Jackpot Jimmy
07-27-2012, 10:49 PM
Paying attention to the counts north of my usual fishing grounds, I noticed that the white seabass counts exploded up out of Oxnard on Monday. Not long after I saw my friend a fellow blogger, Joe “Salty” Sarmiento make a post that he was going on the Pacific Islander Wednesday night fishing Thursday. This was on Tuesday morning, and there were only eight reservations in the books. By the time I made my decision to go, I was number 16 in the books. Within two hours, the trip was sold out in the wake of seabass fever, barn door halibut included.
I got down to Oxnard very early – so early that I was the only one down there in line for two hours. Checked in with the office and looked at all the pictures they have hanging in there, including a mount of the World Record Halibut caught last year on the Mirage. The PI got in around 6:30, and their count was 10 white seabass and 5 halibut. Saw a friend of mine who fished the boat, and he and his friend each caught a “schoolie” sized white seabass. The seabass were all that size, but the halibut were up to 45 pounds.
We were let on board about 8:30, and had plenty of time to get rigged up and shoot the breeze. Close to departure time, we were gathered on the stern for a safety meeting. Captain Steve Virtue welcomed us aboard and introduced us to our crew, consisting of Second Captain Dan Russell, Deck Boss Bryan Duncan, Galley Chef Amie Currie, and Nate as our other deckhand. Steve then outlined our game plan, which was to head to Santa Cruz Island first thing to snag some squid, and then head over to Santa Rosa Island to fish for seabass and halibut. He said for the seabass, fluorocarbon seemed to make a difference, but for the halibut, there were some big fish to 51 pounds caught, so fish heavy for those. Soon after we shipped out, and Joe and I finished rigging up, and then it was time to hit the hay.
Salty’s Halibut Rig
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/105_0672.jpg
I woke up about 2am to the engines slowing down, and got up soon after to a handful of anglers snagging squid. I grabbed my snagger and went at it, but I had a little trouble at first finding the depth the squid were holding. Periodically they would come up in sight of the surface, but baby sea lions quickly put an end to that whenever that happened. Finally found a good level of them about nine seconds down. No big squish but some decent bait sizes nonetheless. We also had salps to deal with getting caught on the squid rigs. But the snagging process was pretty consistent and 3:30, it was time to shoot over to Rosa. And with that I took the second part of my nap.
We got to Rosa at about 6am and dropped anchor. I saw the Mirage and Pacific Dawn anchored up nearby. I started out with the standard seabass dropper loop, placed several feet above the torpedo sinker. For a while the action was nonexistent – no bites and not even a stray bat ray. But the lull was broken by an angler in the starboard corner with the first hookup of the day! The angler quickly worked the fish to the surface and the fish was gaffed and hoisted aboard. It was a big barn door – nice way to kick off the day! Another halibut was landed not long after on the port side, and then the same angler who put the first fish on the boat hooked up to a schoolie size seabass! A couple more halibut were landed after that, and then a huge halibut was caught by the same angler who caught the 51 pounder a few days before on board the PI.
Joe and I were skunked at this point but we kept at it, casting and dragging, working our baits to entice a halibut or seabass bite. Joe had switched over to his reverse dropper loop rig pictured above with 40 pound test. I was still fishing my seabass dropper loop, but I had shortened the space between hook and sinker considerably since there were more halibut caught. Then Joe hooked up and quickly landed a 20 pound-class flattie.
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/pi_saltyhali_072612.jpg
Photo Courtesy Pacific Islander
I decided not to mess around any longer and cut off my seabass rig and switched to the tried-and-true halibut rig, the reverse dropper loop. Going forward with intense concentration, I worked my bait ever so slightly to see if I could nail a halibut on the head and get one to bite. Steve said jokingly that I was trying too hard, but that was probably the truth. Unfortunately there would be no takers by the time Capt. Steve pulled anchor and decided to look around.
