4th of July report on the Spitfire fishing Catalina

[troutdog]

I hit Redondo Beach around 5:30am,readied for a 3/4 day trip on the famous Spitfire. Getting up at 4am was no easy task having gone to the Dodger game and celebrating a friends B-day the night before. My buddy Cary was waiting with our tickets in hand when I got there, with a load of 31 we still managed to get great spots near the stern on the starboard side. We were off the docks with a tank full of beautiful sardines just after 6am and were headed to Catalina. The captain told told us that we were going to leave a little earlier than normal just to avoid the holiday masses and beach traffic on our way out. All good, we're fishing!

Cary is a little new to the salt, but we have a 4 year running tradition of jumping on a boat for the 4th. The loads are usually light based on past experience and we are both assured of the day off so it works.

I told Cary to go undercover and get the inside scoop from the "regulars" on the boat :wink:


The ride out was great, flat seas and t-shirt weather for the trip to Catalina. Saw a pilot whale just as we approached the island, but it was pretty far behind us and I was more concerned about getting a fresh bait :thumb: We were set to fish the front side to start out, just East of Two Harbors. I managed two calicos and two bonita on the first stop. Based on the action I was doing pretty good considering.

Here are a couple of bass I managed...should have taken the pics earlier, but I was too busy trying to get bit again!



We moved Eastward in hopes of a better bite, but that never really materialized. The main culprit was a lack of current, very poor from the previous days. Oh well I managed to grab a couple more bass, a short cuda and 11.5 inch sheephead...did not now they got that small. :lol: We were later treated to an arial show by a bald eagle. Cary struggled for awhile, but started to get the hang of it and managed a calico of his own. Nothing wrong with blue perch to fill the sack, but I was looking for the bass as was my fishing buddy.

Being a salt newbie Cary impressed me by keeping with the tougher bass bite instead of doing the perch thing and he was finally rewarded. (Nice hat the guy in the background is wearing :thumb: )



Chuck,the guy with the blue hat was not new to this boat and he wound up with the jackpot fish...I'd say it was about a 5lb calico. Sorry I did not get a shot of the fish, but it was released after the final weigh in. The other gentleman with the red #1 YAK hat was Tom. Great guy...had a blast talking about the old days(early 80s) on the aquarius and Lenbrooke out of Malibu with John Chrisitansen.


On our way in we saw quite a few dolphin and had a smooth ride back home. I wound up with 4 legal calicos and some bonita for catfishing...sorry no bonie pictures O_L, they are at Moms house in the freezer until an Irvine trip! Cary only got the one bass, but a guy we met on board threw 2 more in our bag. Fresh fillets for the family. The dock was crowded, but in a good way. We sat in the truck "catching" our breath with a cold one as the bikinis walked by. "I love this country!"

Hope the FNN family all had a safe a enjoyable 4th!



TD

[cappo]

nice job, sounds like an awesome day.

I see the Yak club was there, those guys are always on that boat

[JapanRon]

Hi troutdog,

Great job .... trip, report and pic ...... excellent.

Thanks for the fun read.

If only the Spitfire were more conveniet to me!!

JapanRon

[SanDimasLMB]

That last pic looks like a forky(yellowtail) sticking out of a gunny sac?

[troutdog]

That last pic looks like a forky(yellowtail) sticking out of a gunny sac?

It does, but there were none caught on our trip. If you look at picture 3 you can see a cuda's head sticking out of the livewell....same shot basically just different angle.


TD

[ThanksKK]

Since my boats in the shop this week, glad to hear that fishin is a bit slow around catalina. Thanks for the report.

[one_leg]

All the way to Catalina. Cool. Congrats on the fish.

Maybe I'll get to go there with you one of these days.

One_Leg