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3/4 Day Premier Trip 2/22
#1
Hey there guys,

Rode the 3/4 day Premier out of Pierpoint today. Jimmy ran the boat today, a new deck, named Chris, very professionally handled deck duties and Manny did a great job in the Galley. Excellent team!

Had both live squid/fresh dead and frozen so …… we were loaded for bear …er ..bass. We took quite a trip up the Palo Verde coastline to nearly the lighthouse. We finished up closer to home after hitting some close-in spots on the shoe.

Short Report: Around 12 anglers caught a number of calicos, some nice sandbass, a few perch, and a number of mackerel. Average number of fish per angler was typically low……check the counts being made by the boats that actually get out here in the Horseshoe Kelp-Huntington Flats-Dana Point strip. Pretty grim from a count point of view BUT we on the boat had a ball!

We also managed to catch a 100lb bat ray, a chili pepper (boy was he shallow), the usual many sculpin, some treefish, a couple of sugar bass, a small lingcod, and nice sized cabazon (ALL of which were released).

Usual Report: Fishing today was in beautiful weather. The sun was warm from the get-go. The water, both in temps (mid-50’s I’m sure), quality (yech!), and strength of current (worse the further we got back toward the shoe). Jimmy made the effort to put us in a position to take advantage of any hot bite that might develop We worked spots, metering fish, and picking at the fish constantly throughout the day.

I thought the heck with it and fished the plastic ( brown bait color, 5 inch blam) both the first and the last hour or so of the trip. In between the plastic I tossed my usual 3/4 ounce then 1 ounce, dull gray leadhead, and whole smallish squid on an 18 inch length of flurocarbon. I got my fish on both fresh dead and the plastic.

Fished various depths from 60 to 90 feet in jagged rock rubble and small rock piles and reefs. There seemed to be nothing at mid-depth or top-water (sea-lion hung around for a while then lost interest in us) although a few mackerel did dart past once in a while. Got hung up a number of times without losing a single leadhead with my 'old' technique. Forgot to mention one of the most important elements in getting your stuff loose from the bottom.

Current was strong early on and stronger later although the wind, and swell wasn't bad.

Aside: One additional point on getting leadheads loose, I didn't mention originally.. if you don't get out of structure in a minute or so ... be patient and take a few minutes to tentatively work the line jiggling all along the arc of the boats initial swing and then when it returns to the point (or past) where you first got hung up.

Another aside: One buddy caught a fish with a fish tag on it. If you see one of these flexible plastic tube thingys sticking out of the fishy check to see if it says 'DFG Reward' !!!! take note of the size, approximate weight, gemeral location, condition and remove the tag. (I believe) There is a phone number on the tag you are to call to provide the DFG with the tag record number and if to claim your reward. Pretty Cool !! My buddy had the T-bar type for $10.

Tag link: [url "http://www.dfg.ca.gov/fishing/html/fishingmonitoring/FishTagDescriptions.htm"]http://www.dfg.ca.gov/fishing/html/fishingmonitoring/FishTagDescriptions.htm[/url]

If I catch one, and even if he's no legal and in season, I'm going to just quickly write down the tag number and contact number so that it can be followed further. (I'll follow up this post with info if you still can get a reward (T-shirt???) if you don't actually have or mail the tag to them.) [Image: icon_smile.gif]

Yet another aside: One regular caught a mature lobster on hook and line. That was funny. Released this guy for two reasons .... 1) You can't catch them on rod & reel and 2) there was no lobster gauge at hand on the boat. No guage ... not lobster even if you have a license.

As always...... fishing on the Premier was great fun. Most anglers took home some fish. Our wheel-chair club member won the jackpot again! Sheeeeh ... that's something like 3 wins in the last 5 trips or so!!!

JapanRon
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#2
It sounds like you guys all had a good time. Inspite of cooler water temps, the Calicos are still down there and only available to the serious angler.

I caught a tagged Sculpin a few weeks back.(Released) It had the blue color dart tag. They only say on them the tag number, phone # and "Reward if found". Those are the Tshirt tags. I already got mine in the mail.

They don't require the tag to be returned in order to claim the prize on it. As a matter of fact, they prefer that the fish (legal or not) be released again so that they can hopefully track it's progress, migration and habits.

I went on a tagging trip a few months back. We started out fishing the "Red Zone" area of Anacapa Island. That area is off limits to all fishing period! Unless you have your very own DFG marine biologist on board telling you "Drop your lines here guys".

The Biologist told me about the silly Scullys. They tagged 1 there before that was C&Red later in Santa Monica, again in Dana Point, again in San Dawg and one more time near Cabo San Lucas. Thats alot of mileage of a ground fish. They should put the Scullys on the list of Palaegics.

I know those Bat Rays or Mud Marlin as we call them in the Channel Islands Harbor, can be a blast especially on 20lb line. They can keep you busy for at least 1/2hr or so. Or until they decide to find a sharp object to test the line for you.[cool]
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#3
Hey there TubeN2,

Ya on the DFG site ... the blue one says $10 but they must have changed the deal! [Smile] Which is cool 'cuz ..... I'd rather have the shirt too!

Only problem with our mud marlin friends is that they fool skippers and decks into thinking they are WSB, BSB, and yellows ALL THE TIME! 20 mins lost prime fishin' time for almost nothing but excercise!

Show is gettin' closer.

JapanRon
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#4
I too would rather have the shirt. I will get a picture of mine and post it here so that others can see the intricate graphics and art work that has gone into them. Like you said,"Worth much more than the money".

They tags come in different colors too. The light blue tag will generally have no price on it. It simply states "Reward if Found" Tag ####### and phone # (562)XXX-XXXX.

The dark green tags are the $10tags. There are also yellow and pink tags. Each one has a specific amount on it but all color tags get a Tshirt.

They will ask you general information.
1. Your Name-full address ( to mail your corresponding reward)
2. Species ( if you know) or describe it if you are not sure.
3. @ location that you caught the fish.
4. @ depth
5. Did you keep or re-release the fish?

We had 2 tagged fish come aboard on the day that I caught mine. I helped the other gentleman to procure the propper info since I was playing DH/Spatula on the boat that day. I would have helped him anyways.

I understand what you mean about the Mud Marlin on a boat. You do loose productive time for the target species. Not to mention the inconvenience to the other anglers/passengers.

I had a trip where we were thinking that I had "The right one" and turned out to be a 45min hot rail with 2 victory laps. Turning out to be an 85lb Mud Marlin, pissed off some and delighted others.

I had to go on "Sack fill" duty to help for the lost fishing time and keep the customers happy.[crazy]
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