After hitting up the Tide Change last week and having a great day, combined with a very busy first week of school on our campus (Thanks Sacramento) I needed to get out again. Dropped my cousin a line and we meet up for a twilight on Sunday night. Our luck had been good down at Long Beach Sportfishing and is just down the street from his house, so we decided to hit up the Native Sun for the first time.
Got down around 5:45pm and got to get in a long line. I guess everything hit at the same time, perfect storm. Lots of rental rods, 1 day licenses and other fun stuff for John to deal with. We were the easy ones, just two tickets.
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| From 26th Trip: Twilight on the Native Sun |
Got on board and got out on time. Total of 55 on board. Luckly we got green 1 and 2 because I called it in early. Captain said we were going straight out and hunt the sculpin a few miles and we had frozen squid and anchovies on board. Like I said we had a lot of rentals on board, I would say more than half so the crew was busy with everyone. Set up with a reverse dropper loop with a 5oz skiner. I wanted to stay on the bottom tonight in one place if I could help it, didn’t help much, no matter what I did I got in more tangles tonight than any other trip I’ve been on. Looping the torpedo sinkers comes in handy, I must have retied about 8 times.
The weather was also great, a light wind and calm.
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| From 26th Trip: Twilight on the Native Sun |
Got set up on the first spot right away. Not much action, a few fish coming on board, and no takers on the live anchovies. I went over to a strip of squid and got hit right away. Nice fighting fish, felt like a nice sand bass, and surprise! Sting Ray! First one in a long time.
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| From 26th Trip: Twilight on the Native Sun |
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| From 26th Trip: Twilight on the Native Sun |
Interesting way to start off the night. Spot was slow, got one short sculpin as well.
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| From 26th Trip: Twilight on the Native Sun |
Captain gave up on the spot and as we started pulling anchor got another light hit. Small hookup, probably another small sculpin. Another surprise, sand dab! And a good size one too. (I have big hands). Threw him in the sack for the mother in law. I give all my fish to her that I keep, she had never had sand dab before. She had it for breakfast the next day. Good stuff.
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| From 26th Trip: Twilight on the Native Sun |
Stopped on another spot out in deeper water (about 125 – 150 feet). More sculpin brought up, and 1 or 2 sand bass. Got a few more here. Jason got the skunk off as well and got a nice grade scuplin too.
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| From 26th Trip: Twilight on the Native Sun |
My biggest of the night.
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| From 26th Trip: Twilight on the Native Sun |
Kisses…
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| From 26th Trip: Twilight on the Native Sun |
All night the smaller fish were coming aboard, some nice ones as well but it was never wide open. Got another fish on this spot to add to my list of species for the night. Little starry rockfish.
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| From 26th Trip: Twilight on the Native Sun |
Pulled anchor on this spot and tried one last time nearer to the outer rigs. The Enterprise and another boat came along for the ride as well and fished of our portside the rest of the night. Some of the bigger model sculpin came out of this spot. Here is Jason’s big brother and my little brother.
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| From 26th Trip: Twilight on the Native Sun |
Called it a night around 11:30 and headed back in. Guess what won the jackpot, did you guess? A sculpin. Sculpin, sculpin everywhere. Don’t get me wrong, they are my favorite to eat and don’t mind fishing them, but they can be a problem when most people on the boat don’t know what they are. The deckhands were trying there best but fish were coming over the side and bounced off things. Both Jason and I pulled a bunch off for the guy next to use instead of getting one in the face. I felt bad for one guy, got a spine right in the palm of the hand.
More sculpin…
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| From 26th Trip: Twilight on the Native Sun |
The main deckhand (sorry bad with names) sliced up a fresh sculpin on the way in and served it with wasabi and a type of soy sauce. To be honest I never had it raw, and it was damn good.
Total for the boat: 55 anglers with 2 Sand Bass 163 Sculpin
Cousin Jason’s Totals:
10 Sculpin (kept 3, release 7 shorts)
My Totals:
8 Sculpin (kept 3, release 5)
1 Sting Ray (released)
1 Starry Rockfish (released)
1 Sand Dab (kept)
Good trip overall, never hurts to get out on the water, even with 50 other people. The Native Sun is a big boat, plenty of room so it was not like it felt crowded. Nice crew as well. I do like that it leaves a bit later than Enterprise out of Long Beach Marina and comes back later for the twilight. I look forward to getting out there again with them.
