jplee3
09-29-2007, 09:12 PM
So my buddy and I hopped on the Gentleman 3/4 day out of Channel Islands Sportfishing in Oxnard today. Weather was very nice and very clear. The seas were pretty rough though :(
We got an hour late start and ended up leaving the dock closer to 6:30-7am. Boat was supposed to leave at 6am. Of course, all these people start showing up late and they crowded at least 40 people on the boat (my friend heard them call "42" at one point when people were picking up their fish/fillets at the end). Actually, that's right - I just checked the angler count now: http://www.sportfishingreport.com/fish_ ... counts.php (http://www.sportfishingreport.com/fish_counts/CISC/counts.php) - 42 anglers.
Haha, I picked the Gentleman because the angler counts in the past several weeks have been 30 minus (I just checked the Island Spirit, which was easily getting 40+ ppl before and they had 23 today!) ... it always works out that way :roll:
The good news: no bananas in sight as far as my eyes could see!
http://jermdawg.com/gallery/d/5019-2/IMG_1850.JPG
All lined up and ready to go...
There were a group of these guys who lined up at the end of the boarding line late and cut in front of everybody else as we started actually boarding, hence hogging the entire stern row even though they were the last ones to sign in on the manifest :twisted: :roll: :spank: My buddy was pretty upset about that.
http://jermdawg.com/gallery/d/5004-2/IMG_1856.JPG
Nice sunrise... baaad picture. And random guy just decided to smile too.
http://jermdawg.com/gallery/d/4986-3/IMG_1862.JPG
http://jermdawg.com/gallery/d/4989-3/IMG_1861.JPG
Some good ole' Asian muggin!
The crew did a good job getting people untangled and such. They admitted that the bite has been "slow" and considering we had 42 people on board, it seemed like things were even harder. But it seems like they also wanted some more $$$ today with all the late shows and the fact that we left late... we also went far (just past the islands) and thus were forced to return earlier since we were further away. So not only was the fishing slow, but I feel we got cut short.
They only got six scoops of sardines (a few chovies in there too I think) and had 4-5 blocks of frozen squid. So that was about it in terms of bait.
We made about 4-5 stops today total. First stop, I dropped down a double dropper loop with a couple bucktails. Big big mistake - I was way to ambitious with this setup, and ignored the fact that the current was strong and sweeping my line to the back of the boat. So the second time I dropped it I caught the bottom and lost my torpedo sinker and one bucktail. I put the bucktails away after that fiasco. By this time the capt called it off and we spent an hour looking for another location. :cry:
Switched to regular double dropper and torpedo combo on the ride over the gap.
We primarily fished the main Anacapa island from that point. Second stop I believe, I brought up a decent sized tree fish and that was it.
http://jermdawg.com/gallery/d/4977-2/IMG_1865.JPG
Passing the Anacapa "arch" & lighthouse
The next stop after that was unproductive. I tried squid, anchovies, my red/white diamond jig, Gulp saltwater shrimp, shrimp flies, all to no avail...
The last stop, we spent the rest of our time at picking at whitefish, sculpin, and surprise guest appearances by mackerel. I caught a mackerel and threw it back. Next drop I caught a fair sized whitefish. Then a few drops later I picked up a couple good sized cookie cutter sculpins. All these were caught on bouncing a yellow/orange shrimp fly with squid strip off a dropper loop. The shrimp fly jighead really surprised me - I've never caught *anything* off it before! By the end of the trip, that thing was torn up.
http://jermdawg.com/gallery/d/4950-4/IMG_1873.JPG
My whitefish
http://jermdawg.com/gallery/d/4947-3/IMG_1874.JPG
My buddy's whitefish
http://jermdawg.com/gallery/d/4953-2/IMG_1872.JPG
Our combined catch: 5 fish
Anyway, sorry for the tedious read. To summarize, it wasn't the best trip. My buddy ended up with only one whitefish when he was hoping to pickup at least one rockfish on his first rockfishing trip, and lots of people on the boat skunked out. Additionally, I couldn't believe that people were actually keeping 5-incher rockfish! :roll: Compared to the Port Hueneme trip, this one paled miserably. The BIGGEST rockfish on this trip was about the size of the smaller rockfish we caught on the Erna-B! :(
http://jermdawg.com/gallery/d/4962-2/IMG_1869.JPG
I think the black guy is pulling out a grumper mackerel to try to weigh off against the biggest rockfish for the jackpot (couldn't have been more than 5lbs). He totally lost! Hahaha...
http://jermdawg.com/gallery/d/4944-3/IMG_1875.JPG
Cleaning
My final count:
1 Tree Fish
1 Whitefish
2 Sculpin
1 Mackerel (released)
0 ROCKFISH :twisted:
We got an hour late start and ended up leaving the dock closer to 6:30-7am. Boat was supposed to leave at 6am. Of course, all these people start showing up late and they crowded at least 40 people on the boat (my friend heard them call "42" at one point when people were picking up their fish/fillets at the end). Actually, that's right - I just checked the angler count now: http://www.sportfishingreport.com/fish_ ... counts.php (http://www.sportfishingreport.com/fish_counts/CISC/counts.php) - 42 anglers.
