Tag Archives: Pam Sharp

Tribute Sportfishing, Seaforth Landing – July 15-16, 2017

July 19, 2017 Pam Sharp

This was a Soft Steel USA sponsored trip.

Danny and I weathered a typically nasty drive down to San Diego, nearly 4 hours to go 127 miles.

The trip was schedule for 9:00 PM departure. We check in at the office and grabbed dinner at the small “Seaforth Grill”. Kit is wonderful and always takes good care of us, and remembered us from our last trip late June.

We got our gear out of the car, chatted with other anglers, and boarded around 8:30. We got our geared stowed, and rigged up for the morning. The plan for day one was to run down the beach for offshore yellowtail.

Crew was Captain David Burnside, with second Captain Sean. In the galley was Kyle, with Victor lending a hand both there and on deck, and Robert and Tyler also on deck. We had a light load, only 13 passengers!

The engines slowed at around 5:30 as we stopped on our first kelp paddy. I was just grabbing a rod when I saw Danny hook a fish and ran back down for my camera. (Probably a mistake, I missed our best catch of the day.) Danny landed what would be day one JP, a yellowtail weighed in at 29 pounds. The rest of the day was spent filling in our limits of yellowtail, with one 21 pound yellowfin on the troll.

I ordered a burrito for breakfast, but told him I didn’t want the tortilla, just put it in a bowl. What I got was fabulous!! Potatoes with cheese, egg over easy on top, bacon and a huge slab of avocado!! Lunch was just as good – fettuccini with a white sauce and grilled chicken. Dinner was a nice roasted rare and juicy tri-tip! Very impressed with the food!

So there we were at the end of the day, discussing what to do tomorrow. Captain David had settled on heading back up north to fish where some of the big Bluefin had been biting. Heavy outfit should be ready with either a bait rig with a torpedo on a rubber band, or jig. Flat falls were working well for them, but be sure to have a very heavy leader so as not to get chewed off immediately.

Up early again as the engines slowed. We stopped on a few meter marks but no one would play. The kite was put up with a “yummy flyer”… a large heavily rigged rubber flying fish, that would be bounced on the surface under a kite. The baited Seeker rod had an Okuma 30W, 150# spectra, 130# Soft Steel mono, and the flyer was on a 400# leader. As only one can be used at a time, we were put on rotation teams of three. So first up was numbers 1 through 3, for 30 minutes, then the next three.

Hours dragged by. We got our first bite at around 11 AM, and the team landed a Bluefin that taped out at 127 pounds. A second one was hooked 30 minutes later, but lost.

Our turn came around again; me, Danny, and Oscar. Only a few minutes into our turn, we were bit. Oscar and I wound in troll lines we’d had our, while the crew brought the rod down from the sun deck. A clip, that holds the troll line under the kite line, usually releases automatically. In this case, it did not. I thought based on that we had a smaller fish, but when they brought the clip and kite down to reach the spectra had melted a groove into the clip! When the slack was taken in from the main line, the fight began. Danny, Oscar and I took turns pulling on the fish, and let the crew in on the rotation as well. From stern to bow, after half an hour fight, the huge fish came into deep color, rounded the bow, broke the surface, and took another short run. Another agonizing 5 minutes, with Robert manning a push pole to keep the line from rubbing on the hull, Captain Dave and Tyler put gaffs in the fish. Robert swapped the push poll for another gaff, and they dragged the fish to the open passenger gate and dragged it up through there.

We taped it at 258 pounds! (Taping is a formula using length and girth measurements to calculate the weight of a fish.)

The kite went back up, shortly another 125 pound class fish was hooked and landed. The kite went back up, but that was it, out of time, we called it a day to head back as the Tribute had another trip going out Sunday night.

Food today was awesome again! French toast and eggs with bacon for breakfast, burgers for lunch, and pork roast for dinner was served shortly after we called it a day.

The three Bluefin were filleted and divided up evenly between the passengers. With no bait fish caught, the passengers agreed to give the second day’s jackpot to the crew.

