Graylight Adventure!

Date:  July 21 and 22, 2026

Anglers:  Cathy Needleman, Jeff and Steve Chuang, Jason Fleck and Jan Howard

Boat and Crew:  Graylight owned and operated by  Shawn Stewart, Second Captain Sam and Julian on deck

Trip:  Twp Days fishing Santa Rosa and Santa Cruz Islands

Catch:  24 white seabass, 2 halibut, 6 yellowtail, 20 rockfish, 5 bonito, 5 plus calico bass and released sheepshead and whitefish.

Trip Details:

We all checked in to the Hampton Inn Channel Islands Hotel Monday evening prior to our 3:30 am Tuesday morning departure from Channel Islands Harbor.  We signed the manifest, boarded the Graylight, stowed our tackle and food then settled in for the 2 hour ride to Santa Rosa Island.  Shawn planned to stop along the way for fresh squid.   

Cathy and I chose bean bags on deck to settle in for the ride while the guys slept in the v-bunk down below.  Shawn woke me when we got to the island and had me move so they could retrieve the buckets of squid being handed over from a light boat  We were almost to the fishing grounds so I stayed up. 

The weather was surprisingly warm and the seas flat calm.  We started fishing on one side of the island then when that slowed down we went around to the other side and finished catching our limit of white seabass for the boat plus 2 halibut, 14 calicos and released many other fish as well.  We caught fish on 40-pound dropper loops, sliding sinkers and leadheads.  Everyone got in on the action including the crew.

We were so busy catching fish, we neglected to eat our lunch until the catching slowed.  Cathy brought deli sandwiches for us all and they were delicious.  Chowder agreed as he made sure he was available for any scraps. 

Sam and Julien processed our fish on the way back to dock while the rest of us rested.  We got back around 4:30, grabbed our ice chests out of our cars and met Sam at the top of the landing where he handed us bags and bags of filets.  Not everyone wanted their equal share of filets, so we gave the extra to Jason who was quite happy to take the filets until he realized his ice chests were inadequate.  Ultimately, he bought a couple more ice chests to handle the excess.  

We all made our way to Ralphs to load up on ice to properly chill and preserve our catch.  When we got to our hotel, we had to bring our ice chests full of fish into our room.  My ice chest had wheels but I could barely pull my ice chest to my room.

We cleaned up and met at 6:00 pm at the Trade Winds for dinner.  We enjoyed our dinner reminiscing about the day. Thanks Sheepie for picked up the tab for dinner.  Pleasantly exhausted, we turned in for the night and set our alarms so we would be at the boat by 3:45 in the morning.

We checked out of our room before heading to the landing the next morning.  When we boarded the boat, Shawn let us know the weather had changed and the predicted 40 knots of wind would keep us from fishing where we fished the previous day. We were fine with that as we did not want to keep any more fish.  We planned to catch and release our fish and hopefully get in early.

We had a wonderful day casting the A-Rig, jigs and fishing the normal gear.  Jason caught two at a time on the A-Rig.  We also spent an hour or so fishing for reds and we managed to catch our limit.  So much for our catch and release day.  We ended up catching 6 yellowtail, a sheepshead, 20 rockfish, 5 bonito and more calico bass.  We decided to call it a trip early to beat the weather and hopefully get home early.

Sam and Julian processed fish again on our way to dock.  The trip back was bumpy.  It was good that we headed in early.

What a great trip.  Not only did we catch lots of fish but we had lots of fun too.  Many thanks to Shawn, Sam and Julian.  What a superb team on the Graylight.  I really enjoyed the trip and the chance to have Jason and Shawn reminisce about previous trips.  It brought back many memories for me as well. 

Cathy, you deserve my greatest thanks for organizing and inviting us to share this wonderful adventure with you.