Night Bite on the RT

The fishing family for our June 1^st departure included anglers Jim and Tom Carlisle, Fumio Ogoshi, Steve Chuang, Chartermaster Jeff Chuang, me and crewmembers Jake, Jacob and Captain Gary Adams. We were all on board for our 6:30 pm departure.  We skipped our normal stop at the bait receiver as Gary had arranged to pick up squid from a light boat at Catalina operated by his friend G Paul.

Gary’s pre-trip research indicated fishing at Clemente and Catalina had been poor so his plan was to head straight to San Nicolas Island.  This would open up the opportunity to fish Santa Barbara Island and Catalina Island too. 

We set up our gear to fish white seabass, yellowtail and calico bass (including a 60 pound dropper loop outfit, 20, 30 and 40 pound outfits using a sliding sinker with Ahi Twist hooks or a leadhead.) I decided to hit the bunk early expecting to wake up when crew transferred bait from the light boat.  

The boat was so calm because of the Seakeeper, I didn’t wake up until 2 a.m. when I heard white seabass hitting the deck.  I raced out on deck in time to catch one white seabass on my 60 pound dropper loop outfit.  Apparently Gary had gotten intel that the seabass had been biting at night at Catalina so we stayed to check it out instead of heading to San Nicolas Island.  Jim and Fumio had stayed up fishing and started the bite.  By 2:30 a.m. the flurry was over and crew dropped 9 white seabass in the hold including a 50 pounder caught by Jim!

Now that we had our one day limits of seabass, Gary decided to take us to Santa Barbara Island first then San Nicolas Island looking for yellowtail.  It was a couple hour move so we all hit the bunks for the travel time.

We were slow to get up in the morning and the fishing was even slower.  The water was cold and the fish lethargic.  No yellowtail or seabass bites.  Jeff and Steve caught a sheepshead (Steve released his), Tom and I each caught a Vermillion Rockfish and we all caught and released whitefish. We saw very little life at the island.  Just as Gary was about to make a move to San Nicolas, he got a call from a friend fishing San Nicolas Island.  He said fishing there was really poor so Gary changed plans.  He told us to set up our bluefin gear and we went searching around the Osborn Bank (located between San Nicolas and Santa Barbara Islands) where they had been seen a couple weeks before.  Unfortunately, we saw no tuna, so we headed back to Catalina. 

Most of our fishing was around the West End and backside of Catalina.  Fishing was slow but it was still fun.  We cast and jigged and tried light line outfits (Gary calls Tweaker Gear) and deployed the Dinohead, leadheads and Gitzems.  A few calico bass, whitefish, one yellowtail and a couple juvenile seabass were tricked into biting.  By days end we had also released a couple legal seabass (because we had our limit for that day), Jim caught and released a nice hornshark and Fumio caught and released the trip’s jackpot fish – a 100 plus pound black seabass.

We ate dinner while Gary and crew tried making flyers (catching flying fish) for future tuna trips.  The flying fish were just too skittish to be netted so Gary anchored us in a cove so we would be in position to catch seabass during the night.  After rerigging gear for the next days bite, we hit the bunks.

I awoke at midnight, 1 a.m. and again at 2 a.m. to see if anyone was fishing.  No one was up fishing.  I was surprised since that was the time the seabass bit the day before. I finally got up at 2 am just as Fumio got up. We baited our dropper loop outfits and set them in the rod holders. 

The ocean conditions were very different from the day before.  The sea was surging creating a foamy surface on the sea.  It was overcast with a fine mist.  No wind, no stars and nothing biting.  Steve got up for a while – long enough to witness me catching flying fish using the short-handled bait scoop. Fumio went back to bed around 3:30 a.m. which left me alone fishing so I pulled my gear in.  It’s not safe for me to fish alone.  I stayed up and managed to catch a total of 6 flying fish which were later sealed up and frozen. 

Gary got up at 4:30 a.m. and put the coffee on.  He said he saw fish swim through occasionally on the meter so we set a couple dropper loop rigs and leadhead outfits in the rod holders.  As the sun came up the rest of the anglers got up too.   

Meals for the trip were our usual consisting of breakfast burritos (microwaved), muffins, fruit, toast, breakfast cookies and coffee, water, etc. for breakfast.  Lunches are make your own sandwich with deli meats and cheeses, potato salad and chips plus any dinner leftovers. Dinner is usually Ziti Pasta, Lemon Caper Chicken and Caesar Salad (thanks to Jeff).  And we have snacks, snacks and more snacks to kill time in between biting fish. We all contribute.

Since our hopes for night bite repeat were unfulfilled, Gary put us on the hunt.  In our search, we covered the entire backside of Catalina Island ending our trip at the East End close to Avalon.  During the days search, we caught and released Calico bass, whitefish, rays, a treefish, sheepshead, bonita and barracuda.  We had one good hit on the seabass in the morning for 5 more fish.  Fumio caught a mid level seabass that came up with a head full of seaweed.  Jeff was having a good day fishing the Dinohead.  Jim and I benefited from it because Jeff handed off a halibut to Jim and a nice seabass to me (thanks again Jeff).

When Gary pointed us towards home around 2:30 p.m., we had a catch that included 14 white seabass, two halibut, 2 vermillion rockfish, one yellowtail and one sheepshead.  Jake and Jacob pulled our fish out of the hold and washed them down so we could take photos.  

They barely finished filleting the fish by the time we entered the harbor.  Jake is a master with the fillet knife and we truly appreciate how he processes our fish.  Our filets and miscellaneous cuts are always done well even with our special requests for collars and ribs, slabbed reds and bellies.  Thanks Jake.

Gary, as he always does, put together another great trip in the face of dour fish reports.  Thanks Gary for the wonderful experience of fishing on your boat with you and your crew.  And thanks again Jeff for including me in your charters.  I truly enjoy fishing with and learning from you and your other expert fishing guests.