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23rd Trip: 1/2 Day Afternoon Trip on the Icon 8/8/09

Sean Glumace — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 22:41:39 +0000

I had planned to go out on the 3/4 day on the Enterprise out of Long Beach Marina Sportfishing with my cousin Jason, but my alarm did not go off in time and after a “Where are you” text that woke me up at 5:30am finally we decided to get a few more hours of sleep and hit an afternoon 1/2 day run. Decided to go out of a landing either of us had not been out of in a long time so called down to Long Beach Sportfishing at Berth 55. I also was trying out a new fishing shirt from Ap3xPr3dator today as well. http://www.ap3xpr3dator.com/

Got down to the landing around 11:45 and they took care of us in the office. Looked like a lite load all the way around, and the Icon was a bit late coming back in with a very light load (I counted about 14 or 15 on board). The morning bite was bad, only a handful of fish on the boat for everyone. Loaded up quick with a total of around 35 or so and we headed out.

From 23rd Trip: 1/2 Day Afternoon on the Icon 8/8/09

Captain got on the horn and said the fishing was bad in the morning, but hopefully the afternoon bite would make up for it. We went straight out with bait left over from the morning to the fleet that was sitting off the green buoy outside Angels Gate. The Matt Walsh, Sport King and a bunch of other moo-moo’s were there, and a fleet of personal boats. Lots of birds and action in the water so we hoped for the best.

From 23rd Trip: 1/2 Day Afternoon on the Icon 8/8/09

Dropped anchor and we rigged up with a dropper loop with 5oz torpedo sinker. Even with 5oz we were dragging a little on the bottom. Water was clean and the wind was not whipping up yet. Got a good hit and fish on. Thought it was a nice calico the way it was fighting but it ended up being a grumpy treefish. Biggest one I’ve ever got, his coloring was very dark as well, almost black.

From 23rd Trip: 1/2 Day Afternoon on the Icon 8/8/09

It set the tone for the day, quality fish for us coming aboard, but not in huge quantity. Few minutes later got another good hit and bring up a large sculpin. One of the larger ones I’ve ever caught on anchoives. Always a pretty fish, and one of the few fish I really like to eat.

From 23rd Trip: 1/2 Day Afternoon on the Icon 8/8/09

I farmed a few fish at this spot, the fish were just pecking at the baits, either pulling them off or leaving only half an anchovy but everyone around us was pulling up a few calicos, sandbass and barracuda as well. Ended up moving spots as the bite slowed down. Shawn our captain worked hard all day moving and finding fish to scrape up, it was never a huge wide open bite but fish came aboard all day long.

Next stop my cousin Jason finally stopped farming fish (he lost a few at the first stop) and pulled up a very nice sand bass then an equally big calico on the next cast. Both good looking fish with great coloring.

From 23rd Trip: 1/2 Day Afternoon on the Icon 8/8/09

Jason also pulled in a few short barracuda on this stop off the bottom. I lost 3 as well getting bit off by them and loosing a few hooks. Only lost two 5oz sinkers today between the two of us.

From 23rd Trip: 1/2 Day Afternoon on the Icon 8/8/09

The whole time barracuda were coming on board on iron and off the bottom with anchovies. As the bite slowed down again on this spot we moved around the fleet and anchored on the west side of them. Once again the barracuda started coming on board again. We continued fishing the bottom with live bait. On this stop we kept getting pecked away at on the bottom. Try to set the hook then nothing, either bait gone or all torn up. I thought I had lost my bait again after some pecking and started to reel and wam, it started to pull back. No hard hook, just pull and go. Fought it up, knew it was a cuda from the fight and it was a big one. Got her gaffed and brought aboard.

Largest barracuda for me this year.

From 23rd Trip: 1/2 Day Afternoon on the Icon 8/8/09

Same spot a few minutes later and my cousin gets hooked up the same way on the bottom. Another cuda gaffed and brought aboard.

From 23rd Trip: 1/2 Day Afternoon on the Icon 8/8/09

We both farmed a few more fish, all barracuda at this spot. Died off again and we moved one more time. Another drop down, and going up to a 6oz sinker and got another nice treefish. Not as big as the first, but pretty colors.

From 23rd Trip: 1/2 Day Afternoon on the Icon 8/8/09

Jason also pulled up another bull sculpin on this stop.

From 23rd Trip: 1/2 Day Afternoon on the Icon 8/8/09

Made one last stop for the day and the cuda were being pulled on board once again. Jason got in on the action with some iron and hooked 3 shorts (most missed by an inch or so). Not much going on at the bottom, got a few more small hits and we called it a day.

From 23rd Trip: 1/2 Day Afternoon on the Icon 8/8/09

Came in second for the jackpot with my cuda. The winner was just a bigger model.

