Rail Time Bliss!

Gary Adams (Captain/Owner of the Rail time) did it again.  He really knows how to put his passengers on biting fish - white seabass and yellowtail on this trip.

Jeff Chuang always puts together a great charter group.  This one included Brian Le, Steve Chuang, Jim Carlisle, Rick Uribe, Jeff and me. After a quick dinner at the Fish Camp, we boarded the Rail Time and by 6:30 pm we were on our way.

Gary said we would be heading to a spot at Catalina Island where the light boats were working.  Seabass bit at that spot over the weekend between 2 and 5 am. We stopped at the receiver for a tank of squid from Nacho then continued traveling to our destination - West end of Catalina Island.  When we arrived, there were seiners and light boats working the area.  Gary got more squid from one of the boats.  We were all tanked up with squid and we had all our gear ready to fish.

I decided to hit my bunk until the fish started biting.  I sleep on the upper bunk in the salon and have a window next to me.  It was an uncomfortable night though because we were in the trough rolling side to side.  About midnight I woke up with bright lights in my eyes and when I looked out, one of the seiners was about 6 feet from the Rail Time.  Gary was up trying to be sure we didn't get hit.  I went back to sleep.

At 3 am I got up and got ready to fish. I put on my Hodgman waterproof jacket (it was misting outside), flex tape on my fingers and sunscreen.  Then I poured a cup of coffee just as Gary was gettimg up.  No one else was up but the rods and reels were fishing for us just sitting in the rod holders with dropper loops fishing the bottom.  Gary and I put fresh baits on each rod. 

Suddenly, I thought I head line peeling off a reel on the bow.  I decided to check it out since I missed a fish the last trip because I didn't check it out. Gary saw me head to the bow and followed.  We were bit and it was on my reel.  The fish was already in the kelp.  Gary pulled it out of the kelp and handed me the rod to land a 30 pound white seabass.  It was another 45 minutes before anyone else got up to fish.  It was a nice feeling to have a fish on board early.

 

Andy making breakfast.

We managed a few nice yellowtail before the bite ended and Gary moved the boat a little further up the island to another cove.  He told us there had been some tankers caught recently in this area.  Gary said we should use nothing lighter than 40 pound test line.  I was using my Penn Fathom 25NLD2 Reel on a Carnage Rod spooled with Berkley Pro Spec 50# spectra and a 3 foot Berkley Pro Spec 40# fluorocarbon leader.  #PENNfleet #PENNFishing #BerkleyFishing #TeamBerkley #CatchMoreFish #Hodgmangear

My yellowtail on Penn Fathom 25/Carrnage Rod.

I pinned two squid on and cast them out.  The bait drifted down and I started feeling some pecking on the bait.  I thought it was the calico bass picking off my bait so I started reeling in my line and it became heavy and my line started peeling off my reel and the fish headed to the bow dragging me along.  It went under the anchor line and crew got my rod under the line and handed it back to me so the fish could drag me back to the stern and around it and back to the bow before I got it close enough to gaff.  It was a big white seabass.  Gary weighed it and the scale hit 50 pounds - my personal best!  My Penn Fathom reel and Carnage rod performed flawlessly.

 

Captain Gary Adams holding my 50 pound White Seabass.

Jeff and I holding my 50 pounder.

Another reel started losing line and Rick had one on.  After a good fight his fish hit the deck and weighed 49 pounds and his personal best.  Steve (whom we affectionately refer to as Sheepie because he's a magnate for sheepshead) got bit and his 28 pound seabass was a personal best.  That only lasted a few minutes until he landed a 30 pound seabass to be a new personal best.  Jeff lost two big seabass to the kelp.  Heartbreakers as they were very large fish.  Late in the day Jeff connected to another fish and this time he landed it - a 30 pound seabass.

 

Rick and me with our 49 and 50 pound Seabass.

Sheepie with his personal best seabass.

Sheepie, Rick and me with our personal best seabass.

Jeff with a seabass.

Gary anchored us up where we caught the big seabass to finish the day.  It was nice and calm.  A great place to spend the night and a good place to start fishing in the morning.  Andy BBQed a tri-tip for dinner and served it with mashed potatoes and Caesar salad.  Andy does a great job cooking for us.  He made us breakfast burritos with bacon, egg, cheese, salsa etc. and hamburgers for lunch our first day.

After dinner, Jake and Andy pulled all the fish out of the hold so we could take photos.  Then they fileted our catch.  We had 6 white seabass (2 were mine) and 9 yellowtail (3 were mine).  Jake went the extra mile and cut out the otoliths for me from my 50 pounder.  I went to bed and slept like a baby until 4 the next morning.

Day 1 Catch.

Seabass full of eggs.

Just as I started fishing, Jim came out on deck.  Within a few minutes, we were all fishing.  Unfortunately, they were not biting.  Gary moved from spot to spot looking for biting fish.  Along the way, we caught and released calico bass, sargo, whitefish, barracuda, baby seabass and a couple sheepshead.  Jeff connected with a huge Black Seabass - it must have weighed 200 pounds, and he released it. There was a lot of boat traffic at the island - much more than the previous day.

Jeff pulling on his Black Seabass.

Jeff's Black Seabass.