Thanks go to the crew of the Tribute, and to Tony Garza of Soft Steel USA for sponsoring this trip.

Awesome fishing, and for Danny, Oscar and me, likely the fish of lifetime!

Soft Steel USA is sponsoring another two day trip with Tribute Sportfishing, booked through Seaforth Landing, on Friday, September 22. Space is available, but don’t wait! This prime of the season trip will probably fill up early.

Fish Reports

Pacific Queen 1.5 Day – February 25, 2017

February 27, 2017 Pam Sharp

Danny and I have become regular attendees at the Angler Chronicles Taco Tuesday events at Michael’s Sports Bar. A few months ago, Danny won a pass for a day and a half on the Pacific Queen, so we picked a weekend trip during what we hoped would be good yellowtail fishing.

We left Torrance around 1:00 on Friday afternoon. It would be the first trip on the Pacific Queen for both of us. The weather forecast looked ok, at least there was no rain forecasted for Saturday. Still, the drive down to San Diego was probably close to one of the worst I have had. However, on a brighter note, we arrived to find the

parking lot nearly empty, and parked right in front of Fisherman’s Landing.

We checked in, finding all of the staterooms full and only top and bottom bunks available. With possibility of rough seas, we both settled for bottom bunks, and went to Mitch’s to grab a bite to eat. Their mixed seafood plate is a favorite to share; with lots of fried calamari, shrimp, fish, French fries, and a crab cake, it’s plenty for both of us.

We got our gear out of the car and got in line at the top of the landing. The boat came in from fueling and getting bait, and we loaded right around the 6:00 time promised in the landing office.

We had help loading gear with lots of familiar faces in the crew, in spite of it being our first time on this boat; Captains Gavin and Bobby, and Johnny in the galley. We signed in and encountered something I found a bit unusual, the Pacific Queen no longer does a jackpot. After the safety briefing and trip plans, we rigged up and I went to bed.

I was freezing most of the night. I woke up at grey light and came out in a heavy jacket and sweatshirt, but the jacket went quickly back downstairs. We had relatively light winds, and it wasn’t nearly as cold as it had been at night. We’d gone about 120 south, past Colenet, and seemed to be in very good company, with 8-10 of the other San Diego boats already around us. We’ll pulled up the first drift and quickly started hooking a few fish.

The first few drifts were pretty chaotic, with horrific tangles on every hooked fish. That did seem to improve some over time, as the anglers began to settle in, the crew reminding everyone to keep their lines in front of them… Each drift would produce a few fish, when the bit died, Gavin quickly reset the boat, and so it went most of the day. No real crazy bites, more of a steady pick.

Danny's Pacific Lures Jig Fish — Danny’s Pacific Lures Jig Fish

The winds slowly increased during the day. In the morning yo-yo irons definitely worked better. There didn’t seem to be any particular color that was any better; I saw fish landed on just about any color. Danny got a nice one on a Pacific Lures 7 ounce SR Model in Dorado Image.

As the day wore on, bait seemed to be somewhat more successful; a heavy sliding sinker or torpedo on a rubber band. I caught a yellowtail around 18 pounds on a sardine with a 2 ounce sliding sinker on 30 pound Soft Steel Ultra mono. A few fish were even caught on the surface, but staying higher up also put you in the zone that some big bonito were hanging around occasionally.

One of the larger yellows... — One of the larger yellows…

Although rock fishing was in the plans for the afternoon, that was foregone for windy conditions and a raging current.

We ended up with something between 50-60 yellowtail.

The food was awesome! Johnny had an egg mix ready for burritos for breakfast, but would make a plate for anyone who’d rather have that. Lunch was Caesar chicken wraps that were paired with a wonderful pasta salad, and dinner was slow roasted beef with mashed potatoes and gravy that was hot and very satisfying in the chilly night. Conditions had continued to deteriorate. As soon as dinner was over, I went to bed.

