Mr. C - Bernie Caughlin - 115 lb Opah
Hey Gang
Just wanted to share a few great images from our American Angler 1.5 day trip sponsored by my company Curtis Rosenthal Inc. Sorry for getting this up so late. Life on the Beach got a bit hectic with work and I lost a little track of time - - -
In case some of you guys were wondering, I work for a Commercial Real Estate Firm based here in LA. I had the pleasure to fill the Charter with a group of folks from the Real Estate World, in addition to some of my long time fishing partners in crime.
Brian was in the Wheelhouse and we had our usual "A-Team" Crew on deck for the adventure. Kiyo had been on the water for 20 days and noted that is has been full speed springtime conditions out on the grounds - Wind Wind Wind!!!! It had been difficult for the local fleet to located the fish with all of the wind, so the counts have been way off the week of our trip. Good for us the forecast was calling for 5-10 kts - keeping our fingers crossed for Butter......
Stone, Todd, and Mike
Bob Hoose and Ernie
We left the dock early and had a little window to take a look at the Nados before we shot down the beach - The Honorable John Liu with a nice Yellow
Matt Salas
Fortunate for us, Mother Nature took the Day Off and we had minimal wind in the zone. The trollers were in the water not 10 minutes and we had our first Jigstrike in the Grey. The boat was bent and the mayhem was in full effect. We landed a number of baitfish and we were off to the races.
Postage Stamp
The rest of the day was filled with some long lulls for the troll teams. The area of fish was very small that was 4 miles long and 3 miles wide. With such a small spot of water to work with, it was like being on a Merry Go Round with the other Big Boats.
Late in the Day, Brian stopped the Angler on a Mark and told us to drop baits to see what would happen, We had a single biter on the Mark which turned into a real show for the group. With no other hook ups, we all gathered around and then we heard Brian call from above "Opah - It's an Opah!!!" A what????? Where is my camera?!?!?!!?!?! What the F........
The fish fought a little funny pulling steady with no head shakes. It looked like dead weight, then the drama started. Bernie's reel started to make funny noises so Taro and Cameron went to work splicing in a two speed outfit to replace Bernie's gear....."Come on Bernie....follow us up to the Bow"
We were all stunned when the Opah came to color. Well our new friend coincidentally brought up a few friends......Albacore started to Bubble off the Bow and a flurry of commenced. After the commotion, we all regrouped to check out the Trophy that was lying on the deck.
It was the Fish of a Lifetime!!!! The Opah looked like a fish from the Simpsons - An overgrown goldfish that Barney or Homer sat on..... The Colors and spots were something out of a cartoon. I was so stoked Bernie was the one who landed the Beauty. Well Done Bernie!!!!!
The bite throughout the day was picky and ---- Well, it was "Classic" Albacore. Morning Flurry, pick here and there throughout the day, getting your turn being stuck in Troll Jail, and finding the biting fish in the afternoon into the night. Brian and the Crew did their usual thing - A1 Classic Service and doing what it takes to get the Job Done. Brian made sure we all took home a fish...Including the Fearless CharterMaster who had issues keeping his tunafish on the hook
So my wife grabbed the camera to capture some shots of the evening bite. She had the camera set on the panoramic setting where you can take 3 adjacent shots of wide shot and my camera will sew the 3 images together - picture #3 is pretty classic - The image below is what the process spits out - -
Thank you Brian for the great trip for the group. I think Bernie is still reeling from the Catch. It was real nice to hear his thanks to Taro and Cameron for lending a hand. The group was awesome and look forward to 2011. If you want to get on for next year, send me an email and grab a spot -
Greg Stoney - Wahoo
Been seeing several schools like this for the last couple of weeks. 40-50 lb drum being munched on by much bigger sharks! Many thousands in each school.
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