Speed God
07-19-2008, 11:24 AM
Got there at just after 5am and there were 35 people in line. I had reservations but still got red 16. (More than half way up the boat, port side.) After we got on the boat we were at around 40 peeps. Then while sitting there I see 25 more anglers coming down the dock and boarding on with us RIGHT before we were about to leave. I said WTF??? They told me the guy at the landing just announced that the ¾ day boat was chartered and put them on with us. Hummmm….. That’s interesting that these people did not know that or weren’t told that when they made reservations the night before? So we had about 65 people. I figured ok cool, after the morning bite I’ll rotate around and be stern-side for the late afternoon pickup. NEVER HAPPENED! The only real thing about this boat that pissed me off was that the skipper never rotated the whole day! Therefore, the alpha dogs stayed at the back of the boat and caught most the fish the whole day. I discussed this with the deckies and the skipper and they ignored me or brushed me off.
Ok that being said and out of the way, the skipper did do a superb job at trying to put us on the fish. He worked really hard! But, IT IS SLIM PICKINS OUT THERE RIGHT NOW!!!! We had a really hard time getting the fish to come up. It was a soft bite and most fish were small and were returned to the ocean. Never really got a good strong hard bite. Just little flurries here and there. We stayed backside on the lee of the island all day and I was really upset with the skipper at the time for not going around frontside to try to catch some schools swimming in the currents. Sport King was the only other commercial vessel out there with us and in the morning they made the decision to go frontside and I really wanted to go as well to catch a larger grade of fish. Now that I look at the fish report I see our captain made a good decision! The Sport King didn’t do nearly as well.
We basically moved from spot to spot either when the bite died down or when Mr Seal made his presence. We stayed in shallow water really close to shore. Pretty much the hot ticket was to flyline a chovie hooked through the nose with #1 or 2 hook. As JapanRon says, keep your hooks sharp! I lost three bones after my first two, put on a new hook and was go-time again. A slightly larger grade of codas and bones were also caught on jigs tossed from the bow. I used 3/8 oz. bullet sliders and got out from the boat a little. Caught a few cudas, bonitos, sculpin and calicos, and some on the downfall. Free spool till you hit bottom to about 3 minutes, then reel in S-L-O-W-L-Y and re bait, do again. You will be surprised how many strikes and fish you get on the slow retrieve. Brought a few home as sized allowed, everything else back to growth school. Cook made GREAT food, (breakfast sandwiches and cheeseburgers ROCK!!!) beer was ice cold, deckie were cool and helpful for the most part, the pinhead……. well,…… he’s a pinhead. Skipper definitely knew what he was doing and did a great job putting us on the fish but I’m still pissed that he didn’t rotate so everyone else could have a chance to fish the chum line.
The fish report says 68 Calico Bass 31 Barracuda 4 Sheephead 206 Bonito 80 Perch. I didn’t see any perch so I don’t know what hat they pulled that out of, the rest of the count is including throwbacks. One other thing to note, the sides of this boat are VERY small and people are constantly trying to get by you. They catch fish and hit you across the back with them or are knocking over poles and stepping on them as they go to their sacks. There is no live-well in the front of this boat so the traffic of people never stops! I mean they grab a bait, sneak by you, bait slips out of their hand goes into the drink, then they’re coming by again. This never stops from the time you get to Catalina to the time you leave.
Overall I had a fun time and would go again. Maybe next time I’ll do a Thursday instead though. 65 people is way too many people to be on this small boat with.
Hope this helps or gives you some insight as what to expect.
Tight lines!
SG.
Ok that being said and out of the way, the skipper did do a superb job at trying to put us on the fish. He worked really hard! But, IT IS SLIM PICKINS OUT THERE RIGHT NOW!!!! We had a really hard time getting the fish to come up. It was a soft bite and most fish were small and were returned to the ocean. Never really got a good strong hard bite. Just little flurries here and there. We stayed backside on the lee of the island all day and I was really upset with the skipper at the time for not going around frontside to try to catch some schools swimming in the currents. Sport King was the only other commercial vessel out there with us and in the morning they made the decision to go frontside and I really wanted to go as well to catch a larger grade of fish. Now that I look at the fish report I see our captain made a good decision! The Sport King didn’t do nearly as well.
We basically moved from spot to spot either when the bite died down or when Mr Seal made his presence. We stayed in shallow water really close to shore. Pretty much the hot ticket was to flyline a chovie hooked through the nose with #1 or 2 hook. As JapanRon says, keep your hooks sharp! I lost three bones after my first two, put on a new hook and was go-time again. A slightly larger grade of codas and bones were also caught on jigs tossed from the bow. I used 3/8 oz. bullet sliders and got out from the boat a little. Caught a few cudas, bonitos, sculpin and calicos, and some on the downfall. Free spool till you hit bottom to about 3 minutes, then reel in S-L-O-W-L-Y and re bait, do again. You will be surprised how many strikes and fish you get on the slow retrieve. Brought a few home as sized allowed, everything else back to growth school. Cook made GREAT food, (breakfast sandwiches and cheeseburgers ROCK!!!) beer was ice cold, deckie were cool and helpful for the most part, the pinhead……. well,…… he’s a pinhead. Skipper definitely knew what he was doing and did a great job putting us on the fish but I’m still pissed that he didn’t rotate so everyone else could have a chance to fish the chum line.
The fish report says 68 Calico Bass 31 Barracuda 4 Sheephead 206 Bonito 80 Perch. I didn’t see any perch so I don’t know what hat they pulled that out of, the rest of the count is including throwbacks. One other thing to note, the sides of this boat are VERY small and people are constantly trying to get by you. They catch fish and hit you across the back with them or are knocking over poles and stepping on them as they go to their sacks. There is no live-well in the front of this boat so the traffic of people never stops! I mean they grab a bait, sneak by you, bait slips out of their hand goes into the drink, then they’re coming by again. This never stops from the time you get to Catalina to the time you leave.
Overall I had a fun time and would go again. Maybe next time I’ll do a Thursday instead though. 65 people is way too many people to be on this small boat with.
Hope this helps or gives you some insight as what to expect.
Tight lines!
SG.