Well, the news came in that there were reports of Giant Squid being caught SOUTH of New Port and day time feeding spotted. So, excited as every body else, I came for the twightlight fishing.
By 6:30 after I got my ticket, look around, see a lot people, I asked the landing people how many are booked. He said, LIGHT load, maybe 20.
By the time we boarded, there must have been 40~50 people. The boat took a long time, way past leaving time, and we ended up with 72 people on the boat. I said to my self "Great, this is going to be a zoo here."
As we are going out, I was joking to one of the deck hand "I hope we don't catch anything with this many people as fish/squid cleaing will take 4 to 6 hours."
Well, at the first stop, captain said, "Let them go, about 200 ft!!!". I said to myself "WHAT 200"!!!. No way in hell I will try to pull up a 8~10 lb squid from 200". I will wait until the squids are up on the surface". Thus, I did not even put my sinker onto the line and I just watch 71 other people drop their lines and jig up and down for 20 minutes and tangle and untangle.
Next stop, captain said "We are in 600" water area, drop your line to 400~450ft". Most people reels does not not hold more than 400ft of lines, mine is only 300ft maybe. Forget it, next stop.
Next stop, captain said "Drop your line to 600ft". I just took my rod and place it on the holding rack.
So, to sum it up, the whole boat with 72 people got SKUNK. My PB is not only I got skunk, it is the first time I am on a boat and my line was not WET.
Captain excuse is maybe the squids are in Dana Point area, not in New Port and this is ONLY AN EXPLORATORY TRIP. Well, dud, so what the hell are we doing in 2 miles radius of New Port harbor?
So, the only good thing come out of this is the weather was nice. It was not too cold up until 10:30 PM. The swell was small and no one threw up or sea sick. DFG collected a ton of money from new licenses. The landing got a few thousands of dollars from the tickets, squid jigs, and sinkers.
One thing I am not sure of what happen, the deck hand collected JACK POT money from maybe 20 people. At the end of the trip, there was no announcement of what happens to that money as no one landed ANYTHING. I guessed the deck hand kept all that money to himself as no one asked for that money back.
SO, PEOPLE DO YOURSELF A FAVOR. KEEP YOUR HARD EARN MONEY AND STAY HOME UNTIL A REAL REPORT COME IN.
We were all in for a ride, if you don't call that a rip off or false advertisement.