glumace
06-15-2010, 06:28 PM
Finally got back out on the water this past Sunday with Jonathan and friends who went on my April charter to Catalina on the Tide Change . Got back out on the Spectra again as well. This was a 1/2 day run out to the rockfish hole and hit the sculpin grounds for some good fishing for this group. Left the dock from Pierpoint right before six with Captain Chris and deckhands Ted and Dennis. This was my 3rd charter of the year taking out people who have never fished before, or have only been out with me once or twice. It's fun working with and watching people learn to enjoy fishing.
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_kmJKY6zLH3s/TBa7M5TTw7I/AAAAAAAAFwE/ZOSLOp3WQMo/s400/IMG_5794.JPG
Chris gave everyone the rundown on what we were going to do as we headed out. Hit the spot for salmon grouper (Bocaccio) that we have been out at before with the Spectra then head over to fish sculpin and be back at the dock around 1:30pm or so. For the majority of the people out on this trip (other than myself, my son Jonathan and our friend Rick) this was only the second trip out on the water. The last charter we caught a few rockfish and conditions were tough, today was a total 180, great flat weather and a ton of fish. Limits on almost everything for everyone and crew. Just as a taste of what is to come, here is the biggest fish of the day and our final load of fish in the cooler...
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_kmJKY6zLH3s/TBa7-DsdVlI/AAAAAAAAF1A/jFmVL6cyz_M/s400/IMG_5860.jpg
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_kmJKY6zLH3s/TBa8Ce_1NmI/AAAAAAAAF1g/pEIcOTigOJE/s400/IMG_5865.JPG
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_kmJKY6zLH3s/TBa8l486-sI/AAAAAAAAF4o/kjK4Ghy2A_8/s400/IMG_5896.jpg
Stopped by the bait barge and picked up some sardines and small mackerel. The bigger the bait, the bigger the salmon grouper.
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_kmJKY6zLH3s/TBa7RcLyi2I/AAAAAAAAFwc/bsUcH16cuK4/s400/IMG_5798.JPG"
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_kmJKY6zLH3s/TBa7TBivA1I/AAAAAAAAFws/Sm4OMVv4U9M/s400/IMG_5799.JPG
Got out to the spot in about an hour and Dennis took care of everyone going out, rigging up and making sure everything ready.
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_kmJKY6zLH3s/TBa7XEvugLI/AAAAAAAAFxE/As7LmRMV-1w/s400/IMG_5807.JPG
Everyone got to see some dolphins play with the boat darting along the bow and playing the wake as well. Weather was a bit overcast, but flat and nice. Slowed down the engines out near the rigs and got the first yell from Ted to drop down. Everyone but my son Jonathan was set up with an 8oz sinker with a double dropper loop with big hooks, and big sardines or small mackerel. Jonathan had a single hook, but I was helping him fish with a big mackerel on it, hoping for one of those big lings to hit down there.
Everyone dropped, a few birds nests happened, a few people had never used a conventional set up but everyone got to the bottom to get hit on the first drift. Everyone hooked up and fun began. I'll let the photos tell the story.
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_kmJKY6zLH3s/TBa7Zphw2dI/AAAAAAAAFxU/LQg89qBqkRc/s400/IMG_5810.JPG
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_kmJKY6zLH3s/TBa7a2Y3XjI/AAAAAAAAFxg/ITqMZYy8ZDw/s400/IMG_5812.JPG
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_kmJKY6zLH3s/TBa7cWse6oI/AAAAAAAAFxo/ZFVNicMGXRk/s400/IMG_5816.jpg
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_kmJKY6zLH3s/TBa7doc_D5I/AAAAAAAAFxw/iIDWhLMemtU/s400/IMG_5818.jpg
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_kmJKY6zLH3s/TBa7jAiM40I/AAAAAAAAFyU/1yp9mDtppy0/s400/IMG_5826.JPG
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_kmJKY6zLH3s/TBa7kZbbsuI/AAAAAAAAFyc/3bwkh2GsxJ8/s400/IMG_5828.JPG
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_kmJKY6zLH3s/TBa7oj_518I/AAAAAAAAFy4/3TBhTomU3wY/s400/IMG_5833.jpg
Jonathan and his nice salmon grouper.
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_kmJKY6zLH3s/TBa7qKcgtmI/AAAAAAAAFzE/c662aTauva4/s400/IMG_5834.jpg
More happy anglers
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_kmJKY6zLH3s/TBa72jYHVfI/AAAAAAAAF0U/YyJ89koeR-o/s400/IMG_5851.jpg
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_kmJKY6zLH3s/TBa74HK8mWI/AAAAAAAAF0g/6RTRLyMZ7EY/s400/IMG_5853.jpg
Did a total of 3 drifts on the spot. Had a few tangles but we pulled our boat limits in about 45 minutes on the spot. Ted the deckhand caught one of the biggest salmon groupers we had seen in a long time fishing with a big mackerel. Here is the fish in front of Jonathan (and yes, this is not held out from him, it's right in front of his chest).