From 23rd Trip: 1/2 Day Afternoon on the Icon 8/8/09

Great day on the water out there. I would highly recommend Long Beach Sportfishing. Easy to get to, great crews and fun to go out with. They also had some good specials going on right now from the looks of things in the office http://www.longbeachsportfishing.com/. The Icon is a good boat and has seen some years but like most of the other ships in the SoCal 1/2 day fleet she does her job well.

Final count for the day, all large quality fish kept here.

Jason:
Barracuda: 1 kept, 5 released
Sand Bass: 1
Calico Bass: 1
Sculpin: 1

Myself:
Barracuda: 1
Tree Fish: 2
Sculpin: 1

Another great trip. Been lucky the last few times out, no big crowds and good fishing. The twilight boat was looking very crowded that night (big crowd when we got in), hope they did well. Liked the new shirt that Ap3xPr3dator sent out to me, comfortable and had a few people ask me about it on the boat. My full review will be on my site under product reviews. Got the first blood on it today with the cuda as well, not tuna, but still a good test.

22nd Trip: Twilight Trip on the Enterprise 8/2/09

Sean Glumace — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 03:37:27 +0000

After watching the fish count all week we decided to get a twilight trip in on Sunday night. Took a look at all the fish counts and load counts and decided to go out on the Enterprise out of Long Beach Marina Sportfishing. My cousin Jason and friend Chauhan came along for the fun. The numbers had been very good all week across the fleet at the flats so we were hoping for a great night.

From 22nd Trip: Twilight Trip on the Enterprise

The City of Long Beach had just come in with 70+ on board but our total load ended up only being 39 for the night. Lots of room on the boat which was nice. Did not need bait, had some left over from the day trip and went straight out to the flats.

From 22nd Trip: Twilight Trip on the Enterprise

To keep this short and to the point, it was tough out there on Sunday night. 3 stops over 3 hours and only 4 fish on the last stop for the whole boat. A few short barracuda as well. The captain and crew were working hard trying to find fish. It was not just us, the whole fleet was calling in low numbers or none at all, we heard the calls from the wheel house. One boat had 70 people and only 10 fish.

From 22nd Trip: Twilight Trip on the Enterprise

Everyone on the boat was very patient that night, no complaining at all. 10:30pm rolled around on the 3rd stop and the captain got on the horn and said usually it would be time to roll in, but he could not let us go home empty handed so he was going to push it to one last stop. 10 minutes later we anchored up and our patients paid off. First drop both Jason and I pull up near legal sand bass and it was wide open after that.

From 22nd Trip: Twilight Trip on the Enterprise

Chauhan pulled up a very nice model around 3lbs, and I got one in the same range. It was non stop for about 30-45minutes and the captain pushed it to the very end so everyone could get fish.

Jason and a nice turd roller.

From 22nd Trip: Twilight Trip on the Enterprise

Rare picture of me with a fish. I realize that I don’t have many pictures of myself fishing, always the photographer.

From 22nd Trip: Twilight Trip on the Enterprise

The captain and crew worked hard to scrape out a good day for all of us on the boat, and the passengers appreciated it. Great save by the crew!

From 22nd Trip: Twilight Trip on the Enterprise

Ended up with 17 sand bass between the 3 of us, threw back 3 near 12 inchers myself and Jason about 3 as well.

Total for myself in 30 minutes or so of fishing:
7 Sand Bass Kept, 3 thrown back

From 22nd Trip: Twilight Trip on the Enterprise

Once again, the crew came through and everyone thanked the crew out loud when we got in around 12:30am, first time in a long time that I’ve heard that from everyone after a trip. The Enterprise will have repeat business from us in the future. Hope to get out on Saturday on my friends boat, maybe do another twilight this week as well.

For more fishing stories and photos visit our site at http://www.glumacefishing.com

19th Trip: Huge Day off Laguna Beach 7/11

Sean Glumace — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 20:46:28 +0000

Headed out on Saturday July 11th on my friends Gail and Kevin’s boat out of Newport Harbor. This turned into one of the best all around fishing days that we have had in the so cal area ever.

The gang consisted of 8 on the boat myself, my son Jonathan, my cousin Jason, my friend Chauhan, Gail, Kevin (our captain) and Gail’s daughter and friend. This was the first time for us to be out as a group on Kevin’s boat and he did not disappoint.

From 19th Trip: Huge Day Off Laguna Beach

Got there right on time at 5:30 loaded up the boat with the important stuff and got out to the bait barge around 6:15 and loaded up the bait tank with anchovies and some mixed in large sardines.

