Pêcheuse: Calm Seas at San Miguel Island

It was a perfect day on the water for our last LA Rod and Reel Club charter this spring to the Channel Islands. We departed Capt. Hook's Sportfishing at 10 p.m. Sunday night (May 6th)traveling on seas calmed by Santa Ana winds. Pat Cavanaugh was at the helm of the Pacific Dawn with crew members Opie and Mike on deck.

It was 1:00 a.m. when I awoke to the sound of the boat's anchor dropping. I stumbled out of bed to check out the scene. We were at Santa Cruz Island. Opie was scooping squid and Pat was snagging them. Pat took one look at me and said "get your rod and start snagging bait." After we caught a few more squid, Pat woke the rest of the passengers to do the same.

We had plenty of squid by 2:00 a.m. so Pat sent us back to bed. With the calm seas and gentle hum of the engines, I didn't wake again until 5:30 a.m. Very late for me. The sun was just coming up over the mainland which was clearly visible due to the Santa Ana winds. We were nestled in a cove at Santa Rosa Island. We spent about an hour trying for white seabass to no avail. I did drag in a large red starfish.

Pat made the choice to run over to San Miguel Island and fish shallow water for rockcod. It was a 30 to 45 minute run. What a fabulous decision. We fished one spot all day in 30 to 90 feet of water. I had great success using a 3-ounce red leadhead with an eight-inch red plastic tail. Almost every drop brought up a Vermillion "red" rock fish. I ended the day with my 10-fish limit of reds plus two lingcod.

Jason Fleck took a day off from his duties as Excel Chef and joined us. He caught his personal best lingcod and sheepshead. Jim Carlisle and Al Scow also caught big lings.

By the end of the day, all 16 passengers had limits of rockfish so Pat made a couple drifts for halibut. The halibut took their cue from the white seabass and were a "no-show."

With a 6 hour trip ahead of us, Pat headed the boat back to dock at 1:30 in the afternoon. Chef for the day, Tim (from the Mirage), was busy in the galley cooking up fish tacos and fish burgers from the days catch. The fish burgers were fabulous and I'm sure the tacos were too.

We all napped for most the ride home pleasantly exhausted from a perfect day on the water.