Intrepid left point Loma Sportfishing June 8 about lunchtime, and took on a load of prime sardine bait in medium to large sizes at the Everingham Bros receivers. Skipper Kevin Osborne pointed the boat toward the bluefin fishing area, currently some 180 miles southward from the Point, on wind-ruffled waters with a bit of mixed swell from the south and northwest. The ride was very comfy, as the boat's stabilizers make the steel 116-footer almost impervious to roll while under way. We hardly noticed any roll from the swell. As we passed the Coronados, chartermaster Jim Ptacnik, Photo #5 of Palmdale, owner of Jim's Custom Rods teamed with me following the captain's safety meeting to offer sweet prizes for all aboard. Jim gave everyone a new rod, about half of them his own custom wraps. He also passed out fishing tackle.

Everyone got a copy of At The Rail (signed on request) and a calendar from me, and a gallon-sized baggie of tackle from my sponsors at Mustad, Salas, Seaguar, AA's, Zucker's, etc. I raffled off a Gyotaku wahoo print from artist Peter J, a new Socorro belt from AFTCO and some Kanzen spectra along with other one-of-a-kind prizes. Anglers remarked the swag was the best they'd seen on a trip of this length. For dinner we enjoyed tender prime rib Photo #7, garlic-roasted carrots and mashed potatoes, with raspberry sherbet for dessert.

I sat at table with John Keeler and Jim Kastorff, who proved themselves the best anglers aboard over the next week, and Bill Bennett, a county supervisor plumber taking his first trip aboard Ken Price's sleek, yacht-hulled Intrepid. With a light load of 17 on a boat that limits the load to 25 passengers, we slept very well, many of us in our own staterooms, with portholes, no less. The wind and waves settled over the next couple of days, and we began fishing the next morning by trolling along our way. By the second day the sea was downright pleasant and on the third it was in the proverbial flat calm or "greasy" mode. The first fishing day produced yellowtail under kelp mats, mostly smaller fish, with a few in the 15 to 23-pound category. We saw a few schools of bluefin but few rose to boil and feed on our chum.

Here's how the skipper saw it: "We got on 3 different schools that wanted to react and finished the day with a school of the bigger grade fish that put on a pretty good show for us. We hooked two of them and landed one of them. Jim Kastorff Photo #2 landed the day's biggest around 90 pounds (the estimate was conservative; it came in on the scales later at 112 pounds) and John Keeler had a heartbreak on a fish that looked to be around 120 when it broke off just before gaff." Kastorff got his big boy on a sardine, a 2/0 VMC Dynamic hook, Seaguar Premier 50-pound flourocarbon and 50-pound thin red Line One spectra.

"You can't get that red spectra any more," Kastorff chided me when I showed him my blue Line One braid. "I love it but it's really hard to see at night." Dinner that second evening was pork tenderloin with a raisin-walnut chutney, wild rice pilaf and broccoli.

There were two father-son teams fishing with us: Mitch and Cole Chivra, Photo #1 of Rancho Santa Fe, and Chuck and Shane Kelly of Claremont. Cole is a quarterback for Santa Fe Christian High. He's 16, and showed himself to be an excellent angler throughout the trip. He caught the first yellowtail over 20 pounds, winning a Bill Roecker DVD. He said he also plays Lacrosse at an attack position. A fisherman since he was six, he keeps a 3.9 GPA and loves to fish bay bass from a float tube.

His younger counterpart Shane Kelly is 14, and won the other DVD prize I offered that day, for the first bluefin over 30 pounds. He bagged it with a nose-hooked sardine, and beat his old record of a 50-pounder. The fish also won him third place in the jackpot, at 54.2 pounds. He's a surfer who told me he was a "tube shooter" with a Go Pro camera.

I got a small one of the 33 we managed to deck. It was a pleasure to fish again and to catch the first tuna for me since November 2011. Skipper Bill Cavanaugh was my gaffer and posed with me for a photo (Pictured Above). When we looked in the gullets of the bluefin we saw many tiny mackerel of two to three inches. Compensating for the depth of the tuna, many anglers used jigs, and maybe half of what we caught came on iron of many sizes and colors, from Salas 7X heavy down to at least one on a Tady TLC in white. The third night we feasted on panko-crusted chicken with a pesto cream sauce, served to us at table with mashed potatoes and asparagus.

Next day, we continued working southward, and found many small schools of bluefin in mixed sizes; say 30 to 60 pounds. The fish spurned us more than not, refusing to rise to the chum, but Keeler and Kastorff, hooked two apiece. On this day Keeler Photo #4 decked both of his, but Kastorff lost one to a pulled hook. The kelps down this way were holding better yellowtail, but not in the numbers we were looking for. Our lunch was shrimp pesto pasta with garlic bread, dinner was yellowtail picatta w/cheese tortellini, squash-zucchini with a red pepper medley. As the wind and seas were coming up, skipper Osborne opted to give us a smooth ride down to Cedros Island to try for yellowtail and halibut.

"The evening was pretty dead for us as it seemed the fish went down for whatever reason and we only found a couple of spots late that didn't respond at all," wrote Captain Kevin. We woke at the head of Keller Canal on the lee side of Cedros Island, and took some joy in seeing the sun come out on the lake-like water. Eggs to order were breakfast, with bacon, hash browns and wheat toast. There was little sign of yellowtail, but the first few drifts we made produced a half-dozen or more halibut, nice ones, from 10 to 37 pounds. That big one was nearly matched by another pair, but Bill Bennett, Photo #3 brought it home for some prime eating.

We motored down the lee side under mostly sunny skies. A brief encounter with a trio of Peregrine falcons pursuing a turtle dove had the whole boatload of us running about trying to watch the event, as the terrified dove flew around the boat repeatedly, barely evading the female falcon as she made passes at it. Her speed made a whooshing sound when she came close, and once the dove flew into the open galley door to escape. The falcon was persistent, but finally left in disgust when the prey flew out and up into the crow's nest on Intrepid's mast. Two smaller falcons stayed above her during the pursuit, calling in their high-pitched voices. After the threesome departed, the dove flew out, took a couple of turns round the boat, just to be sure, we thought, and then headed for town, not far from out starboard bow.

Then we spotted a longline of several thousand cormorants and gulls working along the current break outside the point sheltering the salt facility. The difference in water clarity right there was pronounced. We arrived just in time to see the yellowtail and birds break up and disappear.

"We spent the day in nice weather making drifts for Halibut," noted Osborne on the boat's website, "hunting for schools of Yellows, throwing our jigs and baits to nice-sized Calico Bass, and just enjoying the scenery this place has to offer. It was a nice change of pace from the offshore fishing and our group had a fun time of it."

(Big bluefin action comes tomorrow, in the second installment of Bill Roecker's story.)