From 19th Trip: Huge Day Off Laguna Beach

It was a beautiful morning, nice and flat, no wind and clear skies. Left it up to Kevin on all the fishing calls today and he headed south to a spot he likes and dropped anchor. The tide was coming in with a peak around noon, so if the bite was good in the morning we were going to stay put. Kept the set up simple, #1 and #2/0 hooks with 1/2 ounce and 1 ounce egg sinkers. I also was breaking in a new Newell S-229-5 and my recently refurbished Penn Squidder which was my dads for over 25 years. Fishing 20# on both and they both performed well, but I found my Newell to be a bit more comfortable. Anyway, both reels got a work out today along with all of our equipment on board. Water temperature started out around 68 and peaked out around 70 (almost 71) today.

From 19th Trip: Huge Day Off Laguna Beach

Jason was the first in the water and within a minute or so bam, fish on. Short barracuda, the first of about 20 we caught today.

From 19th Trip: Huge Day Off Laguna Beach

From this point on it was non stop for about 3 1/2 hours. Got Jonathan set up and he hooked up right away with a nice calico bass, the first one he ever caught.

From 19th Trip: Huge Day Off Laguna Beach

Jonathan’s first calico bass.

All 5 of us on the stern started hooking up with the majority of the fish being calico bass, most in the 8-10″ range, nice healthy fish, good fighting as well. The barracuda also were mixed in, and the mackerel came along for the ride.

From 19th Trip: Huge Day Off Laguna Beach

Every drop was producing fish, on a ratio of about 3/1 to calico bass, sometimes a mac, mostly calico and a cudda mixed in. Jonathan caught his first calico bass, barracuda and mackerel on this trip. My friend Chauhan also caught his first calico, barracuda and mac as well. This was only his second trip out on a boat with us, he was missing fish but by the end he was hooking up well. Great practice for him and Jonathan.

From 19th Trip: Huge Day Off Laguna Beach

Jonathan’s first mackerel.

From 19th Trip: Huge Day Off Laguna Beach

How it was all day on the boat for everyone.

From 19th Trip: Huge Day Off Laguna Beach

After about an hour and a half of a non stop bite I switched over to a light trout rod that we brought and fished with 8lb test with the same set up. The handle was set up for a lefty, which I did not notice till casting out, and while we were switching it over to righty, we hooked up with a calico.

From 19th Trip: Huge Day Off Laguna Beach

It was fun fighting the calicos on the light gear. Jonathan and Chauhan kept pulling them in, Jonathan had Gail helping him and they started fly lining chovies, which kept the macs busy along the side of the boat. We kept around 40 macs to freeze for catfishing this summer. Can’t pass up free bait. The mac are fun for the kids, and fun on the light stuff as well. These were bigger macs as well, we had one that was around 2lbs that Jonathan fought for a while.

From 19th Trip: Huge Day Off Laguna Beach

A good sample of the average calico.

From 19th Trip: Huge Day Off Laguna Beach

As the day went on we landed about 15 nice sand bass as well mixed in. I landed the biggest bass of the day on the light tackle. Got hit hard the moment I hit the bottom and he started taking line, fought him for about 10 minutes till he showed color and it was a big sandy. Had to net him with one of the bait tank nets, could not find the bigger one. About 17 inches, 3 + lbs. After a few great pics sent him on his way to make other baby bass. Just a note, we released everything we caught today, except for 1 13″ sand bass (for the mother in law) and the 40 or so macs.

From 19th Trip: Huge Day Off Laguna Beach

A few more pics, including Chauhan’s first cuda…

From 19th Trip: Huge Day Off Laguna Beach

Double hookup.

From 19th Trip: Huge Day Off Laguna Beach

Another turd roller.

From 19th Trip: Huge Day Off Laguna Beach

A friendly seal pup came along to have some fun. He ran off the macs and cuda for a while, even killing a few cudas of the stern, throwing them up in the air and eating them. Did not kill the calico bit though.

From 19th Trip: Huge Day Off Laguna Beach

I got the 5th species of the day, a rock fish. Nice fish fought hard on the light tackle.

From 19th Trip: Huge Day Off Laguna Beach

As the tide came in the bite picked up more, and the weather was beautiful and warm so we decided to dip our feet in the water and sat on the rear platform on the boat. At this point we had gone through about 3/4 of our bait (a full scoop) and had started to reuse bait that had not been stripped and just threw it back out to get hit again. I did not want to rebait from the platform so I tied on a 3″ brown and read hammer bait and started casting. Every cast got a hit, every other was a hook up. The calicos were chasing to the surface and we started catching them on the fly line. The macs were swimming under the boat as well, the cuda would swim by chasing them.

From 19th Trip: Huge Day Off Laguna Beach

I was taking a calico off and dropped by swim bait back in the water and hooked up with mac a few times when we were not watching. Fun holding a bass and fighting a mac at the same time!

From 19th Trip: Huge Day Off Laguna Beach

Kiss Kiss

By 12:30 the water was too inviting, and we decided that it was time for a swim. Great way to end an epic day of fishing. At 70 degrees the water was great!

