Anyone here do any deep sea fishing? Update: I'm back!!!

[JulesMaximus]

I just reread the thread. The reel you have in a reasonable range as far as scale. Without knowing the rod, just that it is 6' isn't going to help much, but I can't imagine you have that on a small rod.

No, it was paired with a decent rod for ocean fishing when I bought the combo years ago. I think I paid about $179 for the pair at Turners. I've used it a few times on a friend's 26' Bayliner and my son has used it for pier fishing.

 

[DrPizza]

Jules, no reason to go out and buy yourself a rig. If you really want to you can pick up a decent rig & reel for about $400 but it won't be capable of handling any of those fish if they're in excess of about 30#.

Makes more sense to rent this time and see what you want.

I know very little about deep sea rods - but find it amazing that it costs so much just to be able to handle a 30 pound fish. Do ocean fish fight that much better than fresh water fish? E.g., big cats, muskies - equipment isn't that much for a pole that can handle them; unless you're getting into the higher end stuff for the sake of better feel, etc. That is, a Zebco pole will fight a big bass just as well as a carbon fiber pole - handling the fish isn't the issue; detecting a hit is. In fact, fairly frequently when fishing is a little slow and I'm tired of targeting bass and pike specifically, I'll switch over to my Spiderman pole - every cast, I sing the Spiderman theme song. Got a 12 pound cat on spiderman last week - a little kids pole - it was a lot of fun. Seems that every year, or every other year at the most, I get the best fish and most fish with Spiderman (which makes it a family joke; the 2nd place pole, is my pole, and the pole that catches the 3rd most game fish is one of my poles as well.) The pole had no trouble handling it. I don't mean to sound condescending at all - just am curious why such expensive equipment is required versus makes for a better fishing experience?

 

[MongGrel]

I'd imagine they'd have the gear some of it runs half a grand plus just for starters at least I imagine these days.

If you're not planning on doing it on a regular basis not sure I'd do it unless you've money to burn.

Haven't even used many in awhile, but they can get pricey.

I could be wrong haven't looked in ages, but still ...

That ole black rod on the right with a old PENN Senator on it was an all time favorite.

The motorized one is the same reel, they are nice.

 

[MongGrel]

Honestly I hadn't even looked in a long time but I recommend em, looks you can get a Penn these days for a decent price if you're serious about buying one.

150 bucks for a reel thereabouts at least.

Not sure if they are the same as the old school ones.

Have fun man.

*Edit* Just reread up that PENN reel should be fine with what you're doing, we used to use em all the time.

Get some new line and stick it on a different pole maybe if just want to upgrade I'd say, but sounds to me you'd be good to go all ready.

 

[MongGrel]

I know very little about deep sea rods - but find it amazing that it costs so much just to be able to handle a 30 pound fish. Do ocean fish fight that much better than fresh water fish? E.g., big cats, muskies - equipment isn't that much for a pole that can handle them; unless you're getting into the higher end stuff for the sake of better feel, etc. That is, a Zebco pole will fight a big bass just as well as a carbon fiber pole - handling the fish isn't the issue; detecting a hit is. In fact, fairly frequently when fishing is a little slow and I'm tired of targeting bass and pike specifically, I'll switch over to my Spiderman pole - every cast, I sing the Spiderman theme song. Got a 12 pound cat on spiderman last week - a little kids pole - it was a lot of fun. Seems that every year, or every other year at the most, I get the best fish and most fish with Spiderman (which makes it a family joke; the 2nd place pole, is my pole, and the pole that catches the 3rd most game fish is one of my poles as well.) The pole had no trouble handling it. I don't mean to sound condescending at all - just am curious why such expensive equipment is required versus makes for a better fishing experience?

It's the possibility of fighting with something in many hundreds of pounds, more or less

Depends what you're looking to fish for a lot of the time.

 

[JulesMaximus]

I know very little about deep sea rods - but find it amazing that it costs so much just to be able to handle a 30 pound fish. Do ocean fish fight that much better than fresh water fish? E.g., big cats, muskies - equipment isn't that much for a pole that can handle them; unless you're getting into the higher end stuff for the sake of better feel, etc. That is, a Zebco pole will fight a big bass just as well as a carbon fiber pole - handling the fish isn't the issue; detecting a hit is. In fact, fairly frequently when fishing is a little slow and I'm tired of targeting bass and pike specifically, I'll switch over to my Spiderman pole - every cast, I sing the Spiderman theme song. Got a 12 pound cat on spiderman last week - a little kids pole - it was a lot of fun. Seems that every year, or every other year at the most, I get the best fish and most fish with Spiderman (which makes it a family joke; the 2nd place pole, is my pole, and the pole that catches the 3rd most game fish is one of my poles as well.) The pole had no trouble handling it. I don't mean to sound condescending at all - just am curious why such expensive equipment is required versus makes for a better fishing experience?

