Endeavor Success!

I drove up to Ventura alone due to Steve’s last-minute cancellation.  He had to fly to Taiwan to care for an aunt that had a sudden cardiac event. It took me three hours travel time and when I arrived, I was greeted by the smiling faces of Fumio, Adel and David.  It was a warm welcome on a cold and rainy day.

I signed in (as number 4 for the trip) and settled down on the bench outside the landing office awaiting the other passengers, the boat and boarding time.  The boat arrived around 6:30 pm, unloaded passengers and fish then the boat went for fuel and bait.  Before the boat returned at 9 pm, the rest of the passengers arrived – Chartermaster Whitney, Rodney, Deano and his son Jason, Butch, Joe, Bruce, Paul and Jeff. 

We boarded around 9 pm and had our safety seminar on the stern of the boat.  Tucker (our Captain and boat owner) informed us we were heading to Anacapa Island to fish for white seabass.  They bit well there the previous day.  Tucker introduced the crew and much to my surprise, David Choate (a good friend of mine) would be galley chef for the trip

We set up our dropper loops for nighttime and morning seabass.  I headed to bed after that.  I heard the boat turn down the engines around 1:30 am but decided to sleep instead of fishing.  When I got up at 5 am, I learned that the nighttime anglers were still awaiting the seabass bite.

We were surrounded by boats big and small, private and charter boats, including the Ranger 85, Island Spirit, Graylight.

I grabbed a cup of coffee, took my morning meds, put on sunscreen, checked my drags then put a squid on my dropper loop and dropped it down. I fished the bow (my favorite spot) as usual. For the next three hours, we fished one spot then Tucker would move the boat around until he found a school and would have us drop our baits down as soon as he got over the fish.  Around 8:20 am, I heard Tucker say “There’s one” then my rod got heavy too.  I quietly worked my way to the stern and back until my white seabass came to gaff.  YES!  Put a number 4 tag on that beauty. At the same time I hooked my fish, David hooked a beautiful halibut which was the first he ever caught.

 

We continued the same routine until noon, but the fish quit biting shortly after that initial hit.  Eleven seabass had been boated with Butch being the star angler having caught 3 including one of the 40 pounders.  I managed two myself, with one each for Paul, Fumio, Rodney, Jason, Joe and Adel.

 

Tucker advised us to rig for deep water rock cod fishing at Santa Rosa Island and to take a nap as it would be a 3-hour run.  I napped for at least two hours of our travel time which felt wonderful.  Our weather had warmed up, the rain was gone, and the sun peaked through the clouds.  We still had calm seas, which is unusual for the Channel Islands.

 

It was 4 pm before Tucker got us all set up for our first drift for rockfish.  We needed a 16-ounce sinker to get our bait down to the bottom (400 feet down).  I had a 40-pound mono two hook gangion with Kenji Flies attached to 65-pound spectra.  Fishing was great for quality reds.  After a couple hours, Tucker took us to shallower waters to fish lingcod. At days end, everyone had at least a one-day limit of rockfish, and most had close to two days limits.  I managed 6 reds, 1 lingcod and lots of rockfish. Quite a few nice lingcod were caught and added to the days catch. 

 

Tucker took a survey to determine the next day’s plan.  He gave us options of which the winning choice was to fish Anacapa again followed by Santa Cruz which would put us closer to home.

Crew fileted our rockfish and lingcod while we had dinner -  tri-tip, veggies, rice and a roll. 

I was up early the second day. I followed my same morning routine. 

We all fished hard but, unfortunately, the seabass were a no show.  It was a two hour move to Santa Cruz Island.  Tucker worked very hard trying to locate some biting game fish.  We finished the trip drifting for halibut at Santa Cruz where three or four halibut were caught, two of which were David’s making him the star halibut fisherman. 

 

Crew pulled our halibut and seabass out of the hold so we could get photos and they could filet them on the way home. 

 

On the way back to dock, Whitney held a raffle for special tackle items.  I won a jig that was personally made by Deano and perfect for me to fish on Fumio’s Ranger 85 trip in October.  Deano also gave me a couple of his famous leadheads that Fumio and Jeff have been using to outfish the rest of us on the Rail Time Charters.  Thank you very much Deano and Whitney.

As with most trips I take now, catching fish isn’t the only thing that makes the trip great.  Tucker and his crew were fun and professional, David was good in the Galley and the other passengers were enjoyable and tolerant of having a woman angler on board.  I am especially grateful to Whitney for including me on his charter.  He has a special talent for putting together a warm and welcoming group of anglers.

We arrived back at the dock before 7 pm.  Whitney helped me lug all my gear to my car.  I really appreciated the help. We said our Goodbyes and I was on the road by 7 pm.  Fortunately, the trip home was only two hours instead of the three it took to get there.  I was home by 9 pm.