From 19th Trip: Huge Day Off Laguna Beach

In the end it was the most fish I had ever caught in one trip. I had been counting up to the second hour so I can update our site my son and I have, but was too busy with my own fish and helping each other to keep count. Based on my first two hours of count and how the bite never died and talking it over after we got in we brought on about 200 fish between 6 of us. 100+ were calico bass, 20+ sand bass, 20 + barracuda (all shorts, but there were some big ones in the water and we caught a few in the 22″ – 25″ range), 1 rock fish and the rest were mackerel. Ended up taking about 400 pictures as well, I tried to take pics of all the fish coming on board, but could not keep up.

The calico’s and sand bass were all quality sized fish, we were measuring some of the nicer fish, and 9″ – 13″ were the norm, with nice green and brown coloring. The sand bass were a bit larger, and nice coloring as well. All were released, we believe in C&R with all bass especially the larger 15″ ones, only keeping the one sand bass for the day in the bait tank. Mother in law loved him.

Also got a bad case of bass thumb, those little suckers tear up your thumbs, the worst is on top of the thumb. Got it on both fingers.

Over all one of the best experiences out on the water, only one stop, didn’t have to burn a ton a fuel and we emptied the bait tank. I would like to thank Kevin for putting us on the spot and working with everyone, and making the day memorable for everyone!

From 19th Trip: Huge Day Off Laguna Beach

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From 19th Trip: Huge Day Off Laguna Beach

17th Trip: Huntington Harbor & Seal Beach Pier

Sean Glumace — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 09:26:09 +0000

Had some business to do on Friday so I took the day off from work, but planned to get out with Jonathan to do a little fishing. Had to meet up with a friend who lives in Huntington Harbor so I decided to scout out the area. He lives at the end of Edinger so we took a walk around the launch ramp area and then headed over to where he lives. Right next door is a small park and beach called Seabridge Park. The tide was way out, and I had a half hour to kill so I threw my 3″ swim bait into the channel and near the docks. It has a playground as well, good for Jonathan and it looks like a great place to launch a kayak. Not much other than some trash, so we packed up and met up with my friend to do some work.

From 17th Trip: Huntington Harbor & Seal Beach Pier

Around 1pm we had finished up so I needed to figure out where we would spend the rest of the day fishing. Decided on Seal Beach, a friend had said the macs were attacking the day before and lots of bait fish. So headed down parked and got the equipment ready. Started out on the end of the pier with no love for an hour, no bait fish either. Tried with my sabaki rig, and other were trying with nets. Nada. The seals were out in force as well, same one was looking for a handout. Packed it up and worked our way back looking for bait fish. Nothing the rest of the day. Skunked again…

7th Trip: Santa Ana River Lakes

Sean Glumace — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 05:53:59 +0000

Headed down to the Santa Ana River Lakes the day before going out to Irvine Lake to get Jonathan ready. Got there around 7am and set up along the east shore after driving around the lake. I have not been here in 20+ years, so I did not know what to expect. It was not too crowded which was good. Set up with power bait and got to waiting. A few large rainbow trout jumped in front of us, but that was about it for the day. After trying different power baits and changing things up we finally moved around 11am to the smaller lake near the 91. After an hour or so there of getting skunked we packed up. We were not the only ones that were not doing well. All the places we fished no one was catching anything. Was going to stop by the kids pond for Jonathan to catch somthing quick but it was drained so we headed home.

From 7th Trip: Santa Ana River Lakes

Over all a good day out, the mountains where clear and weather great, but getting skunked at a pay lake sucks. Would I ever go back, nope. Being so close to the freeway is not fun, and even though I live 5 minutes away in Orange I would rather drive to Irvine or somewhere else.

Glumace Family Old Fishing Pictures

Sean Glumace — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 07:23:48 +0000

While getting my pictures ready from our last trip on the web it reminded me of a set of photos I scanned a few years back of my dad and I with fish or fishing. So I went through my archive and found some great pictures of my dad and I.

The first is from 1986 and is my dad David with a baby black sea bass he caught on the Matt Walsh near Portugues Bend near Palos Verdes. If I remember right he caught this on a ghost shrimp (ghost crack) which he used to bring out on the boats with him all the time. He caught a number of these during his life, always release them. I caught one about the same size a few years later and have a pic somewhere I will find.

From Old Fishing Photos

The next is one of me and my dad from around 1988 or so. We have a string of sand bass, barracuda, and bonita from a summer half day trip. We used to go out almost every day during the summer in the morning. We caught a lot of fish that summer. Had a bunch of bbq’s.

From Old Fishing Photos

I plan to take Jonathan out this Sunday morning to King Harbor again. I picked up some egg sinkers today, going to try a different set up on Sunday. Going to stick to peas and squid again, maybe pick up some blood worms as well.