Catalina Trip 5/25

[JapanRon]

Hey there guys,

Went out on the 3/4 day Premier today. Danny ran the boat today with Mikie decking and Deborah (sorry not sure of spelling) working in the galley. Took off with a fairly lite load, for the boat, and picked up some nice chovies and dines on our way out. Although there is a continuing flurry of barracuda around the corner and up in the Santa Monica Bay, we weren't able to pick up anything in a couple of promising runs nearer to homebase. So... we burned rubber for Catalina.

Fished the inside of the island with the fog hanging around for awhile. After the fog burned off it got warm but the wind was with us all day going from a very slight gentle breeze to blowing pretty good around the time we started our trip back.

Moved around hitting this and that kelp area to get bit whereever we fished. Exerted a good bit of effort looking for the better grade of fish. One interesting thing I noticed today was that every position on the boat was getting bit equally with the nicer grade of the fish coming over the rail. Didn't try plastics but a couple of guys got bit with them in the early morning bonehead bite. Fly lining a bait by far got more bites and the dines usually got, as one would expect, the bigger bass.

Caught lots of calicos.... legal, 2-3 pound fish, as well as many 11 7/8 inch cookie-cutter shorts which were cheerfullly released. Next years calico stocks should be in fine shape. We saw lots of yellowtail sign with there crashing here and there. Birds were working continuely somewhere nearby. My buddy caught his yellowtail early in the day but was beaten out on the Jackpot by a really big bass at the end of the day.

Returned to the slip around 6:30.

Good boat, great crew, productive fishing ......and fun group!

JapanRon
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[tubeN2]

Hey JR. Nice report. Lots of color in there.

We are still waiting for about 2 more degrees up north in the Channel Islands. We are already getting sharks at Ventura so it won't be long before we get our Cookie cutters and pencils up there.[cool]
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[JapanRon]

Hi there TubeN2,

Man .... don't even think pencils...... cuda in the 6 to 8 pound were coming over the rail biggggggggtime.

And ...... as we know ..... fish that are X size in Santa Monica Bay become XX or XXX when they hit up younder in your stomping grounds. Put away the 15 pound test !! ha ha They are not shy !!

JapanRon
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[tubeN2]

The cuda saga is kind of interesting. They start as pencils, then to cigars and gradually transition into logs. One of my better catches last year was from a cuda that measured out at 10 1/2lbs. It was shorter than the one I entered in the contest but was just as much of a fight.[cool]

By the time they do get to the Channel Islands, I do have my 17lb bass line ready with 3 inch steel leaders for live bait or plain for the Tady 45s.[]
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