Sport King - 5/29/07 - Report

[Afakasi*Dude]

I had originally called 22nd Street landing on Sunday and made a reservation for Tuesday. The gentleman told me that it was going to be a light load and that it would only cost $30 because of the managers special. I must of missed something because when I showed up at the landing on Tuesday, it was closed. As I was getting my stuff out, some dude cruised by and told me that the Pursuit wasn't going out. He said everyone was heading to La Harbor. So I did just that.

We left the dock at around 6:20ish AM because we were waiting for one person who was in the office wanting to get on. This is the first time I've ever seen a boat/skipper actually wait for a person. It didn't bother me but I heard a few grumbling on board.

There were between 25-30 people on board. The skipper announced that we were going to fish at Catalina Island. I was happy because I've never fished there before. The skipper announced the supporting role, Ron(or Ronnie) on deck, Irma (sp?) in the galley and......the skipper announced HER name, but it sounded all garbled on that boat's loudspeaker.

Anyways, we hit the bait receiver on the way out to pick up some sardines. We also had live and frozen squid. We got to the fishing grounds between 9-9:30 AM. The first stop yielded some short calico's (and a few keepers), a barracuda, and a sheephead. Our second spot yielded some more shorts & keeper calicos, another sheephead, a few rockfish, and a whitefish. Our third move had a few pulling up some more sheephead, another barracuda, some more whitefish, and some more calicos. Our fourth and fifth move really didn't yield anything. At least nothing that I could see. By this time we were fishing by the big round rock with all the bird **** on it. On our last spot, we were fishing near some kelp and that's where everyone caught their majority of bass, huge perch, and whitefish. We left the island around 3 PM and made it to the dock around 5:30 PM. The fish counts for that day reflect what was actually caught.

Aside #1: (Borrowing from JapanRon)Since I heard that there may be an opportunity to catch a yellowtail, I went out and bought my first jigs. I got a Tady C (blue/white) for the barracuda (which I didn't catch any on it) and a Salas 6x Jr in scrambled egg and blue/white. On one of the spots where there was kelp, I tied on the scrambled egg and started casting away. Mind you, this is my first time casting a heavy jig (I usually just use those small kastmasters for whatever bites it) and didn't realize those sink really fast....so by the time I was ready to start retrieving it, it already hit the bottom and got stuck. A lesson was learned that day.

Hope you enjoyed reading this.

Until next time,

~Ramon~

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[ghetto dad]

thanks for the report man!! remember, when your yo yo fishing those heavy irons, you WIND IN AS FAST AS YOU CAN....peace

[hookemdano]

Nice report - way to stick with it!

[Funjunkie74]

Nice report...and where are the pictures?? :twisted:

[JapanRon]

Hi Afakasi*Dude,

Thanks for the report. Excellent, detailed, and fun read !! So ..... like ..... where's the pics? :lol: :lol:

Just half-joking !! Sorry to hear you lost the GOLD .... ops .... iron ... at the price we pay for those things now .... it seems like they should be at least 18 Karat plated!!

Some unsolicited advice: Being new to throwing or at least owning iron (temporailly), it might be a good idea to condider the following:

1) Unless I know we're supposed to go yo-yoing deep for Yellowtail, I don't take more than 1 or 2 heavy irons along with my ligher models. (I'm a light tackle guy anyways)

2) I cut my teeth on fishing lighter iron and simply learning to be patient and work the fall charasteristics of the jig to where I thought the fish were in the water column.

3) A lighter jig means that it will be in the upper section of the water column with its slower fall rate a longer period of time. More exposure .. more potential.

4) In a situation where there is a mixed-species bite, being that fish compete ..... you have a good chance of getting say ........ a big ol' Calico just as well as a Yellowtail if the jig stays where it is a target of both.

5) For a bite that demands the retrieve speed be cranked up .... it's a lot easier to speed up the travel of a ligher, smaller jig.

6) For fishing in the kelp, I perfer the single hook models (shown in last weeks report) over the ones with trebles to reduce hang-ups, etc. Remember 'The Trouble with Trebles' episode?

BACK TO TOPIC ......

JapanRon