After a long day of fishing, I slept like a rock. (Other than waking up a couple of times hearing a passenger than was having a bit of a rough night… eeww….) We were back to the landing, unloaded, and on the road before 8:00 AM for a much quicker trip home.

Thank you to the crew of the Pacific Queen, for really staying on top of things, helping with tangles and gaffing, bleeding and tagging fish!

Also thanks to Heather Bodnar, for procuring a pass for the raffle!!

Fish Reports

La Paz, BCS, Mexico – Tailhunters International – September 30 through October 9

October 11, 2016 Pam Sharp

Danny and I spent a lot of time talking to Jonathan and Jillene at the Fred Hall Show, and decided to book a fall trip with his brother Charlie.

We picked some potential dates and sent them to Jonathan. From their list of hotels, and with some input again from Jonathan, we picked a hotel. We had three days to fish, so he suggested one day at La Paz, one day at Las Arenas / Muertos Bay, and leave a third day to decide when we got there. We agreed and Jonathan took care of the rest. When our dates were set, we booked our flights.

We left on Friday, September 30^th. Flights were uneventful and arrived on time. From the moment we picked up our bags, EVERYTHING was taken care of for us.

Jorge picked up the three of us and loaded our bags into a luxurious van. We set out down the toll road, and stopped at a market along the way for drinks. Charlie got a soda, I got a beer, and Danny was looking for chocolate milk. None at the store we went to. He settled for a strawberry flavored milk drink and we were back on our way. Jill met us in the lobby of La Concha hotel and helped us get settled in our room.

The sunset from Tailhunter's — The sunset from Tailhunter’s

We grabbed a cab into town to have dinner at Tailhunters. The food was awesome! Jonathan came up and had a shot of tequila with us, then we went back to our hotel with instructions to meeting in the hotel lobby the next morning.

Saturday: We arrived in the lobby for our first day of fishing. Jonathan and Jillene were there with hot coffee, and packages of breakfast and lunch for each boat (and several bottles and boxes of chocolate milk for Danny!). Danny and I fished with Chito, Charlie with Bolie. We caught bonito early morning to be used as bait, and had great dorado fishing most of the day, both on the troll and fishing cut bonito. Most of the dorado were pretty small, but we scratched out a limit of decent sized fish to have processed to bring home. Danny and I brought light spinning outfits that we had a ball catching bonito on, and Danny hooked one small dorado on his as well.

Sunday: Day two we went over the hill to fish Muertos Bay. A little earlier, Jonathan and Jill were again there to greet us in the lobby. With breakfast and lunch in hand, we boarded a van full of other guests. I got ahold of my friend James “Hawk” Davis to share one panga with me, Charlie and Danny fished the other. Fishing had been even slower in Muertos Bay than La Paz. I told my captain, Victor, that we wanted to fish for rooster fish, so we drove around to Las Arenas to catch ladyfish for bait (I wished I’d have brought my spinning outfit, Victor did all the catching on ladyfish for us). They were reluctant, we

ended up with 3 baits, and set out to troll the shoreline for roosters.

Needlefish destroyed one of my baits. But a long slow troll with another one produced the fish we were looking for! I landed an estimated 40 pound rooster! We trolled around a little more for no more biters, and headed in to call it a day. Hawk went home, the rest of us shared stories in the van on the way back to La Paz.

Monday: No fishing today. We’d seen advertisements for snorkeling with whale sharks and had asked Jonathan about it. He arranged for us to do that today, and told us to be in the lobby in the morning to be picked up by a van from the local marina. So when we got to the lobby, the driver was there waiting for us. A short trip to a beautiful marina, and we were fitted with masks and fins. Note, actually FITTED with masks. They had a variety of styles, and took the time to make sure each of us had one that fit properly so it wouldn’t leak!

With a guide and a driver, we boarded a panga style boat for our trip out. We searched the La Paz bay for nearly two hours, while the guide assured us they’d find them, we were beginning to wonder. There were several boats out looking for them, and one finally stopped and put people in the water. We eased into the area with them, donned our gear, and slid into the water.