A 30lb tuna is pretty small as tuna go.

Not saying I'll catch one this big but it is certainly a possibility.

 

[Mayne]

I watch shows like Wicked Tuna. Someday I hope to do some deep sea fishing.

 

[MongGrel]

You need heavier stuff to pull things like this in.

 

[randay]

Do ocean fish fight that much better than fresh water fish?

yes.

 

[purbeast0]

You need heavier stuff to pull things like this in.

that fish is probably worth over $10k.

 

[Albatross]

I love anything that has to do with the ocean.Get lots of pics,brag here.

 

[JulesMaximus]

Well, I got back from our trip yesterday (I say our because I went with a few friends). We left Friday night out of H&M Landing on the Legend, 30 anglers and I think 6 crew. We motored out to the bait dock and filled up with bait and then spent the rest of the night motoring out to the fishing grounds off the coast of northern Mexico. About 40-50 nautical miles from San Diego. We fished Saturday from dawn till dusk and again Sunday from dawn until around 1PM when we stowed the rods and headed back to San Diego. We arrived around 6PM.

The boat caught 199 yellowfin tuna, 55 yellowtail and 3 dorado between 30 anglers. I caught 2 yellowfin, one of the guys with us caught 10 yellowfin and 2 yellowtail, everyone else in our group was around 2 fish per person. Fish were around 15-20lb each. We split up the fish at the end of the day yesterday so I have 4 1 gallon bags full of yellowfin tuna. I probably have a good 15 lbs of tuna. I gave some to my boss (because I'm a kiss ass and he is an avid fisherman and LOVES fresh fish) I'm going to cook some up tomorrow night and the rest is going in the freezer in vacuum sealed bags.

This is me holding one of the fish I caught.

Couple things, you definitely want two rods and reels. Set one up for bait fishing and one up for jigs. Makes it easier to transition from one to the other. The boat had 4 trolling rods out while we were moving and those caught fish nearly every time the boat was on the move sometimes 2 or 3 at a time. Also, I went too heavy on the line. 25-30lb test would have been all that was needed.

Flourocarbon leaders work great! If you aren't using it, you will not catch as many fish as guys who are. Fish can see regular line but they can't see flourocarbon. Some guys were using Spectra (braided line) but it isn't necessary. The crew kept people moving around the boat following their line and going over/under other anglers to keep tangles to a minimum.

We had nothing but anchovies for bait and I was hooking them wrong at first and killing them. You need to hook anchovies through the bone that runs down along the back of the gills.

You pay for beer, soda, water and for the crew to clean your fish for you. $3/beer, $2/soda and water, and $5/fish to clean and bag them. Most guys were doubling the tab for a tip so if your bill was $80 give them $160. Tips are split equally among the crew, they work hard and they deserve it.

This is where we slept at night. There were 18 bunks per side and the middle bunks were open to the other side. I was lucky and got a top bunk all the way forward so there was a bulkhead blocking part about 1/4 of the forward part of the bunk (reassuring so that I wouldn't roll out of it and drop 5' to the floor below in the middle of the night). A lot of snoring and farting goes on here at night.

This is not a sport for women or the faint of heart. I will say this though, nobody blinked twice at anyone ordering a beer at 9 in the morning. :biggrin:

The chef was great, he cooked up hearty, fattening food for us and we lined up at mealtime and ate it up like we were starving and we loved it. We had breakfast burritos the first morning, I watched him make them three at a time. He took 3-4 hash brown patties and tossed them on the grill and broke them up, then he tossed on a pile of bacon that had to be at least 15 pieces, about 10 links of sausage and on top of that he broke about 10 eggs. He cooked that pile of food for about 5 minutes, chopping and mixing and then threw 3 giant tortillas on the grill to warm and scooped some of the egg/bacon/sausage/hashbrown mix on top, a scoop of salsa and a handful of cheese and wrapped it up. It was amazing!

