After waiting 3 weeks for a break in the wind and weather, my friend Don Elm and I launched from Huntington Harbor on Wednesday morning. Mario and Mario Jr at the bait barge had a fresh load of live squid, and we tanked a ½ scoop. There was some left-over wind swell that made for a slightly bumpy crossing.
Once at the island, we found my brand-friggin-new bait pump was dead, along with all that nice squid. Bummer. Fortunately, I had a backup unit – and after a little struggle we got the transom mounted replacement hooked up and the fresh-dead bagged and on ice. Yikes!
The Island is green and beautiful after the recent rains and the January weather was as nice as only Southern California can deliver: Bluebird skies and no wind. There are still plenty of bonito at Catalina, and they were all over rapalas and mega-baits – we had enough to stuff the bait tubes in no time.
We set up that night on our lobster hooping honey hole. The crawl was good until the moon came up around 9pm – when it slowed way down. We managed 8 legals and released 61 shorts for the night. Lucky for us most of the legals were big ones - I was just glad we caught any at all.
Thursday morning found us looking for squid nests in the Vs/Palisades area, but we couldn’t locate any. There are tons of bigger sand dabs in 80 to 100 feet of water and we released a bunch while drifting for halibut. Don had a blast owning bonito on the mega-baits, and I even released a small yellowtail that ate a fresh dead squid!
That night was just gorgeous: a million stars out with no wind and we managed to top off our limits of bugs before the moon came up at 9:30. Again, most of the legal lobs were the bigger size.
As we were leaving Friday morning, the wind was already starting to pick back up and it was white capping by 8:15 AM making for a bumpy ride back. It laid down a bit about 3 miles from the coast, but the red flag warning was still up when we got back to the launch ramp.
Anyway – it was another great trip with awesome weather! On to Super Bowl Sunday Lobster Fest.
Go Rams!
Mike
Buffalo on the beach!
Typical bug. It's the best pic because you can't see Dons face!
Mini yellow learning to fly on a beautiful day!
Once at the island, we found my brand-friggin-new bait pump was dead, along with all that nice squid. Bummer. Fortunately, I had a backup unit – and after a little struggle we got the transom mounted replacement hooked up and the fresh-dead bagged and on ice. Yikes!
The Island is green and beautiful after the recent rains and the January weather was as nice as only Southern California can deliver: Bluebird skies and no wind. There are still plenty of bonito at Catalina, and they were all over rapalas and mega-baits – we had enough to stuff the bait tubes in no time.
We set up that night on our lobster hooping honey hole. The crawl was good until the moon came up around 9pm – when it slowed way down. We managed 8 legals and released 61 shorts for the night. Lucky for us most of the legals were big ones - I was just glad we caught any at all.
Thursday morning found us looking for squid nests in the Vs/Palisades area, but we couldn’t locate any. There are tons of bigger sand dabs in 80 to 100 feet of water and we released a bunch while drifting for halibut. Don had a blast owning bonito on the mega-baits, and I even released a small yellowtail that ate a fresh dead squid!
That night was just gorgeous: a million stars out with no wind and we managed to top off our limits of bugs before the moon came up at 9:30. Again, most of the legal lobs were the bigger size.
As we were leaving Friday morning, the wind was already starting to pick back up and it was white capping by 8:15 AM making for a bumpy ride back. It laid down a bit about 3 miles from the coast, but the red flag warning was still up when we got back to the launch ramp.
Anyway – it was another great trip with awesome weather! On to Super Bowl Sunday Lobster Fest.
Go Rams!
Mike
Buffalo on the beach!
Typical bug. It's the best pic because you can't see Dons face!
Mini yellow learning to fly on a beautiful day!
It used to be a good halibut spot but is now fished out. Forgive me if I don't divulge the exact location as I am hoping one day the 'butts will return!
