St. Patrick's Day on the Pacific Dawn

The Los Angeles Rod and Reel Club had their first 2006 charter aboard the Pacific Dawn out of Hook's Sportfishing on March 17th. I am co-Chartermaster with Jim Carlisle for these trips (although Jim does all the work). We arrived in Oxnard early and signed in at the landing before boarding the boat. When we boarded, we were greeted with a special treat in the galley – Shane DeRemer was cooking for us. Shane also works in the galley on the Excel. We had 16 club members board the Pacific Dawn on Friday evening and set up tackle in preparation for the morning’s early bite.

I awoke early and found the captain, Pat Cavanaugh, and crew scooping squid. Fortunately, two of the three deck tanks were filled before the sea lions chased the squid away. We were on the back side of Santa Rosa Island.

We started with a wide open bite on rays while fishing shallow for white seabass. Unfortunately, the white seabass eluded us. Pat moved the boat to the rock fish grounds and the bite was on. It turned out to be a great day on the water. The weather was beautiful and everyone went home with limits of rock fish. Shane took this photo of Jim and me with our big reds which we caught on one of the last drops of the day.

For the ride home, Shane made a special meal for St. Patrick’s Day - corned beef. He also made us a big pot of clam chowder which was some of the best I’ve had. I’ll be bugging Shane for his recipe. We were back at dock by 7:30 p.m. Crew handed out our fish and we all headed home looking forward to our fresh fish dinners the following day.

Fred Hall Tackle Show

March 7 through 11 found the sportfishing community all together at Fred Hall’s Fishing Tackle, Boat and Travel Show http://www.fredhall.com/ at the Long Beach Convention Center. Sportfishing landings, boat owners, tackle shops, tackle manufacturers, boat dealers, etc. set up booths to display, sell, and educate the fishing community about what is new and available for the next year. Seminars by the who’s who in Sportfishing are available daily covering such topics as fly casting, long-range fishing techniques, knot tying, surf fishing, and cooking your catch.

The show is a great time to get reacquainted with fishing friends and chat with the crews and owners of your favorite Sportfishing boat. Volunteering to work the show is a privilege for me because it gives me an opportunity to give something back to a sport that provides me with such great pleasure.

This year I had the opportunity to work the Braid Products booth where we showcased the new DownUnder Ice Chests http://www.braidproducts.com/newproducts/ that keep foods frozen up to 14 days. We also had displays of the new tackle products such as the Tantrum Jigs and, of course, the entire line of stand-up belts and harnesses.

I also worked with Jenny Armstrong and Kathy Rounds to assist Pete Haynes with knot tying seminars for Shimano. Out of the three seminars we gave each day, my favorite was teaching the bimini twist to albright connection, a complicated knot to tie. I loved the smile on everyone’s face when Pete would tell them they just successfully tied a bimini twist. This is our third year together assisting Pete in teaching knot tying for Shimano and we have been dubbed Shimano’s Knotty Ladies.

I had a couple surprises at the show. The Fisherman’s Landing booth had a new back drop that included a photo of me. The Berkley Booth also displayed photos of me with fish I caught last year using the new Berkley Hi-Test line I was testing for Berkley. It was a humbling experience for me with all the talent working and walking around the show.

Hoop Netting for Lobster in San Diego Harbor

Newest LARRC members Jason and Justin Fleck treated this club member to an evening of hoop netting the last week of February. I met the famous Fleck brothers at the Shelter Island launch ramp at 5:00 p.m. The weather was predicted to be 10 to 20 knots of wind with a low of 38 degrees. Jason and Justin both had warned me to dress warmly and wear my slickers. I bundled up with 5 layers of clothes because I always follow the captains’ directions – and on this trip they were both Captains – trading off running Jason’s skiff.

Jason had all 10 hoops baited and ready to drop. A combination of chopped sardine and mackerel had been stuffed into the bait containers (a 12 to 18 inch piece of capped 2-inch PVC pipe drilled with holes.) Recent hoop netting had provided Jason with the knowledge of the most productive spots in the harbor for us to drop the nets (knowledge which I promised not to reveal). With the nets deployed, we drove over to the bait receivers and tied up to stay out of the wind. By this time it was 6:45 p.m. and just getting dark.

We decided to make the first pull early so a little after 7 p.m. we headed back to the hoops. I rode the bow with flashlight in hand searching for the first buoy. Justin drove and Jason pulled. The hoops were in forty to fifty feet of water. As we approached the buoy, Justin slid the skiff along side the buoy on the starboard side and Jason plucked it out of the water and maintained a steady, hand over hand pull until the net reached the surface. I shined the light into the net searching for that flash of red indicating a lobster. The net was empty so Jason dropped it back down. This was repeated nine more times proving it was too early and there was too much daylight for the lobsters to start crawling.

We went back to the bait receiver to wait. Jason didn’t really expect much activity until the tide was due to change at about 9:30 p.m. We tried our hand at a little bass fishing along the edges of the receivers to pass the time. It was my first time to walk the receivers let alone fish standing on them. The bass weren’t cooperating either; however, it may have been due to the sea lions jumping around chasing something. We waited 20 minutes and went back out to pull the nets again. This time Justin pulled up a couple short lobsters, a rock crab, a sculpin and one legal sized lobster. Back to the receivers to wait and have our picnic dinner – hearty sandwiches.

The third pull was mine. Jason instructed me on the least exhausting method to pull the nets and keep a steady upward movement to prevent the bugs from crawling out of the nets before reaching the surface. My first net yielded a legal lobster and I was very excited. I pulled the other nine nets with another couple shorts. We had two legal sized lobsters on board and the tide was just beginning to change. Back to the bait receiver to wait.

Next pull was Justin’s. This was the most productive as Justin pulled up one net with 4 lobsters, 3 of which were legal. Nine bugs in all on this pull. Things were changing and the bugs were really crawling.

We reset the nets and made another couple pulls before we decided to call it quits at midnight. We ended the evening after 7 pulls in all (2 for Jason, 2 for me and 3 for Justin) which produced over 30 lobsters. We had 7 legal sized lobsters! Heartbreaking though was that many of these lobsters missed being legal by only a quarter of an inch. I guess we’ll have to wait until next year for them to grow up.

I am grateful to the Excel’s Chef Jason Fleck and the Excel’s newly promoted First Captain Justin Fleck for the fabulous evening of hoop netting in San Diego Harbor. Justin was promoted after Shawn Steward left to run his own boat (Aloha Spirit) out of Oxnard so he could be home with his family at night.