On the move, Joe said I looked somewhat dejected that I hadn’t gotten bit (but hey, that’s fishing and you get over it), but I still saw a glimmer of hope as Steve then set us up on a port side drift. I found a spot and dropped down. Now that we were on a drift, I didn’t see the need to cast and drag and left my bait still other than the slow drift perhaps moving it slightly. Ten minutes rolled by and not even a sniff, when, all of a sudden, I feel a tap and my rod tip starts bouncing. I let whatever it is eat the bait, tightened the line, and set the hook – fish on! The combined heaviness and mean headshakes were tell-tale signs of a big flattie. The fish took me from the rear of the house down near the port corner, and then back up to gate, where the rest of the battle took place. The fish gave a few more mean headshakes before it came to color, and was quickly gaffed and hoisted aboard by Bryan.
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/105_0682.jpg
I got a handshake from Capt. Steve and he told me that my “intense concentration” had paid off. It certainly had, but I got bit when I kept my bait damn near perfectly still, so go figure. While we hadn’t weighed the fish yet, I could tell that this big barn door was my new personal best. Bryan let me do the clubbing honors to get the fish to stop shaking, but I don’t think I did a very good job because it was still shaking some in that green cooler. LOL Oh well…
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/HalibutClub.jpg
Still on the same drift, I quickly retied and dropped another squid to the bottom. Within a few seconds, I felt a tap and the line had that bounce again. No way, I thought to myself, but the line kept bouncing, and I waited a few seconds, let the rod load up, and set the hook – fish on again! This fish felt heavy and gave a few mean headshakes, but then it got squirrely on me and took me around the port corner and to the stern, where it quickly came to color. It was a smaller fish, but a nice one nonetheless that would go about 10 pounds or so.
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/105_0683.jpg
This one was hooked perfectly in its jaw, so I didn’t have to re-tie another rig. I dropped another squid to the bottom and kept it still again, but there would be no more biters for me or anybody on the boat. We stayed on the drift a little while longer, but Steve couldn’t wait anymore. He had to get the rest of the guys (and gal) on some fish, so we headed out about 40 minutes to do some Channel Islands Style Rockfishing.
I rigged up an 8 oz. orange and copper Jax Jig with a shrimp fly teaser and headed to the bow, which is virtually the only place you can fish a jig unless there’s a light load. There I met three anglers, Shawn, his son, Zach, and Shawn’s brother, Louie (apologies if names are spelled incorrectly). Shawn and Louie would be fishing the artificials with me, which is great for comparing which colors are working, what action, and etcetera.
Steve set us up on a drift in 130 feet of water. The three of us would cast up-drift, and work our jigs/plastics back to the boat. Quality chuckleheads and gophers were our rewards, with pesky short lings crashing the party every now and then. I had a ling that was probably legal tomorrow, at 21 7/8 inches. In between all of the chucks and gophers, I scrapped together two decent sized reds. But the gophers were actually the biggest and fattest I’ve ever seen. Usually under a pound, some of these gophers went a good pound and a half, maybe even up to two pounds. Some of the chucks were bragging size too.
Meanwhile, Shawn was fishing a 4 oz. jig that looks like a Jax Jig, except it has a pretty good action, and he says he gets a lot of fish on the grind. Seeing that he was able to get down with four ounces, I switched over to my 4 oz. Megabait and my Curado 300EJ. The cod were hitting the jig voraciously on the fast grind soon after hitting bottom. Shawn and Louie by this point were fishing big plastics, and Shawn pulled out his lingcod limit on the big Slug-Go.
After two or three hours of epic Channel Islands rockfish action, it was time to head for the barn. My gunny sack was full of nice rockfish, and it was culled out to seven quality chuckleheads, one nice red, one big gopher, and one fat treefish, a.k.a. “Tijuana Hooker”.
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/105_0684.jpg
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/105_0685.jpg
Then it was time to weigh up the jackpot right after the big flatties were taken out of the refrigerated fish hold. I didn’t think I had jackpot, but I wasn’t sure as I hadn’t taken a good look earlier of the big flattie caught by the lucky angler who had the 51 pounder a few days earlier. But sure enough I was right and that lucky angler won!
