2018: Trip 3 Thunderbird (1.5 day)

Mike Trunk

WARNING: IF YOURE THIN SKINNED AND HAVE ZERO SENSE OF HUMOR – DO NOT READ THIS!

THURSDAY 6/21

I arrived to the Newport Landing around 12:30pm. The weather was about 69 degrees. Unfortunately, not ONE member wanted to meet me at sunrise to honor Mike Pence for a sunrise prayer service (I was bummed about this). So, I did not make an effort to organize the event- I just prayed myself.

Arrival times of each member are listed below:

1:35pm: Brian Wynn (he came with a complete arsenal of rods and reels- I believe he brought 9 rods and reels

2:20pm- Gary T.

2:45pm- Chris Lund

3:35pm- Tom Anderson

3:40pm- Ryan

3:46pm- Bill and Ron S.

3:49pm- Tommy

4:30pm- Ron R. and Tim Snider

4:45pm- Jeff H.

5:10pm- Andy W.

6:00pm- Bryan Upcraft

6:10pm- Bill Hammer

6:42pm- Cody

Pre-trip facts:

The bait was 6”-8” sardines
Water temperature was 67 degrees in the Newport harbor

Game plan prior to trip departure:

We have shot at catching Yellowtail and Calico bass. Then we will run to the back of San Clemente Island for Yellowtail in West Cove.

At this time, I asked Jeffrey Markland for an interview and he gave me a simple “We’re done here.” Contrary to the interview, he’s a great guy.

We were at the bait receiver getting our bait from 9:20- 10:20pm

Trip details:

We arrived at San Clemente Island at 5:30am on Friday 6/22.

At 5:54am Ryan cast a bait off his hook. Luke would not be proud of his boy.

At 6:20am Ryan cast off another bait. At that moment I could only imagine how disappointed Luke would be when he found out this awful news.

7:00am NO FISH.

At this time, we were treated to Goofy’s amazing breakfast burritos

At 7:10am Tommy hooked the first Yellowtail/ sealion and it was a beautiful one!

At 7:25 Ron S. hooked a Yellowtail. He ultimately lands his fish after a long battle at 7:40- TOUGH FISH at 24lbs!

Markland takes Ryan’s rod and immediately hooks a 12lbs Yellowtail- StELLAR!

At 8:00am we began going back to the backside of the island where The Thunderbird caught fish the day prior.

Coors Lights are flowing for Andy and me, per usual.

At 9:00am Spike caught a small Yellowtail on a jig

At 9:20am we left for the frontside of the island because there weren’t any fish on the back- only boils

At 10:00am Yellowtails started biting up to 34lbs and bass were also biting. If you throw bait towards the island you would catch an instant Bass.

At this time, we were hand fed cheese and salami (like Kings) from Goofy.

At 11:20am we had 48 total hooks

50 keeper Bass were released at 11:30am

Below is a list of how many fish each member caught by 11:30:

Jefe: 2 Yellowtail

Spike: 4 Yellowtail

Ryan: 4 Yellowtail

Chris: 1 Yellowtail

Andy: 3 Yellowtail

Tom A: 3 Yellowtail

Gary: 3 Yellowtail

Tom H: 2 Yellowtail

Cody: 3 Yellowtail

Ron R: 3 Yellowtail

Bryan U: 3 Yellowtail

Ron S: 3 Yellowtail

Brian W: 3 Yellowtail

Tim: 3 Yellowtail

Mike: 20 Yellowtail

We left the backside of the island at 12:00pm. The front side of the island was sun and warm- ME LIKEY!

At 12:30 pm began to fish Bass. Brian Wynn topped it with a 7.8 pounder. SO far, we had a lot of short Calico Bass but we had some good ones!

At 1:50pm we went to get squid from The Ultra then went back down south for more Bass or hopefully some bigger Yellowtails on the dropper loop.

We got two passes of squid at 2:50pm and now we were fishing in 8 ft. of water

At 5:50pm We left the warm side of the island to the back of the island where the bigger fish on the bottom. Eggsinker and squid is what we were told were here.

Bryan Wynn hooked a big Yellowtail (16lbs) at 6:10pm after farming a bigger one.

7:02 Ryan cleaned the deck with a fart.

7:45 Bill hooks a nice barracuda with salad.

Dinner was served at 8:00pm we had Goofy’s favorite World-Famous tacos, beans and rice.

At this time, I was COLD and DRUNK. It was way passed my bedtime. GOODNIGHT.

The final fish count was 65 Yellowtail, Limits of Calico Bass. Bryan beat his best with a 7.8lbs of Calico Bass.

LOOK BACK THOUGHTS:

Gary’s short shorts- really? He chose to cut them that short.
Gary’s tearful goodbye to land and not being able to see his cuddle buddy Tony for a few days.
The old guys bitched about relevant music like their fathers did to them in 1942.
Andy is not a beached whale. He is my roly poly snuggle buddy. If you think any less of him- I will come and find you!
Crowded squid for the ¾ day trip- about at least 20 scoops
I got the patch on Thursday for my Bay Bass at the receiver (I have never received that patch yet)

Crew List

Captain: Jeffrey

2nd Captain: Brain

Cook: Chris Ashcroft aka Goofy

Deckhand: Scuba Steve and Ricardo

Luke isn’t coming because of supposed hernia. This means no problem for him to select better bait or rationing bait. He probably got the hernia from lifting all his gear from the trip.

I also learned that it is much better to take a water bottle out of the trash and cut it in half for a wine glass than to use a clean Styrofoam cup from the Galley. The Styrofoam will ruin the composition and tannins in the wine. Thank you, Bill.

I took a lot of pictured and Ryan will post most of them.

The last scribe duty was a lot easier.

BA BA BOOEY

-Mike Trunk

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