Hawkeye
02-10-2008, 05:25 PM
You couldn’t ask for more perfect weather then on Saturday, it was a nice 73 degree weather, a typical Cali winter and I guess everyone had fishing in their mind because 31 anglers boarded the boat. We boarded the Native Sun out of the Long Beach Sports Fishing –Berth 55, weather was slightly chilly early in the morning but it wasn't bad.
Getting Ready to Launch!
http://fishinghotpage.com/users/tmp3/GettingReadytoLaunch.JPG
The waves out of the landing weren't too bad as we headed toward the floating bait island.
Sunrise from the Bow
http://fishinghotpage.com/users/tmp3/SunrisefromBow.JPG
We got some anchovies and headed towards Catalina.
Floating Bait Shop
http://fishinghotpage.com/users/tmp3/BaitShop.JPG
Crew putting some anchovies in the bait tank
http://fishinghotpage.com/users/tmp3/FillingtheBaitTank.JPG
The ride to Catalina Island was roughly about 3 hours but I was very surprised the wave conditions were very calm as we were nearing the island, it almost felt like I was on huge pond. Near the island we saw several schools of dolphins and several sea lions.
A view from port side, as far as the eye can see, it was calm waters
http://fishinghotpage.com/users/tmp3/CalmWater.JPG
I was on the port side and most people on the port side opted to fish with various jigs, I was using 7 ft heavy fast action rod with a spinning reel with a 25 lb test line and 2 ˝ to 5oz Krocs, changing between mack, green back and chrome colors which I had great success before when it comes to bonitos while a number of people were using, tadys, ironman, and salsa, consisting variety of colors blue white, scrambled egg, solid white and green. It was jigs all around! At our first stop we encountered small school of macks and everyone started catching macks and tossing it back, generally I don't mind eating macks and sometimes I use it for bait to catch stripers so I kept a few. Two youngsters just beginning fishing were fly lining anchovies and they were catching macks and getting a thrill out, they didn’t care if it was just macks, now that is what fishing is all about, having fun no matter what you were catching! For those of us targeting bonitos, neither anchovies nor the jigs were getting lot of attention and we even tried tipping the jigs with some strips of squid but no luck. Anyway, as the day progressed I met an interesting retired older gentleman named “Mac Daddy” or just “Mac”. He is a regular on the Native Sun and is also sponsored by a fishing equipment company. He usually mans one of the sponsored booths or speaks at various fishing seminars. Once and awhile he gets free swag (fishing pole, tack box, shirt, etc) from his sponsor and he brings them on board to raffle them away. He then donates the proceeds from the raffle to the crew of the boat, how cool is that!!!! Really nice guy and I loved hearing his fishing stories. If you meet him on the Native Sun, don't forget to say hi, he is very easy to talk to and you can learn a lot about fishing from him. Tell him "Cowboy" says hi! Hahaha! That was his nickname for me.
Anyway, back to fishing, as far as bonitos are concerned, only few people finally managed to get small bonitos but not too many bonitos were to be found. Unfortunately, this was the scene throughout the day, at one point we ended up near a spot where there were some underwater kelp which held few perch so I changed gear and went after the the perch using smaller hooks with a small strips of squid. The perch seemed to mainly congregated at the top, I would say around 15 to 20 feet and you can literally see the perch trying to hit the bait which was kind of fun to watch. I ended up catching few macks, 3 perch, one baby ling which was literally the size of the krocs and it wasn't one of those accidental snags, the baby ling actually went after a krocs and I am thinking, geez, this little fellow thought he can eat a krocs as almost as big as him! Oh well, perhaps he will grow up to be a monster the next time I catch him! One highlight of the day on the boat was someone hooking a decent size bat ray but no one knew what it was at first and he was fighting the bat ray from the starboard side, stern and then ended up at port side. As the bat ray was just breaking the surface, the line broke so he was free. Otherwise it was pretty uneventful day, did I mention what a wonderful weather we had? Hahaha, seriously, usually when I go to Catalina Island the waves are far from being calm. The captain did his best to try to find us some bonitos but the bonitos were either too shy or not in a biting mood. My guess is the water temperature maybe still too cold. While we had a perfect weather and basically no waves, I believe having a cold water temperature was to blame for the fishing being in a not feeding mood, at least when it comes to the bigger game fish. Sorry I don't have any pictures of the action on the boat but when it comes to fishing I get too focused on it and last thing on my mind is taking pictures but I tried, at least before fishing started and at the end of the day, hahaha...besides who wants to see pictures of bunch of macks, ha! :lol:
Fish Cleaning
http://fishinghotpage.com/users/tmp3/FishCleaning.JPG
All in all, it was a perfect day to be out on the water, soaking up the sun and enjoying the calm water while getting your line wet. I would have preferred some quality fish to go along with the weather but 3 out 4 ain't bad, it beats any day in the office! :banana:
It was a gorgeous sunset and took this one as we passed the lighthouse.
http://fishinghotpage.com/users/tmp3/GoingBackHome-LightHouse.JPG
Getting Ready to Launch!
http://fishinghotpage.com/users/tmp3/GettingReadytoLaunch.JPG
The waves out of the landing weren't too bad as we headed toward the floating bait island.
