Hawkeye
08-24-2008, 08:52 AM
Day started out kind of weird. Booked Spitfire for this date and went to the landing, you know it's not a good sign when bobby is sitting front of the office instead of on the boat. Sure enough, spitfire is not going out and the reason was somehow the captain forgot to renew his license, how does one forget that in the first place??? Crap! I could be wrong but I heard that they found out about this situation around 9pm the day before! I really wish somehow these landings find a way to alert the customers that certain boats are not going out instead of letting customers know about an hour before the boat is scheduled to leave. I took a day from work and not to mention drove little over 32 miles one way. Maybe I should send them a bill for the gas, and/or make them pay for one day worth of vacation day they potentially ruined then I am sure they will think of a better way to communicate to potential customers. All I know was there were plenty of pissed off people on the parking lot.
It is about 5:30am, I am thinking quickly for other options because I didn't want to waste my vacation day, so I am thinking of any close by landings since most boats are probably leaving at 6am. I called the 22nd and few options available but one option for Catalina which is the Pursuit (was crossing my fingers it won't be too crowded since it is on the weekday, maybe instead of 80, it will be 40, haha). We race down there to only to see the Pursuit just leaving the docks, one other option is a 1/2 boat Monte Carlo and 3/4 on the Sea Angler both fishing the local areas. Decide to stick with Sea Angler. Bite started off really slow, basically nothing was biting for the first few hours, captain tried several locations, and finally mid-day we hit few spots producing bocaccio, rockcod and few sanddabs. I caught a bocaccio using twin tail orange/red plastic with red jig head. I then switched to irons, green yellow salas and caught several quality rockcod. I guess practice makes perfect because each time I have used an iron I have been catching fish with them. I think the success I have been having with my irons is attributed to practicing in the backyard pool, I am sure those of you who have a pool can all relate! I can actually view the irons in action and help me fine tune my skills on what I need to do draw out certain actions on them. Obviously in the deeper waters, you won't be able to see the irons in action and most people just think, up and down or simply reel in the iron but you would be surprised all other actions you can bring out on the iron by simply doing things slightly different and that is where pool came in handy. After practicing in the pool you will get so used to the motion that you need to draw out a certain action you won't need to see it. Make sure to rinse off with water so that any hint of chlorine if any, stays off the iron or any other lures for that matter.
All in all, a potential wasted vacation turned out well. This is the first time Spitfire has disappointed me and hopefully the last, overall I have been happy with the Spitfire.
It is about 5:30am, I am thinking quickly for other options because I didn't want to waste my vacation day, so I am thinking of any close by landings since most boats are probably leaving at 6am. I called the 22nd and few options available but one option for Catalina which is the Pursuit (was crossing my fingers it won't be too crowded since it is on the weekday, maybe instead of 80, it will be 40, haha). We race down there to only to see the Pursuit just leaving the docks, one other option is a 1/2 boat Monte Carlo and 3/4 on the Sea Angler both fishing the local areas. Decide to stick with Sea Angler. Bite started off really slow, basically nothing was biting for the first few hours, captain tried several locations, and finally mid-day we hit few spots producing bocaccio, rockcod and few sanddabs. I caught a bocaccio using twin tail orange/red plastic with red jig head. I then switched to irons, green yellow salas and caught several quality rockcod. I guess practice makes perfect because each time I have used an iron I have been catching fish with them. I think the success I have been having with my irons is attributed to practicing in the backyard pool, I am sure those of you who have a pool can all relate! I can actually view the irons in action and help me fine tune my skills on what I need to do draw out certain actions on them. Obviously in the deeper waters, you won't be able to see the irons in action and most people just think, up and down or simply reel in the iron but you would be surprised all other actions you can bring out on the iron by simply doing things slightly different and that is where pool came in handy. After practicing in the pool you will get so used to the motion that you need to draw out a certain action you won't need to see it. Make sure to rinse off with water so that any hint of chlorine if any, stays off the iron or any other lures for that matter.
All in all, a potential wasted vacation turned out well. This is the first time Spitfire has disappointed me and hopefully the last, overall I have been happy with the Spitfire.