Fishful Thinking

Well, the Chark got lucky enough to be invited for a ride out to Catalina Saturday abord Dan Wilson's 22' Cabo. This was my first trip on the Cabo 216 cuddy. And my first time fishing with Dan. He also brought along Fred and Jeff, a couple freinds with lots of time on the water. We took off early, about 4:00, grabbed bait at a Bills and L.A. Harbor Bait. Got a good mix of squid and sardines. Despite the early morning chop (never a good sign) we headed out anyway, for a day of island fishing.
Dan's a proud owner of a really great boat, and exceptional purchase. He found a used boat, traded in for a big Hat. The dealer didn't have much in the boat, which was perfectly set up for fishing. It had been sitting at the dock for about a year. So, he made an offer. The offer wasn't accepted! The fellow knocked off another 1/4 of the offered price and Dan was in business!!! Now that's a great dealer, fantastic boat for the meager dollars invested. Dan's Cabo came equiped with a Yamaha 175 and their four stroke 10 hp kicker for trolling use. She's got rocket launchers arranged so there's plenty of room for rods. There's room for at least 12 rods within easy access.
We fished the V's, Church Rock with the fleet, for fair bassing. (Fred landed a hog!) But, either we were too late, or from what some CharkBait reporters mentioned, too early. We missed both the yellowtail and WSB. But, I did talk Dan into some trolling. This brought some good action on bigger grade barracuda, and I'm now convinced that if we'd upped our trolling speed, we could have nailed some yellowtail as well. Of course I had him trolling CharkBait's YellowTail Coffin Nails.	The Chark even scored a couple fish.
We left Catalina early, then headed back for some local fishing, doing a halibut drift inside the LA Harbor. Here Dan did just what he said he'd do, picking off a young halibut. All in all a great day on the water. We picked up some lessons, like checking the water flow on the bait..., missed the WSB (probably should have fished even tighter to the shore), but had a great day on the water. The fishing partners were all guys I'd fish with again, anytime. Thanks for the ride Dan!

I fished Catalina with Dan Wilson and his friend Chuck Swift again Sunday. What a nice day on the water! Water at the island still is cool (up to 65 but generally down around 63), but the conditions are really looking good. Seems to me that the calico bass are doing much better, kelp coming back, it's looking good guys. We hoped to find some white seabass, but things didn't quite swing in that direction. We didn't find squid available at Bill's or L.A.Harbor outside of Los Al. (though the reciever up off San Pedro did have the squirts we later found out). Instead we loaded up with pinhead anchovies. I pretty much stayed with the artificials all day, and picked off my best calico of the year. the barracuda bite is also very strong at the East End, just past Avalon (you can't miss the area, it's been filled with boats the past couple weekends-even the Enterprise was fishing here today).
We did hook one white seabass, which was lost at the boat. It wasn't a big fish, but it was a white seabass nonetheless. Pictured left, Dan trying to figure out what's at the end of the line, and Craig starting to get a bit tired. The battle lasted well over ten minutes. It had us guessing. "There's color..., it's dark, shark, bat ray? No it's a Giant Black Sea Bass. The big Black was taken on fresh dead squid in only about 40 feet of water! Of course the fish was released unharmed, as the law mandates. It's wonderful to see these things making a comeback. It wasn't all that long ago that you could find big 500 lb. bruisers swimming along our coast. Overfishing almost made these things extinct off So. Cal. But, with Black SeaBass being protected - and fishermen treating the resource with respect - we're starting to see a return of the big boys.	What's at the end of the line?