Rail Time Tails

Thursday evening, June 16th, I met up with Jeff, Jim, Steve, Randy and Tom at the Fish Camp for a pre-trip dinner.  After our dinner, we drove barely a block to Peter's Landing and boarded the Rail Time for a fishing trip originally scheduled for two days that was scaled back to one day due to high winds and choppy seas.  Owner and Captain Gary Adams greeted us and introduced our crew as Anthony (new) and Andy.  Jacob was off.

We stopped at the receiver to pick up some live squid before heading out of the harbor.

The trip across the channel was bumpy but not too bad.  I woke up at 2:00 am with lights from the squid boats shining in my face.  We had just arrived at the west end of the Island.  Gary moved the boat around several times trying to get the squid to float so he could top off the tanks.  Several of us got up, finished setting up gear and tried a little dropper loop fishing for white seabass.  Encountering no action, I went back to sleep until dawn - around 5 to 5:30 am.

Gary suggested we set up a 30# outfit, with fluorocarbon, a half ounce sliding sinker and an Ahi Twist 5/0 hook, plus a 40# dropper loop outfit with a 6 ounce sinker.

We fished several spots until Gary moved us further off the island and the yellowtail began to bite.  I hooked a nice one early that the sea lion took after I fought it several minutes.  Eventually I caught a couple yellowtail but neither were as big as the first one.  We had very good action but had to weed through the sea lions to get half of what we hooked, if that much.  The action died off after an hour so we went looking again.

There was a south swell and big waves were crashing on shore preventing shallow water fishing close to the island. The winds were mild in the morning making for a pleasant fishing experience. 

Andy was our chef for the trip and made us bacon and egg sandwiches for breakfast and cheeseburgers for lunch.  Both were outstanding.

Gary eventually set us up on a spot about a mile off the island in 72 feet of water just outside a kelp line.  We started catching nice big calico bass and smaller yellowtail.  We also caught bonito, whitefish, and sheepshead.  I hooked a good fish that took me around the boat before the hook pulled.  We realized a few minutes later that it had been a white seabass on my line as Jeff and Tom started landing white seabass. 

Fishing was very good but we had many casualties - pulled hooks, parting line, tangles etc.  We began releasing all yellowtail as we had more than we all wanted or needed.  By the end of the day, we had 8 nice seabass, 5 calicos for Jeff's wife and 20 or 30 yellowtail.  (Jeff's wife had requested variety beyond seabass because Jeff already brought home several seabass he caught this season including a 63 and 50+ pounder.)

It was a great day of fishing with good friends.  Gary and his crew are very mellow and very good at their job.  On the way home, Andy and Anthony filleted all our fish and even bagged me some squid for my kayak mothership trip next week.  

Rail Time is a comfortable boat with a great crew.  I'm looking forward to my next trip on the Rail Time.  Thanks Jeff for inviting me to join your Charter.

Jeff's Collage from the trip!