LARRC on the Dawn

Los Angeles Rod and Reel Club had its first Charter of the year on the Pacific Dawn departing Friday night and fishing Saturday, April 4th. Jim Carlisle, Al Scow and I drove up together. Roland Reesby beat us there.

Fourteen of us boarded Friday night and set up our gear for rock cod fishing. Dustin was running the boat, Mandog as second, Fernando and Hunter on deck and Keaton master of the Galley. Safety speech first then the plan. Weather on the outside too rough to reach (15 to 25 knot winds gusting to 35) so we would be fishing the lee of Santa Rosa.

I got up at 3 a.m. to see the full lunar eclipse but the boat was bouncing too much for me to safely walk to the rail so I went back to bed. When I got up at 4, I got a clear view of the eclipse. In fact we were able to see it until the sun came up.

We were tucked in the lee of the south side of Santa Rosa Island. Skinny (Dustin) was moving from spot to spot trying to locate fish.

Current was opposite wind and with the full moon the fishing was tuff. We learned later there were three earthquakes as well.  We worked hard from 6:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. to catch a hand full of fish. A few people had limits but I wasn't one of them. I did, however, catch the big fish of the day - a nice lingcod on a big plastic tail loaned to me by Roland. I don't join jackpot but fortunately Roland does and he won the jackpot and gave it all to the crew.

Conditions were not ideal but we made the best of it. Comradeship was great though. We got back to dock at 7:30 p.m. and I was home by 10 p.m.