2008 Schedule is Ready!
Please check the schedule link for our remaining 2007 trips AND our 2008 schedule! Our successful summer 5-day trips are back, as well as a new "fish down-fly back" trip in December, 2008.
Heading to Guadalupe Island!
HOT NEWS FLASH FROM AUG 21!
Our Guadalupe Island permits came today! After five months of red tape and lots of hoops to jump through, the permits were issued to our Mexican representative, Juan Caro. Juan has worked very hard in conjunction with Bob Fletcher President of SAC to meet all the new requirements for applying and receiving permits this year. Our permit now is valid for two years. Hopefully the groundwork has been laid so we can obtain these permits, and any others necessary, in the future.
4-Day Braid Charter by Bill Roecker
4-Day Braid Charter
Skipper Art Taylor docked his Searcher after a four-day Braid Chartered trip. The boat’s 19 anglers got off at Fisherman’s Landing August 18. Charter mistress Jan Howard recalled rough waters the first day with good albacore fishing, but the next day they bit real well.
“Art was just great,” said Jan. “After those first two days of fishing albacore, the next morning we headed up to fish the kelps.”
Angler Stanford Parks of Oxnard said, “The Searcher is a five-star outfit. I’m going to sign up for next year’s trip, I didn’t know you could have so much fun!”
Joe Valle of El Monte took first place with a 41-pound albacore. Joe used a Mustad 3/0 hook on 25-pound Berkeley Big Game line, a Penn reel and a Seeker rod.
Don Culbertson of Sylmar was second for a 40.4-pound longfin and Mike Collins of Lompoc took third with a 38.6-pound albie.
“I slipped the first day out and pulled my hamstring,” said Collins.
“I caught one fish then spent the rest of the first day in my bunk. But it didn’t matter; I still had a great trip. What phenomenal albacore fishing!”
Three fat albies swept the Searcher jackpot.
“Everybody got their quota early,” said Skipper Taylor. “The fish we’ve seen all season long are finally biting, we’re all very grateful.”
Daughter, Father Win by Bill Roecker
On her second trip, Pamela Bies of Whittier won first place aboard the Searcher on a three-day trip with 22 anglers. Aaron Remy was the skipper. He said his best fishing came at about 80 miles, near the Butterfly Bank, inside the Cortes Bank.
“The best bite was from about eight in the morning to about one p.m.,” he said at Fisherman’s Landing August 14. “We saw lots of fish and some big bait balls.”
Pamela won for her 34-pound albacore. She got it with a sardine on a 4/0 hook, 25-pound fluorocarbon leader and 40-pound line on an Accurate-modified Penn 500 reel and a six and a half-foot Fenwick rod.
“He took me up to the bow and back, and across the stern,” she said. “I can’t wait to get home and show it off.”
Pamela’s dad Gary Heilgeist of Whittier won second place, for a 33.6-pound albie. John Avitia of Kingman, AZ won third place, for a 33.2-pound albacore.
Need More Paddies by Bill Roecker
Shimano and Let’s Talk Hookup sponsored an on the water seminar aboard the Searcher with skipper Aaron Remy that returned August 11.
“We could sure use some more kelp paddies,” said Remy. “But the ones we found were holding pretty good.”
The three-day trip had two chartermasters: Shimano’s Patrick Gee and Barry Brightenburg of Fish Trap. There were many loaner outfits on the boat.
Such a rig was used to good advantage by Chris Luciani of Greenville, PA, who won first place on the adventure for a 30.2-pound yellowtail. He said it bit a sardine on a 3/0 Gorilla hook on 30-pound Big Game line with a Shimano rod and reel.
Martin Ferriera of Jamul was second for a 20.8-pound yellowtail. Ron Young of Athens, OH got a dorado that tied his nephew’s (Rob Young of Poway) yellowtail for third place. Both fish weighed 19.6 pounds.
Father-Son Score
Father-Son Score
by Bill Roecker
Jason Fulton chartermastered the annual Accurate four-day trip aboard Searcher with owner/skipper Art Taylor. After the weigh-in he posed with the winners.
"We had excellent kelp paddy fishing," said Art at Point Loma Sportfishing, where he had docked to take some of the pressure off Fisherman’s Landing. Four boats arrived early August 4, creating a "dockjam."
Chad Creason of San Bernardino garnered the top spot for his 30-pound yellowtail. He got it with a sardine on a 3/0 ringed Gorilla hook on pink 30-pound Ande line. He said he used an Avet JX reel and a Calstar 755 rod.
Chad’s dad Clay Creason of Yucaipa was second for a 29-pounder, and Spencer Stoetzel of Baltimore, MD won third place for a 27-pound yellowtail.
