2024 Fishing Season finally arrived!

Cathy invited Jeff, Steve, Jim and me to join her on the Rail Time for our first trip of the year.  We met at Peter’s Landing between 5:30 and 6:00 pm, boarded the Rail Time and stowed our gear and food for the trip.  Jake and Andy (the A Team) were there to crew for Gary on this trip.

Gary said we would head to San Nicolas Island and fish for seabass and halibut.  He recommended setting up our 40# dropper-loop outfit for seabass and a 25# reverse dropper-loop set-up for halibut with 2 ounces of weight.  I didn’t have a 25# outfit so Gary suggested I tie a 2-ounce torpedo sinker to my 40# line and tie a short piece of 25# fluorocarbon to the other end of the sinker and add a #2 hook.  After setting up our outfits, we enjoyed a pizza dinner courtesy of Jeff.

Gary headed first to the bait receiver and picked up a nice load of sardines then made a slow trek to Catalina Island.  After a few unsuccessful attempts to scoop bait-size squid, Gary moved the Rail Time to a cove for a peaceful night’s sleep.  I was tired and was asleep in my bunk before we made it to Catalina.

I heard Gary start the coffee around 5 am the next morning then move the boat to a seabass area.  The plan was for us to fish for seabass until the seas calmed enough for us to head on to San Nicolas Island.  Cathy, Jim and I were up first.  By the time we got out on deck, the crew had our dropper-loop outfits baited and sitting in the rod holders fishing for us.  A few whitefish and a mackerel were caught but no seabass.

We fished Catalina until around 10 am before heading to San Nicolas Island.  The seas still had a big swell but that was expected to come down throughout the day.  It took over three hours to get to San Nicolas.  Gary worked the boat all around the island looking for hungry fish.  Late in the afternoon, he found an area with a few biting fish.

Jeff was first to put a fish on the boat.  Jeff caught a big halibut which turned out to be the largest halibut of the trip.  Jake caught 2 halibut, Jim, Steve and Andy each caught one halibut and Jeff caught two halibut making it a total of 8 halibut for the day. 

I wasn’t fishing very well all day.  My timing was off and my casting led to some big backlashes.  I finally hooked a good fish that spooled me and bit off the hook.  I’m pretty sure it was a black seabass.  I finally hooked a halibut that was quickly grabbed by sea lion which also spooled me when it headed straight into the beach and onto a rock on shore.  At least I had some action for the day.

Gary anchored us in a quiet cove around 8 pm.  We enjoyed BBQ Ribs and Chicken for dinner before hitting the bunks.

We were up early Thursday morning trying our hand at seabass fishing.  We worked the area hard but they either weren’t there or weren't hungry.  We were using frozen squid or a sardine for bait.  Steve even tried the fluke without success. 

Gary worked our way around the entire Island trying to find biting fish.  Jeff hooked up first but his fish turned out to be a big leopard shark.  Cathy finally hooked a good fish that took her around the bow where she continued to fight her fish. Her fish had taken a long run away from the boat then turned towards the boat before it bit through her line. It acted like a white seabass before she lost it.  Late in the day I finally caught a halibut.  So did Jim and Andy.  Andy hooked his fish by trolling his bait after Gary had said: “Wind them up.  We’re going to look around.”  

We fished until 2 p.m. before heading back to dock.  We had 3 halibuts for day two making our catch for the trip a total of 11 halibuts.

Jake and Andy filleted our fish on the way back to dock.  The seas had really calmed which made the trip back shorter than expected.  ETA was around 7 pm, however, we made it back before 6:15 pm.

I am very grateful to have been invited to join Cathy and her other guests (Jeff, Jim, and Steve) to fish with her on the Rail Time.  We were all happy to have Jake and Andy assisting Gary.  And of course, we love Gary.  He is just the best Captain overall.

During the two days on the water, Jim and I kept getting notifications on our phones that an Air Tag was detected and did we want to help the owner find it.  The app (Find Me) on the iPhone tracks Air Tag locations as well as people.  At the end of the trip, we even got a map showing the trek the Air Tag had traveled.  It turned out to be Cathy's.

I’m already looking forward to our next trip in two weeks.