After a few days of planning, begging, and setting up.. we got it done.
We left the house at 2:30am to try and get a jump start of the already known to be weather for the day. We launched out of Davies about 3:15, and we’re past catalina around 4;30. From there we kept heading west to the 499 and got there by gray light. When we got there, the fish we got on last week went MiA which was to be expected. So what does any normal fisherman do? Keep heading west.
From the 499, to the snail, out past clemente and to the Tanner we kept going. By about 7am, we were 6-7 miles away from the highspot and decided to scrap it because the water temperature just didn’t seem right. From the tanner, we went north west and ended up in the Osborne by about 8am.
The weather was blowing 10-15’s with a steady 3 ft swell which was lumpy but bearable. The Osborne warmed up on the north side closest to San Nicholas Island but still no signs of life.
By about 9:00 we were on the southern side closest to SBI and Clemente, and the water warmed up to 68 1/2 degrees and we came across our first school of the day. These were 100- 150lbers moving quick with a pod of whales but boiling on the surface. Having been up wind, we had the perfect wind and placement for a kite.
I had my buddy Brian get my bag kite out, while I prepped the Flyer and 50w, and within about 2 minutes we had a bait on the formers for nothing. Perfect looking Flyer In a school of jumping fish and no bites. We runned and gunned (excuse my English there lol) on these fish for about a half hour with the Flyer being dragged mid air and dropped on or close enough to the fish everytime for nothing. After screwing around with it i had Brian reel in the electric reel (yes he used the electric aspect), while i reeled in the 50w, and we deployed the madmacs just to have the school sink out on us.. bummer.
By now, Brian and his buddy Dave are getting that look of exhaustion and loss of hope as time keeps ticking. By about 10:30, we worked our way to the Snail bank still trolling two blue mackeral madmacs to find a way up on the surface. After going around the whale, we were bit. No surface action, just a couple tiny marks down deep. As the reels screaming i let Dave fight the fish and it rewarded a nice 150lber. Dave made us some custom new gaffs to use and they were amazing to use on the fish as he got it to color. Boom, we were on the board. Unfortunately, it was 11:00 and that was the first and only bite we were going to get for the day. We came across more fish on the 499, and the 474 but they sank out to quickly to really react to them.
All in all, although weather was up, we came home with another beautiful fish less than 7 days after we had them last week. I love weekdays.
Tips:
Look for any life, don’t be shy to troll in the proximity of whales. The give away that the whales had fish was the 1-2 terns chipping the water.
Be proactive not reactive. While Dave was fighting the fish, I stayed on the helm and bumped the boat in gear for a couple seconds at a time just to keep the fish tight when it started coming to the boat.
Don’t be afraid to burn the fuel. We went through 90 gallons today, we did 215 miles round trip all on the western sides of San Clemente and Catalina. The fish are there, you just need to find them.
If you plan on targeting these fish, make sure you have a way to keep them cool throughout the day, such as a big ice chest or kill bag. Also, don’t be shy on learning the hill and gut technique the sportboats use. We cut the hills and guts out in one solid piece on these fish and fill their body cavities with ice creating an ice cold catch.
And finally, bring lots of ice!! Last week 100lbs of ice wasn’t enough. Today I brought a little over 150lbs and if we had two of these fish we would’ve ran out of ice as well.
We left the house at 2:30am to try and get a jump start of the already known to be weather for the day. We launched out of Davies about 3:15, and we’re past catalina around 4;30. From there we kept heading west to the 499 and got there by gray light. When we got there, the fish we got on last week went MiA which was to be expected. So what does any normal fisherman do? Keep heading west.
From the 499, to the snail, out past clemente and to the Tanner we kept going. By about 7am, we were 6-7 miles away from the highspot and decided to scrap it because the water temperature just didn’t seem right. From the tanner, we went north west and ended up in the Osborne by about 8am.
The weather was blowing 10-15’s with a steady 3 ft swell which was lumpy but bearable. The Osborne warmed up on the north side closest to San Nicholas Island but still no signs of life.
By about 9:00 we were on the southern side closest to SBI and Clemente, and the water warmed up to 68 1/2 degrees and we came across our first school of the day. These were 100- 150lbers moving quick with a pod of whales but boiling on the surface. Having been up wind, we had the perfect wind and placement for a kite.
I had my buddy Brian get my bag kite out, while I prepped the Flyer and 50w, and within about 2 minutes we had a bait on the formers for nothing. Perfect looking Flyer In a school of jumping fish and no bites. We runned and gunned (excuse my English there lol) on these fish for about a half hour with the Flyer being dragged mid air and dropped on or close enough to the fish everytime for nothing. After screwing around with it i had Brian reel in the electric reel (yes he used the electric aspect), while i reeled in the 50w, and we deployed the madmacs just to have the school sink out on us.. bummer.
By now, Brian and his buddy Dave are getting that look of exhaustion and loss of hope as time keeps ticking. By about 10:30, we worked our way to the Snail bank still trolling two blue mackeral madmacs to find a way up on the surface. After going around the whale, we were bit. No surface action, just a couple tiny marks down deep. As the reels screaming i let Dave fight the fish and it rewarded a nice 150lber. Dave made us some custom new gaffs to use and they were amazing to use on the fish as he got it to color. Boom, we were on the board. Unfortunately, it was 11:00 and that was the first and only bite we were going to get for the day. We came across more fish on the 499, and the 474 but they sank out to quickly to really react to them.
All in all, although weather was up, we came home with another beautiful fish less than 7 days after we had them last week. I love weekdays.
Tips:
Look for any life, don’t be shy to troll in the proximity of whales. The give away that the whales had fish was the 1-2 terns chipping the water.
Be proactive not reactive. While Dave was fighting the fish, I stayed on the helm and bumped the boat in gear for a couple seconds at a time just to keep the fish tight when it started coming to the boat.
Don’t be afraid to burn the fuel. We went through 90 gallons today, we did 215 miles round trip all on the western sides of San Clemente and Catalina. The fish are there, you just need to find them.
If you plan on targeting these fish, make sure you have a way to keep them cool throughout the day, such as a big ice chest or kill bag. Also, don’t be shy on learning the hill and gut technique the sportboats use. We cut the hills and guts out in one solid piece on these fish and fill their body cavities with ice creating an ice cold catch.
And finally, bring lots of ice!! Last week 100lbs of ice wasn’t enough. Today I brought a little over 150lbs and if we had two of these fish we would’ve ran out of ice as well.
