Steffen Spring Break- First Day of Fishing

I´ve been having problems with my computer so I borrowed Willy´s and have to figure some stuff out in Spanish so forgive me.

It´s our first day of fishing on Spring break and we decide to go offshore. Our team includes myself, my beautiful wife Lisa, 6 y.o. son Ian, Lisa´s sister Amy and her Beau Chris (his first time blue-water fishing). We are soon underway and headed to the West about 40 miles out. At 24 knots, the new Frenzy gets us there in short order. Our crew consists of Captain Ian Steffen, assistant Captain Jose, First Mate Marco and Second Mate Rafa (Marco´s Dad and and expert Captain as well).

We have two secret weapons we soon discover. We put Ian in the captains seat and with him at the helm we are quickly into sailfish. On this trip I'm trying to learn to hook the fish on conventional tackle as opposed to on the fly as Jamie and I have talked about coming down to fish some of the conventional tournaments on the Frenzy. I adopt the watch one, do one, teach one method. Marco soon has a fish on and Chris lands his first Pacific sailfish with help from the mates and a lot of razzing from me.




The baits are back in the water and now I´m up. It´s minutes before the next fish strikes and I´m on the reel. I let a nice backlash develop a beautiful bird´s nest on the reel. Lucky for me we have such a great crew. They quickly are backing down on fish and Amy lands a nice 30lb. Mahi. We now have Ceviche in the boat. I go to work getting the bird´s nest out of the reel.



We barely have the teasers in the water when a sail pops up on the left short teaser. I expertly drop a pitch bait to the fish, he bites, turns, runs, I flip the drag and it´s fish on! Amy lands the fish in short order as she is getting quite good at fishing the Frenzy.



I miss the next couple of bites and when Jose hooks the next sail, Ian decides he´s watched enough and he´s off the bridge in a flash and on my lap in the chair. With a little help from me, he lands his first sailfish. His sister, Olivia who is in Japan on a school trip will be happy for her
brother but will now have to fight for who´s turn it is to catch a fish as Ian is hooked!







Ian returns to the helm and quickly puts us upon a pod of white-bellied dolphins chasing a school of tuna. Moments later the crew has changed the baits and lures for tuna and we're on them. We land six yellowfin tuna. It´s the first time for tuna for Ian, Lisa, Amy, and Chris. Amy and Lisa land one on a fly as well. Lisa has some choice words about acrylic nails and the handle design on the Waterwork's fly reel and I promise her I will talk to the manufacturer when I return.

We land one more sailfish and then Lisa prepares lunch for the all of us. The bite is pretty much off for the afternoon. The i-Pod is hooked up and we bump to tunes as we decide to head in a bit early. We finish off the day with a dinner prepared by Chris to compliment Ian´s favorite meal, Tuna Sashimi and lots of it!

Count for the day is four Sailfish, six Yellowfin Tuna and one nice Mahi.

More to come....especially our other secret weapon!!