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!