Scribe : Chris Ramsey Jr

Fortune 2 day                                                      

This trip runs out of 22nd St Landing in San Pedro. For some of us it’s kind of a far drive so we try to plan our day accordingly. This one was a little different because Bruce already had the boat in the slip and ready all day which means if you were on time, you were already late. I was the last to arrive and the boat was already waiting on me so as soon as I got signed up and checked in we were off to hopefully make some squid at San Clemente island. We were pretty pumped up with the appearance of the elusive yellowtail and big calico bass in recent counts.

Day 1

As I woke from what was a pretty good sleep I stumbled out on the deck with hopes of seeing some live squid glowing in the water. There wasn’t much to see except a very deep jag of squid being chased by the sealions. It took about an hour of patience by the crew, the few anglers trying to snag a piece at a time, then all of a sudden, the squid decided to float and do the thing squids do. We had bait and lots of it, so we were set for the entire trip and the crew even had extra, so they could use on future trips. As the sun was starting to rise the anglers started rolling out of their bunks and on to the deck. They were delighted to see all of the live squid and most started fishing with the ever so faithful dropper loop style of fishing. We fished for an hour or so before we had our first gamefish bite of the day. I was standing right next to the lucky angler who was hooked up to what seemed to be a really nice yellowtail. Then a school swam under the boat and three other anglers hooked up. We were anticipating some nice yellows to come aboard but every angler got their catch eaten by bobo the nasty sealion. Those anglers to get lucky enough to hook up on that spot were Mike, Luke, Andy and Mario who was using a jig on the bow. 0 for 4 is not a good ratio for this club for sure, so it was off to the next spot. Bruce marked a few game fish on the meter, so we dropped anchor and gave it a try. This spot was off, and what I mean by off was it sucked. We didn’t even get a bite, so Bruce thought we should drift it. Still didn’t matter, the fish had lockjaw. Off to the next spot somewhere on the frontside of the island. It would take about an hour to get there which was awesome for me because I was so tired I really needed a nap. Spot three on the frontside we found a cove which had some life in it. I found one of the only sardines that looked healthy and fly lined it out and got bit pretty quick. I managed to land a yellow which was also the first one landed this year for the club. After that we would land around 20 yellows on various baits. There was only one stand out fish and that was by Andy Woodfill. We caught several small bass and sheepshead and got to witness a wildlife show from the eagles swooping down and grabbing our released fish. It was getting later in the afternoon and Bruce wanted to try for bass on the boilers in the kelp. Another long run and were set up in the cove at boiler #2 and it was time to try to fish mackerel for bass. This was fun as we had numerous fish in the 5 to 6 lb. range, but we could never get that monster bass in the 8 to 10 lb. range. Brian got lucky on this trip because we know the big girls were lurking. We left that spot for a more comfortable spot away from the wind to finish off our day. This spot was strange because it produced 3 triggerfish 2 by Bonito Roy, and one by Mario. It was getting dark and we all were happy with the day of fishing for sure. Most of the yellows were in the 10 lb. range but some were a little bigger. Andy won the day 1 JP with a solid 20 plus lb. specimen. Dinner was awesome with a gigantic Flintstone style steak and all the fixin’s.

Day 2

 

Cheers J.R.