First Two Flatties Out of the Hold
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/105_0673.jpg
Stack O’ Halibut Minus My Two
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/105_0674.jpg
Weighing ‘Em Up
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/105_0675.jpg
Nate and Bryan with the Big Halibut
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/105_0676.jpg
My halibut’s on the right – runner up!
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/105_0677.jpg
My scale unfortunately went out on me but not before I was able to weigh my big one – 33 pounds, 4 ounces! This fish is now my new personal best, beating my former PB by three pounds exactly, and it took me almost three years to do it. Not sure what the jackpot fish weighed, but I’m going to guess somewhere in the neighborhood of 35-40 pounds. And before the fish were put back in the hold, we took a handful of pictures.
SMB Crew
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/105_0679.jpg
Alternate Shot – White Sides
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/IMG_6083.jpg
And with that, we settled in for the ride home, getting lunch from Amie, and then turning in for a nap. I slept a good three hours on the way in, waking up at 6pm with a 6:30pm ETA, so I gathered my stuff and climbed out of the bunkroom for the final time of the day. Soon after, we pulled into the dock at CISCOS Sportfishing, and Steve thanked everyone for coming out for the day on board the PI. Nate and Bryan met us up at the top of the ramp with our fillets. The PI has an awesome deal on quality fish bags. For $6 you get the quality fish bag and free ice after each trip on the PI. And to keep it clean, just rinse it out with warm water and hang it up to dry and it will be good on your next PI trip! Can’t beat that!
This was my third trip on the Pacific Islander this year, and I was sold on it the first time. This is a boat that I can keep coming back to whenever I get the itch to catch some quality Channel Islands cod and have a chance at a nice exotic like the ones caught today. The crew is excellent and second to none. Captain Steve Virtue works his very hardest to make sure everyone is having a good time and works even harder to put us on the fish. Bryan Duncan has been the deck boss on every trip I’ve been on this year, and, truth be told, he’s in the top-tier of deck bosses on the coast. Amie Currie is a great galley chef and makes one of the best sportboat breakfast burritos you’ll ever taste. All the other crew members that have been on the PI when I’ve been on have been great as well. You just can’t go wrong by choosing this great overnight boat out of CISCOS Sportfishing in Oxnard – you’ll have a great time.
I want to thank Capt. Steve Virtue and the whole Pacific Islander crew for another great time fishing the Northern Channel Islands. We’ll be back soon. Great times, great fishing!
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/IMG_3286.jpg
I got down to Oxnard very early – so early that I was the only one down there in line for two hours. Checked in with the office and looked at all the pictures they have hanging in there, including a mount of the World Record Halibut caught last year on the Mirage. The PI got in around 6:30, and their count was 10 white seabass and 5 halibut. Saw a friend of mine who fished the boat, and he and his friend each caught a “schoolie” sized white seabass. The seabass were all that size, but the halibut were up to 45 pounds.
We were let on board about 8:30, and had plenty of time to get rigged up and shoot the breeze. Close to departure time, we were gathered on the stern for a safety meeting. Captain Steve Virtue welcomed us aboard and introduced us to our crew, consisting of Second Captain Dan Russell, Deck Boss Bryan Duncan, Galley Chef Amie Currie, and Nate as our other deckhand. Steve then outlined our game plan, which was to head to Santa Cruz Island first thing to snag some squid, and then head over to Santa Rosa Island to fish for seabass and halibut. He said for the seabass, fluorocarbon seemed to make a difference, but for the halibut, there were some big fish to 51 pounds caught, so fish heavy for those. Soon after we shipped out, and Joe and I finished rigging up, and then it was time to hit the hay.
Salty’s Halibut Rig
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/105_0672.jpg
I woke up about 2am to the engines slowing down, and got up soon after to a handful of anglers snagging squid. I grabbed my snagger and went at it, but I had a little trouble at first finding the depth the squid were holding. Periodically they would come up in sight of the surface, but baby sea lions quickly put an end to that whenever that happened. Finally found a good level of them about nine seconds down. No big squish but some decent bait sizes nonetheless. We also had salps to deal with getting caught on the squid rigs. But the snagging process was pretty consistent and 3:30, it was time to shoot over to Rosa. And with that I took the second part of my nap.
