The big day finally arrived on Sunday, April 11th 2010. It was time for the first GlumaceFishing.com charter of the year I put together and we had a full boat. I had been booking up seats for the past two months and had a total of 38 make it out on the trip. This was also the first time in a few years that my wife Hilda has come along on a trip, and it was the first trip for my daughter Katelyn and also my nephews. About 95% of the people on this trip had never been fishing before, or never fished on a boat, and over half were kids. We had a great group together that was ready to fish! I also had a photographer come along and take photos for everyone, lots of first fish ever on this trip!
The weather on Saturday was great, and conditions were good as well but the good conditions did not roll over to Sunday. I was hoping that the storm that was in the forecast would stay away and we would not have wind or rain. (Got everyone down to Long Beach Sportfishing before 5:30am for a 6am start time. Got everyone licenses and rental rods if they needed them and got on the board the Tide Change. Jeff was our captain with Chris in the galley. Kevin and Bobby the deckhands on board and we got out right on time. The plan was to go after rockfish off the west end of the island then go back on the front side to chase some bonita and anything else we could find. Most of the people hit the bunks or found a seat in the galley for the 2 hour or so ride over. The weather was ok, overcast and a bit cold but never that windy and it stayed flat most of the day. Everyone listened to me and took some type of sea sick medication so we only had a handful of people get a little sick on the trip.
We had all the bait on board, cured sardines and some bags of frozen squid. We did have some live squid in the tanks if we needed it as well. On the way over the deckhands rigged everyone up with a basic 2 hook dropper loop and 6-8oz torpedo sinker. I would like to thank Brett Rankin at Eagle Claw for sponsoring all the hooks on this trip and to Lanny at Lanny’s Sinker’s and Stuff for giving me a great deal on lead. We had more than I can ever use in a lifetime on this trip, and we were going to need it.
Most of the kids did not sleep on the way over and found the sardines to be fascinating.
We saw a few whales that spouted on the way along with a few dolphins. After about two hours (and a lot of asking when we were going to fish) we made it around the west end of Catalina. For most on the boat it was the first time they ever where at the island, especially the west side and the back.
We got set up in about 250′ of water and did our first drift that ended up being the best one of the day. Brought up 4 nice salmon grouper (Bocaccio) on this drift. First fish ever for a lot of people, I’ll let the photos tell the story…
This was one of the few stops where I got to fish as well. I ended up spending most of the day helping everyone. I did a lot of hooking up and handing off rods
Here is my salmon grouper of the day. I was the first to hook up and the last to bring it on board this trip. Right after I hooked it my brand new (new old stock) Penn Squidder 140 reversed on me and gave me a good knuckle breaker. The anti-reverse dog and or spring probably went out. So I put pressure with my one tumb on the line against the rod, put the tip down and started to crank away at 250′. Got em up though. Kinda sucks about the reel, it had just come out of the box and was the first time I ever used it. Good news was that was the only thing that went wrong the whole day!
The water temperature the whole day was 57-58 degrees, so the fishing was not wide open but we picked away at the small rockfish. Some starry rockfish came up along with a whole assortment of other ones. We ended up doing another drift and lots of tangles. The crew did a great job re-rigging everyone up and helping everyone on the boat. A few small sculpin came up as well, so everyone got a lesson on what fish not to grab. We did end up anchoring up after a few drifts and kept picking away at the fish.
The biggest fish of the day came while we were anchored but did not count toward the jackpots ( we had a jackpot for the kids and adults). My nephew hooked up on something big and started cranking away, but got tangled up with about four other people half way up. Kevin the deckhand tried his best to untangle the mess, but had to cut everything off. So Kevin hand lined up a very nice sized sheephead. It was also my nephew’s first fish on the ocean (technically).
After about 2 1/2 hours of this we packed up and moved around to the front side looking for bonita and anything else. The captain took a gamble and went back to a spot east of Two Harbors that had produced the day before, and the ride over was about 50 minutes or so. The island was so green because of the rains we had a while back.
At the last stop we did run into some bonita, smaller models but they were there. The only problem was that the seals showed up in force and we only landed a handful of whole ones, I lost about 5 to the seals alone. The captain and I were flylining sardines off the stern and handing off the rods to the kids. They would not pump fast enough and we would end up with a head. We wrapped it up at this spot after we had trouble holding anchor with a wind that came up and headed in.
The jackpot was included in the charter price. I had a total of 4 spots for a private 1/2 day trip I am doing on the Spectra of Spectra Sportfishing out of Pierpoint Landing in a few weeks up for grabs (http://www.spectrasportfishing.com). 2 tickets for the adult jackpot and 2 tickets for the kids. I’d like to thank the Specta owner Billy Keleman for helping us out with the jackpot. Salmon groupers won both, and everyone who won was excited to come back out on the water with me in a few weeks.
Everyone had a great time, while the fishing was not wide open and not big fish it was great for the majority of anglers that had never been out before. I hope that I got a lot of them hooked on fishing
It was a workout getting everything together for the trip, but it was well worth it to see the kids catch their first fish along with many of the adults.
I’d also like to thank everyone down at Long Beach Sportfishing including Jenifer in the office for helping out the last month or so booking everything up and especially the crew for being so patient and helpful with all the newbies on the boat. Thanks!!
While they are not great numbers, here are the final numbers for the day and in the end they did not matter much everyone had FUN! I am putting together 3 more charters in the months of May and June, so if you are interested contact me by email or phone.
Sean loves to fish in Southern California and this site is his journal of his adventures in fishing. He started fishing when he was a little guy with his dad David, and has continued to this day with his family.
In his day job, Sean has been a graphic designer for over 15 years, designing everything from in-store displays and signage for supermarkets to e-commerce auction sites for an online consumer electronics company. He was a web and graphic designer then later an art director for McMullen Argus Publishing (Primedia), building and working on sites for Lowrider Magazine and Super Chevy, plus 30 other automotive magazine sites. Sean seized the opportunity to teach other aspiring designers - a passion that took him first to Learning Tree University and then to Golden West College in Huntington Beach, CA, where he has been an integral part of the renowned digital arts department for more than ten years.
Throughout his teaching career, Sean maintained a freelance business, designing for clients including the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (Los Angeles Area Emmy Awards), Image Comics and many more. See his work at http://www.glumace.com.
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Sean his son Jonathan and his daughter Katelyn love to fish in Southern California. This site is loaded with reports, photos, news, charters, reviews and more. They maintain this site as a journal of their adventures in fishing.
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