Its4Reels!-Parker23
Well-known member
My wife Kay and I decided to take Friday off and take the It’s 4 Reels! To Catalina Island for a couple of days of fishing and lobster hooping. Have not been out since early December and was very excited to get out during a break in the weather. And what a break it was. Launched at Davies at 11am headed for Nachos’ for bait. Looks like L.A. Bait either bought Nacho’s or they have combined the two operations. Anyhow since they did not have live squid we opted for looking for a light boat and we hooked up with the Kathryn Kate on channel 11 making its way back from Catalina. $60 later and a generous tankful of squid we decided to head to the west end which is where the Kathryn Kate had caught some yellowtail the previous afternoon. Nice ride over and spotted many floating kelps in the channel. Water was 58.7 when we hit the west end and saw a couple of private boaters but nothing was biting. Stayed a couple of hours for nothing but blue perch, small sheephead and this little flounder that we threw back:
We had a limited supply of hoop bait so we moved to the area where we were going to start hooping all the while searching for bird schools and bonito which is the prime bait for lobstering. Nothing was happening and I was getting kind of worried we would not be able to deploy all of our hoops for lack of bait. I had made a list of all the All Coaster’s who posted that they were headed out to the island and John and his wife on their Tiara “Kathleen” responded and we traded some squirts for 3 fresh bonito. Thanks again John you saved our night! Thanks to another John, who regularly posts and as I have come to find out is a work associate of mine, we worked an area we had never tried before. Conditions were beautiful and summerlike but started off kind of slow. We picked through mostly shorts for the first hour and then the big boys came out to play. We ended up going through 40+ lobster to pull 12 legals which is our best night ever! I was exhausted as I pulled the last net in at 10pm and said let’s call it a night. Found some moorings that no one was using and tied up for the night. Woke up at 5:30am and I could not believe how warm it was with no wind. Felt like I was in southern Baja! Visibility was incredible as you could see the houses on Palos Verdes as well the San Bernardino Mountains. Just incredible. We had lost a net the night before so I looked around our hooping area before any boats arrived but no luck finding it. Headed for the west end but as others reported Saturday the wind was just howling and gusting through the passes including Iron Bound Cove. Lots of boat traffic but we were all having trouble staying on anchor and after 3 hours of anchoring and re-anchoring and no fish we decided to make our way to the front side. As soon as we turned the corner it was just gorgeous. Just a slight breeze but very warm. Even on the backside in Ironbound the heavy gusts of wind were warm. We stopped in an area of kelp I believe is called Lions Head. There were a couple of PBer’s that we saw on the backside fishing this area as well. Anchored in about 60 ft. just off the kelp and my wife Kay started catching blue perch, sheephead, small calicos and a few nice opaleye. It was wide open for her on the light spinning and squid strips. As someone else posted earlier that famous fisherman Mr. Rodholder got ripped on the live squid. I picked it up waited for another run and set the hook. Felt like a white seabass with the short runs and headshakes. Took me in the kelp a couple of times but I was able to maneuver him out. Saw color and Kay grabbed the gaff and handed it to me as she wanted to make sure that if something went wrong that all five fingers would point back to me. After one close call and a swing and a miss with the gaff I turned his head back towards the boat and sunk the gaff into the It’s 4 Reels! first legal WSB. It went 15lbs on the digital scale.
After another 45 minutes of nothing and a dwindling supply of our favorite beverage we decided to head for Two Harbors for lunch and provisions. The weather was so beautiful that we decided to stay one more night and see if we could fill out our limits of bugs as had a multi-day permit. The water taxi guy at Twin Harbors gave us a recipe for white seabass that turned out to be delicious. It involved smothering the fish in sour cream (lots of sour cream), mushrooms, chives, butter, lemon and baking it for 25 minutes or so. A totally different fish taste experience. We decided to head for an area where we heard of some bonito being caught as we did not have any hoop bait. Found the birds and caught 3 bonito and 3 mackerel. Just enough bait for our hoops. As we were drifting off the birds Kay started catching calico bass on the small chrome spoon she was using. I tossed out some live squid and it was wide open calico bass for the next hour and half. Here is Kay with an average size calico bass:
Biggest was about 4.5 to 5 lbs with lots of 2 to 3 lbers in the mix. Freezer is completely empty of fish so we kept 11 for fish tacos and a family fish fry. It was getting late so we headed to the previous nights hooping spot and it looked like a Christmas Lights parade in Huntington Harbor. Boats were lined up all along the island. We decided to deploy only 4 nets as the wind was blowing and I was pretty tired. First drop was nada and then we started having trouble with the nets. We lost one and a boat that was next to us was kind enough to take the time and drive up to us and ask we had lost a net. Didn’t get any name but thanks for retrieving our lost net. The current was ripping and we lost a light off a net but we were able to retrieve it. And it had one legal in it. By this time I’m pretty burnt out, our spot light was losing power and the wind was blowing. And we lost sight of another net. For whatever reason the buoy sank to just below the surface but with a little help from a backup flashlight and some expert driving by Kay I was able to find it and reach way down with the gaff fully extended and pull it up. It also had the biggest lobster for our trip. We were done! I was exhausted so we packed up and headed for the mooring area from the night before and after cleaning and stowing the nets I was fast asleep. Woke up at 6:30 to nice conditions and after a cup of coffee and securing our gear we headed back for Davies. Made it in less than an hour just as the wind was starting to blow. Took our time leaving Davies while talking to some nice people and made it to Ontario where we keep the boat by 2pm. After some pictures and lots of cooking by Kay and cleaning the boat by yours truly we had a feast fit for a king. Too tired to finish this report last night, but better late than never. Here are some pics of our catch back in Ontario, CA.
