White Seabass, YES!

Los Angeles Rod and Reel Club's charters on the Pacific Dawn for 2014 had been plagued with cancellations due to rough weather in the Channel Islands. Our third charter on May 30th finally made it out although rough weather (15 to 25 knot winds) accompanied us all the way.

I met up with Jim Carlisle at his house for the drive to Ventura Sportfishing. Along the way we picked up Al Scow and made it to the landing by 4 pm. Chas Schoemaker, Dave Permit and Steve were already there. We checked in at the landing and learned the Pacific Dawn would be returning at 9 pm with full limits of white seabass for 21 passengers. The boat was coming in late but they had the pot of gold on board - white seabass.

We headed next door to the Rhumm Line restaurant for an early dinner. The seafood offerings were delicious, rich and different from other restaurants. Chas and I had the clam chowder which was full of clams, potatoes, various herbs and loads of heavy cream. Al had the Bouillabaisse (which had a saffron cream base), Dave and Steve had the sweet chili coated calamari and Jim had the fresh, local halibut covered in a caper sauce. We still had a couple hours to kill after dinner, so we signed in at the landing then sat on the benches outside and popped a bottle of wine to share as we waited.

Little by little the other club members (some coming all the way from Vegas) arrived. All 16 of us had arrived by the time we boarded around 9 pm. Dustin (our Captain) told us to rig up a dropper loop with a circle hook and 8 to 10 ounces of weight. He said we have just enough live squid for the morning to fish for the seabass.

We hit the bunks but it was a restless sleep disturbed by the boat bouncing down waves. Again I asked myself why I keep subjecting myself to getting beat up on a boat. I got up at 3:45 am and found Al was already in the galley. It was even rougher up top in the galley. I tried to play solitaire but the cards kept sliding all over the table. I gave up after a half dozen losing hands. ManDog was driving and the ride got rougher as we crossed the gap between Santa Cruz and Santa Rosa Island.

Dustin took over when we got to the island and anchored up the boat where they had caught the seabass the previous day. We scattered all around the boat and dropped our line in letting our sinkers rest on the bottom. I was chatting with ManDog not paying much attention to my line when it suddenly got heavy. I was on! Across the back of the boat and up the starboard side the fish pulled me until he surfaced and ManDog gaffed him. I had landed my first seabass in 4 years! I finally got the skunk off me.

Randy Sharon was next to hook up followed by Dave Permit. The seabass would swim through every half hour or so and we'd hook another one. Randy actually hooked and landed 3 fish. Little by little we added to our count hoping to reach limits (1 seabass per person). I even hooked and landed a second seabass which I gave to Al Scow. By 11 am, we had 12 white seabass, not quite limits (16).

The seabass quit biting so Dustin set us up in deeper water to fish rock fish. Unfortunately the rock fish were not in a biting mood. I never saw a Captain try harder to find biting rock fish. He would navigate the rough seas setting the boat over a spot of fish then spin the boat so the stern faced the heavy seas letting us fish all around the boat. By 2 pm, we had plucked 55 rock fish, 13 whitefish and 12 white seabass out of the channel islands seas. Jim had 8 rockfish, 1 whitefish and 1 seabass as his catch. I had 3 Reds (Vermillion rock fish), 1 lingcod and 2 white seabass (1 for Al).

Crew processed our fish on the way in while Jim, Dave, Chas and I shared another bottle of wine celebrating our catch. I was no longer wondering why I found myself getting beat up on a boat. All I could remember was catching white seabass and reds. And the weather actually calmed down on the inside giving us a pleasant ride back to dock.

We hit the dock at 6:45 pm, unloaded tackle and packed the car. ManDog handed out our processed fish and we were on our way home.

The best part was still to come - eating our catch the next few days. I took home my seabass head and bones and made fish broth as the base for Italian Fish Soup. We had red sashimi for hors d'oeuvres, steamed red for dinner and white seabass with a Lemon Dill Buerre Blanc sauce.