We got to Rosa at about 6am and dropped anchor. I saw the Mirage and Pacific Dawn anchored up nearby. I started out with the standard seabass dropper loop, placed several feet above the torpedo sinker. For a while the action was nonexistent – no bites and not even a stray bat ray. But the lull was broken by an angler in the starboard corner with the first hookup of the day! The angler quickly worked the fish to the surface and the fish was gaffed and hoisted aboard. It was a big barn door – nice way to kick off the day! Another halibut was landed not long after on the port side, and then the same angler who put the first fish on the boat hooked up to a schoolie size seabass! A couple more halibut were landed after that, and then a huge halibut was caught by the same angler who caught the 51 pounder a few days before on board the PI.
Joe and I were skunked at this point but we kept at it, casting and dragging, working our baits to entice a halibut or seabass bite. Joe had switched over to his reverse dropper loop rig pictured above with 40 pound test. I was still fishing my seabass dropper loop, but I had shortened the space between hook and sinker considerably since there were more halibut caught. Then Joe hooked up and quickly landed a 20 pound-class flattie.
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/pi_saltyhali_072612.jpg
Photo Courtesy Pacific Islander
I decided not to mess around any longer and cut off my seabass rig and switched to the tried-and-true halibut rig, the reverse dropper loop. Going forward with intense concentration, I worked my bait ever so slightly to see if I could nail a halibut on the head and get one to bite. Steve said jokingly that I was trying too hard, but that was probably the truth. Unfortunately there would be no takers by the time Capt. Steve pulled anchor and decided to look around.
On the move, Joe said I looked somewhat dejected that I hadn’t gotten bit (but hey, that’s fishing and you get over it), but I still saw a glimmer of hope as Steve then set us up on a port side drift. I found a spot and dropped down. Now that we were on a drift, I didn’t see the need to cast and drag and left my bait still other than the slow drift perhaps moving it slightly. Ten minutes rolled by and not even a sniff, when, all of a sudden, I feel a tap and my rod tip starts bouncing. I let whatever it is eat the bait, tightened the line, and set the hook – fish on! The combined heaviness and mean headshakes were tell-tale signs of a big flattie. The fish took me from the rear of the house down near the port corner, and then back up to gate, where the rest of the battle took place. The fish gave a few more mean headshakes before it came to color, and was quickly gaffed and hoisted aboard by Bryan.
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/105_0682.jpg
I got a handshake from Capt. Steve and he told me that my “intense concentration” had paid off. It certainly had, but I got bit when I kept my bait damn near perfectly still, so go figure. While we hadn’t weighed the fish yet, I could tell that this big barn door was my new personal best. Bryan let me do the clubbing honors to get the fish to stop shaking, but I don’t think I did a very good job because it was still shaking some in that green cooler. LOL Oh well…
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/HalibutClub.jpg
Still on the same drift, I quickly retied and dropped another squid to the bottom. Within a few seconds, I felt a tap and the line had that bounce again. No way, I thought to myself, but the line kept bouncing, and I waited a few seconds, let the rod load up, and set the hook – fish on again! This fish felt heavy and gave a few mean headshakes, but then it got squirrely on me and took me around the port corner and to the stern, where it quickly came to color. It was a smaller fish, but a nice one nonetheless that would go about 10 pounds or so.
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/105_0683.jpg
This one was hooked perfectly in its jaw, so I didn’t have to re-tie another rig. I dropped another squid to the bottom and kept it still again, but there would be no more biters for me or anybody on the boat. We stayed on the drift a little while longer, but Steve couldn’t wait anymore. He had to get the rest of the guys (and gal) on some fish, so we headed out about 40 minutes to do some Channel Islands Style Rockfishing.
I rigged up an 8 oz. orange and copper Jax Jig with a shrimp fly teaser and headed to the bow, which is virtually the only place you can fish a jig unless there’s a light load. There I met three anglers, Shawn, his son, Zach, and Shawn’s brother, Louie (apologies if names are spelled incorrectly). Shawn and Louie would be fishing the artificials with me, which is great for comparing which colors are working, what action, and etcetera.
