05-14-2003, 07:29 AM
Hey there guys,
Driving the near-deserted 91 then 710 down to the landing is a pleasure, even if it is a little before 4am. ha ha As usual, the office opened up precisely at 5am, ready to take care of the good number of anglers, seems like there's a good number of regulars every day of the week, ready to ride. Dillon got everyone ticketed and ready for boarding.
We left the dock a 6am and proceded to the bait receiver nearby to again get a nice mix of anchovies with chum and hook bait including some huge guys. Today, the Victory was skippered by mike, with cliff decking, and....... of all people, George (also skipper) doing duty at the grill. Now I know he can find fish and..... cook!
Went out to target the barracuda and hit some schools on a couple of stops. The water was fairly warm at 61 but all we could find to fish in was this nasty looking (dirty) water.
The decision was made and we're off to Catalina (Ye Ha) Even though we didn't get to Catalina as early as if we had come straight across, we still had plenty of time to run and gun not a few spots for bass. Every stop got us the usual calicos with a few whitefish, sheepshead and barracuda thrown in for good measure. No big bat rays to make us think we were hooked up to a yellow this time. But we did get the treatment by a couple of pesky sealions.ha ha
On our final stop we fished bird rock and the surrounding kelp stringers. The action was pretty much wide open on the calicos, with that dark brownish/yellow color they get by hanging in the thick kelp, even with the sealions around. I don't even want to think how it would have been if the 'dogs' wheren't there. Most of the fish were caught flyling a bait. If you had an anchovie over 5 inches, you were instant-bit, guarranteed.
Weighed anchor a bit before 5pm and got back to the docks with the fish cleaned and the boat spick and span at berth 55 around 6pm.
Oh ya, sometimes you'll get a discount card with your ticket giving you $5 off any 'open party' boat the next time you ride, provided there's 15 passengers.
Almost forgot! There's this pair of bald eagles that seem to watch the sportboats. Today we were treated to seeing the both of these majestic birds swoop down on a fish that had gone belly up they kind of did a tag team thing. Glad they're our national bird. Do you realize that there was a proposal to make the turkey the national bird by our founding fathers! No joke!
Great trip, I recommend this as a class ride.
JapanRon
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