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_kmJKY6zLH3s/TBa7-DsdVlI/AAAAAAAAF1A/jFmVL6cyz_M/s400/IMG_5860.jpg
Quality fish all around. Here is the cooler full.
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_kmJKY6zLH3s/TBa8Ce_1NmI/AAAAAAAAF1g/pEIcOTigOJE/s400/IMG_5865.JPG
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_kmJKY6zLH3s/TBa8D5kfLLI/AAAAAAAAF1s/X6gyYGkwi_o/s400/IMG_5866.JPG
We cleaned everything up and headed out about 20 minutes away to the sculpin grounds to see what we could do there. Anchored up and got to work. Kept the same set up as the salmon grouper, but I had a big bag of green 2" plastics I picked up at the Fred Hall Show earlier this year and I switched out to the lead head with one on. We fished with cut mackerel from the bait tank along with the lead head. Me and Jonathan were the first to the bottom and hooked up on a nice sculpin right away.
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_kmJKY6zLH3s/TBa8ME-nvqI/AAAAAAAAF2g/srLQg1Nt2Pc/s400/IMG_5873.JPG
We also found the sand dabs in the same spot and if you did not have a green plastic on, all you got was the sand dabs. Every drop produced either a nice sized sand dab or a sculpin, hardly ever came up empty handed on the boat. So for the next few hours we slayed them all. Everyone was having fun, most had never seen or caught either and we had limits on sculpin and about 50 sand dabs in 2 hours.
I'll let the photos tell the story again...
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_kmJKY6zLH3s/TBa8NXTpcRI/AAAAAAAAF2o/o8CplfGRD6c/s400/IMG_5874.JPG
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_kmJKY6zLH3s/TBa8Ph9NQyI/AAAAAAAAF20/YipOHeHnIms/s400/IMG_5877.jpg
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_kmJKY6zLH3s/TBa8Ug1HqAI/AAAAAAAAF3M/ARWLOcvoSFk/s400/IMG_5880.JPG
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_kmJKY6zLH3s/TBa8Kz84-WI/AAAAAAAAF2U/mxNhnMVjjHI/s400/IMG_5872.JPG
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_kmJKY6zLH3s/TBa8WMxKtEI/AAAAAAAAF3U/EW8IRbz-uEA/s400/IMG_5881.JPG
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_kmJKY6zLH3s/TBa8Z11S5SI/AAAAAAAAF3o/xu6P3wqdlGU/s400/IMG_5887.jpg
Even the Freelance got in on the fun...
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_kmJKY6zLH3s/TBa8bupVeNI/AAAAAAAAF30/a-ToMPD8C1s/s400/IMG_5888.JPG"
One of the lone pictures of me and my son, hardly ever get in the pictures when you are taking them.
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_kmJKY6zLH3s/TBa8e-8kasI/AAAAAAAAF4I/1Z-M9J7pmxQ/s400/IMG_5890.JPG
Jonathan's first Sand Dab
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_kmJKY6zLH3s/TBa8ib5SMQI/AAAAAAAAF4Y/sQzZhfNZJXc/s400/IMG_5892.jpg
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_kmJKY6zLH3s/TBa8pWGCWGI/AAAAAAAAF48/J5xYlPRYxZ4/s400/IMG_5899.JPG
We decided to call it a day around 11:45 and headed back to the barn. We had a ton of fish on board. Here is the cooler full the brim. I would not want to fall on top of that sculpin pile, makes me shutter just thinking about it.
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_kmJKY6zLH3s/TBa8rfurMhI/AAAAAAAAF5E/DTXQWPlVgR8/s400/IMG_5900.jpg
Happy angler
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_kmJKY6zLH3s/TBa8tjc9dJI/AAAAAAAAF5Q/WEKK41_hXXA/s400/IMG_5901.jpg
Ted worked hard to clean all the fish on the way back in. Took him almost an hour and a half but everyone went home with big bags of fish.
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_kmJKY6zLH3s/TBa8w8nie2I/AAAAAAAAF5g/YSQFlkcp7Zw/s400/IMG_5903.JPG
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_kmJKY6zLH3s/TBa8yuG1MVI/AAAAAAAAF5o/JJUs0lrMLfM/s400/IMG_5904.JPG
Once again the Spectra came through for me and my charter and the crew was excellent. Dennis went way above and beyond the call to help everyone have a great time, and Chris was all over the place helping everyone. Ted put us on the fish as always and did an beautiful (and hard) job cleaning and putting everything together. I can't recommend this boat enough to people. Billy runs a great operation with Spectra Sportfishing. I get to go out again this coming Thursday with another group I put together and I'm looking forward to it. Everyone went home happy and with a lot of fish to fill the freezers.
