Rpt.-02-10-16 Great Bass'n + A Cambria Country Wine Story!

[Tunaslam]

Ok, so who turned El Nino Winter into El Nino Spring? 90 degrees on land, near 80 on the water, and grease calm seas still at 2pm, who knew?

So, I went fishing Wednesday 2-10-16, with Lal on his 18’ boat the “Rubber Ducky”. We launched out of Davies in Long Beach at 5:30 am, our beginning destination being the Palos Verde Coast. This was my first trip in February, and only my second this year, off to a slow start in 2016. However, both trips have been stellar! This time last year I had already experienced multiple days of limit Yellowtail fishing! Ok, so every year is different, right?

Lal has been putting the wood to local Bass fishing along the Palos Verde Coast and at Izor’s Reef. Today he wanted to test out the Rocky Point area to see if things had improved, and whether any Tails or White Seabass had found their way to the area.

The seas were flat calm with a mild swell, causing a little bump to our ride up North. The water temps were 58.5 degrees to start and improved to 59.8 degrees at the Point, then increased to 62.4 degrees by early afternoon. Jackets and Sweat Shirts were early casualties to the sun’s rays, and with no wind it was warm even in a T-shirt.

We began fishing around 6:45 am, with no current and grease calm conditions. However the boat managed to drift at a reasonable speed to cover more area of structure. The meter lit up with what we were sure were Red Crabs, soon supported by Bass and Rockfish puking them up in droves!

The fishing began very slowly in volume; however, I was absolutely hammered on my third cast. I was using a four inch Big Hammer Calico Hunter on 15 Lb. line. The big Calico Bass put up quite the fight, took some drag several times, and produced violent head shakes all the way to the boat.

Talk about full spawning colors, this nearly five pound Calico Bass was raring to go!



It was a quality start to the morning. Lal caught and released several Calico Bass in the 2 to 2.5 pound range. I got bit on the drop and caught a 1.5 pound Sand Bass. On my next cast I once again got smoked, with some serious pulls and several runs. I worked the lunker to the surface, again on 15 pound line. Quite a fight and the big Bull Sand Bass was lifted up for a picture and quickly released:



Wow the quality is right on!

In about an hour and a half we scratched out 15 mixed Bass and a half dozen Rockfish. Lal decided to look elsewhere. We headed back to our hot spot from our late January trip. The fish were there, yet the lack of current and an extremely slow drift produced a very slow bite. We worked the area until after high tide at 10:20 am. Not much to write home about. We caught and released another ten mixed Bass and some more Rockfish, mostly Johnny Bass.

A few more pictures:













We hit another bunch of stones and hard bottom areas reaching a total of 40 Bass and 20 assorted Rockfish by high noon. Lal kept looking and he soon found the magic spot. It went WFO for 45 minutes. We had doubles and triples going constantly. There were more Sand Bass than Calico Bass on this bite, yet most all the fish were 3 to 4+ pounds. We also caught a bunch more Rockfish, Coppers, Reds, Chocolates, Gophers, Starries and Sculpin.

The pictures:

A baby Black Seabass:











The bite came to a screeching halt at 1:00 pm. Called it a day and back at the dock at 2pm, finishing with 70 mixed Bass, 60 % Calico Bass, and 30 assorted Rockfish. Another 100 Fish day, all fish released to fight another day! All fish caught on four inch plastics with Calico Hunter out fishing Red Flake 5 to 1, wow?

Thanks Lal, another fantastic day on the Ducky. Not sure what we do for an encore, yet I want more, you have spoiled me!

Some pictures of Lal’s 19 pound Halibut caught in the same area last Saturday:





Hook up! Cory

OK the following is a Wine Country Adventure, which my wife Sheryl of 46 years and I enjoyed over the Super Bowl Weekend in Cambria, some 20 miles north of Morro Bay and 20 miles west of Paso Robles. The weather was incredible and our In-laws, Ron and Janet Clark, who have become great friends and fun to travel with, joined us on Super Bowl Sunday.

A 3 day adventure in Cambria!

My lovely wife Sheryl and I awoke early Saturday morning, 02-06-16 and packed for our trip up north to beautiful wine country, near Paso Robles, some 3 hundred miles away from our home in Diamond Bar.
We left at 7:15 am and our planned trip north included a stop in Morro Bay for a special lunch we both were looking forward to: Fish and Chips and Clam Chowder Soup! The weather was drop dead gorgeous all the way up to Morro Bay. We exited Morro Bay Blvd shortly before 11:00 am. The majority of our miles north now concluded. The hills were all green and the ocean was a marine blue and somewhat calm.
Having not eaten here in a number of years, albeit knowing that most restaurants in this area specialized in both Fish and Chips and Clam Chowder, we felt confident that our selection would provide the desired results. So we chose the Great American Fish Company right on the harbor water front. The setting was elegant and the Carafe of Chardonnay ordered with our meal selection was extraordinary.
A view from our table, Morro Bay’s Famous Rock:





And the Power towers right next door:



The Clam Chowder Soup was incredible, melting in your mouth, we both wanted more, and if you placed a spoon in the middle, it would stand upright, as the soup was that thick and creamy. I chose deep fried fish while Sheryl elected to enjoy charbroiled in mesquite. Wow, both were sensational.
Well it was time to move on to Cambria Pines Lodge, just 20 miles north of us. We had booked a fireside suite and the room did not disappoint. We were given Old rustic cabin type appeal.
The lodge entrance:


We had some great views from our room:



The Bedroom was nice:

Nice fireplace and TV:

We decided to head further north towards Hearst Castle. We stopped to take a few pictures of the coastline:

Arriving at the entrance of the Hearst Castle Visitor Center:

Took a tour through the castle, the bus ride up the five mile path was entertaining. Our first steps into the enormous property:

Randle Hearst was an Iconic collector of art:





Some views from the Castle Balcony’s:





One of the guest houses on the estate:

The Neptune Pool, that holds 250,000 gallons of water, unfortunately being empty as it was exposed to a leak and evaporation daily of over 2000 gallons which due to the drought was considered too excessive to continue, so it was emptied:

The Entrance to the Towers and the Towers:


There is no way to appreciate the immensity and size of the estate then being there? To consider this was built in the early 1900’s is beyond comprehension? It was five miles up by bus; think about hauling cement and concrete up by the tons by horseback, mules, etc. Crazy?
Some inside views, the dining room for guests was set at 25. Mr. Hearst never set at the head of the table, only in the middle where he could hear the commentary from most guests.






This was the Movie Theatre, where Randle received films that were not yet released, like Gone with the Wind, etc.:

BTW, Clark Gable was a regular guest, as were many other Stars.
How about an Olympic size Indoor Pool, Spectacular?



We entered the bus returning to the visitor center. Then we watched an outstanding 40 minute movie edition of the life and memories of the adventures of Randle Hearst as a child and his 1.5 year tour of Europe with his Mother which created the dreams and expression of the design of the Hearst Castle. It also included the building process, which exceeded anyone’s imagination besides Randle Hearst and his designer, a women of extraordinary talent and patience.
We returned to the town of Cambria and took advantage of our free wine tasting coupon provided by the Lodge. The five wines served were very good, the pours very small. However their Riesling white wine was beyond great! At $28 for a white, I was hesitant to buy a bottle, the wife was disappointed. I told her if we couldn’t find something better during our stay we would return and buy a bottle. This area always had some very exceptional wines!
We stopped at the town’s Mexican restaurant for some tasty, but very tiny steak and chicken tacos to go. As we had enjoyed a very special lunch, we elected to go economy for dinner.
Back to the room to relax, read and crash! Both I and the wife are dedicated book readers and find the thrill of reading a good book the ultimate experience! We lit a Duraflame log in the fireplace and couldn’t be more content.
Sunday 02-07-16:
I awoke at 5:30 am, seldom able to sleep in on any occasion. Being a fisherman, I never seem to be able to sleep beyond daylight? I made some coffee, continued reading a good book and waited for the wife to wake up. She was up at 7:30 and I made her some coffee. Our hotel package included a buffet brunch for the two days we stayed as well as an elegant dinner. She requested a Breakfast start time of 9am. At 8:30, I suggested she enjoy a Bloody Mary, which I had packaged with some wine, Cheese, Salami, Smoked Summer Sausage, and Crackers. The plan was to join our In-laws, who became our good friends, who would arrive later this afternoon in watching the Super Bowl.
We ate an incredibly fulfilling buffet breakfast that consisted of tasty scrambled eggs with salsa or ketchup, home fried Potatoes, Sausage Links, Biscuits and Gravy, fresh Cantaloupe and Honey Dew Melon slices, and the best Banana Bread you ever tasted.
We spent a couple more hours reading and then headed out to see the Elephant Seals that were on their annual spawning mission just up the coast. The enormity of the size of some of these elephant seals was unreal. They say some reach 5000 pounds? It was obvious that most of them were uncomfortable with the high temperatures, so unusual for this area. It was over 80 degrees, which is rarely exceeded in the heart of the summer?




We returned to the small town near the entrance to Hearst Castle. The Hearst winery tasting center was located here. The wines were good but not exceptional to our tastes. Although they presented an salami appetizer spread on crackers that was to die for. Although expensive at $18 a jar, I thought it would be a grand addition to our super bowl party.
On our way back to the lodge we spotted some leftover zoo animals from the Castle, Zebras:


Then we took some pictures of the coastline, simply divine:



Our In Laws arrived at the lodge at 1:30 pm and allowed us time for one more wine tasting adventure before the super bowl would start. The Stolla Vineyard was small in stature, yet big in quality. All the wines we tasted were excellent. We fell in love with their Petite Sirah, which was scored at 94 points, out of this world. At $40 a bottle it was a little beyond our budget, yet we couldn’t resist it. The Clarks also bought a bottle.
We returned to our room with the Clarks and what an appetizer spread we laid out together. Of course it included some Red and White Wines we had brought along. The Super Bowl met all our expectations. We were hoping for an exceptional Peyton performance, but expected a Carolina victory. The defenses for both teams were outstanding, and few offensive plays were successful. Denver and Peyton proved their resilience and held off the explosive Carolina Panthers for a victory, much to the pleasant surprise of most of us?
Von Miller was certainly our expected and worthy recipient of the MVP award.
We dressed for dinner and found the meal to be a big wow. Salmon, Top Sirloin Steak and Scampi, (Surf and Turf), Filet Mignon, and New York Steak were the entrees selected. All were sensational, as was the Red Cabernet included.
Off to a good night’s sleep, then another fantastic breakfast buffet and we bid goodbye. What a fun weekend. A couple of more pic’s of the resort:

[TUNAVIC]

Great fishing report, it was kinda funny it was like looking at one of my own family's picture albums of your trip up north,we visit all that area and stay in Morro Bay at least 4times a year,one of your next trips there,try the Dockside outdoor restaurant,killer fish,great clam chowder,live music,and the owner Bob is a fisherman,very cool spot,thanks for all the pics!

Cya Tuna Vic