Alijos Rocks article in Fish Sniffer, by Steve Carson
Searcher Finds Big Fish Galore For Penn Fishing University Anglers
http://www.fishsniffer.com/guest/070718searcher.html
By: Steve Carson
July 18, 2007
The 21 Penn Fishing University anglers aboard Captain Art Taylor’s 95-foot Searcher from Fisherman’s Landing in San Diego experienced red-hot action last week on big yellowtail, along with a shot at quality-size yellowfin tuna on a recent 7-day long-range excursion.
Although the albacore were a no-show for us both on the way down and on the way home, the group saw numerous personal bests for size and personal firsts for both species and technique. Several NorCal anglers were fortunate enough to be aboard.
Current and water conditions at Alijos were somewhat fickle, but kite baits consistently drew strikes from yellowfin in the 30 to 50 pound class. Best offering dangled under the kite was the ‘double trouble’ 2-sardine rigging. Also among the keeper tuna were some smaller tuna and lots of pesky yellowtail in the 10-pound class.
Jim Sanders with 53 lb yellowfin tuna Persistence paid off for anglers who fly lined greenback mackerel on 40-pound mono with a 50-pound test fluorocarbon leader and a #4/0 Owner Ringed Mutu circle hook, and several of the larger tuna were decked that way along with many of the smaller units. A total of 28 tuna up to 58 pounds were landed at Alijos.
Dropper-loop rigged sardines and yo-yo iron dropped down 300 feet were the ticket for some larger 30-plus pound class yellowtail both at the stones and Alijos Bank. I was able to score a half-dozen of the bigger yellows on 50-pound test Big Game Hi-Test mono by dropping a blue/white Sumo #6 because my Penn Torque TRQ300 still offered plenty of speed even with the reel 1/3 empty due to its’ 6.3 to 1 gear ratio.
No signs of wahoo were evident anywhere in the 66-degree water, but a diverse mixture of whitefish, sheephead, popeye catalufa and even a few starry rockfish kept fish coming over the rail at an almost constant pace. We did spot [but did not hook!] a few feeding dorado and a sea turtle feeding in our chumline, promising that warm water action is on the way soon.
One of the largest concentrations of oversize yellowtail in recent memory was stacked up at the south end of Cedros Island. Several long-range boats had already hit them hard the day before, but we found the 25-35 pound yellows eager to bite on both surface and yo-yo iron, along with sardines rigged almost any style.
Particularly effective were blue/white and scrambled egg Sumo #6 and #JR jigs fished yo-yo style or at 45-degrees. The yellows were also aggressively chasing the surface iron, and numerous outstanding fish over 30 pounds were nailed on blue/white Tady 45’s and Candy Bars, along with sardine-color Sumo 7X lights.
This writer did especially well by throwing a blue sardine-color Tady/Candy Bar jig on the new Tady TL1097 with a Penn Torque TRQ200. The reel was filled with a 100-yard top shot of 40-pound Big Game Hi-Test mono over 250 yards of 50-pound Big Game Braid. This combo allowed me to very nearly cast to the knot [100 yards], and is already my favorite serious surface iron combo.
Dennis Harvel (right) with 38 lb. yellowtailAs is often the case at Cedros, a late-afternoon bite on oversize yellowtail developed for anglers using the biggest greenback mackerel in the bait tank. It took patience to allow time for the yellows to swallow the 2-pound plus baits, but clearly the speed of the mackerel were triggering the predatory ‘chase’ instincts of the game fish.
Besides the red-hot yellowtail action, we also managed to deck a beautiful 35-pound white seabass, a couple of very large halibut and even a pair of Humboldt squid during our stay at Cedros.
Jim Sanders of Aromas [near Salinas] was on his first long-range trip longer than 5 days. “I almost caught my limit on yellowtail, including my personal best of 30 pounds. My biggest tuna was also my personal best, it went 53 pounds and won second place in the jackpot.”
“I had never fished jigs with this much success before, and I also enjoyed learning about fishing the dropper loop rig. Fishing tuna under the kite was fun, especially because it catches the biggest fish.”
“The longer tips are a different mindset with the travel and prep time at the beginning. It’s also hard to release 20-pound fish without knowing what’s in the future.”
Veteran long-ranger Dennis Harvel of Sacramento also managed to achieve his “personal best” yellowtail with a 38-pounder that hit a dropper-loop rigged sardine at Alijos Rocks. “This was the most and the biggest yellowtail I have ever caught,” commented Harvel. “We also released a lot of what would be very good size yellowtail in California waters, including some 15 and 20-pounders.”
“The trip was great, the food is as good as you get on a cruise ship, and crew is absolutely outstanding. I was hoping for a few albacore, but unfortunately they weren’t available.”
