This Wednesday March 5 at 8pm Suffolk Marine Anglers will have a meeting open to the public at Millers Ale House in Deer Park. Captain Al Lorenzetti, John Nappo of Trophy Tackle and Tim C. Smith will be discussing their recent trip on the long range sport fishing boat the excel. There will be a video presentation and discussion. If you ever wanted to experience this fishing trip of a lifetime this is the chance to have all your questions answered.

In February 2014 Trophy Tackle of Long Island New York organized a long range Tuna trip out of San Diego California. The anglers where mostly from the east coast. Multi-Media Journalist Tim C. Smith was on board to document the 16 days aboard the Excel. This YouTube playlist is all the

Special Thanks to John Nappo of Trophy Tackle for setting up a fishing trip of a lifetime. If you are interested in taking a long range sport fishing trip from San Diego California contact John at the shop 631-274-7042. John is the most knowledgeable person on the east coast when it comes to west coast fishing.

Tim C Smith
Capt. Al Lorenzetti 

We are now in the port of San Diego. The tuna is being offloaded and the provisions are coming aboard for the next trip which departs tomorrow morning.

A big concern for the traveling fisherman is what do I do with my catch. Fortunately there are fish processing services that have solved this problem.

This fishing experience is like nothing I've done before. We traveled over 28 hundred miles at 10 knots. Imagine being on a floating hotel with gourmet meals just footsteps from what may be the most productive tuna grounds on the planet. That's San Diego long range fishing

Tim C. Smith

Last day on the water before arriving in San Diego. Steaming along at 10 knots we should be in port by nine am.  The final outfits have been broken down are are headed for the east coast. Tomorrow may be the busiest day of the trip for the crew as they off load the catch and prepare for the Excel's next adventure which is less then 24 hours away.

Tim C. Smith

We have the weather in our favor and dolphins riding our bow wave for the steam back to San Diego. 

When selecting tackle for a long range fishing trip, the length of the trip will help determine what gear to bring.

In the late nineties hollow core Spectra was introduced. This new technology had the same characteristics of Dacron but with a much smaller diameter. This advancement allowed greater line capacity without the added weight.

Longer trips target cow Yellow fin Tuna, Shorter trips offer more variety and smaller game fish.

Let's talk about what gear to bring on a longer trip. Coming from the east coast the cost of getting your gear to the boat is a concern. I recommend you bring 6 outfits.

A pair of 50's spooled with 130 pound spectra and a  pair of 30's spooled with 100 pound spectra. This should take care of your tuna needs. 

For Wahoo, yellow tail and other smaller fish two 30's  spooled with 50 pound spectra is recommend. One setup should have a high speed 5 to 1 gear ratio reel for fishing jigs. The second setup will be for fishing live bait.

Terminal tackle is fairly straight forward. Hooks, swivels, sinkers, rubber bands and balloons.

Enjoying the calm seas of the Pacific.

Tim C. Smith

We arrived in Cabo before Sunrise where  many of the anglers departed to head back east into the bitter cold. After the water taxi exchange we pulled anchor and worked our way past the famous arch of Cabo San Lucas. If time permits we will fish the Yellow tail hot spot as w cruise North.

Enjoying the favorable seas along the cost of Baja California 

Tim C. smith 

The Captain had us up at 3am to attempt to catch the large baits needed for our last shot of the big cows before heading back to cabo San Lucas. There was a bait catching assembly line on the deck. It didn't take long for the thirty anglers to catch the required amount of cow candy.

These are tricky baits to fish because of their size and tenacity. Each bait is swimming where they please. The skill of the deck hands onboard are somehow able to control this chaos .

This morning none of the cows we were hoping for showed up. 

These north east fisherman are now spoiled, tuna of this size over the rail are considered small here, back home however they would garner bragging rights.

We finished the day with another wild wahoo bite on the troll. Once the excel was out of gear it was every man for himself.

Although the fishing has ended there will still be daily reports until we make port in San Diego

Tim C. Smith