At approximately 11 AM on July, 5th we boarded the Independence for a 5 day fishing adventure. SportfishingReport.com is proud to be the primary sponsor for the 5 day long range trip. As usual, we all boarded and stored our stuff in our assigned positions. We soon departed and headed to the bait receiver to load the bait. As soon as we finished loading the bait we made our way south and said goodbye to Point Loma. Captain Jeff announced that we will be fishing approximately 175 miles to the South were some boats were catching Albacore and a few Bluefin Tuna. The seminar was set for later in the day. So we all went to the stern and began preparing our gear for offshore fishing. We were excited to start fishing the next day.

During our seminiar Captain Jeff went over the safety information. He also discussed the eating arrangements. Due to the poor economy the load was light at 20 anglers. So we had plenty of space to eat and share stories. The Independence can easily serve dinner to anglers in one sitting. After the food and safety seminiar we had our tackle seminiar.

Everyone was excited when we reached the fishing grounds on July 6th. We started trolling a little after day break. The fishing was slow at first. We had a few stops on the Albacore. Really not much. Then we hit a nice paddy with some Dodos and Yellowtail. There were some nice Dorado on that paddy. And a few Bluefin, too. We scrached out a decent day and then around 3 PM. "Bluefin ... throw some chum" announced Captain Jeff. It's on. We battled many Bluefin and a few Albacore mixed in. The fishing was awesome. Later in the day the helocopter buzzed us. Then we saw a couple seiners in the area. But the fishing condinued as we drifted for 3 or 4 hours. The fish were mainly 30 to 40 punds with a couple pushing 40 pounds. We ended up the day with 155 Bluefin, 10 Albacore, 9 Yellowtail, and a handful of Dorado.

The plan was to stay in the area as fishing was really picking up. We all took rest. The next morning the fishing was slow again. We tried for a couple hours and then Captain Jeff decided to head down to Isla Cedros for some Yellowtail fishing. As the day mainly consisted of travel many people took the time to re-rig and prepare for Cedros. Others enjoyed Cigars and Cocktails. The seas were very comfortable.

Early in the AM we arrived at Cedros. The Yellows bit immediately. We fished in many locations. All of them producing cookie cutter 20 pounders. At one point you could see schools of 50 or more Yellows swimming towards the boat. Many anglers used the surface jig and it was on. We had great surface jig fishing. The Yellows were chasing the iron big time. We finished up with our limit in about 6 hours. We decided to move back to the offshore grounds to top the bags off with some more tuna.

The next morning we arrrived at the fishing grounds and it was On again. Captain Jeff once again proclaimed, "Bluefin!" We proceeded to drift for 5 or 6 hours catching Bluefin off the corner. Pretty much every cast resulted in a bite. We did get a couple lulls in there where we would only have 10 or so going at a time. As the day proceeded Jeff announced that we have to leave the area as we had LIMITED OUT on BLUEFIN TUNA. Cheers were heard around the boat. We moved and guess what .... more Bluefin. So we decided to head for the barn.

During our ride home eveyrone cleaned up their gear and discussed how wonderful our trip was. Many anglers on the boat had never caught Bluefin Tuna before. Captain Jeff said that it had been many many years since he had seen such good Bluefin Tuna fishing.

At the dock we weighed in the the fish and handed out the jackpot. As we departed we said goodbye to our Bluefin buddies. This was a trip of a lifetime. We are so pleased with our 5 day trip. We hope to have another trip next year aboard the Independence. Thanks to Mark, Paul, Jeff, Judy and the rest of the crew for the best trip of 2009!!!!! We love the Independecne and are thankful to have a great relationship with the owners and crew. See you in 2010!