well the Islander does it again...
2.5 days of great food, great friends, more jackpots,
another spiecies checked off the "never caught from the yak" list,
and another new personal best...
the trip was supposed to go to the Cortez bank in search of the
tuna and various pelagic critters, but the weather gods had a
different plan for us...the wind and low pressure system moving in had us
go hide behind the San Clemente Island for a couple days....
day one got off to a slow start...we were hoping to fish the
north side of the island on day one, but the wind out of the north sent as to the south side for a late start...we hit the water around 8:30 or so to some pretty windy conditions...thank God (and Hobie) for the pedal power...two minutes off the boat I got a nice 2 lb calico and then another...
hit a boiler for a nice 4lber and...
and then a 3 lb bone lights up the clicker...
this was the first half hour...I'm thinkin this is gonna be a good day,but
the fish gods thought otherwise...it just shut down...lots of wind and tough conditions....
fish count for the first half of the day was about 6 or 7 calicos and few bones...not bad, but not stellar...
heres bother Bellcon on the wind/kayak treadmill just before lunch...
two strokes forward and one stroke back...it was ugly...
lunch was the Thunder Burger, an open faced chili burger...
as usual, the Islander kicks out the mean grub...
after lunch, it was so windy on the south side that the captain thought we should go try the north side to see if it was better...
turned out to be a great idea..it was calm and beautiful over there...
the afternoon session was calm and peaceful both with the weather and the fishin'..
scratched a few more calicos and lost a butt...
Bellcon got into a nice calico hole...said he got 35 fish and couple hours...
the big guy was actually tired of catching calicos...that's tough...
I feel bad for you Don....
Day Two..
woke up to mild wind and cloudy conditions...
the plan was to fish east from China Point and set up for lunch at Pyramid Head Point...hit up the kelp beds for nadda...
moved to the outside to soak a dine and huck some iron...
the bones were out in full force...they play hard...fun little critters they are...there was, however, a hitch in the gitalong for that plan to go east...here was the first hitch...
Jim gits on the talk box and says "hey...anyone got a camera"
he was right next to me so I was glad to be his camera beeeotch...
he got the first of the YT on the trip...a nice 20 lber
hitch #2, Troy gits on the radio and says he just caught and released a 10lber in the same area....
everybody was pretty much in the same area, but the fish gods smiled upon a few of us...I finally get to put check in the YT box...
my first yak yeller...not a brut but I'll take it...he went 7 lbs
and I just barely got it away from a hungry dog that nipped the tail...
I had the gaf ready to stick, and I see this big dog lurking below so I said F$%k the gaff and grabbed the Salas 6x jr and yanked the fish onto my boat...there was a tooth mark on the tail...whew...just in the nick of time...
here is my 1st YT from the yak...
so after 3 tails had been caught, nobody wanted to leave the area...
we all pounded for afew more hours and the YT gods smiled upon me again...
here is YT# 2...he went 20 lbs...
a stellar morning to say the least...
hunger won out ...it was lunch and back out...
the captain said he had heard there was a high spot about 3/4 mile away from us that had produced some YT for another boat the day before so I proceeded to locat that spot...found it and imediately got slammed on the blue and white on the first drop...
don't try this...I was in the middle of the fight and took my my hand off the reel to key up the mic and tell Aaron and Sam and the boys to git yer ass over here and git a yeller and I let up pressure on the fish and friggin lost it...before I could even get a cuss word out, I dropped the iron back down and gets slammed again...this time it was a 12 lber...YT #3...
by now everybody is coming to the area...I was hopin' we would all git some...no sooner did I paddle back to the spot and cast out...
I git hit hard again...the reel is peelin out line...I'm watching the spool get smaller and smaller fearing the dreaded end of the line and once again the fish gods stopped that BFYT and the fight was on...
he towed me around and fought up and down for about 15 minutes or so and then...THWACK goes my gaf...right between the eyes...
new personal best YT 24.5 lber...what a day....
I got no on the water shots of the 12 lber cause I was in hurry to get back to the action, but you can see his tail behind me...
heres Aaron in action...
here are the YT caught...
Jim 20lbs
Matt 20.5 lbs
Troy 10lbs released
Josh 7.5 lbs, 12 lbs, 20 lbs, 24.5 lbs
and the guy who loves to hate me...my favorite camera beeotch...
he's cussin' at me under his breath...
love ya Don...