Sunrise from the Bow
http://fishinghotpage.com/users/tmp3/SunrisefromBow.JPG
We got some anchovies and headed towards Catalina.
Floating Bait Shop
http://fishinghotpage.com/users/tmp3/BaitShop.JPG
Crew putting some anchovies in the bait tank
http://fishinghotpage.com/users/tmp3/FillingtheBaitTank.JPG
The ride to Catalina Island was roughly about 3 hours but I was very surprised the wave conditions were very calm as we were nearing the island, it almost felt like I was on huge pond. Near the island we saw several schools of dolphins and several sea lions.
A view from port side, as far as the eye can see, it was calm waters
http://fishinghotpage.com/users/tmp3/CalmWater.JPG
I was on the port side and most people on the port side opted to fish with various jigs, I was using 7 ft heavy fast action rod with a spinning reel with a 25 lb test line and 2 ˝ to 5oz Krocs, changing between mack, green back and chrome colors which I had great success before when it comes to bonitos while a number of people were using, tadys, ironman, and salsa, consisting variety of colors blue white, scrambled egg, solid white and green. It was jigs all around! At our first stop we encountered small school of macks and everyone started catching macks and tossing it back, generally I don't mind eating macks and sometimes I use it for bait to catch stripers so I kept a few. Two youngsters just beginning fishing were fly lining anchovies and they were catching macks and getting a thrill out, they didn’t care if it was just macks, now that is what fishing is all about, having fun no matter what you were catching! For those of us targeting bonitos, neither anchovies nor the jigs were getting lot of attention and we even tried tipping the jigs with some strips of squid but no luck. Anyway, as the day progressed I met an interesting retired older gentleman named “Mac Daddy” or just “Mac”. He is a regular on the Native Sun and is also sponsored by a fishing equipment company. He usually mans one of the sponsored booths or speaks at various fishing seminars. Once and awhile he gets free swag (fishing pole, tack box, shirt, etc) from his sponsor and he brings them on board to raffle them away. He then donates the proceeds from the raffle to the crew of the boat, how cool is that!!!! Really nice guy and I loved hearing his fishing stories. If you meet him on the Native Sun, don't forget to say hi, he is very easy to talk to and you can learn a lot about fishing from him. Tell him "Cowboy" says hi! Hahaha! That was his nickname for me.
Anyway, back to fishing, as far as bonitos are concerned, only few people finally managed to get small bonitos but not too many bonitos were to be found. Unfortunately, this was the scene throughout the day, at one point we ended up near a spot where there were some underwater kelp which held few perch so I changed gear and went after the the perch using smaller hooks with a small strips of squid. The perch seemed to mainly congregated at the top, I would say around 15 to 20 feet and you can literally see the perch trying to hit the bait which was kind of fun to watch. I ended up catching few macks, 3 perch, one baby ling which was literally the size of the krocs and it wasn't one of those accidental snags, the baby ling actually went after a krocs and I am thinking, geez, this little fellow thought he can eat a krocs as almost as big as him! Oh well, perhaps he will grow up to be a monster the next time I catch him! One highlight of the day on the boat was someone hooking a decent size bat ray but no one knew what it was at first and he was fighting the bat ray from the starboard side, stern and then ended up at port side. As the bat ray was just breaking the surface, the line broke so he was free. Otherwise it was pretty uneventful day, did I mention what a wonderful weather we had? Hahaha, seriously, usually when I go to Catalina Island the waves are far from being calm. The captain did his best to try to find us some bonitos but the bonitos were either too shy or not in a biting mood. My guess is the water temperature maybe still too cold. While we had a perfect weather and basically no waves, I believe having a cold water temperature was to blame for the fishing being in a not feeding mood, at least when it comes to the bigger game fish. Sorry I don't have any pictures of the action on the boat but when it comes to fishing I get too focused on it and last thing on my mind is taking pictures but I tried, at least before fishing started and at the end of the day, hahaha...besides who wants to see pictures of bunch of macks, ha! :lol:
Fish Cleaning
http://fishinghotpage.com/users/tmp3/FishCleaning.JPG
All in all, it was a perfect day to be out on the water, soaking up the sun and enjoying the calm water while getting your line wet. I would have preferred some quality fish to go along with the weather but 3 out 4 ain't bad, it beats any day in the office! :banana:
It was a gorgeous sunset and took this one as we passed the lighthouse.
http://fishinghotpage.com/users/tmp3/GoingBackHome-LightHouse.JPG