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14 days aboard the longrange boat Intrepid

Posted: January 29th, 2015, 5:24 pm
by Kent VanSooy
Returned last week from the Intrepid’s latest venture. The weather was a challenge, but I did end up with a new personal best – a 191# yellowfin tuna. The biggest fish of the trip was a “supercow”, and weighed in at 305#. A tropical cyclone (which until this year was unheard of in January) chased us away from Hurricane bank after only a single day of fishing. We stayed at Clarion Island (SW of Cabo) for three days, and hit Alijos Rocks both on the way down and on the way back for outstanding wahoo fishing. The tuna fishing was so-so, we probably had only about a dozen fish over 100. We loaded up on dorado after a troll stop, and also caught several big grouper along with a couple amberjack.
I’ll let the pictures do most of the talking. The pics came from four different cameras (including the Intrepid’s) and clearly the camera dates weren’t synchronized, so the order is all over the place, but you’ll get the picture (ahem!).

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Re: 14 days aboard the longrange boat Intrepid

Posted: January 30th, 2015, 6:11 am
by VICtort
Congratulations on that fine YFT, and also your endurance. It looks pretty rough out there near the aptly named Hurricane Bank. Great photo of you in the starboard corner. Also a nice one of you and your fresh tuna, still aglow... there are few sights so beautiful as a "lit up" tuna or marlin.
Interesting trip, your Captain did a good job of making the best out of variable and not so friendly conditions, pulling some groupers and amberjack along with the usual long trip faire, wahoo and YFT. I will be calling, I want to hear the lurid details on tackle and what you will and will not do again. Thanks for posting and enjoy that fine dining that wahoo offers, you deserve it and worked for it. Some of those wahoo on the deck mats are nice, really thick ones. Not for the feint of heart, but the photo of gaffing your tuna is pretty dramatic, no need to bleed that one before stowing below. The aft end of the vessel, does the Intrepid need engine or exhaust maintenance, smoky?

tight lines, Vic

Re: 14 days aboard the longrange boat Intrepid

Posted: January 30th, 2015, 10:25 am
by BillMcGighan
Great, Kent.
We look forward to this post almost every year or so.
Thanks


Wahoo steaks are one of our favorites. Is Ciguatera any issue on the west coast with any of those species?

Re: 14 days aboard the longrange boat Intrepid

Posted: February 3rd, 2015, 2:55 am
by pete
Holy shit!! You guys nailed em!! The yellowfins are enormous, what was the average?
Glad to see you had such a good time :thumb:

Re: 14 days aboard the longrange boat Intrepid

Posted: February 3rd, 2015, 8:40 am
by Kent VanSooy
Thanks guys!

Vic, check your email. You're right about the engines - we lost one of the way home with blown rings, and it smoked like crazy on its way out. We were able to limp back to port on a single engine. The boat had to cancel the following trip (which no doubt was hard on the anglers who had been preparing and were ready to leave their normal lives for two weeks).

Bill, I'm glad you enjoy these long-range reports! The fleet based out of San Diego that does this kind of fishing is unique in the world, folks come from all over the country to try their luck on these beautiful vessels. I had never heard of Ciguatera, so it must not be an issue....! We do eat some of the fish on the boat immediately after they've been caught - this trip we enjoyed mahi, wahoo, and tuna. The mahi and wahoo were cooked, but we had the tuna sashimi-style (after it had been swimming just hours earlier), and it was fantastic.

Pete, the size of the tuna was all over the place, from 15# to 305#. There were more smaller ones (less than 50#) than the larger models. You never know however when a big one might inhale your bait, and that compels the angler to always fish with heavy tackle. I used 130# line in the early morning, then as the days got brighter I dropped to 100#, but nothing less than that.

Re: 14 days aboard the longrange boat Intrepid

Posted: February 21st, 2015, 9:46 am
by reptologist
Kent, awesome post, thanks for sharing. I never expected to read fishing reports on a reptile forum. I have always wanted to try a long range trip like that. I do a lot of sport fishing abroad and your post has me thinking maybe I should give long range fishing a try. Beside engine problems was there anything else you experienced that was negative?

Re: 14 days aboard the longrange boat Intrepid

Posted: February 23rd, 2015, 12:53 pm
by Kent VanSooy
Well, the weather was pretty lousy for a good chunk of the trip - windy, cool, and high seas. It gets a little old when the weather is bad, everything is hard - it's hard to fish, hard to eat (you don't have enough hands to hold everything down), and hard to sleep. I've slowly worked my way up to these long trips - started with a 2.5 day, then 6, 8, 10, 11, and finally this 14-day.

Re: 14 days aboard the longrange boat Intrepid

Posted: February 25th, 2015, 6:10 am
by reptologist
Kent VanSooy wrote:Well, the weather was pretty lousy for a good chunk of the trip - windy, cool, and high seas. It gets a little old when the weather is bad, everything is hard - it's hard to fish, hard to eat (you don't have enough hands to hold everything down), and hard to sleep. I've slowly worked my way up to these long trips - started with a 2.5 day, then 6, 8, 10, 11, and finally this 14-day.
Thanks for the review, I don't think that would be for me. I don't experience sea sickness often but the thought of dealing with rough conditions for several days doesn't seem like a risk I want to chance. Oh well, I am going to cross that one off of the bucket list.