Our grandson Ashton:
Tristin (Ashton's mommy) with our feast:
Just another weekend in paridise California style! (Although it is raining right about now
)
We had a limited supply of hoop bait so we moved to the area where we were going to start hooping all the while searching for bird schools and bonito which is the prime bait for lobstering. Nothing was happening and I was getting kind of worried we would not be able to deploy all of our hoops for lack of bait. I had made a list of all the All Coaster’s who posted that they were headed out to the island and John and his wife on their Tiara “Kathleen” responded and we traded some squirts for 3 fresh bonito. Thanks again John you saved our night! Thanks to another John, who regularly posts and as I have come to find out is a work associate of mine, we worked an area we had never tried before. Conditions were beautiful and summerlike but started off kind of slow. We picked through mostly shorts for the first hour and then the big boys came out to play. We ended up going through 40+ lobster to pull 12 legals which is our best night ever! I was exhausted as I pulled the last net in at 10pm and said let’s call it a night. Found some moorings that no one was using and tied up for the night. Woke up at 5:30am and I could not believe how warm it was with no wind. Felt like I was in southern Baja! Visibility was incredible as you could see the houses on Palos Verdes as well the San Bernardino Mountains. Just incredible. We had lost a net the night before so I looked around our hooping area before any boats arrived but no luck finding it. Headed for the west end but as others reported Saturday the wind was just howling and gusting through the passes including Iron Bound Cove. Lots of boat traffic but we were all having trouble staying on anchor and after 3 hours of anchoring and re-anchoring and no fish we decided to make our way to the front side. As soon as we turned the corner it was just gorgeous. Just a slight breeze but very warm. Even on the backside in Ironbound the heavy gusts of wind were warm. We stopped in an area of kelp I believe is called Lions Head. There were a couple of PBer’s that we saw on the backside fishing this area as well. Anchored in about 60 ft. just off the kelp and my wife Kay started catching blue perch, sheephead, small calicos and a few nice opaleye. It was wide open for her on the light spinning and squid strips. As someone else posted earlier that famous fisherman Mr. Rodholder got ripped on the live squid. I picked it up waited for another run and set the hook. Felt like a white seabass with the short runs and headshakes. Took me in the kelp a couple of times but I was able to maneuver him out. Saw color and Kay grabbed the gaff and handed it to me as she wanted to make sure that if something went wrong that all five fingers would point back to me. After one close call and a swing and a miss with the gaff I turned his head back towards the boat and sunk the gaff into the It’s 4 Reels! first legal WSB. It went 15lbs on the digital scale.
After another 45 minutes of nothing and a dwindling supply of our favorite beverage we decided to head for Two Harbors for lunch and provisions. The weather was so beautiful that we decided to stay one more night and see if we could fill out our limits of bugs as had a multi-day permit. The water taxi guy at Twin Harbors gave us a recipe for white seabass that turned out to be delicious. It involved smothering the fish in sour cream (lots of sour cream), mushrooms, chives, butter, lemon and baking it for 25 minutes or so. A totally different fish taste experience. We decided to head for an area where we heard of some bonito being caught as we did not have any hoop bait. Found the birds and caught 3 bonito and 3 mackerel. Just enough bait for our hoops. As we were drifting off the birds Kay started catching calico bass on the small chrome spoon she was using. I tossed out some live squid and it was wide open calico bass for the next hour and half. Here is Kay with an average size calico bass:
Biggest was about 4.5 to 5 lbs with lots of 2 to 3 lbers in the mix. Freezer is completely empty of fish so we kept 11 for fish tacos and a family fish fry. It was getting late so we headed to the previous nights hooping spot and it looked like a Christmas Lights parade in Huntington Harbor. Boats were lined up all along the island. We decided to deploy only 4 nets as the wind was blowing and I was pretty tired. First drop was nada and then we started having trouble with the nets. We lost one and a boat that was next to us was kind enough to take the time and drive up to us and ask we had lost a net. Didn’t get any name but thanks for retrieving our lost net. The current was ripping and we lost a light off a net but we were able to retrieve it. And it had one legal in it. By this time I’m pretty burnt out, our spot light was losing power and the wind was blowing. And we lost sight of another net. For whatever reason the buoy sank to just below the surface but with a little help from a backup flashlight and some expert driving by Kay I was able to find it and reach way down with the gaff fully extended and pull it up. It also had the biggest lobster for our trip. We were done! I was exhausted so we packed up and headed for the mooring area from the night before and after cleaning and stowing the nets I was fast asleep. Woke up at 6:30 to nice conditions and after a cup of coffee and securing our gear we headed back for Davies. Made it in less than an hour just as the wind was starting to blow. Took our time leaving Davies while talking to some nice people and made it to Ontario where we keep the boat by 2pm. After some pictures and lots of cooking by Kay and cleaning the boat by yours truly we had a feast fit for a king. Too tired to finish this report last night, but better late than never. Here are some pics of our catch back in Ontario, CA.
Our grandson Ashton:
Tristin (Ashton's mommy) with our feast:
Just another weekend in paridise California style! (Although it is raining right about now
)