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_kmJKY6zLH3s/TBa7M5TTw7I/AAAAAAAAFwE/ZOSLOp3WQMo/s400/IMG_5794.JPG
Chris gave everyone the rundown on what we were going to do as we headed out. Hit the spot for salmon grouper (Bocaccio) that we have been out at before with the Spectra then head over to fish sculpin and be back at the dock around 1:30pm or so. For the majority of the people out on this trip (other than myself, my son Jonathan and our friend Rick) this was only the second trip out on the water. The last charter we caught a few rockfish and conditions were tough, today was a total 180, great flat weather and a ton of fish. Limits on almost everything for everyone and crew. Just as a taste of what is to come, here is the biggest fish of the day and our final load of fish in the cooler...
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_kmJKY6zLH3s/TBa7-DsdVlI/AAAAAAAAF1A/jFmVL6cyz_M/s400/IMG_5860.jpg
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_kmJKY6zLH3s/TBa8Ce_1NmI/AAAAAAAAF1g/pEIcOTigOJE/s400/IMG_5865.JPG
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_kmJKY6zLH3s/TBa8l486-sI/AAAAAAAAF4o/kjK4Ghy2A_8/s400/IMG_5896.jpg
Stopped by the bait barge and picked up some sardines and small mackerel. The bigger the bait, the bigger the salmon grouper.
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_kmJKY6zLH3s/TBa7RcLyi2I/AAAAAAAAFwc/bsUcH16cuK4/s400/IMG_5798.JPG"
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_kmJKY6zLH3s/TBa7TBivA1I/AAAAAAAAFws/Sm4OMVv4U9M/s400/IMG_5799.JPG
Got out to the spot in about an hour and Dennis took care of everyone going out, rigging up and making sure everything ready.
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_kmJKY6zLH3s/TBa7XEvugLI/AAAAAAAAFxE/As7LmRMV-1w/s400/IMG_5807.JPG
Everyone got to see some dolphins play with the boat darting along the bow and playing the wake as well. Weather was a bit overcast, but flat and nice. Slowed down the engines out near the rigs and got the first yell from Ted to drop down. Everyone but my son Jonathan was set up with an 8oz sinker with a double dropper loop with big hooks, and big sardines or small mackerel. Jonathan had a single hook, but I was helping him fish with a big mackerel on it, hoping for one of those big lings to hit down there.
Everyone dropped, a few birds nests happened, a few people had never used a conventional set up but everyone got to the bottom to get hit on the first drift. Everyone hooked up and fun began. I'll let the photos tell the story.
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_kmJKY6zLH3s/TBa7Zphw2dI/AAAAAAAAFxU/LQg89qBqkRc/s400/IMG_5810.JPG
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_kmJKY6zLH3s/TBa7a2Y3XjI/AAAAAAAAFxg/ITqMZYy8ZDw/s400/IMG_5812.JPG
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_kmJKY6zLH3s/TBa7cWse6oI/AAAAAAAAFxo/ZFVNicMGXRk/s400/IMG_5816.jpg
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_kmJKY6zLH3s/TBa7doc_D5I/AAAAAAAAFxw/iIDWhLMemtU/s400/IMG_5818.jpg
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_kmJKY6zLH3s/TBa7jAiM40I/AAAAAAAAFyU/1yp9mDtppy0/s400/IMG_5826.JPG
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_kmJKY6zLH3s/TBa7kZbbsuI/AAAAAAAAFyc/3bwkh2GsxJ8/s400/IMG_5828.JPG
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_kmJKY6zLH3s/TBa7oj_518I/AAAAAAAAFy4/3TBhTomU3wY/s400/IMG_5833.jpg
Jonathan and his nice salmon grouper.
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_kmJKY6zLH3s/TBa7qKcgtmI/AAAAAAAAFzE/c662aTauva4/s400/IMG_5834.jpg
More happy anglers
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_kmJKY6zLH3s/TBa72jYHVfI/AAAAAAAAF0U/YyJ89koeR-o/s400/IMG_5851.jpg
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_kmJKY6zLH3s/TBa74HK8mWI/AAAAAAAAF0g/6RTRLyMZ7EY/s400/IMG_5853.jpg
Did a total of 3 drifts on the spot. Had a few tangles but we pulled our boat limits in about 45 minutes on the spot. Ted the deckhand caught one of the biggest salmon groupers we had seen in a long time fishing with a big mackerel. Here is the fish in front of Jonathan (and yes, this is not held out from him, it's right in front of his chest).
