pound Izorline and 130-pound Izorline Spectra backing on an Avet 50 W reel. He used a Rogue Rod of five and a half feet, at least until the tip broke off and he switched outfits.
Patrick Dunn of McKinney, TX won third place for the trip’s third cow, a 233.5-pounder that took a sardine on a 9/0 Eagle Claw hook. He used 130-pound Seaguar fluorocarbon leader, 130-pound Line One Spectra, an Avet 50 N reel and a Calstar 755 XH rod.
“I fought him for 25 minutes,� said Dunn. “This is only my second trip, and this is for sure my best fish.� |
