Fishing with Dan Hernandez

What is this?

Well I had a reservation to go fishing on 8/30-31 with the Dan Hernandez show, a limited load on the Mirage.
My Dad passed away very early Sunday 8/29 morning and I had to attend to a lot of details on Monday and I knew I could have cancelled the trip, no problem. I have 2 brothers and a sister and I felt this would be better for me to keep my reservation, even if all I did was sleep in the bunk. There was nothing for me to do on Tuesday and I just didn't want any more phone calls asking me "How are you?"
So I went. One guy flipped out and got off the boat about 9:30, he thought it had been overbooked. Made me feel very sane.

We fished Santa Rosa at grey light with no biters, not even a bat ray . then we move up the line toward Miguel and it got a little windy but we caught some nice fish. we caught lings, sheephead, whitefish, vermilion rock fish and I was fishing next to Dan the man and he consistently brought up Tree Fish- nice sized ones, he seemed to be targeting the Tree fish with his buck tail jig.

I ended up winning the jack pot with a 11lb 11 oz Sheephead- I graciously thanked all the guys on board who had contributed. Once again proving that Lady Anglers have more than good luck.

I told Dan "GCLA stands for Girls Can Land Anything" - with a glint in his eye he said he wasn't going to touch that.

I went on to the graveside service on Wed feeling physically tired and sore but in a good place mentally.

Sitka, Alaska

Location: Sitka , Alaska

Accomodations: Kingfisher Lodge

# of People in our party: 10

Dates 9/2/10-9/5/10

Target Species: Halibut, Salmon, and lingcod

Well, the big butts did not want to come out to play this season, but we managed to get a few nice ones this year. Carlton Jones landed a 100 lber on day one of fishing, while the highliner for day 3 was captain Pauls boat with three nice halibut up to 60 lbs...

this monster ling cod had to be released because it was too large for the slot limit, and at 53 in. was too smalled to be called a trophy fish of 55".

This Yellow eye rockfish weighed in at a hefty 18 lbs

The accomodations at kingfisher were first rate!

me and Capt. Brian with another huge lingcod

this King salmon took up the whole box

this King salmon weighed in at 38 + lbs, which earned me the biggest salmon prize!

They can't all be monsters, right?

Just goofing around, while shopping in town! LOL

Day One's weather was beautiful at 60 dgrees, and it rained overnight so we were greeted in the morning by a rainbow!!!

The Gang: Carlton Jones, Jackie Appell, Pat Worthy, Ray, me, Kathy Walker, Doug, Jay, and roger (not shown... Mo)

All in all, we came back with plenty of fish, memories, and friendship. We also caught lots of black bass, and assorted rockfish, as well as our targeted species. I am already planning on returning next year. Kudos and many thank yous to the Kingfisher staff, and Captains Brian, and Paul who I fished with while at Kingfisher.

Pac Dawn Pictures

I really do need the lesson on posting - here are some of the pics that I screwed up on - Sorry about that.

I'm so embarressed - hopefully I'll get it together next week.

Pacific Dawn Tuna Trip

OMG - what can I say - just another fabulous Pacific Dawn charter. Thursday evening -boarding time - finally. Everyone got settled in and hunkered down to sleep in preparation for the tuna hunt. Unfortunately, Friday morning got off to a very slow start. Nothing was hitting the trolling rods and people started giving up their turns to take a nap. Well, that's when I had to take matters into my own hands. Somebody had to wake up these tuna. I couldn't help myself so I started "pole" dancing. I worked myself into a frenzy and the tuna gods must have been enjoying it as well, because that's when the afternoon bite hit. When it was all said and done -13 yellowfin tuna were brought on board. I didn't get bit until the end of the day, but got lucky and landed the jackpot fish. I was grateful as I haven't won a jackpot in about 5 years. We were back in business. We then cleaned up, enjoyed "happy hour" and a fabulous dinner, courtesy of Whitney. We even celebrated Capt Pat's birthday. A good time was had by all.

Saturday morning, I was up a 4am and a few of us sat in the galley having coffee and deciding our plan of attack for the day. Around 6am, Capt Pat announced big marks around the boat and to get your bait in the water asap. Well, that's when all hell broke loose. It was one tuna after another coming on board.

