2017: Trip #3 on the Thunderbird (1.5 Day)

6/22/17 - 6/23/17

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Scribe - Carl McKinley

Trip #3 - Thunderbird

I arrived at the dock at 2pm and was the first to arrive. Ryan showed up at 3pm followed by Mike T, Tom A, Gary, Bill and Ron. Others arrived in quick succession. Gear was assembled and everyone was ready for the trip. Tom Anderson shared a 12 pack of Coors Lite while we waited for the Thunderbird to arrive. Upon boarding there were sandwiches in the galley for those who were hungry. We left the bait barge a little after 10pm with some good size sardines. Most everyone then hit the bunks as we headed for San Clemente Island.

The morning started at Pyramid Cove fishing dropper loops with squid. At 5:10am Tom Hill hooked up first and landed a nice YT quickly followed by Mike T. The bite lasted till 7:30am and we had landed 23 YTs. We then moved to the other side of China Point, started fly lining sardines and by the time we left there at 10am we had landed another 20 yellowtail. We then fished for Calico Bass at several different spots with some success. Jeff the Captain caught a nice one in the 7lb range and Mike Thompson and Bill Parks also had some good size ones. After that we tried several places that looked promising for some YT but to no avail. The rest of the afternoon we spent fishing for Calico bass and landed quite a few decent size ones. We tried dropper loops again that night for YT but no luck. The weather was overcast most of the time but when the sun would peek thru the jackets would come off and everyone enjoyed the sun.

Goofy made a nice breakfast of eggs bacon and toast followed by hamburgers at lunch and a real nice dinner with meat, potatoes, vegetables and a salad. At dinner Bob Wheeler opened up a really nice bottle of Zinfandel at the table I was sitting at and shared it with everyone at the table. It tasted great after a long day of fishing.

The biggest YT was caught by Gary Thompson. It taped out at just under 35 pounds.

Arrived back at the dock Saturday around 5am.

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