TUNA BLOWOUT ON THE LISA ANNE
By Darold Givens

The seas were right, the temperature was right but the fish were over 60
miles off the coast of Half Moon Bay so the only decision was a two day trip.
Capt. Ken Bertelsen, George Flynn, Barry, Eric Swanson and I were the
crew. We loaded the boat with our supplies, went to the bait receiver to get
live sardines. The owner/operator was kind enough to make a special trip so
we could get live bait. We left HMB at 7 AM Monday and got to the fishing
grounds and lines in the water at 10AM. Fish on at 10:15 and it seemed non
stop most of the day. We were joined by other boats but the bite was so
spread out, not too many boats were seen but there was a lot of radio
chatter about a bite here or there but nothing that was a wide open bite.
Our trolling method is to troll 6 lines with various colored jigs and various
distances from the boat with longer lines on the outside and shorter lines
towards the center of the boat. When a fish hits one lure, we continue a
while until other lines get hit. Then stop the boat, fight the fish and bring in
the loose lines, and drop live bait in the water to keep the fish around the
boat. Live bait poles are then fished to get the fish that hang around. The
fish seemed to be in small schools and did not hang around long. We only
caught 5 fish on live bait and the rest were trolling.

We had made several stops Monday with 1-5 fish caught each stop. Our
Monday count was 26 albacore. We were all tired so we had a nice lasagna
dinner, cocktails and to bed except for the night watch which consisted of a
team of two for a 3 hour watch. With a boat drifting in the ocean someone
has to watch out for freighters or whatever is out there. The radar was
turned on and our anchor lights were lit. Eric and I had the first watch. It was
uneventful except I put out a baited hook and caught a blue shark that bit my
line off and a cute sea bird landed on our deck and kept us company. (see
picture)
When our watch was over, Ken came to the helm and put the boat in gear
since the tossing of the waves rocked too much and there were two
freighters getting too close for comfort. We all got up before the sun and put
our lines back into the water. It was fish-on before the sun even got up. The
action was nonstop and we had a total of over 60 fish before other boats
even got to the fishing grounds. That is the advantage of sleeping over in
the fishing grounds. There is one drawback. What do you do with so many
fish to keep them fresh? We cleaned the first days catch and put them on
ice. That took up all the extra space and ice we had. The fresh fish we left
whole until we got to the dock in Princeton and cleaned them in the harbor
(see pic). The local birds enjoyed this event.
This had been one of the most successful albacore tuna trips that Ken ever
had. Everyone was tired but happy. Most of the fish are going to be canned
and my friends and family will be eating fish for a week. We had covered
close to 250 miles so it just made sense to do an overnighter. Thank you
Ken for another successful and fun trip.
Albacore Tuna
Foster City Rod and Gun Club
Click on photos to enlarge