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jj225 wrote: ↑Wed Aug 21, 2019 2:32 pm Haven't fished in a while. Life happening. Decided to try for salmon as the tuna fishing wasn't happening (until we went salmon fishing!). Reports for salmon were really good. Hadn't fished for them in about 20 years give or take. After spending the day trying for them I can honestly say I think they are harder to fish for than tuna. Trolling at around 2mph in wind and swell sure isn't easy. Especially, when they are at close to 300'!

Anyways, to make a long story short (shorter) we landed 3 with one being a short. Lost one 8lb. weight which was a blessing in disguise as it forced us to run into Santa Cruz and get a couple of 15lb balls. Lost a nice one to a furbag. We could see it eating big chunks. Missed more than a few that popped off. Had a real big fish go air borne 3x and spit the hook. That was the last fish we hooked and it was a heart breaker. I think we were one of the last private boats on the water.

Pic of my buddy with our 2 keepers.

That sunset picture! If Wooldridge ever makes a calendar that photos in it for sure! Looks like August to me!

Post from Grant's "Birthday" trip with his buddies this past Labor Day.

"Absolutely awesome day tuna fishing with the ultra generous the Richard Roe of @albacoregear. You made my bday fishing trip the most epic ever!! Great to see Damon, Noah and Zach get to experience the thrill of tuna for the first time. Our mighty vessel performed well and we couldn’t have asked for better sea conditions. Cheers till next time!!!"

Looks like a GOOD time and a NICE catch.

Went out of San Diego for yft. One of those should have been here yesterday scenario's. More like should have been here last week but I was out of the country and reading the reports was driving me crazy. Flew back in on Sunday and took the trip on Wed. severely jet lagged.

All I can say was fishing was tough. Didn't hear of one yft caught on the radio. A few skipjack here and there. We ended up with 8 skipjack that were decent size and fun on bait when we could get them to go. Not bad size as most went over 10lbs. Much bigger than the ones we caught the previous couple of years.

Weather was typical for this time of year. Mixed swell from the SW and NW. While not big it made for a bouncy ride especially with the wind. Returning home the boat was pushing water up onto the cuddy at times. Pictures really don't show what it was like as it got worse as the day went on AND got closer to shore. We were still pushing water INSIDE San Diego Harbor for close to half a mile (it's a big harbor)! Crazy. Boat handled it well and the ride was good enough for the crew to sleep. Mainly due to most of the swell's being downhill. At least the larger ones. Wish I could post the video! Got the worst mpg for any trip but still got over 3mpg.

Now I'm really not into skipjack and kind of a snob hence there ain't no pics of me. Excellent poke' if properly taken care of (which we did) though. I also kind of thought the trip was a failure. But then, I looked at the pictures my buddy sent me. You see the smiles on the faces and I guess it wasn't such a bad trip after all. Their smiles said it all. That and relief that we caught something because we didn't start catching until around 3 that afternoon. That's about 9 hours of trolling before we landed a fish!

The last picture was taken inside the launch ramp area (which is protected) and inside the harbor. On the opposite side of the launch area there was actually small whitecaps lol.

jj225 how is your bait tank set up in the cockpit? how do you drain it out (overflow) and how do you have it anchored to the floor? I launch out of Huntington Beach and Dana Point and San diego but the boat is keep in Tustin. I have the 26 pilothouse, I turned the square transom box into a bait tank the bait don't seem to mind but the side to side splashing of water is a bit annoying. Any tips or suggestions would be helpful.

BDS

BDS, I just have it drain over the transom. Not crazy about it but don't want to drill into the deck and have it drain out via the offshore bracket someplace. I thought about drilling into the transom fish hold but my friends talked me out of it lol.

I tried using the fish hold as a bait tank. It sucked to be perfectly frank. Bait rolled AND the water sloshed around to much. Also added a lot of weight
in the back. I'm sure it was way more than 30 gallons.

What I did was get some plastic cutting board material. Can't remember the name. Star something or other? There's a plastics company in town that sells it so I built a box to put the tank on. Problem was it wasn't high enough and the water wouldn't drain overboard properly. Kept getting air in the line and overflowing the tank. Had to put a couple of pieces of wood underneath to raise it up. Once I did that it worked fine except when we are stopped. For some reason it'll still overflow but not when moving. Haven't figured out why.

I hold the tank down via a couple of straps with ratchets. Have had no problem. I don't like the tank on the swim step for obvious reasons. Oh and
Grant put a couple of recessed tie downs in the deck so that I can hook each end into it and run the strap up over the tank. It's never budged once.

What I would like to do is build a metal stand for the tank. Get some alum. plate (2 of them), cut the corners and have 4 24' pipes welded into those
corners. The 2 plates would be used to provide better stability than just one. You can find the material online for a decent price. Just need to find a welder. It'd be way better than what I have now. I think you could also do away with the straps over the tank and just bolt it down. Although you still
need to secure the stand. I wouldn't weld it as I don't want the tank there all the time.

Hope that helps. Drop me a line if you have more questions.

Tried a rockfish/lobster combo Sunday. Weather was perfect for both. Unfortunately, the fishing wasn't perfect as we struggled for big reds (only 11) and skunked on the lobster using hoop nets. Some of the smaller rockfish we used for lobster bait as part of our limit.

The rock I pulled up from over 370 ft. and figure it probably weighed at least 20lbs. Was on just the 2nd drop and it killed my arms for the rest of the day! Especially since I'm probably going to have to have shoulder surgery on my rotator. Ah small price to pay.

The cowcod are a real bummer. I used my downrigger to get it back down to release using a 15lb. ball. No easy task. Can't them down with 5lbs. of lead. They still floated up. Very disappointed. Should have taken a frying pan and cooked the thing for lunch. Even moved to a different area after catching a couple and still caught one more.

Nice rock John! You should keep it and have it mounted! ;)

Not really fish, but since the early days, Wooldridge boats have been used to haul all sorts of cargo and gear! Check out some of these photos from past and present! Got your own crazy cargo pictures? Think we all would love to see them!

Wooldridge owner Chris shared this photo with us over on our Facebook. Beached on an island in Jack Bay, Prince William Sound. I dont know about you but I'm sure looking forward to spring.

Been a while since I posted some pics. Virus has created some real issues with social distancing etc. On top of that when I did get out, fishing sucked and nothing really to take pictures of. I did a couple of lake trips with my daughters doing some fishing for kokes (very small) and beaching the boat. Also was able to get out just before I sold the boat. Yup boats gone. Sold in a few days during a pandemic no less. Who would have thunk that? Crazy.

Anyways, here's some pictures from the last few trips. Aerial view was taken by a buddy while passing close to an offshore oil rig he was on. I think it's pretty cool. The tiny halibut and sheephead were released. Have a really cool picture taken at Catalina on our last trip. Need to upload that.

Looks like good times!

Neat photo from our customers at Pybus Point Lodge. They are currently running 3 of our 33' Deepwater Charters.