Success II Fishing

I got an invitation to fish with Linda and John on their boat the Success II this week and I jumped at the opportunity. I drove to San Diego Wednesday morning to board their boat which was moved from Cabo this spring. Captain Cubby Pahl, his son Tyler and second captain Chris had just arrived. Linda, John and Vince (John's golfing buddy) were there a few minutes later. We left dock under unusually sunny skies for the coast this year and headed to the bait receiver. Cubby loaded about 15 small scoops of big, beautiful anchovies into the bait tanks and we were on our way.

La Jolla was rumored to still have some big white seabass so if we wanted to try for those we needed to make some squid - the small market squid not the big humbolt squid. To my surprise, we had to catch them during the daylight hours in about 70 feet of water. I started with the usual small, single, weighted squid jig. When that didn't work, I switched to the chain style of tiny squid jigs that we use at the Channel Islands. Instead of jigging the entire water column that I normally do, I had to drop the jig to the bottom and let it rest there a minute or so then start winding. If I felt any weight at all, there was a squid; if not, I would drop back down. These squid were lethargic and provided no resistance at all. We had to really work at it to get 25 to 30 pieces of squid. Once it got dark, I tried making squid again, but it was useless.

Cubby anchored up in about 80 feet of water then we set up all the rods. Two 40 lb. outfits with white jigs baited with squid were set out on the side rod holders. One 40 lb. outfit was set up in the port stern rod holder with a small balloon tied 20 feet up from the hook and baited with a squid (similar to our balloon fishing for tuna). Another 40 lb. outfit with a flylined squid was set in the starboard stern rod holder. Linda fished a flylined squid and I fished a squid with a small sliding sinker. John, the perfect host, made a pitcher of margaritas, a couple of rum and cokes and served us on deck.

The ocean was a nice 66 degrees and smooth as glass. As the sun went down, the marine layer dropped in creating a suffocating blackness offshore that felt like it would swallow us. Fortunately we had the shoreline lights to comfort us plus the dim lights on three skiffs closer to shore and the boat just upwind from us - whose captain is a friend of Cubby's.

Around 9 pm, we had a delicious dinner of BBQ ribs, caesar salad, macaroni salad, and French bread while floating on flat calm seas. After dinner, we all went back out on deck and actively fished (we took the rods out of the holders and held them) waiting for a bite. By midnight, the boat next to us had two white seabass at about 40 lbs. each so they pulled anchor and headed home. Those fish were caught on the balloon rigs.

By 2 am all the guys were asleep either on the fly bridge or in the salon; just Linda and me left on deck. Loads of fish fry flitted around on the surface under the lights. Eventually the squid floated but still didn't want to bite. I only managed to catch 4 squid all night. Without a single bite and dawn breaking, Linda and I dozed on deck. About 5 am we went inside and lay down to catch a few minutes sleep. At 5:30 Cubby woke us and said we missed it. One of the rods went off 5 minutes after we went inside. After a 20 minute fight, he landed a 47.9 lb. white seabass and what a beauty it was!

We fished hard for another couple hours then Cubby moved the boat to the Del Mar area and we fished for calico bass. It was very good calico fishing - not huge fish but good fishing with all fish released. If we cast into or right next to the kelp, the calicos jumped out of the water to ambush the bait. If we cast away from the kelp, we hooked mackerel or small barracuda. We didn't keep count, but we must have caught 50 to 75 calico bass for the morning.

We called it a day around noon and headed to the barn. Cubby slid the boat back into its' slip and tied her up. We packed up our gear and Cubby filleted the seabass while the local captains came to watch. The fish was a female with immature eggs. Linda and John insisted we all take home some seabass. We can't wait to taste ours. Linda and John's generosity is incredible and so appreciated especially by me. Thanks my friends and to Cubby Pahl for providing us with a great time on the water.