The boats all carry licenses to do this, and the guides instructed us that it is illegal to touch the animals, and kept close watch on their passengers to make sure they didn’t. The first one we found quickly scooted away, but we moved to another spot where we were in the company of six of them at one point. We were told these were juveniles, “only” 15-20 feet in length. They seemed nearly unaware that we were there, feeding in a nearly vertical posture, sucking in huge mouthfuls of water to filter out krill, and expelling water through their gills.

We hung around watching them for an hour or so in the warm tropical waters, then got back in the boat to head back to the marina.

Tuesday: Charlie’s last day, we all shared a panga in La Paz. Fishing was slow, but Chito worked hard to find us a few fish… we got a few more dorado to keep, and released most of them. We kept one large fillet that Charlie and I took to the restaurant in La Concha, and they prepared a platter of fish for us; deep fried, grilled with garlic butter, and fajita style for tacos.

Wednesday: We checked out of the hotel, and Charlie went home. Danny and I drove to Hawk’s house in La Ventana and settled in. Hawk had arranged for us to fish with Fabio on Thursday, and he stopped by Hawk’s house in the afternoon to discuss plans for the day. Danny and I went down to the beach and fished a little in the surf and had fun catching a variety of little fish. We rigged what we’d need, had dinner, and turned in for the night.

Thursday: Up early, and down the block to the beach the pangas launch from. Fabio was already there. We loaded our gear in the dark and headed out. This was the first day we had wind. We tried to run out to the northern end of Isla Ceralvo to troll for wahoo, but the conditions were very rough. We came back in along the island out of the wind and trolled along there. No bites, no fish spotted. We caught a few baits again to fish for roosters and trolled along the sandy side of the island. One bite was likely a rooster, but didn’t get hooked. Eventually the baits were ruined by marauding needlefish.

We trolled back toward the coast for dorado, without a single strike. Danny asked Fabio if there was a place we could

fish for smaller fish with our spinning outfits, and he took us to a reef area along the beach. We had a ball catching small jacks, a cabrilla, trigger fish, needle fish, and finally told him we’d had enough and headed in.

Friday was a day off. We slept in and went back to where the boats launched with our light gear to fish in the surf in the hour or so leading up to high tide. The bite was non-stop, catching and releasing the same variety of fish we’d caught with Fabio the prior day. Back at Hawk’s house, he arranged for us to fish with Mundo, the Rooster King, the next day.

Captain Mundo, the "Rooster King" — Captain Mundo, the “Rooster King”

Saturday: Up early again to drive back over to Muertos Bay. Mundo arrived shortly after us, launched, and we were off. We fished for jacks for bait in the bay, but they were reluctant and the puffer fish were relentless. I caught two jacks for bait right away, and Mundo did not hesitate to give Danny a hard time about me outfishing them!

We moved to a rocky outcropping to the south and found schools of the small jacks puddling on the surface. Danny and I had a ball catching the little fish on our spinning outfits, and we ended up with plenty of them. We were having so much fun with them we were tempted to have Mundo stay and fish those, but we were off.

Trolling baits up and down that shore, we got a few bites on needle fish, but no roosters. It was getting around 1:00, Mundo told us to wind them in and took off toward the launch area. We thought we were done, but he zoomed right by and up the beach the other way toward Las Arenas. We put out baits again and within a few minutes, Danny hooked up the right kind, and landed a 20 pound rooster.

We trolled around some more. Danny hooked something else we thought was another rooster, but Mundo said it was a needlefish. Usually they seemed to let go of the bait after a bit, but this one held on. Danny got it to the boat and Mundo grabbed it to unhook it. He could barely get his hand around it, and the thing must have been over 5 feet long!!

It was getting late; we were down to our last few baits. We trolled around a bit more, and finally told Mundo to call it a day.

