Spring on the Railtime!

Date:  Departure June11, fishing June 12 and 13, 2025.

Anglers:  Jeff Chuang (Chartermaster), Steve Chuang, Cathy Needleman, Jim Carlisle, Brian and me.

Boat & Crew:  Railtime, owned and operated by Gary Adams, with Jason Reese as second and crew member on deck.

Trip:  Two days fishing Catalina Island.

Fish Count:  10 halibut, 4 white seabass and 3 yellowtail.

Anglers and crew met up at Peter’s Landing and boarded the Railtime around 5:30 pm Wednesday.  We stowed our gear and put the food away as Gary headed the Railtime out of the harbor.  We made a stop to get bait from Nacho then headed towards the west end of Catalina.  Gary advised us to have our 40-pound dropper loop rigs ready to fish seabass when we arrived at the island.

Once we were rigged up, we settled down for a departure evening dinner of Pizza (courtesy of Jeff) and some sushi appetizers I picked up from Toyko Central. 

We arrived at Catalina before sundown and instantly deployed our dropper loops.  Unfortunately, the seabass weren’t hungry so Gary and Jason topped off the bait tanks with the squid that floated and surrounded the boat.  The squid racing around and the moon shining on the water made for a scenic evening.

When I awoke the next morning, we were anchored just outside two harbors and Gary was checking the dropper loop rigs that had been left out for the night.  Unfortunately, mine had been attacked by something that ripped off all my mono and part of the spectra so my outfit needed rerigging.  The other rods were rebaited and sent back down.

We fished this area until we all had had enough of the big beautiful barracudas that kept destroying our fishing lines.  Gary made a short move up the island and we tried again and had the same results. 

A little while later, Gary’s friend called us in to a spot on the backside of the island where he had found a school of biting seabass.  We managed to pull three seabass out of the area before the bite shut off.  Luckily, I caught one on pink leadhead.  Jeff and Steve also caught one each.

We spent the day fishing various spots on both sides of the island with the best bite being on big fat calico bass, all of which were released to let them reproduce.  The rest the day can be summed up as Bats, Blacks and Buts! 

Bats – Bat Rays; Blacks – Black Seabass; and Buts - Halibuts:  We all were tormented by either bat rays or black seabass while fishing for halibut and white seabass.  I managed to fight five bat rays myself and Jim had at least two black seabass he fought before we released them.  I lost count but I know there were quite a few more bat rays and black seabass caught and released throughout the day.  The lucky anglers were the ones that caught halibut instead.  Jim, Cathy, Brian and Jason caught two halibut each and Gary caught one.

Around 7 pm, we enjoyed a BBQ Chicken dinner (courtesy of Cathy) and ice cream bars for dessert (thanks Jim).  I called it a day right after dinner while everyone else resumed fishing.  Sometime after dinner, Gary and Jason topped off the tanks with more squid.

Day two was similar to but a bit slower than day one.  We still had our share of bats and blacks but Jeff added a big halibut and Jim a big white seabass to the count.  Steve, Cathy and I managed to catch one yellowtail each to round out our catch.

By the time we called it a trip and started towards home, we had fished our way all around the island and had a view of Avalon shrinking behind us.

The two hour trip back was spent processing fish.  Jason did a great job filleting our fish.  As Gary said, “they’re restaurant quality filets.”  Jeff and I helped by bagging the filets.   We share everything so on this trip we each took home two bags of halibut filets, 1 bag of white seabass filets and 1 bag of yellowtail filets.

Thanks to our chartermaster, Jeff, for all your work putting this charter together and including me.  And, as always, Gary did a superb job of keeping us safe, finding fish and always staying upbeat.  He’s a true professional.  Plus Gary makes sure we have a great crew member on deck and Jason Reese filled this position on the trip.  I'm so thankful for our “family and friends” vacation.

Just an interesting note about Jason.  Jason was a young crew member on the Shogun on November 20, 2000, when I caught a 600-pound black marlin at Roca Partida.  This fish is hanging in my living room waiting to fulfill its destiny as my coffin.  Good to fish with you again, Jason.

Once home, we all get to enjoy a variety of ways to eat our fish.  For me this time, we had yellowtail with a shrimp, avocado chive cream sauce, seabass ceviche followed by macadamia coconut crusted halibut with an Asian pesto.  

 

Until next trip, safe travels everyone.

Graylight Fishing Adventure

Anglers:  Cathy Needlemman, Chartermaster; Fumio Ogoshi, Jim Carlisle, Steve and Jeff Chuang and me.

Boat & Crew:  Graylight out of Channel Islands owned and operated by Shawn Stewart with second Captain and deckhand, Sam

Trip:  Two days fishing the Channel Islands, unfortunately cut short to one day by a blown engine valve.

Fish Count:  Eight white seabass and one halibut.

Jim and I met Cathy at the Hampton Inn in Channel Islands Harbor around 3:30 pm Tuesday June 3, 2025.  Jim and I checked into our rooms at the hotel.  Cathy was already checked in.  Steve and Jeff were driving up later in the evening and Fumio planned to meet us at the harbor the next morning.

Cathy, Jim and I drove over to check out the harbor.  We were fortunate to see the Graylight come in from its trip and chat briefly with Sam who was running the boat for the day.  The fishing had been tough but there were options for the next day.  The three of us went for an early dinner then turned in for the night.

3:15 am Wednesday morning Jeff, Steve, Jim, Cathy and I met in the parking lot of the hotel, packed our gear in the cars and made the five-minute drive to Channel Islands Landing. We met Fumio in the parking lot.  Shawn and Sam had us on the boat, safety seminar done and on our way to Santa Rosa Island by 3:45 am.  We settled in for the 3-hour ride while Sam set up our gear to fish seabass upon arrival.  40 pound dropper loop rigs with 10 ounces of weight.

We arrived at the island around 6:30 am.   Sam had us bait up with live squid and stand at the rail ready to drop when Shawn found the fish.  Around 6:45 am Shawn found a school and said drop them.  We dropped and everyone hooked up but only three were landed.  This process was repeated two more times and by 7:20 am, we had 8 seabass on the deck with at least 4 others that managed to release themselves during the fight.  Wow!

Shawn moved the boat around looking for halibut since we had daily limits of seabass.  During the search, Sheepie managed to catch one halibut and I released 4 seabass.  Several other seabass had to be released as well.  There were a couple calicos, a shark and a bat ray.

Shawn worked around this island and Santa Cruz Island as well running into a few more seabass and miscellaneous other throwbacks but no more halibut.  We called it a day and were back at the dock around 4 pm.  

Traveling Position

Sam filleted our fish on the way in and brought our bags of fish to the top of the landing to split up.

We made a run to Ralphs for ice so we could ice down our fish.  A quick shower, dinner at Fresh Catch then to bed for me.

Next morning, we checked out of our hotel and were at the landing, all checked in at the office by 3:30 am.  All our gear was still on the boat from the previous day so we just jumped aboard and we were off.  About 40 minutes later Shawn stopped the boat because he felt an unusual vibration.  We turned around and idled back to the dock.  Fortunately, we didn’t need to be towed in.  Shawn was facing the decision whether to rebuild the engine or install a new one.  We heard later in the day that a new engine would be installed.

Being veteran anglers, we felt much worse for Shawn than we did about losing a fishing day.   Besides, we were all heading home with a seabass or two and Sheepie also had a halibut.  Shawn runs a great operation and the boat is a comfortable fishing platform. Sam did a good job taking care of us on deck and Chowder (Shawn’s dog) was great entertainment on board.  We look forward to our next trip on the Graylight in August. 

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.