Haha, I picked the Gentleman because the angler counts in the past several weeks have been 30 minus (I just checked the Island Spirit, which was easily getting 40+ ppl before and they had 23 today!) ... it always works out that way :roll:
The good news: no bananas in sight as far as my eyes could see!
http://jermdawg.com/gallery/d/5019-2/IMG_1850.JPG
All lined up and ready to go...
There were a group of these guys who lined up at the end of the boarding line late and cut in front of everybody else as we started actually boarding, hence hogging the entire stern row even though they were the last ones to sign in on the manifest :twisted: :roll: :spank: My buddy was pretty upset about that.
http://jermdawg.com/gallery/d/5004-2/IMG_1856.JPG
Nice sunrise... baaad picture. And random guy just decided to smile too.
http://jermdawg.com/gallery/d/4986-3/IMG_1862.JPG
http://jermdawg.com/gallery/d/4989-3/IMG_1861.JPG
Some good ole' Asian muggin!
The crew did a good job getting people untangled and such. They admitted that the bite has been "slow" and considering we had 42 people on board, it seemed like things were even harder. But it seems like they also wanted some more $$$ today with all the late shows and the fact that we left late... we also went far (just past the islands) and thus were forced to return earlier since we were further away. So not only was the fishing slow, but I feel we got cut short.
They only got six scoops of sardines (a few chovies in there too I think) and had 4-5 blocks of frozen squid. So that was about it in terms of bait.
We made about 4-5 stops today total. First stop, I dropped down a double dropper loop with a couple bucktails. Big big mistake - I was way to ambitious with this setup, and ignored the fact that the current was strong and sweeping my line to the back of the boat. So the second time I dropped it I caught the bottom and lost my torpedo sinker and one bucktail. I put the bucktails away after that fiasco. By this time the capt called it off and we spent an hour looking for another location. :cry:
Switched to regular double dropper and torpedo combo on the ride over the gap.
We primarily fished the main Anacapa island from that point. Second stop I believe, I brought up a decent sized tree fish and that was it.
http://jermdawg.com/gallery/d/4977-2/IMG_1865.JPG
Passing the Anacapa "arch" & lighthouse
The next stop after that was unproductive. I tried squid, anchovies, my red/white diamond jig, Gulp saltwater shrimp, shrimp flies, all to no avail...
The last stop, we spent the rest of our time at picking at whitefish, sculpin, and surprise guest appearances by mackerel. I caught a mackerel and threw it back. Next drop I caught a fair sized whitefish. Then a few drops later I picked up a couple good sized cookie cutter sculpins. All these were caught on bouncing a yellow/orange shrimp fly with squid strip off a dropper loop. The shrimp fly jighead really surprised me - I've never caught *anything* off it before! By the end of the trip, that thing was torn up.
http://jermdawg.com/gallery/d/4950-4/IMG_1873.JPG
My whitefish
http://jermdawg.com/gallery/d/4947-3/IMG_1874.JPG
My buddy's whitefish
http://jermdawg.com/gallery/d/4953-2/IMG_1872.JPG
Our combined catch: 5 fish
Anyway, sorry for the tedious read. To summarize, it wasn't the best trip. My buddy ended up with only one whitefish when he was hoping to pickup at least one rockfish on his first rockfishing trip, and lots of people on the boat skunked out. Additionally, I couldn't believe that people were actually keeping 5-incher rockfish! :roll: Compared to the Port Hueneme trip, this one paled miserably. The BIGGEST rockfish on this trip was about the size of the smaller rockfish we caught on the Erna-B! :(
http://jermdawg.com/gallery/d/4962-2/IMG_1869.JPG
I think the black guy is pulling out a grumper mackerel to try to weigh off against the biggest rockfish for the jackpot (couldn't have been more than 5lbs). He totally lost! Hahaha...
http://jermdawg.com/gallery/d/4944-3/IMG_1875.JPG
Cleaning
My final count:
1 Tree Fish
1 Whitefish
2 Sculpin
1 Mackerel (released)
0 ROCKFISH :twisted: