Islander May 2.5 Day 2013

[Rock Hopper]

Thanks for the pics and reports, fellas. A bunch of us from NCKA are going next weekend. Can't wait!!

[lamb]

Great reports and pics all!

I was stoked to have been able to make it on this trip. Work has just been crazy lately – I don’t have time for anything. I was sooo looking forward to fishing San Clemente Island. It’s almost impossible NOT to have a blast on SCI trips aboard the Islander. The Islander crew are the masters in business of taking care of people, especially us kayakers. Fishing is great even when it’s “slow”. Gotta love that vibe on board too. Always a group of awesome people to hang out with, everyone positive, pumped up and optimistic. That ever renewing hope that tomorrow is going to be the day! 2 full days of fishing, with 3 nights spent on super cool, comfy and friendly host boat – you can’t ask for much more.

The scenery is breathtaking.









Fishing-wise, I’ve got not much to add that hasn’t been said. Just my own story to tell.

The trip was fun as always, and lots of lessons learned, lot’s of reminders. At least for me. When you see Jim doing rock climbing on kayak fishing trip 40 miles out in the Pacific on an uninhibited island, you better start taking notes. I always said you bass guys are crazy, fishing tight to those boilers. No that size lamb will ever make me go tight to those razor sharp rocks if there are any rollers. I’m glad it all ended up well, glad you were not hurt Jim.

On the Day 1 we fished the Cove, we launched in good 10+ kt winds, that turned into steady 12 to 15kt rather quickly. My plan was to constantly pound the sand, both days, while hoping to cross paths with a yella’ or a cbass like everyone else. Guilty!



I started working that one tiny beach. Headed straight to shallows, in 15 feet. Water was all steered up. The South swell that rarely hits that edge of the Island was pounding the beach. Not a huge shore break, but enough to dirty up the whole area. Visibility was very poor compared to what I’ve seen from my earlier trips to SCI. I kept thumping away, dragging my sardines around, covering bottom and flying the dean, casting plastics, catching occasional calico.

As I drifted further East and downwind from the big boat already, I decided to let the wind move me around the point with a nice kelp wall in 80 ft. Figured I’d sniff that area, and then swing around and in to get to that first haliland beach on East side of the Cove. I was hoping those rocks above the beach will shelter me from the wind that was pushing steadily.

My halibut rig goes off. I’m on a big fish that was busy trying to shake me off while hitting on the West run and taking me on a sleigh ride. Those first big fish on the bottom moments are the best. It was no halibut, that was certain. The initial stoke that I’m on a big pissed off croaker, as it kept going, turned into that excitement and optimistic desire I‘m actually riding a yellowtail. Off we went into the wind, towards the Islander. If I could have asked for a heading to be taken on a ride, that would have been it.

Big headshakes, steady raw drag peeling power. Another mighty ride… and another, and another. Pretty much, going where she wanted to go. ON a good note - still on the same course, upwind, towards the Islander. It’s just pulling too hard. …and then comes that moment. You just know it’s something you won’t be eating... unfortunately. BSB, big shark? T!? To make the matters worse, I couldn’t even button down the drag all the way on this particular halibut rig. LESSON/REMINDER: If you want to catch a halibut with any particular setup, it doesn’t mean you’ll catch halibut on that setup – somethin’ bigger may apply. We’re in process of taking applications, whoever signs in. Kind of like public forums on the internet.

15 minutes or so of a hard labor, being towed while huffin’ and puffin’, I finally get a big ol’ black on float. There goes that mandatory and spontaneous “f**k…” over my lips… They say the hope is the last thing that dies in people… (like I didn’t know that’s what was pulling me around ).

Now that rush of having to fight to make sure she lives kicked in. I’ve got to revive it, and conditions are not quite favorable. No one around to give me a hand. The fight was almost 15 mins; I was in for a life revival fight for another 15 or so minutes.

I saw she’d been caught before, apparently snagged – a thick 40ish+ looking mono and 2/0 were in her chin, on the outside. I’ve got to clean it. So after I finally got it up to the surface, I found myself looking for, out of all things, my pliers! They were in my dry bag, inside of the hatch. Totally unprepared, I don’t know what I was thinking. I got spoiled with the convenience of having everything at hand on my boat. LESSON/REMINDER: Have your act together out there when floating on a piece of plastic.

The fish was still relatively green, it kept kicking, not giving me enough time to work on hook cleanup. My hook was deep in its huge mouth. After multiple attempts with no progress, I started worrying I’m taking too long with my clean-up efforts. After all, she came with those hooks and she was quite all right. It crossed my mind I ought to be focusing on the immediate damage that I caused. My day’s trophy is this giant bloated floating big beautiful protected species (huge, trophy, giant - hey, I had to throw in at least something to sound as cool as Josh’s fish tales ). In rush of a moment, being blown around, I concluded that my hook in her mouth was definitely a smaller of her problems. Since I couldn't really reach deep enough in her mouth to remove the hook, I cut my line right outside of her mouth thinking that would give her more room to swim when I flip her and point her down. It looked like she had enough juice to do it. I knew more I wrestle with her in that draining surface float, less of a kick back charge she’ll have. The time was not on my side.

