Catalina on the new ride - Birthday Bash
 

After having a few weeks to get comfortable with my new boat a few buddies and I decided to do an overnight trip to Catalina for a friends birthday.

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Plan was to do a half day of fishing for the first day and spend the rest of the day on the island. The second day would be a full day of fishing.

Our first day out we left San Pedro at 6am. On the way out we came across a pod of dolphins 50+ strong. I backed off the throttle and they swam with us for about 15 minutes. It was an awesome experience to see so many of them surrounding our boat and in their natural habitat.

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We fished the front side of the island until 1PM and picked up some barracuda, some calico, and a small yellowtail.

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We headed in to Avalon and picked up a mooring for the night. We filleted our catch in the harbor before heading ashore

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We reserved a site at Hermit Gultch to camp and went for a hike. After returning back to the site we made ceviche out of our Calico and fresh sashimi with our yellowtail. It was a very cool experience to eat a fresh catch within hours of taking it.

Our second day around the island was much more productive and full of action. The crew set out the trolling lines as soon as we left Avalon harbor while I cooked up breakfast. Within minutes we were on some great bass action and the last thing the guys could think about was eating breakfast. We picked up some large Calico outside the harbor down to the quarry.


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As the bite slowed we trolled our way around to the backside of the island and picked up some more barracuda and released them. After trolling our way up most of the backside we pulled up the lines and headed to the frontside and trolled for a few hours. We caught some more barracuda and some short Calico. Late afternoon one of the lines started peeling off and within seconds of getting the rod out of the holder the line snapped and the fish was gone. We pulled the line up and it looked like a bad knot. We set the lines out again and swung around for another pass and hooked up within a few minutes. 5 minutes later we had a nice yellowtail on deck and the first decent sized fish since purchasing the boat.

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It was a great trip and I put together a short film of our trip


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Sweet, serious fishing killing skiff and what a way to help celebrate a birthday. :reel:

No love? Did you forget about me already? :(
Well, I beg to differ..
I don't think anything in my eyes will come close to my new PB CALICO we nabbed on your sweet vessel last month! :D
(I will continue to try & best this beast, but it's all downhill from here on out..)
http://i58.tinypic.com/2iac13a.png
CATCH & RELEASE!
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PS- CatRat.

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Pros don't count... :)

That looks likes an awesome trip. I'm sure you Friend had an awesome time for his birthday!

I gotta say that was a good head shot on the gaffing job. Nice.