PENN 6-Day Trip Aboard Searcher

By Steve Carson

SEARCHER ENCOUNTERS “MEGA-SCHOOL” OF YELLOWFIN TUNA DURING 6-DAY PENN FISHING UNIVERSITY TRIP

The 25 anglers aboard Captain Art Taylor’s “Searcher”, out of Fisherman’s Landing in San Diego during the late September 6-day Penn Fishing University excursion shared an extremely rare phenomenon that few anglers anywhere have seen; a “Mega-School” of yellowfin tuna. Anglers journeyed from Northern and Southern California, Nevada, Arizona, Florida, and even Canada for the trip.

OFFSHORE
The first two days of the trip found Captain Taylor working very hard to locate widely scattered schools of mixed bluefin tuna, yellowfin tuna, and dorado. The bluefin were quality-sized, running from 20 to over 40 pounds, while the dorado and yellowfin tuna were mostly in the 15-20 pound class.

ISLANDS
Some adverse offshore weather spurred the Searcher to head toward the more sheltered waters of Cedros Island and Natividad Island for two days, both well-known central Baja yellowtail hangouts. The yellowtail there were well-fed and never quite wanted to bite with abandon, but did provide steady action on quality-grade fish from 15 to 30 pounds.

MEGA SCHOOL
The final day was one that will go down in San Diego angling history. At about 190 miles from home, the Searcher joined 4 other long range boats on top of a “Mega-School” of 25-50 pound yellowfin tuna. Literally hundreds of acres of jumping, boiling tuna, aggressively biting everything in the water, whether live sardines, or just about any lure.

Very few of the group could ever remember being in a bite that intense, for that long, at any time in their lives. Trip limits were easily filled out, and the exhausted anglers chalked this one up for the record books.

CAPTAIN’S SUMMARY
The final score of over 500 fish came in at 36 bluefin tuna, 313 yellowfin tuna, 22 dorado, and 153 yellowtail. Veteran skipper Art Taylor explained “The ‘Mega-School’ of yellowfin tuna was 190 miles from San Diego, in 71 degree water. There is no accurate way to measure how many fish were there; it was 120 to 200 feet of solid tuna on the sounder, and they were visible for a long way all around us. The size of the school was at least 100 tons plus.

JACKPOT WINNERS
Overall Jackpot honors went to Ken Barackman of Vista with a 43.6 pound bluefin tuna that earned him a new Penn Torque TRQ25NLD2 2-speed reel. Largest yellowtail earned Travis Cox a Penn Baja Special reel for his 31.1 pounder. Joe Budinich of Las Vegas got a Penn Squall SQL25N reel for his 22.2 pound dorado.

The Flying Fisherman “Master Jig Caster” award went to Dave Nearing of Imperial Beach for his 38.2 pound yellowfin. The Owner Hooks “First Fish” awards went to Travis Cox [yellowfin tuna], Steve Lipkin [bluefin tuna], and Don Nance [dorado]. The Flambeau “Rookie of the Year” was Travis Cox, and the coveted “Flambeau True Sportsman Award” as voted by the crew of the Searcher was Kurt Pedersen.

Next year’s 6-day Penn Fishing University adventure aboard the Searcher will run on September 13-19, 2014. Contact SearcherSportfishing.com for reservations and information.

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