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I about 3 hours we had 55 more yellowfin tuna on board in addition to 2 bluefin and 1albacore. Mary Lukas was the only one to hook an albacore.[Image]

It ended up to be a fabulous trip. We enjoyed the company of Jerry Stussman from Ventura County Sportfishing and his pals Bob and Mike. I'd to extend a very special "thank-you" to our very special guest "Bob" who was on the quiet side, but really made an impact on everyone.

It was a great group on board and everyone had a great time and we all came home with coolers stuffed with tuna.

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Many thanks to Ana for giving up most of her fishing time to be filming this great trip - can't wait to see the footage. You ROCK Ana !! Hopefully her assistant Kevin if finally feeling better - poor guys was sick for most of the two days.

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I would also like to extend our sincere GCLA thanks to the Captain and crew of the Pacific Dawn. [Image]
They are just so awesome. It does not get any better than this. I personally learned so much about tuna fishing in just 2 short days from them and am very grateful for their instruction. And I know the rest of the Ladies feel the same way. Too bad it's over so quickly, but we are booked for next year and can't wait to do it all over again.

Happy Birthday Ana!!!!

Catch a big one on your birthday!!

Happy Birthday Barbara!!!

Hook Up on your Happy Day!!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY VITA!!!!!!

Hope your day consists of pulling on giant tuna!!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAMALE!

OUR HATS ARE OFF TO YOU ON YOUR SPECIAL DAY!

MAY IT BE FILLED WITH TONS OF FUN AND LOVE TO YOU.

New ink for my collection

After three brutal sessions of pure agony, my official tribute to the most awesome game fish I have ever caught is complete....Check out my completed Roosterfish!!!!

It measures 10 inches tall by 8 inches wide on my right thigh.

Kodiak Alaska Family Fishing Trip

Josh, Barb Biff & Jacob McIntyre - Kodiak , Alaska

Making friends with the natives, at the airport before our trip over to Larsen Bay.

We got into Kodiak City on Saturday afternoon and were supposed to fly to Larsen Bay to our Lodge on Monday afternoon. Our flight got cancelled due to fog and we ended up on a float plane on Tues morning.

After flying in to the lodge we quickly dropped our bags in the room, used the potty and got on the fishing boat. We fished with our two new best friends Ron & Herb of San Diego, they quickly became the boys new uncles.

The photos are not necessarily in order. The lodge a beautiful and comfy Log Cabin brought in from Tennessee. The Boat- a 40 foot catamaran, great fishing platform, the catch on our last day.

Josh caught an 85 lb halibut on our last day of fishing at the end of the day- wow what a surprise!

On the first day we caught yellow eye on bait and on jigs

We did some beach combing on the Kodiak City side of the Island- purported to have 100 mile of drivable road. The boys assured me it was mostly in circles.

The Kodiak Commercial fishery is one of the largest in the world. The Albatross Shelf extends to the east of Kodiak Island supporting the largest biomass of halibut in the Alaskan waters.

View from harbor.

Campanile flowers

In Kodiak out of stat anglers limits:

2 king salmon

5 silver salmon

10 rock fish

2 halibut

Th's bear visited every morning and evening - he was checking the fish cleaning area for tidbits. The lodge owners said the bears are waiting for the Pinks (humpies) to start their runs in the creeks.

Jake brought up this large octopus on a baited hook, which we released. It is over 3 feet long.






We fish 4 days from about 8am to 4 pm

Tues

4 salmon, 8 yellow eye, 11 halibut

Wed

10 salmon, 10 yellow eye, 12 halibut

Thurs

16 salmon, 12 halibut, 2 black rock fish,

1 Dusky rock fish

Fri

8 salmon, 8 halibut, 4 grey cod

of the halibut caught -most were 30-40 lbs, we had 3 larger ones for the week

110, 85 & 73 lbs

the salmon were mostly silver/coho and a few kings

We each brought home 100 lbs of fillets = 400 lb of fish




This was a once in a lifetime adventure for me and my family. the Lodge was beautiful and the setting wonderful the crew on the boat Joe & Raif were excellent. Our hosts were just great
We saw whales everyday while fishing sometimes within 40 feet of the boat, we saw otters, eagles, puffins, loons and so much more. The waters were smooth and the boat a pleasure to ride and fish on - even on the one windy day.

We trolled, fished with jigs, and bait - all expertly guided by our crew.