Trip 1 Report- Thunderbird, 2 Day Trip- June 9-11, 2022

Scribe- Gary Thompson

Let us start off by stating- “It was the best of times, and the worst of times”. Meaning the camaraderie of the members and guests on this trip was fantastic. The fishing, well not so much (except the REDS).

The usual suspects arrived early as always with Hayden leading the way and your scribe with his guest grandson in tow right behind. The remainder filed in with all participants arriving by 7:00pm. The Boat was in a bit early so we were able to board by 8:30pm.

The plan for the first day from Jeff was to see if we could get some squid at Catalina from a light boat and if successful head to San Nicholas Island to try for some exotics and other stuff that lives there. Otherwise, we would check out the Tanner and Cortez. Day 2 would be TBD depending on Day One.

Good looking bait at the receiver, loaded up and cleared the harbor at 10:00pm. Nice traveling weather and very nice throughout the trip.

As unluck would have it, we struck out on the squid at Catalina so off we went to the outer banks.

Day One

Arrived at the Tanner Bank at 5:45am, start looking around. First boat to look here this year. Water was off-color and loaded with sea lions and bait. So Jeff didn’t stop and headed for the Cortez Bank at 6:05am. We arrived at 7:45am and tried the lower end. No fish. Left about 8:30am and headed to the 9-fathom spot where we found better water, 61 degrees and a cleaner green.

We anchored about 9:20am and Ryan B and the scribe hung yellows immediately. Ryan got his. Nice fish. The scribe handed his off to his grandson and shortly after a sea lion ate it! Damn bastard! Nothing after that. At 9:50am we started looking around again. Tried a couple more spots of fish to no avail, so we headed out to the deeps and picked away at the reds for a couple hours. Pretty decent steady fishing and everyone got what they needed.

After that we ran back up into shallows around 4:00pm and chased some breezers to no avail. Note that there was fish to be had, but not a lot of volume and cold water hampered the effort. Maybe later this year it will be productive.

We headed to San Clemente Island around 5:15pm. Enjoyed a nice Goofy dinner of lots of salad, lasagna, chicken alfredo and rolls all in nice traveling weather.

Only one Yellowtail caught by Ryan so 1st day patch and jackpot went to him with a 31 lb fish.

Day Two

We arrived at the island, Sand Dunes area, around 9:00pm the night before. The crew made a small amount of squid, but enough to fish with for the day. At 5:15am Paul C landed a nice white sea bass. Let the day begin! A short time later Bill P followed up with a nice yellowtail. But that was it. Nothing more.

We started working down backside checking out bass spots. Just a few captured at one spot. Conditions were fine but the sea lions were obnoxious and wouldn’t allow us to get anything going. We spent most of the remaining day traversing the island down the back, through the cove and up the front. Not much anywhere. Virtually nothing to show except a couple bass and a halibut. We did stop on a spot of yellowtail below Goldbluff, we went 0-2 and that was it. We moved back down below the sailboat spot, found another school but no real joy. Picked a few bonito and bass, lost one yellowtail. Jeff called it a trip at 2:00pm and we headed home.

Paul nailed the patch and jackpot with his white sea bass with a 37 lb fish.

Arrived home around 7:00pm, unloaded, the customary goodbyes were had and all looking toward their next trip. All in all, with the exception of the reds, fishing pretty much sucked. But that is why they call it “fishing” and not “catching”. And remember this from a well-known long range boat captain- “You can’t catch if you don’t try”. So until next time…..