Bobbing around on a 75' boat in the Pacific ocean for 2 days with no sight of land can definitely get to you though. There were times when I just wanted to go home to my own bed but you are stuck there. No internet, no phones, no connectivity to anyone but the people you are on the boat with. It is like being plucked off the face of the planet for a couple days. Everyone is equal and everyone is there for one thing, to catch fish. It was enlightening actually. Most of the guys who do this have done it before and they are hardcore and know what they're doing. Still, everyone is pretty friendly and willing to help other guys out as long as you aren't a dick or constantly making the same mistakes, we didn't have anyone like this on our trip. We had a guy from Western Outdoor News named Bob, on our boat, you can see him the background in my pic above, and he is doing a story on the trip. He gave out some free stuff (the hat I'm wearing in the pic above was one of the freebies) and was going straight from this trip to another boat with an hour between... he must not be married.

Speaking of land, on the 4 hour ride back to San Diego this was my first sighting of land in nearly 2 days.

We had perfect weather too. Mid 70s during the day, high 60s at night, swells 2-3' with winds 10 knots at most. You couldn't ask for better weather. Still, the boat is moving all the time so if you're prone to sea sickness (I am not) you'll probably want to take something for it before you set foot on a boat like this. I got very little sleep the night we left, because I'm not used to sleeping in a coffin with a Cummins marine diesel engine droning on at 1500 rpms mounted directly to my bunk and about 20' from my head while my bunk pitches around like it was resting on a trampoline with 3 sumo wrestlers jumping up and down on it, but the second night I slept like a baby... sleep deprivation makes you adapt quickly to your surroundings.

All you see during the day is the boat, your mates and water and sky in all directions as far as the eye can see. At night you only see the moon and stars and the black water. There were a handful of fishing boats dotting the horizon at night but they were miles off and tiny.

I am sore, I still feel like I'm on a boat at times (like the house is moving) but I've almost got my land legs back but I would definitely do this again. It was a great time.

 

[purbeast0]

sounds like it was a pretty neat trip.

but those are your 3 best pics you took? wtf?

 

[alkemyst]

sounds like it was a pretty neat trip.

but those are your 3 best pics you took? wtf?

u get what u paid for?

 

[skyking]

Sounds like a fun go. We are going out Saturday on a salmon charter. I'll start a new thread or post in here, you choose.

 

[JulesMaximus]

sounds like it was a pretty neat trip.

but those are your 3 best pics you took? wtf?

I wasn't spending much time taking pics. You are either sitting around or fishing. What do you want pics of? The lovely accommodations? The endless water and sky? More dead fish?

Dead fish pics.

 

[JulesMaximus]

Sounds like a fun go. We are going out Saturday on a salmon charter. I'll start a new thread or post in here, you choose.

Post a new thread. You can link to this one if you want. I'd definitely love to read about your experiences.

 

[MongGrel]

Glad to see ya had a good time

I need to do it again, I miss the ole Miss Vicky and came down here and we'd get up about 4 AM, plunk it in the canal out back off the cranes, hit the Marina to gas up and go out straight west out of Dunedin and floor it for about 3 hours to about 60 feet of water and fish all day.

Used to get a lot of Grouper, Grunts, and Seabass doing that.

I need to do it again, that was back in the 70's.

 

[MongGrel]

u get what u paid for?

You're like an older version of Mayne I guess

 

[JulesMaximus]

I did end up buying another rod and reel prior to the trip. A Daiwa single speed reel with a Shimano rod. It was cheap, less then $200 loaded with new 40lb test (which was too much IMO). I'll have new line loaded up before I use it next, probably go with 25lb test and leave the 30lb test I have on my other reel.

 

[Oil]

I do "cruises" in the GOM. At least I get paid for them. No interest in deep sea fishing

 

[DrPizza]

I'm missing something on the math - sounds like 257 fish for 30 guys; that's an average of 8-9 fish each; but most of your group only got 2? Or, did you catch other stuff that was tossed back? I just feel I'd be disappointed to only catch 2 fish in 2 days.

Anyway, how much total was the trip (not including the new pole)? And, if you wanted to, would they allow you to filet your own fish? (I actually enjoy cleaning fish.)

 

[purbeast0]

I wasn't spending much time taking pics. You are either sitting around or fishing. What do you want pics of? The lovely accommodations? The endless water and sky? More dead fish?

Dead fish pics.

yes, more fish pics duh!

 

[DrPizza]

That's also something that amazes me/I don't get. Why do they leave the fish out in the sun, laying on the deck? I'd think they'd be keeping the meat as fresh as possible by immediately fileting them.

 

[purbeast0]

That's also something that amazes me/I don't get. Why do they leave the fish out in the sun, laying on the deck? I'd think they'd be keeping the meat as fresh as possible by immediately fileting them.

yeah i would think they would want to keep them on ice at least. granted, they would need one big ass cooler for that many fish, but the boat has 30 people on it already so i'm sure it's pretty large.