HEY GUYS, I FIGURED ID LIKE TO POST THIS REPORT ON A BOARD WHERE PEOPLE ACTUALLY REPLY. THANKS. THAT FIRST PIC IS ONE OF THE DECKHANDS, THE OTHER CREW MEMBERS TOOK TURNS LAYING SQUID STRIPS ON HIS BACK TO SPELL HIS NAME, WITH OUT HIS KNOWLEDGE OF COURSE...LOL!!!!
Hey Guys,
Decided to fish on the Native Sun out of Long Beach Sportfishing today, Sunday March 9. Fishing Crew today was Myself, Lil Puppet, Erick, and Magana. My son and I arrived at the Landing at 5:00 am, followed a short time after by Erick and Magana. I don’t know about you guys, but this time change is kicking my azz. It was really difficult to drag myself out of bed to even go fishing, which is very unusual.
We didn’t leave the dock until approximately 6:30 today. Only at Long Beach Sportifishing would we have a boat leave late just in case some people forgot about setting their clocks ahead. Which, believe it or not, some people did, and in that extra half hour sitting at the dock, we put on about 12 more people, mainly guys from the “Pier Posse.” Lots of those guys today. We untied the boat, and headed down the channel to first stop for bait, then to the fishing grounds.
Crew today was Capt Jason Rico, on deck was David and Kim, and in the galley, Sue was going to perform the cooking duties. This was her first day on the Native Sun, and she TOTALLY passes the “Boat Burger” test, one of the best that Ive had on a boat. Jason made his morning safety speech, and also let us know the plan for the day, and the recommended tackle for the day. We were going to start off in approximately 300 feet of water, then work our way back towards the beach. Our target species was going to be Victor Grouper and Rockfish on the outside, then Sheephead, Sculpin, and bass on the inside. So I set up my JX loaded with 65 lb spectra with one the “Other Jigs” (these are the Ghetto version of the Butterfly Jigs, only about 1/3 of the price. On my other JX loaded with 30 lb mono, I set up a 2 hook ganion with a 16 oz torpedo and a 150 lb swivel. Finally, for now, I set up my SX loaded with 15 lb mono, a 4oz torpedo sinker, and a 1/0 Owner Light circle hook for fishing the goats in the afternoon. We also brought a couple pounds of shrimp for the goats. I held off setting up my MXL with 25 lb until later. We arrived at the receiver to load up on 2 lb sardines, and headed out of the harbor. After we were all rigged up, we patiently waited to get to the first spot of the day.
A short time later, we arrived at our first outside spot, and made our first drift over it. For the most part, it was on the slow side on this drift, and on most of the rockfish drifts for the day. The fish were THERE, they lit up the meter really well. They just chose not to cooperate today. We DID get limits of Victor Grouper, and they were biting the Other Jig really well. I LOVE fishing the jig for RF, it makes it A LOT more fun. We also picked up a few nice reds, and other misc rockfish. Once we hit limits of Grouper, Jason decided to head back towards the beach to fish for Sheephead, Bass, and sculpin.
Once we arrived at the first inside spot, we dropped the hook, and started fishing. We picked some sheephead and other misc RF on the first one. Lil Puppet managed to get a decent sheephead and nice whitefish, along with Erick and Magana also catching a few nice fish. One of our regulars was slaying the sheeps, and I was wondering what the rest of us were doing wrong. I found out that he was using GHOST SHRIMP!! On this day, they wanted those much more than they wanted the reg market shrimp, of course. Another stop I have to start making before our trips! Norms in Seal Beach. Anyways, we hit a few of the inside spots, with pretty much the same results; a few sheeps, misc rockfish, etc. Today was NOT my day for the sheeps, and I had to laugh when I thought of how many of them I caught WHILE THEY WERE OUT OF SEASON!!! Jason let us know were going to try one more spot, this one stopped producing. We pulled the anchor, found the spot, and dropped once again. This spot was VERY rocky, I lost about 5 sheephead set ups in the rocks. I was tired of not catching sheephead, and I thought with the structure below us, it was time for the Leadhead and whole squid! I set up my SX that had 15 lb with a 1 ½ oz leadhead, and pinned on a whole squid ( I know better then to fish 15 lb in structure, but I was just going to recon this spot first, lol). 4 leadheads later, I finally set the hook on a decent fish, which put up and EXCELLENT fight on the lighter line. I got it to the boat, and it was a LINGCOD! And, of course, in Ghetto Dad style, they are out of season!! It shook its head, and spit the leadhead. So I thought to myself it was time to bust out the big gun, my SS D8 and my MXL loaded with 25 lb mono. I let everyone know that they should try the LH and squid, and the few people that switched over were rewarded with lings, a few sculps, and NICE treefish. A short time later, I got bit hard, and set the hook. FISH ON!! This one was mean, and did NOT want to come to the boat. Once I battled it out of the rocks, I slowed my roll on the fish, which took two nice runs in an attempt to get back home. Once at color, we saw what this fish was. A NICE lingcod!! OF COURSE!!! David expertly lip gaffed the fish, so we could get my leadhead back, and take a quick pic, before releasing the nice fish. Lings are FUN in shallow water, they fight all the way to the boat. For the next hour or so, we continued hooking (and losing) lings, along with a few more nicer RF and sheeps. At appx 5:30 pm, it was time to call it a day, weigh up JP (which if it was APRIL, I would have easily had), and have David and Kim cut fish for those that wanted the service. All in all, a slow, but FUN and productive day. This was my 7th weekend fishing in a row on the local/3/4 day Catalina scene, so I am not complaining. Great Capt, great crew, fun fishing, great friends, and I got to spend some time with my son, who, by the way, talked all kinds of mess like he was gonna kick my azz on this day (I have NO clue where he got the crap talking from
), and of course, I had to put junior in his place
.
Ok guys, that’s it, hope you enjoyed the report, sorry I didn’t take more pics today. WE ALSO HAVE A SPITFIRE TRIP SCHEDULED FOR THIS WEEKEND GUYS, I ASKED DEAN IF HE COULD POST IT UP FOR ME. CHECK THE RENDEVOUS SECTION. Peace
GD
. I hope I can fish with you guys this weekend but it's not looking good.
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