My buddy and I were initially booked on the New Lo-An 1.75 this Sunday, but decided to reschedule the trip because of the wind/swell forecasted. Having never fished the Pacific Islander I wasn’t sure what to expect.
We were slated to depart at noon, but were held up at the dock for close to an hour. We were told that we were waiting for a “passenger” who was running late. Turns out it was a member of the crew who was just there to fish. Matter of fact when noon came around there was still 8 spots out of 25 that had not been booked, so we were all thinking that we’d be heading out with a light load. But apparently those spots were filled by friends of the captain, and we left with a full load of passengers.
Got to the grounds around 5pm. Saw a lot of really nice kelps that we didn’t bother stopping on. Did a bit of driving until finally stopping on a breezer, but these fish had other plans. No fish were hooked before dark.
Night came around and we were treated to some beautiful conditions. We stopped on a couple different spots of fish with nothing going. Finally just after 8pm I’m the first to hook up, this fish was super squirrelly and difficult to stay tight with, ended up shaking me off during a run towards the surface. Shortly after a 150lb class fish was landed. The rest of the night was stop and go. Not wide open by any means. We scratched a few fish on most of the stops, with a lot of driving and searching in between. I believe we finished the night with 50 fish, majority of them in that 20-50lb class. I fished hard all night and went 3/5.
In the morning we did a lot of driving and searching for life. Mid morning a couple guys decided to put a few trollers out. A double hookup on the trollers (purple halco & cedar plug) then turned into a nice little plunker bite for another 20 bft or so. 25-40lb flyline was by far the most productive. I believe there was one fish hooked and farmed on a colt sniper, other than that no daytime jig fish that I recall. I caught a few on flyline and decided to dedicate the rest of the time trying to coax a bigger bite with jigs and sinker rig… not even a sniff.
Late morning we checked out some kelp paddies. I was the first to hookup a yellow but it buried me in the kelp. At this point I’m pretty gassed running on no sleep so I decide to take a nap. Wake up in the afternoon around 2 and conditions turned gnarly, windy as hell and white capping. After a few hours of driving and getting beat up I decided to lay back down and wait for the night bite.
Around 8pm we stopped on a really nice jag of fish and all hell broke loose finally. I landed 5 fish in short succession, with no one to hand off to since most of the boat seemed to be hooked up. We finished up our limits for the trip by 9pm. Nice way to end the trip.
What worked. First night we didn’t have too much drift, 150-300gram jigs worked fine. Second night left little choice but to use 400gram jigs to minimize scope. I caught all my night fish on West Coast Jiggerz KB knife jigs, Nomad Streakers, and Daiwa SK jigs. Color doesn’t matter.
All in all it was a fun little shakedown trip to get the sea legs back under me. We had a great group of guys who all worked well together. Crew and cook were great as well. Unfortunately I didn’t take many photos this trip.
We were slated to depart at noon, but were held up at the dock for close to an hour. We were told that we were waiting for a “passenger” who was running late. Turns out it was a member of the crew who was just there to fish. Matter of fact when noon came around there was still 8 spots out of 25 that had not been booked, so we were all thinking that we’d be heading out with a light load. But apparently those spots were filled by friends of the captain, and we left with a full load of passengers.
Got to the grounds around 5pm. Saw a lot of really nice kelps that we didn’t bother stopping on. Did a bit of driving until finally stopping on a breezer, but these fish had other plans. No fish were hooked before dark.
Night came around and we were treated to some beautiful conditions. We stopped on a couple different spots of fish with nothing going. Finally just after 8pm I’m the first to hook up, this fish was super squirrelly and difficult to stay tight with, ended up shaking me off during a run towards the surface. Shortly after a 150lb class fish was landed. The rest of the night was stop and go. Not wide open by any means. We scratched a few fish on most of the stops, with a lot of driving and searching in between. I believe we finished the night with 50 fish, majority of them in that 20-50lb class. I fished hard all night and went 3/5.
In the morning we did a lot of driving and searching for life. Mid morning a couple guys decided to put a few trollers out. A double hookup on the trollers (purple halco & cedar plug) then turned into a nice little plunker bite for another 20 bft or so. 25-40lb flyline was by far the most productive. I believe there was one fish hooked and farmed on a colt sniper, other than that no daytime jig fish that I recall. I caught a few on flyline and decided to dedicate the rest of the time trying to coax a bigger bite with jigs and sinker rig… not even a sniff.
Late morning we checked out some kelp paddies. I was the first to hookup a yellow but it buried me in the kelp. At this point I’m pretty gassed running on no sleep so I decide to take a nap. Wake up in the afternoon around 2 and conditions turned gnarly, windy as hell and white capping. After a few hours of driving and getting beat up I decided to lay back down and wait for the night bite.
Around 8pm we stopped on a really nice jag of fish and all hell broke loose finally. I landed 5 fish in short succession, with no one to hand off to since most of the boat seemed to be hooked up. We finished up our limits for the trip by 9pm. Nice way to end the trip.
What worked. First night we didn’t have too much drift, 150-300gram jigs worked fine. Second night left little choice but to use 400gram jigs to minimize scope. I caught all my night fish on West Coast Jiggerz KB knife jigs, Nomad Streakers, and Daiwa SK jigs. Color doesn’t matter.
All in all it was a fun little shakedown trip to get the sea legs back under me. We had a great group of guys who all worked well together. Crew and cook were great as well. Unfortunately I didn’t take many photos this trip.
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