Around the World in Two Days!

Six excited anglers boarded the Rail Time June 18, 2024, along with Captain Gary and his fabulous crew of Jake and Andy.  Jeff put this charter together which included his brother, Steve, the Carlisle brothers, Jim and Tom, Fumio Ogoshi and me.  First stop – bait receiver for a few scoops of sardines then a fast trip to Catalina Island to fish for white seabass.  On the way we feasted on Pizza for dinner courtesy of Fumio.  Thanks Fumio.

Once at the island, we deployed dropper loops etc. for seabass.  We only had frozen squid however Fumio somehow made it look like live squid enticing two big seabass to suck them down ending with them on the Rail Time deck.  The rest of us failed in our efforts. Then we headed down the island to make squid.  I was exhausted and hit the bunk.  I missed the entire bait making ritual

Next morning, Gary was up early to bait up our dropper loop outfits and set them out. We gradually made our way out on deck grabbing some coffee on the way.  It was after daybreak when Fumio put another seabass on deck.  He ended up catching 4 for the day.  Not to be outdone, Jeff put 6 of his own on deck. It took the rest of us a while to catch on to their methods – an orange leadhead (Dino made).  Eventually we all got in on the action with Tom getting 3, Steve catching 2 and Jake, Jim and I catching 1 each.  These fish were big, mostly 25 to 36 pounders and strong enough to break my top guide and bend 2 others on my rod.

 

We needed to make a move as we had boat limits of seabass so we turned the spot over to Gary’s friend John and went looking for yellowtail.  Unfortunately, we didn’t find any willing to bite.  It was around 10:30 in the morning so we made the long move to San Clemente Island to find the yellows.

 

San Clemente Island was beautiful and quiet in comparison to our last trip here.  Gary had us set up in different spots throughout the day picking up 2 halibut (Fumio’s and mine) some calicos, blue perch, sheepshead, and eels until Jeff landed a 32-pound yellowtail.  Jim then caught another big yellowtail and just like that—the bite was over.

 

Jake and Andy, wisely, filleted our fish while we were in calm waters waiting for the cove to open for the night.

 

We settled into Pyramid cove for a lasagna, ziti and salad dinner and, hopefully, to top off our tanks with more squid.  The dinner was delicious (thanks Jeff) and our ice cream desserts were wonderful (thanks Jim).

I hit the bunk right after dinner and missed the squid making again; however, my fellow anglers provided me with the evidence of a successful venture.  Apparently, this was the place to get your squid as we weren’t the only boat making squid there.

 

Gary set up the boat on the spot where Jeff and Jim caught their yellowtail for the morning bite.  Numerous boats were anchored in the cove waiting for the yellowtail to bite.  We could hear when other boats landed a yellowtail from the cheering anglers.   Eventually Jeff caught a nice yellowtail which made him winner of the Around the World award for the trip – catching Yellowtail, white seabass, halibut and calico bass!

The wind came up more and more as the day passed.  Gary decided to let us drift for halibut before going home.  That proved successful for Tom especially as he landed 3 halibut.  I caught a baby halibut then it was time to return home.

 

It was a rougher than usual ride but we still reached dock by 6 pm.  After offloading our tackle, Jake brought our filets up for us to sort.  We said our “thank you's” and “good byes” and headed home content with our good fortune.

 

 

 

Reds, Flats and Calicos

On our last Rail Time fishing trip, we were discussing our desire for some fresh rock fish especially vermillion rock fish (reds).  Steve suggested we book a trip on the Blackfish out of Davey’s Locker in Newport Beach to go rock fishing.  We all thought that would be a great idea, so Steve booked us an all day trip for June 4th.

Steve, Jeff, Cathy, Jim and I met at the landing at 3:30 am Tuesday.  Mitch, Owner and Captain of the Blackfish, and his crew member, Michael, were waiting for us.    The Blackfish is a 35-foot Cabo with flybridge.  Mitch and Michael helped us board and suggested we set up a dropper loop and a sliding sinker outfit to use when we get to San Clemente Island.

After stopping at the bait receiver and loading one bait tank with big, beautiful squid and the other tank with gorgeous, lively sardines, we were on our way.   We settled in the salon for the two-and-a-half-hour trip.  Some of us napped and some of us enjoyed pastries Steve brought for breakfast.

When we arrived at the island, the sun was already up.  The island looked peaceful and the waters around it were calm.  It was chilly when we started fishing.  My dropper loop was deployed starboard adjacent to the wheelhouse.  We fished sliders and leadheads behind the boat with no current to speak of.  No bites until my dropper loop rod went off.  Michael grabbed it and handed it to me.  It was a nice, legal sized halibut with the hook deep in its mouth.  Mitch had to beat its head three times before it held still enough for Michael to get the hook out.

Mitch had just installed a new bait tank with a bait insert. It was fantastic.  The bait swam freely and were quite easy to catch when choosing one.  I think it’s the best one I’ve ever used.  He also has a fish finder screen on the back of the boat which allows us to see where the fish are.

Steve was fishing the bow when he hooked and landed another nice halibut.  Cathy hooked something big that took off running before it spit the hook.  We think that was another big halibut. We caught several nice calicos that we kept and many shorts that we released.   Mid-morning Mitch suggested we take a break and go catch some Reds.

Mitch made a short move to deeper water (470 feet).  Our rods were rigged with two hook gagnions baited with live squid.  It took 16 ounces of weight to get to the bottom.  I was using Kenji flies on my gagnion instead of bare hooks.  As soon as Mitch had the boat in position, he said “drop them down.”  As soon as we hit bottom, the fish bit.  Everyone brought up two large (6 to 8 pound) vermillion rock fish (Reds). It only took 20 minutes for us to catch full limits of Reds for all 7 of us on the boat.  I even caught 4 starry rock fish too.

We fished a few other spots along the island catching more calico bass. We made one other drift in 250 feet of water catching a couple sheepshead and white fish.  Around 2:30 in the afternoon Mitch made a move to Catalina Island.  We used the travel time to eat lunch – delicious sandwiches brought by Steve.  Thanks Steve.

The conditions when we arrived at Catalina were perfect.  Clean water, good current and boiling bass and yellowtail.  Unfortunately, the yellowtail just wouldn’t bite but the calicos did.  It was a great way to end the trip.  

Mike pulled all the fish out of the hold to fillet on the way home.  We had more fish than we thought.  We each ended up with 4 bags of fish – one each of halibut, calico bass, reds and miscellaneous rockfish. 

Jeff, Steve and I also took home one gill and gutted whole red for steaming. We arrived back at the landing by 5:45 pm and were on our way home by 6:00 pm. 

Many thanks to Steve for setting up this trip and special thanks to Mitch an Michael for their expertise and hard work.  We will enjoy our catch for days. 

Here's photos of our first nights meals.  The reds were spectacular!