Sunday: Its over already! We packed up in the morning and headed to Tailhunters. Our van to take us to the airport was noon, we left earlier to have one more meal at Tailhunters…. Cheeseburgers in paradise. Jonathan had our frozen fish there, so we loaded that up with some shrimp we bought in Las Arenas (shrimp season just opened!) and boarded our van for the scenic trip back to the airport. After a beer and a snack, we boarded for the flight home.

Back in California, we sailed through customs (they didn’t even ask to look in the cooler), got a cab outside the terminal, and headed home.

Absolutely wonderful trip! No hitches, no problems… Jonathan and Jillene were there to help with anything and everything. Their planning and coordination was what REALLY made this an awesome trip! We can’t wait to do it again!!

Fish Reports

Gail Force Catalina Birthday Trip June 14, 2015

June 17, 2015 Pam Sharp

My third annual birthday trip on the Gail Force last Sunday!

Loaded up with mostly friends of mine (few spots had to go open party). We stopped at the bait dock for a load of smaller sardines, plus a load of larger sardines with some huge mackerel mixed it. It looked like we had some awesome ammunition to get them good at Catalina.

Saturday they had been out with a charter group… 40-some close friends! (Yikes! The boat is coast guard approved for that, but that’s going to be pretty crowded!) Captain Joel put them on a great bite of yellows and they put about 50 of them on the boat, so we were all stoked and excited.

Jeff Dalton's jackpot yellowtail — Jeff Dalton’s jackpot yellowtail

I rigged up and caught some zzz’s on the way to the island. Nice ride in calm seas with a little overcast. We set up on a spot and the bass started biting within minutes. The smaller sardines were the perfect bait for them!

The bad news was most of those bigger sardines rolled on the way to the island.

Jeff Dalton got a really nice yellowtail fairly early, finding one of the larger sardines that made the ride over. I threw a mackerel at them that generated no interest, no one else got anything in the water that would entice them at that time either…

We made a bunch of moves… Lots more bass, most of them released, and a few smaller yellowtail pretty much rounded out the day.

Mike made me a huge birthday double burger that was very messy and very good!! There were also Jim Racela’s flaming Spam balls, and some chocolate chip cookies (I gave Danny my secret recipe and he did a great job on them!! ).

Always a good time on the Gail Force! This is a great boat to charter for a small group, their regular load is 20 people but if you like a crowd you can put more on there…

Fish Reports

Dominator 2-Day Offshore June 6 & 7, 2015

June 9, 2015 Pam Sharp

Danny Lynch’s longtime friend Wayne Carr is running trips on the Dominator, so we decided to go on a two-day weekend trip that was on the schedule. Rich Whitaker offered to sponsor a raffle for us, so we had a few jigs to give away to help in promoting the trip.

We ended up with a load of only 14, an awesome number on a boat that size! We got on with our gear and picked out bunks… all of them are pretty much double bunk size, so plenty of room to stretch out and put your stuff away!

Our crew, led by Captain Wayne Carr, included second Captain Kerim Hussainy, JJ in the galley, and Alex and Jake on deck. They loaded up with some awesome looking sardines and a tank of anchovies for chum. We were plugged and ready to do battle! The game plan was to fish offshore Mexican waters for yellowfin and yellowtail, and then hit some areas in US waters for Bluefin.

The weather was up a little, but not unfishable. We started trolling early Saturday morning in light winds and a bit of white cap. It was not the calm weather that had been forecasted. Kelps were few and far between, and the chop certainly made them more challenging to spot. One of the first ones in the morning yielded a few small yellowtail. Another one a single decent sized yellowtail and a few smaller ones.

Then the kelps became more and more scarce. Tuna fishing became, well…. Like tuna fishing. Long troll rotations, naps… breakfast and lunch passed into afternoon for a stop on a meter mark and one more nice yellowtail. And more trolling….