Chef Randy Fickes with 45 lb halibut-DINNER!We had a pair of field-test models of the upcoming Penn Torque TRQ100 reels. Mounted on an 8-foot Penn Bluewater GSD800L rod and filled with a top shot of 30-pound test Big Game Hi-Test mono over 40-pound test Superbraid, they were a potent combination on the big Cedros Island yellowtail with both fly lined sardines and small blue/white Sumo #C2 and Tady #4/0 jigs.
Between the two test reels, over 30 yellowtail from 10 to 35 pounds and one stray 20-pound Alijos yellowfin were caught by various crewmembers, passengers and myself. Randy Fickes, the Searcher’s chef exclaimed, “This reel casts a sardine an unbelievable distance!”
Once hooked up, the little Torque reels more than lived up to their name, exhibiting astounding cranking power almost equivalent to a 2-speed in “low.”
Captain Art Taylor has owned the Searcher for many years, and his professionalism and fishing expertise show in every facet of the operation. Veteran crewmembers include second skipper Kevin Ward, Kenny Merrill, Joe Santos and even rookie long-ranger Jordan Rickman has several years working on the local boats. Master chef Randy Fickes is backed up by Will Brown, who made sure that nobody lost any weight.
Top spot in the jackpot was taken by Bill Zemba of Castaic with a 58.4 pound yellowfin tuna. Zemba received a Penn Torque TRQ300 reel and Penn Bluewater GS765XL rod combo and a tuna trophy. Jim Sanders of Aromas was runner-up with his 53.0 pound yellowfin, and Lloyd Doyle of Long Beach was third with a 46.4 pound yellowfin.
The Owner Hooks “First Yellowtail” award was snared by Rick Garratt of Sherman Oaks, while Walt Graham of Las Vegas got the “First Tuna” prize. The Flying Fisherman “Iron Man” prize went to the big yellowtail boated by David Redkey of Mission Viejo.
The Albackore “True Sportsman” award was given to Juan Cabrera of Riverside. This award is decided by the boat’s crew, based on the angler who best exemplifies the true spirit of sportsmanship.
Other outstanding catches included the 38-pound yellowtail by Dennis Harvel of Sacramento, a 35-pound white seabass by John Avitia of Kingman, AZ and a monster 45-pound halibut by chef Randy Fickes. That big halibut was served up as a spectacular dinner for the passengers on the final night out.
Dorado’s biting now!
Dodo Biting Now by Bill Roecker First grade teacher Kim Day of Sacramento made her fifth fishing trip aboard the Searcher with skipper Art Taylor, and got her best dorado ever under a paddy, with a sardine on 40-pound line. She also assisted in the lineup shot, posing with Tom Tewksbury’s second-place 35.4-pound yellow, while he held on to his 28-pound halibut. Art Taylor handled the driving chores on the five-day trip, which visited Cedros Island. Ken Bush of El Cajon won first place for a 36.2-pound yellowtail. He said he got that one on a 2/0 ringed Owner Flyliner hook, 30-pound Maxima line, an Avet 3X reel and a Seeker six and a half-foot rod. Pat Patino of Orange won third place for a 34-pound yellowtail, and Matt Gilchrist joined the winners with his honorable mention 37-pound white seabass.
TRAFFIC TO SAN DIEGO!
Don’t forget to leave yourself some extra travel time if you are driving into San Diego from the north. The Del Mar racetrack season has started! That and other summertime beach events really has the I-5 clogged up. The other advantage to arriving early is the chance for a parking spot from a passenger coming back from a trip.
Limits of Albacore by Paul Sweeney
Lot of Variety
by Paul Sweeney
Searcher Skipper Art Taylor docked at Fisherman’s Landing July 4 after a four-day trip with limits of albacore. Norm Fujimoto, of Izorline, chartermastered the trip, in its 12th year. "It was awesome." said Taylor. "We just kicked the hell outta them; as good as albacore fishing as it gets."
Izorline pro-staffer Gary Teraoka said "we were by ourselves, and Art found ’em!" "It was like an eight day trip in four. We had non-stop action from 11 to 2 on our second day and got our limits, so we went to San Martin to fish for table food. We caught rock cod, lings, some reds; a lot of variety for a four day trip."
Fred Sako of Montebello took first place with a 32.8-pound albacore that was rewarded with biggest fish caught with Izorline. Sako was photographed with Fujimoto and an Izorline trophy. Sako used a 94150 Mustad hook custom ringed by Gary Teraoka on 30-pound XXL Izorline backed with 80-pound Izorline Spectra, an Accurate 870 2-speed reel on a Calstar 665 rod.
Rob Manuel of Covina took third place with a 29.6-pound albacore. Manuel used a 4/0 Mustad hook on 40-pound Big Game line, a Daiwa 30 two-speed reel, and a Calstar 665 rod.