Black Pearl and July
 

Meet up with

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paintfish (Ron) did a little catching up over some fried fish and shrimp at pier 55 before loading time. It had been blowing the last couple of days but the weather forecast said it would lay down for the weekend. Checked in with Capt Rick about the destination for the weekend. With the reports of bad winds at the Channel Islands it was Catalina Sat and San Clemente Sun (San Clemente was closed on Sat)

Picked up fin bait some one asked if the ladder on the dock belonged to the boat deck hand turned red went up to talk to Rick and we headed back to the dock (no real big deal still at the Island to see about squid by 1am) There had to be about 40 boats near 2 harbors looking for squid with no luck. Rick had set up a plan 2 with a commercial guy and we picked up some scoops ans headed to the Isthmus and anchored up. Morning brought some beautiful weather.

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Old School 2 day jackpot!

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We had a few nice hours catching calicos sheepshead and slim sticks before the wind started loaded up at 12ish and headed to Long Point to seek some shelter at the other end of the Island it was a long slow ride towing the kayaks in the wind and swell (although it is easier than loading back up with the seas and wind not this time and Capt Rick will load them up from now on)

Launched again to find more Calicos and Sheepshead then loaded up and ate diner

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Woke up to a cloudy cool morning surrounded by private boats LOOKING GOOD David was first on the water

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The day turned downhill from there by 11 the wind was gusting 20 with nowhere to hide the catch however but some nice halibut on board a personal best 7-8lb Calico Cpr with plenty of squid left spent a few hours fish from the boat in hopes of a score. Nasty ride from San Clemente to Catalina on the way home though the Navy put on a show

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Great group great crew and fun times

Till next one

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What a great experience!



That wind was fierce.


Just imagine a nice built up muscular handsome man with big profile, a man beautiful in appearence paddling his X-factor, then the wind picks up at full force. The wind pushes against this man sending him to the beach, he paddles so hard just to try and fish... Ultimatly the wind won and i went back to the boat....took me 2 hours.. Stupid wind.... and swollen hands from paddling so hard

Had a good time... away from home :biggrinjester:

Ha Ha Ha where's my coffee damit !!!!

All in All it was a great time Steve. the Back Pearl
has evrything you need. Decent grub, a place to
rest your head for a few hours and a hard working
crew.
It took a minute to remember I was on a fishing boat
and not staying in a five star hotel.

Id do it again in a heart beat !

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3 spots open for August, Landwhale (Steve) will be running this one too.

Sounds like the October and November trips will likely be departing from Oxnard and fishing the upper Islands Santa Rosa....San Miguel

Plenty of openings on these, September is sold out. Stand By available.

Had a great time, I will be on the November trip. The crew did a great job even getting the green islander back up and ready to go.

This Leopards kept stealing my bait:

Guess who is comming home for dinner...





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nice work guys. Is it Sept. yet, Andy who is the luck prostaff on the Sept trip?

X2? I'm getting giddy:p

Great read and great pics Steve. Almost didn't recognize that grouchy looking basstard in the first pic.:p BIG difference when he's holding a toad checker. :rolleyes: Way to go Ron! :luxhello: Sorry to hear you guys got pounded from the wind. It was like that on our Islander trip so I feel your pain.

wow guys looks like you had to work for those great fish, that calico was a pig, and Frank check for the recipes for all that Leo, there are some good ones...Oxnard is the next set of trips, now you are talkin', I just may have to do one of those...:reel:

This is a better pic that shows how big that calico was

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that one is gonna be hard to beat...

That would be ME! :D

Towing Kayaks
 

When towing Hobie kayaks behind the mothership, should the drive system be installed or removed? Last two Black Pearl trips we had kayaks flip while being towed. Don't recall what models flipped at SBI but last weekend, it was a Hobie. My PA towed 1st boat behind the transom, starboard side with drive installed, flippers in nuetral position. No problem. I did notice other boats in the daisy chain trying to broach coming downswell. Don't know max hull speed of the Hobies, but my guess was we were towing betreen 6 and 8 MPH. Comments welcome. bosco

I believe it was an islander and it was the one that we side tied to the boat. The peddles in the neutral position act as a dagger board. We were having problems that I saw with the last boats as there was no drag to keep them strieght. I would bet money on if we had a rope with a rag tied to the last boat and dragging in the water that would help keep it straight. Also I was talking to Tim and we were watching the boats as the swell would catch the kayak the last ones would surf down the wave and turn. Once Tim upped the speed a couple mph to match the speed of the swell they started to tow better.

that's just my 2 cents.

I had such a great time on this trip I've already booked for October again. Thanks for a great weekend guys. Hope to fish with you all again.

Bob, you know what they say about getting old........ unless you forgot :doh:

See you there David

:doh: I'm opting out of the JP now :D