Striper Talk Striped Bass Fishing, Surfcasting, Boating

I got the call that every offshore fisherman wants to get Friday night. My brother calls me up and says hey I'm heading to the canyons tomorrow morning for an overnighter and want to know if you want to go. The water is great and there are plenty of fish to be had. Rumors of marlin and big sickle finned yellowfins are floating about the docks from some of the heavy hitters and we got into them pretty good a few days ago. So I said I'll be there in the morning. When I get down south we load up the boat with all the necesary gear, bait, and ice we'll need; take on some fuel and point the big rocket ship towards the east to see what it holds for us. As we get closer to the edge the water is warming up nicely and changing to that all so familiar cobalt color so we search for the break and soon enough put in the spread. No sooner do we get the spread out when we get covered up with skippies. Not what we want but they are excellent tuna bait and well take 'em. We redeploy the spread when off to the starboard side we notice not 1 not 2 but 5 white's finning themselves so we swing the spread right over them and 2 light up and slash at the bait. Drop one back and nothing. We circle them for some time and they seem only half interested in the spread but interested enough for us to spent a bit of time with them. We tried all the usual tricks, dropping back, stalling , quick twitch and few other tricks for no joy but it was a great sign. Marlin seen early in the trip. As we press further to our destination for the night we have a few guest in the spread and 3 of the rods scream off some line. We on and they are YFT's! One pops off and we land 2 30-40 lbers. The YFT cherry is popped for 2011!!! Once the fish are on board and the hiooks removed back into the spread they go. Birds are picking the surface we are marking bait but that is all the action until the night comes.

We decide to have dinner and put out the chum for some sharks hoping for a mako. It didn't take long for a few blue sharks to show, and some big browns. Fun to catch but not what we are after so we send down the sword bait in hopes of a sword and put more meat on the hooks for Mr. Mako. A few more sharks caught and released and then the line goes off and the hook is set. The line races off and we are hooked to something. We are excited to see what it is and after a few minutes of getting line back Mr. mako shows this time by way of a jump. Great sign. He make one more run and this time he is gassed so I leader him and my brother off him with the shot gun. Tailroped and hung. We accomplish on of our 3 goals. The rest of the night is quiet, no more makos.
Once false light is upon us we put out the spread. Maybe a big eye maybe a YFT who knows but it looks awesome and 3 minutes into the troll with birds going nuts so did the tuna. The whole spread got blasted by nice yellow fin ranging from 50 -100 lbs. Grabbing rods over each other under each other leadering gaffing reeling. This went on for 3 hours. after 50 or so tuna caught some kept to our limit and the rest released we decide to head home tired and with a front coming at us. We could have had 100 yellows if we stayed it was all out blitzburg. So final tally a whole $hitload of skippies, 1 mako,decent shots and viewed whites and a conservative 50 yft's and some quality ones in the mix ;I'd say it was an awesome trip.
I think I might go back next weekend. There were reports of blue marlin hooked up to other boats but broke off while dancing on the surface. It was unbelievable.