Rail Time Delivers Again!

As our trip date neared, the offshore weather forecast got worse.  Fortunately, the weather was good enough if we could leave a day earlier.  Gary was flexible and so were we.  So we met at Peter’s Landing the evening of May 17^th  to board Gary Adams Rail Time.  Since I had arrived before the rest, Gary took the opportunity to set up one of my outfits for dropper looping.  He peeled off 100 yards of spectra, filled the reel with 60 pound mono and tied a dropper loop for me.  He called it the Rail Time dropper loop outfit. 

Jeff, Jim, Steve and John arrived a few minutes later.  We settled in and set up gear for the morning while Gary and crew loaded bait at the receiver.  Gary had installed a SeaKeeper over the winter and we were enjoying calmer seas because of it.

We traveled all night except for a couple stops at Catalina while crew tried to scoop squid.  When I awoke at 4 am we were at San Clemente Island searching for a spot to anchor.  It was 5:30 when we got the anchor down and put out the rods.  My dropper loop got bit first by a beautiful big and mean white seabass.  That fish fought as if it were a 40 pound home guard yellowtail.  We soon learned they were all tough fish.

After catching my third seabass on the dropper loop outfit Gary had fixed for me, I renamed the outfit “The Gary Adams Special.”  The dropper loops worked best with a few fish coming on leadheads. The seabass bite cooled and we caught a few yellowtail.  Once the fish quit biting, Gary took us on the hunt for biting schools of yellowtail. 

As we traveled, we took the opportunity to grab some lunch.  Steve had brought fruit, breads, sandwich meats and cheeses.  Jim brought potato salad and breakfast foods.

We picked up a few more fish on our travels – a couple halibut, calico bass and one Petrale Sole.   We ended the day with 6 seabass, 9 yellowtail, 2 halibut, 1 sole, 2 calico bass.

Crew filleted all our fish while we had dinner.  Jeff brought us some Ziti, lemon caper chicken and salad.  I brought wine to go with dinner and cookies for dessert. Gary anchored us in a cove and the SeaKeeper kept the waters calm allowing us all a great night’s sleep.

I awoke early again the next morning but I wasn’t feeling well so I waited until everyone else was on deck to get up.  The Gary Adams Special got bit right away again as did all the other baits in the water.  Chaos ensued and hooked fish sawed off other hooked fish including mine.  After putting 5 more seabass on deck, we started cutting them off.  We kept a few more yellows then cut the rest off too. 

The bite definitely was a morning affair except for one school that boiled up on our baits in the afternoon.  By 2:00 pm we were on our way home with a boat load of fish.  Crew filleted the days catch while naps were in order for the rest of us. 

We arrived back at dock around 4:30 pm, unloaded gear then sorted and shared the fish filets.  We each had more than we needed so we had John take the rest.  He said he had homes for anything we didn’t want. 

I got home by 5:30 pm and processed the fish I wanted to keep.  I iced down the rest for Shig to pick up the next morning.

We all love fishing with Gary.  He is always upbeat, optimistic and fun to fish with.  He’s a perfectionist about his boat and runs a great operation.  I look forward to our next trip in two weeks.  Thanks again Jeff for including me.