Islands Catalina 5/28 Sunday

[wasitrytofish]

Gentleman’s start they call it? How about, my boys (and I) like to party a little too much and 4am alarm clocks aren’t so popular as of late
Anyhow, 815am departure from Los Alamitos fuel dock and headed to Avalon. Carnage posted they had bait so that was great. Got 4 nice passes for $100 and went to the front side to see if there were any conditions. Dropping tide and No conditions at all. Pulled the plug and hit our backside beaches we are most familiar with. Well, bottom of the tide drop, slack, produced only a few fish, all throw backs. Water temp back there 58.8. Ouch!
Back to the front side. 62 degree wster there. Still no conditions but we tried a new beach area between whites and long Point. Smacked about a dozen short halibut and one 25” for the kill box. Fished it hard for 2.5 solid hours.
My son and his 2 buddies enjoyed the action, as did I. His buddies caught their first halibut on live squid and by the end of the day they were enjoying the finest style fishing. That’s what I call it anyway
Back in the slip by 530pm.
Flat calm all day. Except for the little lump on the last 3 miles into the harbor. But nice cruising weather.
Saw litterally 100 mola mola in the channel on the way over to cat. Had to dodge them. I’ve never seen that ever. Anything unusual about this? Anybody have any thoughts?
Happy Memorial to all and thank thank you to all who served for us and especially the ones who gave they lives for us to have this life we do. We can complain about this toilet of a country right now, and I will, but I do appreciate the fact I can go fish today and have the freedom we do here. Very grateful.
Have a great Holiday tomorrow everyone.

 

[John S.]

Gentleman’s start they call it? How about, my boys (and I) like to party a little too much and 4am alarm clocks aren’t so popular as of late
Anyhow, 815am departure from Los Alamitos fuel dock and headed to Avalon. Carnage posted they had bait so that was great. Got 4 nice passes for $100 and went to the front side to see if there were any conditions. Dropping tide and No conditions at all. Pulled the plug and hit our backside beaches we are most familiar with. Well, bottom of the tide drop, slack, produced only a few fish, all throw backs. Water temp back there 58.8. Ouch!
Back to the front side. 62 degree wster there. Still no conditions but we tried a new beach area between whites and long Point. Smacked about a dozen short halibut and one 25” for the kill box. Fished it hard for 2.5 solid hours.
My son and his 2 buddies enjoyed the action, as did I. His buddies caught their first halibut on live squid and by the end of the day they were enjoying the finest style fishing. That’s what I call it anyway
Back in the slip by 530pm.
Flat calm all day. Except for the little lump on the last 3 miles into the harbor. But nice cruising weather.
Saw litterally 100 mola mola in the channel on the way over to cat. Had to dodge them. I’ve never seen that ever. Anything unusual about this? Anybody have any thoughts?
Happy Memorial to all and thank thank you to all who served for us and especially the ones who gave they lives for us to have this life we do. We can complain about this toilet of a country right now, and I will, but I do appreciate the fact I can go fish today and have the freedom we do here. Very grateful.
Have a great Holiday tomorrow everyone.

The Molas eat jellyfish. They were likely on those sailors that have been floating around for a while.

John

 

[tunaslam]

Always fun to find a new productive spot, congrats. Conditions not great and I would expect boat traffic reduced options on a variety of spots?

 

[wasitrytofish]

z

Always fun to find a new productive spot, congrats. Conditions not great and I would expect boat traffic reduced options on a variety of spots?

you know, the local sculpin hole and one of the deep banks south of the outside Huntington rigs was stacked up as we passed them on the way over. But the backside of the island wasn’t too bad. Front side had some swimmers and divers and the kids camps were busy but still plenty of room. Weather probably scared a few off as Saturday was pretty nasty out there I’m sure.
We still need to plan a trip.

 

[macalusoaj]

Saw litterally 100 mola mola in the channel on the way over to cat. Had to dodge them. I’ve never seen that ever. Anything unusual about this? Anybody have any thoughts?

Had to replace a prop because of one of those things 3 weeks ago... when they are just under the surface in choppy low light conditions they are like damn landmines...

 

[onehottip]

Had to replace a prop because of one of those things 3 weeks ago... when they are just under the surface in choppy low light conditions they are like damn landmines...

Damm it bent your prop ! Ss or aluminum?

 

[macalusoaj]

Damm it bent your prop ! Ss or aluminum?

Aluminum... it was an older prop so with metal fatigue a chunk broke off probably wouldn't have done much to a stainless one tho. Definitely felt it when we hit it.

 

[wasitrytofish]

Aluminum... it was an older prop so with metal fatigue a chunk broke off probably wouldn't have done much to a stainless one tho. Definitely felt it when we hit it.

Thats shitty. Yeah, I don’t want to smack one!

 

[Noah Sinclair]

Those Molas will do more than damage your props and drive, they’ll sink your boat

 

[trayscool]

I hit one off the Nados a few years back going full speed. Slammed the outboard all the way up and shut off. Luckily we got going again and managed to land a couple Yellowfin. When I got home discovered that the trim motor was trashed.

 

[Bend Session]

Do those mola mola fish only surface during the day light hours? I never hear of guys hitting them at night.

 

[Akallen007]

We saw several Mola last Saturday (5/20) in the channel. Came across one that was at least 7 feet long and 300#. I mean really effing big! I have an 8' beam and this guy was nearly all of that. Just keep your eyes open and be careful, they're all over out there.

 

[drew stephens]

I smacked one with the outboard going 30 last season. Maybe 3-4 foot long. Some scuffs on the skeg but thats all thankfully.