Excel Sportfishing, three day trip report and pictures (San Diego, Brea: live, sushi)

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I just got off my first overnight ocean fishing trip. Here’s my story, and I’m sticking to it

First a little background information on me. I’m a middle aged, ultra right-wing, gun-owning conservative, Republican, Jew. I grew up in Chicago, and started spin fishing with my dad using a Zebco rod and reel (a long time ago) like every other kid in the Midwest. Now I spin fish in Alaska every year with my wife.

I’ve been reading reports lately of Blue Fin Tuna in the waters off the coast of southern California / Mexico, and wanted to get in on the action, since I have some free time now.

I have three friends (who coincidentally are all dentists) that are long range guys. I tried to convince them to go on an overnight trip, and show me the ropes (every time I cast a conventional reel, I end up with a bird’s nest) but they said they’ve paid their dues on open party boats, and now fish The Excel out of San Diego exclusively.

There’s no way I was going on a seven or eight day trip my first time out of the box, so when the Excel opened a three day trip, my buddy convinced me to go. I was a little concerned about being sea-sick since I got queasy walking around Fred Hall, but we booked it

Day One: Wake up Friday morning in San Diego, applied the Scop patch, have some breakfast, and get checked in at Fisherman’s Landing. The boarding process went pretty smoothly. The guys at the landing help load your crap in big carts, and wheel it down to the boat. Check-in at the boat was handled by none other than Big Al himself, the boat owner. He’s a larger than life wildcat oilman, that lives up to his name. I never saw him fish on the trip, but that’s probably because he always had something else in his hand. That, plus the high stakes poker games in the galley led me to believe, he really is “Big Al”.

Got on board, got our sate room (I was sharing it with my buddy), and wandered around the ship. It’s impressive. I think it’s the biggest one in the San Diego fleet. Known for its good food, helpful crew, and general first class qualities, it didn’t disappoint.

Got bait, had lunch (a bacon blue cheese burger), and headed out to sea. Except the sea wasn’t as calm as the table top it’s been. Gale warnings were in effect, with 25mph winds and 11 to 19 foot swells. To say I got seasick would be an understatement; it was like a scene out of the Exorcist. “Dimmy is that you, it’s mommy”.

I had to skip dinner which was stuffed pork chops, and tried to get some sleep. Except my buddy snores like a grizzly bear. Make that a grizzly bear with sleep apnea. I swear I thought I was going to have to do CPR a few times that night.

Day Two: I was actually feeling better, and the seas were much calmer. I think we were about 150 miles south of the boarder, down by Colonet. Breakfast was Eggs Benedict, but I had half a bowl of cereal and some skim milk.

We fished for a little while but didn’t catch much, so we moved north. It’s funny, as soon as my line hit the water, I completely forgot about being seasick.

At our second spot we were in the fish. The deck hands were really helpful, and I was catching yellowtail in no time. Some of the old pros that didn’t ask for help weren’t doing too well, but I was having fun. So much so that I let one of the guy’s kid’s that was getting blanked, use my (boat provided) rod and ***, and he was in the fish.

It was getting to be lunch, and I was beat (and sore). My ribs felt like they used to when I boxed. It was from all the crashing into walls, deck rails, and general puking.

I sat down for a while, but decide to give it a few more tries. The plan was to yo-yo a *** off the bottom. I let it go straight down, then started winding as fast as I could. Two cranks and it was stuck on the bottom, I mean STUCK.

I tried to give it few cranks, but all it did was bend the rod, and stretch the line. I asked one of the deck hands for some help, he took my rod and said, “no, it’s a fish, just lift up, and crank down”. I did, but couldn’t get a crank. Just then Big Al walked by and said, “give him five cranks, help him out”. So the deckhand (effortlessly) cranked it five times, and handed it back.

Nope, I still couldn’t get anything. Big Al said, “give him five more, then he’s on his own” (all the time with an ear to ear grin).

By now I could tell it was a fish. I know there’s that thing where you have to follow your fish, so this damn thing took me from the left side, to the back, to the right side, then back again. I’d give it one crank, the fish would take two.

I learned the, over, over, under, over, under, hot rail coming through dance. When I finally got it on board, I was “spent”.

Luckily it was time for lunch, bbq’ed brisket, and bbq’ed chicken. I was done fishing for the day.

I think we had fresh sushi and tuna as a mid afternoon snack. Dinner was chicken scallopini, with chocolate brownie sundaes for desert. Did I mention that every meal came with homemade bread?

Day Three: Calm oceans, beautiful weather, and no fish. We tried a few places, but no luck. Well, at least we had prime rib for dinner.

Monday morning I woke up, and we were tied up to the bait dock, back in port.

A few people have asked me how I would rate the trip, and really I’d give them a 10 out of 10 on the stuff they could control (the boat, the crew, the food). And since they don’t have control of the weather or the fish, there’s no sense in me rating it.

Would I go again, HELL YES !!

Here are some of the pictures:

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