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_kmJKY6zLH3s/TBa7-DsdVlI/AAAAAAAAF1A/jFmVL6cyz_M/s400/IMG_5860.jpg
Quality fish all around. Here is the cooler full.
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_kmJKY6zLH3s/TBa8Ce_1NmI/AAAAAAAAF1g/pEIcOTigOJE/s400/IMG_5865.JPG
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_kmJKY6zLH3s/TBa8D5kfLLI/AAAAAAAAF1s/X6gyYGkwi_o/s400/IMG_5866.JPG
We cleaned everything up and headed out about 20 minutes away to the sculpin grounds to see what we could do there. Anchored up and got to work. Kept the same set up as the salmon grouper, but I had a big bag of green 2" plastics I picked up at the Fred Hall Show earlier this year and I switched out to the lead head with one on. We fished with cut mackerel from the bait tank along with the lead head. Me and Jonathan were the first to the bottom and hooked up on a nice sculpin right away.
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_kmJKY6zLH3s/TBa8ME-nvqI/AAAAAAAAF2g/srLQg1Nt2Pc/s400/IMG_5873.JPG
We also found the sand dabs in the same spot and if you did not have a green plastic on, all you got was the sand dabs. Every drop produced either a nice sized sand dab or a sculpin, hardly ever came up empty handed on the boat. So for the next few hours we slayed them all. Everyone was having fun, most had never seen or caught either and we had limits on sculpin and about 50 sand dabs in 2 hours.
I'll let the photos tell the story again...
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_kmJKY6zLH3s/TBa8NXTpcRI/AAAAAAAAF2o/o8CplfGRD6c/s400/IMG_5874.JPG
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_kmJKY6zLH3s/TBa8Ph9NQyI/AAAAAAAAF20/YipOHeHnIms/s400/IMG_5877.jpg
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_kmJKY6zLH3s/TBa8Ug1HqAI/AAAAAAAAF3M/ARWLOcvoSFk/s400/IMG_5880.JPG
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_kmJKY6zLH3s/TBa8Kz84-WI/AAAAAAAAF2U/mxNhnMVjjHI/s400/IMG_5872.JPG
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_kmJKY6zLH3s/TBa8WMxKtEI/AAAAAAAAF3U/EW8IRbz-uEA/s400/IMG_5881.JPG
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_kmJKY6zLH3s/TBa8Z11S5SI/AAAAAAAAF3o/xu6P3wqdlGU/s400/IMG_5887.jpg
Even the Freelance got in on the fun...
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_kmJKY6zLH3s/TBa8bupVeNI/AAAAAAAAF30/a-ToMPD8C1s/s400/IMG_5888.JPG"
One of the lone pictures of me and my son, hardly ever get in the pictures when you are taking them.
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_kmJKY6zLH3s/TBa8e-8kasI/AAAAAAAAF4I/1Z-M9J7pmxQ/s400/IMG_5890.JPG
Jonathan's first Sand Dab
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_kmJKY6zLH3s/TBa8ib5SMQI/AAAAAAAAF4Y/sQzZhfNZJXc/s400/IMG_5892.jpg
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_kmJKY6zLH3s/TBa8pWGCWGI/AAAAAAAAF48/J5xYlPRYxZ4/s400/IMG_5899.JPG
We decided to call it a day around 11:45 and headed back to the barn. We had a ton of fish on board. Here is the cooler full the brim. I would not want to fall on top of that sculpin pile, makes me shutter just thinking about it.
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_kmJKY6zLH3s/TBa8rfurMhI/AAAAAAAAF5E/DTXQWPlVgR8/s400/IMG_5900.jpg
Happy angler
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_kmJKY6zLH3s/TBa8tjc9dJI/AAAAAAAAF5Q/WEKK41_hXXA/s400/IMG_5901.jpg
Ted worked hard to clean all the fish on the way back in. Took him almost an hour and a half but everyone went home with big bags of fish.
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_kmJKY6zLH3s/TBa8w8nie2I/AAAAAAAAF5g/YSQFlkcp7Zw/s400/IMG_5903.JPG
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_kmJKY6zLH3s/TBa8yuG1MVI/AAAAAAAAF5o/JJUs0lrMLfM/s400/IMG_5904.JPG
Once again the Spectra came through for me and my charter and the crew was excellent. Dennis went way above and beyond the call to help everyone have a great time, and Chris was all over the place helping everyone. Ted put us on the fish as always and did an beautiful (and hard) job cleaning and putting everything together. I can't recommend this boat enough to people. Billy runs a great operation with Spectra Sportfishing. I get to go out again this coming Thursday with another group I put together and I'm looking forward to it. Everyone went home happy and with a lot of fish to fill the freezers.