San Diego, H&M Landing report May 08, '12

[Bardic]

Well my wife and I are from Idaho, but we are in San Diego for a vacation this week and it has been really great so far. Went to the Zoo and Sea World, of course, and today we went out for a half day fishing trip on the ocean.

I had a good time, weather has been perfect, light winds, good temps compared to Idaho, and the captain was able to get us into some fish which always helps. Had a lot of red rock cod, some decent sized and a ton of little guys. Someone pulled in what I think is a sheephead (or similar shape and colors) and a large 2-3 foot eel that was pretty fun to see. Also brought home a sculpin that the guy didn't want, and a brown one similar to the sculpin I think someone called a tree fish, but I'm not sure. Looking forward to getting some of those cooked up for dinner when we get back to Idaho.

My wife tends to get a little seasick so she had some meds ready, she took half and had to take the rest of the dose after an hour or so because she wasn't doing so well. I didn't have any problems, I was having too much fun feeling for tiny bites to care about some rocking and swaying. She did start to feel a little better and even pulled in a few fish.

Overall a good time for both of us. I'm tempted to go out again later in the week if she's up for it, don't know if I should try to convince her to do a 3/4 day or stick to the 1/2 day, or maybe even figure out some inland or dock fishing.
[signature]

[Bardic]

I was asked on the Idaho board why I chose H&M Landing:

[url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/forum/Idaho_Fishing_Forum_C22/Idaho_Fishing_General_F25/gforum.cgi?post=743619;forum_view=forum_view_collapsed;page=unread#unread"]http://www.bigfishtackle.com/forum/Idaho_Fishing_Forum_C22/Idaho_Fishing_General_F25/gforum.cgi?post=743619[/url]

"We looked at reviews on some different web sites and pretty much had it narrowed down to H&M or Point Loma. Both have similar trips but Point Loma doesn't do a morning and afternoon 1/2 day during the week yet, and neither are doing twighlight trips yet.

Read a lot of reviews, checked out a few on the Cali BFT boards but they were a few years old, and just decided on H&M. Some reviews were good for each and some were pretty bad. It prepared me a little bit as far as what to expect in fees for the bag and food, and it prompted me to be happy and personable to the crew and cook. I don't know how they treated all of the other passengers but we had a good time chatting with the cook for a while and the other guys were really good about helping with hooks and tangles and tips. Basically started the day happy and excited and it made us people that were pleasant to help (they also helped and flirted with the hot girls, but I can't really blame them there).

We had a good time. If my wife wasn't sick and we had caught bigger fish we would have gone again for the afternoon trip at half price and used more of our Cali day license.

There were only a few negatives:

The Landing office people weren't all that fun, sure it was 6am, but they didn't seem to care very much. They might have been in a bad mood because the 3/4 day didn't have enough people and they had to cancel it which made for some unhappy customers.

They put your fish into burlap sacks with your number on them and I would have preferred it if they kept the sacks wetter and out of the sun more to stay as cold as possible

When filleting. the fish they are very fast but wasted more meat, particularly rib meat, than I would have liked. I might just have the small ones cleaned next time and only fillet big ones.

Lastly, when we were getting off the boat there was a smokin' hot girl in a bikini ready to get on for the afternoon trip. It would sure be handy if they would put one of those on every trip "
[signature]

[Dryrod]

Hi there Bardic - thanks for your detailed report and pictures. Glad to hear that the Mrs didn't have mal de mer the second day out. Oh BTW you could have included a pix or two of the hotties that you mentioned. LOL
[signature]

[Bardic]

Lol, couldn't figure out how to get a pic without being too obvious, and while 33 may not be old, I could still be accused of being a dirty old man by the 20 year olds.
[signature]

[Dryrod]

Ah yes - so true. I'm older than dirt but still like to look at a pretty lass with or without the "L" LOL.
[signature]