Rock fishing SCI overnighter on the Toronado Loking,..

[Mischief]

Went fishing with Phil this weekend on the Toronado out of Pierpoint landing to San Clemente,.. left sat night, woke up at the west end of SCI around 4am. this was my brothers first island trip, actually his first rock fishing trip as well. We only have gone twilight fishing before this trip. Went with the same crew as always, bunch of us knuckleheads. Also my buddy Steve was coming down for the trip from Chino, he was ready to slay something big! Around 20 people showed up for the trip with two bday boys, one of them being Mike Nixon.
So we started off at the kelps but not for long, soon as light started showing in the sky we bounced out of there, kinda surprise cause i thought we were gonna try to do some bass and halibut fishing, also to see if any WSB was around, saw the Dreamer out there making squid in the kelp as well. Had the yo yo irons ready to rock as well, looking for some homeguards! So we get to about 120 to do some drifts at a rock, gave my brother the dropper rig with an 8 ounce and the B52s a basic technique to get some rock fish, he was really eager to catch some red snappers, but chucks and starrys were the only ones giving it up that morning.
I was fishing straight live bait, Sardine on a long leader rig. I was getting ripped, stripped and bit all morning! Trying out my new Avet MXJ 6/4 on a custom rod built for me by Young, 8 foot Calstar 800XLH deckhand style...nick named the "Lok stick" ;) Was hoping to nail a nice size ling, but all the came up was a short and a just legal! Only one of two lings caught that day. At one point when i was fishing, I got slammed hard and fish on! Everyone was excited to see what i was bringing up cause how hard it hit, the guy next to me even saw my rod went bendo, i was all pumped up thinking i'm bringing up a good size ling! LOL I foul hooked a nice size chuckle bass, how the hell that happen, don't know! But man was my face red, after a couple of more hours i petered out on the dines,..
So the boat kept running up back to the same rock cause we would drift into a desolate area, not really a big deal because as soon as he position us on the spot again fish were still being pulled up, some quality size johnny bass, stars and chucks, not that many reds. My bro was a little disappointed but the many amounts of hook ups on fish made up for it! His first one was a whitefish followed by a starry,.. I had to do about 5 ganion rigs cause i knew he was gonna get hooked up to the bottom. Which he did LOL Lost 'em all! Thats bottom fishing for you,..
Then we finally made the move to 300. Time to fish deep,.. Oh, did i tell you the weather was kinda ruff, some nice swells that rocked the boat here and there. Someone on the boat, not gonna say who, but the people who were on it know who i'm talking about said flat calm seas, sunny day and no wind! LOL complete opposite, not even the 12 ounce torpedos were staying down. But if it did, you were pulling up those worm bags! Endangered fish my ***! The DFG has gotta move that limit to 5, I mean they were definitely some nice huge fish but I wanted some Lings and Red but couldn't get at 'em! The boat did the same routine over and over again, hitting the same rock til the end of the trip.
Throughout the day we had some laughs, lots of jokes going around. One of them was on me when I put my rod on the rail to go to the tank and get a dine, Nixon yelled out "Lokey, Lokey! your..." is all i heard, he yelled I was being bit but in my mind I heard my new set up was going over the rail :rofl: oh man, i jumped fast to grab it but then it hit me to what he actually said, got me good! But the best laugh of the day was when the other ling, a huge one was caught, the angler didn't put in on the jackpot cause he wasn't sure he had enough money to eat! The deck hand that night called it when he said "your gonna get the biggest fish tomorrow!" he wasn't BSing around, called it right, so the winner went to a guy that looked like the "Skipper" from Gilligans island, damn i wish we got a pic of him LOL He had the biggest worm bag so he got it, grats to him!
We were headed home a little before 3 and well, not much to report about any WSB or yellers around the island, didn't see any birds crashing and i did work a yo yo iron for a while, only because i was teaching my brother how to work it. So when they actually do show up in our area. The highlights of the trip were hearing machine gun fire from the island, guess thats how navy seals wake up! Then around 1 we got to see a little bit of action, that fake city on the island got fired upon by two gun ships, not sure if i'm calling them right but i think they were black hawks? not sure,... well what ever they were, they attacked that building with some rockets and it looked like they were dropping off seals to engage the area! cool **** to see! God bless our troops,..

Once again, thanks to the crew and capt. of the Toronado, ****** weather but the one boat I rather be on during a trip like that would be this boat! you guys gotta get on it one day,..

Hope you guys like the pics, doing another overnighter in a couple of weeks but first this friday i'm gonna hop on the Native Sun to do a twilight, well just to get drunk and tell fish stories, you guys gotta come out for that one!

So once again, its a thrill when you go fishing with Phil!!!

Our gear,..


My brother,..


having fun getting limits,..










My first legal ling on the Avet, only gonna get bigger,..


Heres something you don't always see on these trips, Phil actually fishing! LOL


My buddy Steve and his reds,..


Capt. Larry "The weather man" Moore,..


Cool Guys! Me and Sergio,..


Owned!


Jimmy Bass with his limits all in one bag!

[Jackpot Jimmy]

Great fishing with you again Lokey! Had a great time "Fishing with Phil" once again ... weather was on the rough side (Capt. Larry Moore put the voodoo on our trip by saying it would be flat calm with little wind) but the times were great and rockfishing was limit style with some quality whitefish, sheephead, and lings.

[DockRat]

Good eating Reds there.
Too many worm bags. lol
DR

[Tunaslam]

Great trip guys, congrats!

Hook up!
Cory

[TUNAVIC]

Nice report,very detailed,great looking gear too.
Enjoyed the pics too,looked like mine when I adjust the brightness and contrast on my computer.

Cya Tuna Vic