klymons
09-19-2008, 01:51 AM
This is my first post on the mighty FNN. Please forgive the lack of pictures--my one use camera came back from developing and all my pics were DOA. Anyway, I'll try to create a vivid word pictorial to make up for the missing photos. Believe it or not, I wanted to fish deep into the realm of red rockfish, johnny bass, lings, starries--and a certain bottom-dweller known as the chucklehead(which totally describes my previous boss). After reading the previous day's fish counts, I opted for one of my favorite cattleboat canoes--The Enterprise(out of scenic Alamitos Bay in the deep south of Long Beach, just before you leave civilization and cross into the wilds of Orange County). Got there at 5:20AM--totally burned due to minimal sleep. After forking over my shekels for a ticket, I shuffled over to the docking area to wait for the "all-aboard" signal. At 6:43, the deckhand waved us on, and we clumped on board to find the choice spot for our rods/reels & gearbags. After stashing the tackle I looked around assessing the passengers. I do this guessing game--who's the best fisherman on the boat today? My guesses are about 0% right 100% of the time. I saw this guy & his wife. He looked like he was ready to hit the links at the local golf course. She appeared to be somewhat in the beginner stage. I'm getting ahead of myself here, but my score was ZERO--the dude managed to catch a legal plus ling that turned out to win the jackpot. And every time I looked over at them, it seemed like she was pulling up yet another 3 to 4 lb. rockfish. But I digress--as I always do--so let's get back to the post in progress. . .okay, we're now underway and off to the semi-offshore fishing grounds. Just as we slid alongside the bait receiver, the galley cook told me my breakfast plate was ready. Fried eggs, fried bacon, hashbrowns, and white as me slices of Wonderbread toasted.(My wife would freak if she knew I was eating this "unhealthy" food--too much fat content. too many calories, too many carbs. She doesn't understand that after a week of "eating right," your basic old school fisherman is jonesing for some soul-filling galley food. Of course, what she doesn't know. . .) Normally I join the rest of the fisherman doing battle at the bait tanks for such adversaries as tom cod & baby macks. But I was so hungry, I just grubbed in the galley. Anyway, we were on the way to the fishing grounds. On the way there, a few guys asked me: "What are we fishing for?" When I told them that we were going rockfishing, they looked surprised. It seems quite a few folks thought we were "going calico" and brought only their finest bass rods & reels. Just before we reached the first stop, the deckhand went around and told everybody to fish at least 8 ounces! The bass rod guys gulped, and tied on the sinkers. It looked like they had a fish every time they reeled in. And when they were bringing up one of those chubby rockfish--definitely Jenny Craig drop-outs--their whippy rods were bent severely. But meanwhile--Number 1--that was my ticket number--was fishing with a medium-heavy rod purchased on sale at Big Five(Calypso Pacific?) and a trusty Penn 500 that I purchased just after the last of the dinosaurs faded into oblivion. My luck? Spotty, to say the least. But The Skunk was vanquished early when I reeled up a treefish so small, it would have lost a fight with the average bluegill. Of course, I did catch a johnny bass "with shoulders", a red rockfish pushing 4 lbs., some assorted sole and sand dabs, and some rockfish of lesser size. Not exactly a bad day--in fact it was fairly good--even if I didn't catch a legal ling or an awe-inspiring bottom fish. The bait was mostly live anchovies--not exactly pinheads, but extremely small. We had no frozen squid--we had to buy it at the tackle shop for three bucks a package. The landing does this some times--probably to save money--but, some guys were extremely peeved. The plusses: the galley food was outstanding. . .the deckhand, Jim, was extremely helpful to all anglers--there seemed to be no "deadhead" favoritism. . .also, his filet skills--for such a young dude--were impressive. As for the captain, he was great. Unlike some lazy dudes who anchor up & don't move even when the fishing is beyond bad. This guy--I forgot his name--wasted no time when the fishing was bad--he was on the move. Our last time--which overjoyed the bass rod guys--was over a school of calico bass over a deep kelp forest. Almost every cast you got bit. And yes,we were over a school--a middle school populated by 8" to 10" dinks. The whole time we fished there, no legals were caught. But hey, it was fun catching them on the light stuff(like my Quantum level wind and a 9 ft. Berkley noodle rod--brought along just in case. . .) Anyway, we finally headed back to the dock. Like Mr. Rogers used to say: "It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood". . .