That was one horribly bad call. LESSON/REMINDER: in 12+ steady blow, you find yourself spending more time paddling back to your big floating fish. I’d help her a bit, she would kick and shake me off; the wind would quickly blow me away, she’d come back up afloat behind the kayak. I kept paddling back into the wind towards the fish. I tried pushing it gently down with the paddle, flipping her, nothing seemed to work. The worst part – the wind would quickly separate us after my each attempt.

At that point I’m cooking –fully dressed up for a cold breezy early morning. I strip my hat (with GoPro on it, there goes my movie making ), jacket, clear the deck and get down to it. With both hands, I kept working her upwards and moving back and forth to get water flowing through her gills.

She finally takes off for the deep… Yes!

I now good ¾ miles further down wind, in 200+ ft of water. Put the shoulders in gear, start paddling back towards the shore.

I spent the rest of the time working this one section of the beach, pounding the sand up and down the beach, working from 20 to 50 ft. All for one good bite, that looking at the scars on my bait, looked like it could have been halibut, even a big one, but I couldn't be sure. In for lunch, and we moved out to the lee side for a shelter, and some more fishing.







Drew was hell bent on catching halibut. I spilled all my beans showing him how I liked to fish for them with bouncing live bait. The problem was - the front side has rather steep drop off, and there is not a lot of consistent sand areas. It’s hard to fish, with all the occasional stringers or rocky spots in relatively narrow area tight to the shore. We split up – he went really close in to the shore casting swim baits.

Countless calicos were on everyone’s menu the 2nd part of Day 1. I won’t ever complain about a situation where you can pretty much count on a strike almost every 2nd cast. In certain areas, they were thick, and more than turned on. You’d see them going crazy chasing bait around, snapping right below your kayak. It didn’t matter what you their way – action was non-stop. FUN!







Then we hear Drew on the radio all excited about the big brown he connected with. Stoked that he scored the right kind, and very respectable size. Plus at the time, he wasn’t even strictly targeting them! I told him, it’s all about the attitude!! It was a pleasure meeting the rest of Jim’s film crew, Drew, Jameson, Will. All great guys. One hell of a fisherman Drew is, you can tell right away. That halibut stood no chance, despite being hung around for pics and put back in the water for video, all while on a boga grip, and tied with a lil' piece of rope

We went back to the Cove to spend the night – great dinner.





Bryan, Islander chef, was busy cooking for us all the time, treating us with some great foot - one meal after another.

On anchor in the Cove, we messed around with some squid that were showing up. They were not thick.
We did some flyfishing… I mean fly fish net fishing, FOR REAL!
Here's Jarod with our trophy (netted) catch...



..that quickly turned into seal dinner when we released it.

Day 2: while it seemed slightly calmer than previous day, and we were all itching to fish the Cove, John predicted the wind was going to be building up… So we ended up moving to the lee side to fish the full day there.



The conditions there were totally mellow. It turned out to be a good move – none of the boats that stayed and fished the Cove had any catches to talk about. We were doing quite all right







Before the lunch, after good number of hours put into the sandworks, I get another one of those frequent kelp hung ups, it seemed. I grabbed the rod and gave it a strong jerk, and “the kelp” starts jerking back. Sweeeet! Felt like a bigger beaver, the proper up and down magic carpet action. I got GoPro on, game clip ready, gaff in "handy deploy" position… First glimpse of a lot of brown and white gets me really excited. Turns into a big Bummerville parade when I saw the tail on my big “halibut”. 50ish+ angel shark, I’d estimate… Ugh… Another spontaneous and mandatory “f**k…” slips over my lips.

Though when I told him the story the other day, Vito told me they’re pretty good eating. Pain in the arse to clean with the leather skin and dark meat mixed up with white, but supposedly very tasty.



Later on, I had a nice school of 10-12# yt swim right under my kayak, in about 20 ft of water. I just made a cast, ended up getting bit by a nice calico right as I tried to wind in in a hurry. They swam right by my sardine I was fly-lining. They were just chillin' by - it wasn’t meant to happen.

I will put some video together and post when I find the time… Crap, it would have been better had I cut some time out of writing this novel and put into that. Oh well…

Thanks again Jim and Sebile lures (http://www.sebileusa.com/home.php) for the goodies. That was very nice treat! You put my BWE/KFS hats to shame.

It was really good seeing and catching up with all the people I knew, it was my pleasure meeting all the folks I haven’t met in person before. I love putting faces behind the forum names.

One of the best things about any of these “out of town” trips for me is how everyone really works together, talks on the radio, and helps key in each other on what they’re seeing, what and how they caught their fish. Stories and knowledge are shared and laughed over. That makes the whole trip really cool experience that everyone remembers forever. And there’s never enough lessons to learn.

We fished hard, and had fun.

Great fishing with all of you!

[Deamon]

Felt like I was there with you guys! Nice write up Adi! One of these days...

[JarrodMc]

Nice report Adi. Love it

[Sin Coast]

Thanks for the wonderful reports & pics & videos guys! I'm having trouble containing my excitement about the Islander this wknd!