ALBACORE RUN—Frank Lenze, left, and Harry Thompson during their albacore run to from San Diego to Ensenada on Glen Bowers’ boat The Reel One. Photos courtesy Harry Thompson.

ALBACORE FISHING TRIP OFF MEXICO'S BAJA COAST BY THE BOAT THE REEL ONE

June 20, 2004, Harry Thompson, Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico Fishing:

Father's Day Fishing Trip to Ensenada, Mexico.

The boat left from Mission Bay in San Diego. Glen Bowers is the boat owner, a 26 ft Blackman "The Reel One". We are all from San Diego.

I met up with my buddie's Glen & Frank at 6pm Friday evening. Got underway at approximately 7:30 and headed south to Ensenada for 130 miles. We took shifts driving the boat and keeping the driver awake while 1 guy slept. We each managed a few hours sleep up in the cuddy. The ocean was freakin glass, with little or no swell and little or no wind. Sure beats the last time we made this run, we got our butts kicked for 6 hours heading in on that trip.

This trip to Ensenada, smooth as glass and we puttin along at 8-9 knots all night, kicked it up to 12-13 when we were about 2hrs from the GPS numbers we were heading to. Arrived at the spot about 5am :)

SOMETHING ABOUT GETTING TO THE SPOT BEFORE THE SUN COMES UP JUST TURNS ME ON!!!!!!!!!!

Anyhow, we had the trolling feathers in by 5:15 and trolled about 15 minutes and had our first hookup. Just a single, we slowed the boat to an idle, left the troll fish hanging on the line while we clear the other 4 rods out of the way, threw a dozen live sardines in the water to keep them at the boat, and then got 3 baitsticks going with live sardines on bare hooks and proceded to land 5 more Albacore on this stop. What a way to start the freakin day. Had not been there for more than an hour and we already had 6 nice Albacore on the boat. The fish were between 15 and 22 lbs for the day.

We had 3 more single jig (trolled feather) hookups and repeated the baitstick action at each one. When we had our limits (5 fish each) I asked what time it was...

0741am

Damn, 7:41 in the freakin morning and we are done fishing. Awesome trip for sure.

One of the guys who went was Frank Lentz, I was stationed with Frank on the USS Coral Sea and we served together off the coast of Vietnam for a couple years. Some of the guys getting this email were there to, hope to hear from you guys :)

Anyhow, it was just a beautiful ride down to Ensenada, pitch black but smooth. A quick 2 hours fishing and we are headed for the Coral. The Coral is a Hotel/Marina right on the Pacific ocean just 3 or 4 short miles from Ensenada, Mexico. We were 45 miles south of the Coral and started heading in that direction. We stopped and fished a couple of kelp paddies for some YellowTail, but that never happened. We arrived at the Coral somewhere around 1pm and paid $63.00 for a slip to tie the boat up in. The slip we got was on E dock, and there were 3 other boats on E dock that had made the trip down from San Diego with us.

We got to cleaning the boat, filleting the fish, and loading on ice. I had to run to the Marina office, 1/8 miles away, with a cart and haul the ice back to the boat. We got the fillets iced down in the fish hold and then headed for the public showers.

Something about letting it all hang out in Ensenada after a great day of fishing just put a cap on the day :) Nice hot shower and clean clothers. Our other clothes were covered in blood. No one advertises the fact that Tuna fishing gets bloody. They are afraid PETA will use the images to campaign against fishing. They already have a website names "fishfeelpain.com" or some such nonsense. They have a picture of a cocker spaniel with a fishhook in it's upper lip pulling the lip way away from the jaw, and the caption reads (you wouldn't do this to a dog would you? why do it to a fish?) Too funny.

So, at 7pm Saturday evening, 14 of us were at a table in the Hotel restrurant in Ensenada. We had taken a bunch of fish to the cooks earlier and told them to fix it everyway they could think of. So, the first course consists of 2 very large trays. On the trays was thinly sliced samll pieces of Albacore raw. There was some sort of citric concoction with peppercorns and lemon/lime or something. The raw Albacore was partially "cooked " around the edges from the citric acid. Just delicous.

Then they bring out 2 more really large trays, these 2 have Albacore and YellowTail cooked in a variety of different ways. Just excellent, what a great meal. We paid 10 bucks each for the meal, drinks and desert was extra :)

Anyhow, around 8:30 I am sitting at the table just barely able to move from being so tired and pleasantly exhausted. And of course stuffed to the gills with Tuna.

So, some of the guys were heading to the topless bars in town (ah to be 25 again) after dinner. Frank and I opted for the made up bunks in the boat. The table in the galley dropped down and made a bed with the seats on either end and cushions. I had brought a sleeping bag and a cushion off a pool chair from the house and let Frank sleep on that. We were out as soon as our heads hit the pillows and stayed that way till 5.

I was the first up, as usual. I wondered over to the resturant only to find no coffee and only a janitor cleaning up. Oh well, man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do. They had a coffee machine with a bean grinder and the whole nine yards. I made myself a couple of pots and filled my thermous's and brought coffee back to the boat.

After coffee we got under way and pointed that boat North. We were about 60 miles south of San Diego. The wind and seas were already somewhat blowing and had a swell. We had a pretty good angle on the seas and headed North at about 18 knots. Thats cookin pretty good in a windy/swell. Made it home around 12:45 or something like that. Did a final boat clean up, loaded our gear and fish, and I was home by 2:30 sunday afternoon.