What an awesome trip!
I have had a lot of incredible fishing trips in my life. A few places like Alaska, Montana, and Louisiana stand out as places that I would consider to be on my best of the best list. I now have one more location to add to the list, San Diego offshore fishing.
I recently had the chance to experience this amazing fishery on a 1.5 day trip aboard the Limitless Sportfishing boat out of Dana Landing in San Diego. The fishing and the experience was one I will never forget, and I will definitely come back again.
Our crew of anglers met at Dana Landing around 7:00 pm and had dinner at local restaurant. After dinner we met the captain and crew of the Limitless. We loaded our gear on the boat and were ready to go by 8:30pm. the boat and accommodations were outstanding. The Limitless is a tournament rigged 44’ Pacifica sport fisher. You can read more about the boat HERE.
The Limitless.
We shoved off at 9:00pm, made a quick stop to pick up bait for the trip and we were on our way. We traveled through the night to get to the fishing grounds by first daylight. There were 6 of us anglers on board along with the captain and two crew members. Around 11:00pm we climbed in our bunks to grab some sleep while the the crew drove the boat through the night.
I was very comfortable in my sleeping arrangements, but I woke up every hour or so due to the excitement of fishing the next morning. Finally at 4:30am I could not take it any longer and got up, made a cup of coffee and chatted with the crew until the sun came up.
Soon we were all up, and joined the crew in looking for any sign of fish activity. We were in the open ocean looking for floating kelp patties. After an hour or so of looking, the boat slowed down and the captain said get ready. He had spotted a small kelp patty and we slowed down to approach it. We got our rods ready, baited our VMC Nemesis Circle Hooks with fresh bait and waited to the boat to be in position.
VMC Nemesis Circle Hooks and Sufix Invisiline Fluorocarbon got the job done.
When the captain said go, we tossed our baits out and were instantly bit by hungry Yellowtail. All six rods were hooked up and it was complete pandemonium. Big fish swimming every direction and all of us trying to keep our lines from tangling. We would yell "Coming Under" or "Going Over" as we worked our way around the boat trying to avoid each other while landing Yellowtail.
Total fishing pandemonium aboard the Limitless!
The crew gaffed the fish as they came to the boat, and tossed them on the floor until they could got a break in the action to clean it up, but the action was so fast that fish were piling up everywhere. Once a fish was in, we would re-bait as fast as possible and toss out again, only to be instantly hooked up on another fish.
Chuck put on the new Rapala X-Rap Mag Stick ( more to come on this lure later ) to see what would would happen, and the fish loved it! It only took a couple of cranks and he was hooked up on a Yellowtail.
Chuck and Capt Matt with a yellowtail on the new Rapala x-rap mag stick
This non stop action went on for over an hour. Towards the end of the frenzy I was sliding my feet so I would not slip on the fish that were scattered all around the floor of the boat. When the action finally ended we looked around and realized that we had got our limit of Yellowtail along with a few Yellowfin Tuna and a couple of Dorado. It was one of the most epic bites that I have ever seen. Big strong beautiful fish crushing your bait or your lure on every cast. I will never forget the fishing action of this first stop.
We cleaned up the boat, put the fish on ice in the fish locker, checked our gear and headed off in search of more fish.
After about an hour of searching, the boat slowed and captain Matt said get ready....TUNA! We jumped up and got our rods ready for another epic round of fishing, only this time it was Bluefin Tuna. This was my first experience with Bluefin and they did not disappoint, in fact they completely kicked my butt! It is amazing how strong these fish are. Im not sure how many we caught on this first stop , but it was enough that we were all ready for a break when the bite was over.
Josh and Kyle with a couple of nice tuna!
We went into search mode again, only this time we put a couple of trolling rods out the back of the boat. About 30 minutes in, the trolling rod started to scream and it was fish on!!! It was another nice bluefin, one of the biggest of the day
Spencer with another nice tuna!
Again we went back on the hunt and again we found more fish. This routine went on for the rest of the day, with all of us landing fish until sunset.
One last Bluefin Tuna at Sunset!
When the sun finally set we finally called it quits and started to head back to San Diego. The fish box and fish bags were full, and we were all exhausted.
On the way home we had an amazing dinner of pork chops with broccoli and rice, and laughed about our incredible day.
We woke up the next morning just outside of Dana Landing as other boats were just heading out for the day. it was one of the most incredible trips I have ever had and I plan to make this an annual stop for BMO.
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