Early season tuna fishing can be great, but it does have its challenges. The first few trips of the season for the San Diego fleet were excellent, with catches of large bluefin tuna made several trips in a row. A few weeks later, the tuna disappeared, with the entire fleet blanking for a few days. This trip, we went out with hopes of finding the schools of bluefin tuna. The captain knew how challenging the conditions had been, so he made the call to stop on a rockfish spot to get some fish to take home. Turned out to be a great call. The spot we fished had phenomenal rockfishing to be had, with limits of chunky reds and other rockfishes coming onboard for all the passengers. After that, we were not far from potential tuna grounds, so we went on the search.