Dinner was cooking and releasing an awesome smell…. Lasagna…! I was up in the wheel house with Danny and Wayne. Danny was just saying this was about the time when Wayne usually pulled a rabbit out of the hat… when the sonar made an odd noise. Red spots on the sonar screen, and Wayne yelling on the PA to throw bait was enough to send me out of the wheelhouse and down the ladder to grab a rod. Everyone was grabbing for bait, hooking, and tossing them behind the boat. Three hook ups, one broke off quickly. Danny was overheard saying he was under geared, and line peeled off.

Angler — An angler fighting one of two yellowfin landed on the trip

Danny Lynch pulling on the biggest yellowfin of the trip.

One fish hit the deck after 10 minutes or so, 25 pounds or so. But Danny’s on 30 pound line was taking a bit longer. For a while, it seemed like it could have been stuck to the bottom, and line put on the reel was quickly taken back. The sharing sort that he is, he handed it off to me to take a breather, and when he was ready took it back… twice. Checking timestamps on the photos, the battle went on for nearly 30 minutes, but Danny landed his yellowfin, running 45 or so. (Still in Mexico, we were all relieved to see these fish were not Bluefin.)

Lasagna dinner was

awesome, then off to bed.

Morning came, with long trolls. No kelps to speak of and the water was a dirty green. Flocks of birds and schools of mammals produced nothing…. chicken fajitas for lunch was our mid-day excitement. A meter mark produced a single yellowtail.

Dinner was served late afternoon, chicken parmesan with garlic bread. After a long day, we returned to the dock with the two nice yellowfin, two decent sized yellowtail with a handful of small ones, and some more released.

Lots of fun anyway. 6 people walked away with a Bait Wraps jig.

Big thanks to a professional crew who were there to help with every fish hooked, big or small. I can’t wait to get out and fish with Captain Wayne again, and hopefully the fish will be a little more cooperative next time too!

About Me

Pam Sharp Fishing – Hook, Line, and Sinker

August 8, 2014 Pam Sharp 1 Comment

Wow! My first post! I guess I’ll start with a little bit about myself..

Most anglers I know can tell a story about the very first fish they caught. I can’t.

I grew up in a small house on Lake Minnetonka, Minnesota, and spent many days on the dock in front of our house with a cane pole, black cotton line and a rusty hook. My mother threw coffee grounds into a flower bed outside the back door, and by morning the worms under them were thick. I was set with bait for the day! I’d spend the entire day out there catching sunfish that my poor dad had to fillet after a day at work.

For my fifth birthday I got a tackle box and a Zebco rod and reel. My grandmother was mostly responsible for teaching me to fish. She spent hours on the dock with me teaching me to cast.

We moved out of the house on the lake when I was 10, into town, but summer vacations were spent at various lake cabins in Minnesota and Canada. And we always fished a lot wherever we went.

I moved to California when I was 21, but didn’t start fishing on the coast here until the mid-90’s. I went on a few charters with a local tackle shop, and WON on the water seminar trips, both provided good loaner tackle. My first tuna trips were 2-day trips on the Red Rooster. On one of those, I caught a 52 pound yellowfin, and sent a picture of me with it to my grandma. She took that picture with her when they moved her into a nursing home, and she called every person into her room that passed by to “come here and see my granddaughter!”

In early 2005 I joined a few new friends on a 13-day trip on the Shogun and caught my first cow, weighing in at 200.0 on the certified scale. Since then, I’ve averaged 25 trips per year, and about 30-40 days on the water.

While most of my fishing is local southern California overnight to three day trips, I usually do one longer trip every year. Some of the other locations I’ve fished:

Alaska
Lake of the Woods, Canada
Northern Minnesota Lakes, including a weekend ice fishing
Cabo San Lucas and La Paz, Mexico
Kona, Hawaii
Moro Bay, California
Key West, Florida
Fiji

Beautiful roosterfish, caught of La Ventana in Baja, Mexico, est. 45 pounds. — Beautiful roosterfish, caught of La Ventana in Baja, Mexico, July 2012. est. 45 pounds.

I also write for Examiner.com. You can check out my articles at the link provided.

Hook, Line & Sinker