Andy Questioning?

We fished hard all day right up until it was almost time to head home and we were rewarded for our efforts.  At 3 pm, we were anchored up watching the dreamer catch yellowtail at a spot we had fished earlier in the day without catching fish.  Then Jeff connected with a real fish - a big white seabass.  Jeff was using a Gitzem leadhead.

I quickly tied one on my Fathom/Carnage reel/rod combo then pinned on a squid.  I dropped it down to the bottom and wiggled the jig a little until my rod doubled over.  I was on and so were 4 others.  It was wild with so many fish going.  We landed our fish and hooked up again and again.  After 30 minutes of wide open catching, Gary decided to hand the school off to the Dreamer whose passengers had only been able to watch us catching seabass after their bite had gone cold.  

As we pulled away from biting fish, we took inventory.  Jeff caught 6, I caught 4, Jim caught 3  and 2 each for Brian, Rick and Sheepie for a total of 19 white seabass weighing between 25 and 46 pounds.  Added to the previous days 6, our catch totaled 25 white seabass, 9 yellowtail and a couple sheepshead.  It was a spectacular trip for me.  

Displaying our catch.

Day 2 catch.

Andy and Jake fileted our fish on the way back to dock.  We arrived around 6:30 pm and unloaded our gear.  It took two trips for Jake to bring all the fish out.  We sorted it among us leaving several bags for the crew to share.  I took one big and two small seabass, a set of seabass ribs and 1 yellowtail.  I shared my catch with Shig, who taught me how to fish.

Needless to say, none of this would be possible without Gary's incredible fish sense and knowledge of the island.  And landing the fish would be impossible without the expertise of Gary, Andy and Jake.  The Rail time is a First Class 5 Star operation!

West Virginia!

Jim Carlisle and I took an excursion to West Virginia to visit Jason Fleck and experience fishing in the great outdoors.  We departed Orange County at 7 am May 29th flying through Chicago arriving in Pittsburgh around 5:15 pm.  A quick trip to the rental car counter and a not so quick drive to Buckhannon, West Virginia through a torrential rain storm to arrive at Jason's home around 8 pm.

I brought along a box full of Berkley tackle to try our hand at musky and bass.  Jason said we would be on the Buckhannon River early the next morning right after buying our fishing licenses at the 24 hour Walmart.  After organizing tackle, we grabbed some much needed sleep.

We managed to launch the boat and get on the river by 7 am.  The edge of the river was lined with indigenes trees - sycamore maples, tree of heaven, etc.  The river bed contained trunks and branches from the same trees providing structure for the fish.  The birds were filling the air with their songs and wild life sightings were numerous - deer, eagles, cardinals, a hawk etc.

We fished various hard baits - a frog, Whopper Plopper and spinner baits using Abu Garcia reels spooled with 50 pound spectra.  Jim hooked up first on a small musky on the Whopper Plopper.  It was his first Musky.  We continued fishing in between rain showers.  We were wet but the rain stopped long enough for us to dry out. 

Jason caught a musky next, a 32 to 34 inch musky, on the spinner bait. He was so excited he had trouble catching his breath.  I was busy catching trees.  It was obvious I was a saltwater fisherman because the ocean contains no trees. It was good casting practice trying to get under tree branches.

We traveled further down river and Jim caught another musky - this one similar to the size of Jason's fish.  Around noon the sky opened up so we called it a day. 

We cleaned up, put tackle away then drove to Clarksburg to buy more Whopper Ploppers and some Frogg Toggs so I could stay dry.  We grabbed a quick meal at the 88 Bar and Restaurant in Buckhannon then headed home.  Jason's girls - Sage and Fynn, came over around 8 pm.

Friday morning after breakfast, we fished a couple ponds and a lake for bass using The General Powerbait in June Bug color while the girls fished for bluegills using live night crawlers.  Sage showed us how it's done catching bluegill and a sunfish. Even Fynn caught bluegills.  Jim and I decided to catch bluegills too.  The ponds and lake were muddy from the previous days rains.  The girls got tired so we headed home early afternoon.

Jason made a buffet for dinner including wild turkey meatball lettuce wraps, sausage wraps, fruit kebobs etc.  The girls mom, Hillary and her fiancé, Martin joined us for dinner.

Saturday after the girls went home, we launched the boat around 2 pm and fished the Buckhannon River until 8 pm.  We traveled 6 miles down river before heading back.  It was a gorgeous day - sunny, filled with singing birds and more wildlife.  Unfortunately the river was still high and muddy from the rains.  Apparently it takes days for the river to clear up.  Needless to say, the fish were uncooperative.  I did get plenty of casting practice and the trees were safer this day.

Sunday we fished the Stonecoal Lake.  We were on the water by 6:30 am and watched the sun come up over the hills.  Another gorgeous day - sunny, then cloudy, fog rolling across the lake then sunny again.  Jason showed us how to catch small mouth and large mouth bass and a walleye using The General Powerbait again.  Jim and I fished hard and received several bites but failed to land anything.  We called it a day around noon when the wind came up.

Monday we had to say goodbye to West Virginia and fly home to California.  It was a great trip and Jason was a wonderful host introducing us to the joys of the Great Outdoors of West Virginia.