Steve set us up on a drift in 130 feet of water. The three of us would cast up-drift, and work our jigs/plastics back to the boat. Quality chuckleheads and gophers were our rewards, with pesky short lings crashing the party every now and then. I had a ling that was probably legal tomorrow, at 21 7/8 inches. In between all of the chucks and gophers, I scrapped together two decent sized reds. But the gophers were actually the biggest and fattest I’ve ever seen. Usually under a pound, some of these gophers went a good pound and a half, maybe even up to two pounds. Some of the chucks were bragging size too.
Meanwhile, Shawn was fishing a 4 oz. jig that looks like a Jax Jig, except it has a pretty good action, and he says he gets a lot of fish on the grind. Seeing that he was able to get down with four ounces, I switched over to my 4 oz. Megabait and my Curado 300EJ. The cod were hitting the jig voraciously on the fast grind soon after hitting bottom. Shawn and Louie by this point were fishing big plastics, and Shawn pulled out his lingcod limit on the big Slug-Go.
After two or three hours of epic Channel Islands rockfish action, it was time to head for the barn. My gunny sack was full of nice rockfish, and it was culled out to seven quality chuckleheads, one nice red, one big gopher, and one fat treefish, a.k.a. “Tijuana Hooker”.
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/105_0684.jpg
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/105_0685.jpg
Then it was time to weigh up the jackpot right after the big flatties were taken out of the refrigerated fish hold. I didn’t think I had jackpot, but I wasn’t sure as I hadn’t taken a good look earlier of the big flattie caught by the lucky angler who had the 51 pounder a few days earlier. But sure enough I was right and that lucky angler won!
First Two Flatties Out of the Hold
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/105_0673.jpg
Stack O’ Halibut Minus My Two
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/105_0674.jpg
Weighing ‘Em Up
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/105_0675.jpg
Nate and Bryan with the Big Halibut
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/105_0676.jpg
My halibut’s on the right – runner up!
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/105_0677.jpg
My scale unfortunately went out on me but not before I was able to weigh my big one – 33 pounds, 4 ounces! This fish is now my new personal best, beating my former PB by three pounds exactly, and it took me almost three years to do it. Not sure what the jackpot fish weighed, but I’m going to guess somewhere in the neighborhood of 35-40 pounds. And before the fish were put back in the hold, we took a handful of pictures.
SMB Crew
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/105_0679.jpg
Alternate Shot – White Sides
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/IMG_6083.jpg
And with that, we settled in for the ride home, getting lunch from Amie, and then turning in for a nap. I slept a good three hours on the way in, waking up at 6pm with a 6:30pm ETA, so I gathered my stuff and climbed out of the bunkroom for the final time of the day. Soon after, we pulled into the dock at CISCOS Sportfishing, and Steve thanked everyone for coming out for the day on board the PI. Nate and Bryan met us up at the top of the ramp with our fillets. The PI has an awesome deal on quality fish bags. For $6 you get the quality fish bag and free ice after each trip on the PI. And to keep it clean, just rinse it out with warm water and hang it up to dry and it will be good on your next PI trip! Can’t beat that!
This was my third trip on the Pacific Islander this year, and I was sold on it the first time. This is a boat that I can keep coming back to whenever I get the itch to catch some quality Channel Islands cod and have a chance at a nice exotic like the ones caught today. The crew is excellent and second to none. Captain Steve Virtue works his very hardest to make sure everyone is having a good time and works even harder to put us on the fish. Bryan Duncan has been the deck boss on every trip I’ve been on this year, and, truth be told, he’s in the top-tier of deck bosses on the coast. Amie Currie is a great galley chef and makes one of the best sportboat breakfast burritos you’ll ever taste. All the other crew members that have been on the PI when I’ve been on have been great as well. You just can’t go wrong by choosing this great overnight boat out of CISCOS Sportfishing in Oxnard – you’ll have a great time.
I want to thank Capt. Steve Virtue and the whole Pacific Islander crew for another great time fishing the Northern Channel Islands. We’ll be back soon. Great times, great fishing!
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/IMG_3286.jpg