Rail Time Trip May 27 to 29, 2025

Crew:  Gary and Jack (Andy is off to greener pastures and Jake was off working to secure his position on the Mirage. 

Anglers: Jeff and Steve Chuang, Jim and Tom Carlisle, Cathy Needleman and me, Jan Howard.

Weather:  Cold with a light breeze first day and most of second day.  Sun came out the last couple hours of the trip. 

Seas:  The ocean was choppy on the way out but smoothed out for most the rest of the trip.  Water temperatures varied but were mostly in the low 60's.

Fish:  On day one Cathy caught 1 halibut, Jeff caught 1 halibut and 1 yellowtail was caught by??? On day two Cathy caught 1 halibut, Jeff caught 2 halibut and Tom caught 1 halibut.  Fish that were caught and released included a few calico bass, 2 barracuda, 1 mackerel and loads of whitefish.

The Trip:  We departed Peter’s Landing at 5:30 pm Tuesday and spent a couple hours bouncing across the channel.  We tried fishing before sundown then crew worked hard to make squid.  It took until 1:30 in the morning to get the job done.  Gary anchored us at Cat Harbor for the rest of the night.

Around 4 the next morning, Gary took us out of the harbor and had us fishing the west end of Catalina Island until 9 am.  We made the move to Clemente and fished all around the island until we were kicked out of Pyramid and set up for the night at the north end of the island. We weren’t upset because we kept catching whitefish.  They were everywhere – as if they had chased all the gamefish off the island.

Once we were anchored, we enjoyed ribs and mac and cheese provided by Cathy and I contributed some Asian coleslaw.  Jim brought dessert - Frozen Root Beer Floats (on a stick!)

After dinner, Gary and Jake set out the dropper loops and were waiting for the squid to float when one of the rods went off.  Cathy called me out of my bunk and said my rod was bit.  I raced out on deck and grabbed the rod and started pulling on the fish which had tangled the other three dropper loops by then.  Then I realized that it wasn’t my rod but Cathy’s so I gave the rod to her.  She pulled hard but the tangle was so bad, we all said just get the fish so Gary started cutting all the lines until the fish was on deck.  Tom had just walked out on deck when Cathy said, ‘this isn’t my rod,  And Tom said, “It’s mine!"

Gary and Jack topped off the tanks before they called it a night.  Gary was up bright and early the next morning so we did a little fishing before making the move back to Catalina.  Gary took us all around the island looking for something to bite.  Cathy and Tom managed to catch one halibut each and Jeff caught two halibut one our travels.

We called it a trip around 3pm.  Gary handled the fish processing himself while Jack drove.  Gary expertly divided the halibut and 1 yellowtail into equal portions so we each took halibut and yellowtail home.  Since the only thing I could catch on the trip was squid from the bait tank, I took a bag of 24 squid home for calamari. 

Much thanks to Gary for his persistence and Jack for his assistance on deck.  As always, thanks Jeff for organizing the charter and including me on the trip.  And thanks to my fellow anglers *angler family" for your help on board and food contributions which enhanced the time on board.