I went to Catalina for a shot at white seabass this weekend but ended up catching a black instead.





I got it on #30 test with live squid in 80ft. of water. She had suffered barotrauma when I got her up and her bladder was coming out of her mouth. She was floating and couldn't swim back down. I didn't have a fish descender on board but I had a homemade grappling hook that I made to retrieve lost lobster nets. I wrapped the rope around her head and the weight of the hook (about 5 pounds) started slowly sinking her back down. After about 20 feet I could feel her kicking and sinking faster and about 50 feet she started kicking and freed herself from the rope. Sorry for the lack of pictures but I didn't want to waste time in getting her released safely.

We didn't catch any WSB but we did get a nice variety of calicos, whitefish, perch, sharks and bat rays. We also caught about 50 pieces of squid the night before. They weren't very big, but obviously big enough to catch a big fish! Things are looking up at the island. Hopefully I'll get my wsb soon...