Wide Open Calico Bite!!!

Greg with Calico Bass

 

Calico Bass hanging with 3 followers!!! (still frame from video)

 

Calico Bass

Greg with another nice Calico Bass

Santa Rosa Island - Vermilion Rockfish

Greg

Gus

Greg with 2 Vermilion (6lbs and 4lbs)

Gus with 2 Vermilion (4lbs and 3lbs)

2 Vermilion (5lbs and 3lbs)

First Fish on the Wildcat

Calico Bass

New Boat - the Wildcat!!!

Black Cod and Black-footed Albatross

Black Cod

Black-footed Albatross and Western Gulls

Black-footed Albatross

New Zealand 2009/2010

15lb Snapper

17lb Snapper

85lb Bass

Hapuka, Bass, and Blue Nose

25lb Hapuka

75lb Kingie (Yellowtail)

Typical NZ trolling outfit

OCMTC Overnight Tournment

Last September I went to New Jersey to fish the Ocean City Marlin and Tuna Club Tournament.    The OCMTC Overnight Tournament is a calcutta style tourny and points are earned for Marlin (Blues and Whites), Swordfish, Tuna (Bluefin, Bigeye, and Yellowfin), Wahoo, and Dorado.  The the wait period for the tourney is a week long and, based on the weather and current conditions, you pick the day and a half you would like to fish.  You leave the harbor a 4AM one day and must weigh-in before 4PM the following day.  While we waited for our weather window, my good friend Chris and I spent our time fishing the bay for black sea bass and flounder, and surfing the numerous beach breaks on the island.  When our window of opportunity came we made the 100 mile run out to the canyons.  The morning started of very good and then the day turned very bad.  The weather was incredible.  We got to the grounds in good time and set our spread.  Ten minutes into the day we had a quadruple hookup, all 15-25 pound Yellowfin Tuna.  We landed three of the four fish.  Within half an hour we added two more to the fish hold.  This is when things went down hill.  Knowing 15-25lb tuna where not going to win the tournament, we left a good size school of small fish to go look for a school of 50-150 pound Bigeye reported to be 10 miles to the north.  We found good signs of life but were unable to find the fish.  We did not get another strike until late that afternoon.  Around 3PM the wind came up, the sky got dark and the seas began building.  The captain and first mate were weighing our options and debating if we should head in or stay the night when we got a blind strike by a 70-80 pound White Marlin.  The fight did not last long.  The fish threw the hook about 30 seconds into the fight.  Shortly there after we decided the conditions were only going to get worse so we decided to head for home and it was a good thing we did.  The 100 miles that we were able to cover in 4 hours that morning, took us almost 10 hours that night.  It was a long day on the water.

Chris with a "HUGE" east coast Black Sea Bass

Matt fine tuning the spread

Yellowfin Tuna

the Calamity Jane - Ocean City, New Jersey

BONITA!!!

Gus with Bonita

Every so often here in the western end of the Santa Barbara Channel we get a shot at a few bonita.  Last fall, while Gus and I were out on the Te-Ca-Te trying to scratch up a few rockfish for dinner, we spotted fish boiling a few hundred yards away.  We ran over just in time to see a couple of bonita go airborne before the school went down.  We started fan casting the area trying to find the school.  On my fifth or sixth cast a dozen or so nice bonita came charging in after my plastic.  I made another quick cast and was instantly hooked up.  On Gus' next retrieve we both watched as a bonita inhaled his bait a couple feet off the tip of his rod.  It was an incredible rush.  After 10 or more laps around the Te-Ca-Te (our 12' Achilles inflatable) we both landed our fish and went home to make sushi.

2007 Lobster Opener

Catching your own lobster dinner can be a hard work.  Here are a few photos of our haul after the 2007 lobster opener.  It was Greg's first time doing lobster.  He never knew being wet, cold, tired, and sore could be so much fun.  The sun began to rise as we made our last few pulls of the night.  I looked over to see Greg's smiling face as he watched our hard earned catch crawling around on the deck of the Te-Ca-Te.

6lb bug

Greg with lobster

Greg and I playing with our food

Don't like rockfish,... lighten up!

Rockfish are often under appreciated or overlooked.  With the right conditions and properly matched tackle, rockfish can be heaps of fun.  This baccocio (14lbs) and vermillion (8lbs) were caught off Big Sur, California.  When favorable conditions allow for a slower drift rate I prefer to fish large 7"-12" swimbaits on a 20lb calico bass setups.  Fishing the swimbaits is a lot more involved than fishing with cut bait and the lighter setup allows for a challenging fight.  It makes things a little more "skilly" and a lot more enjoyable.  Both these fish were caught on a 4oz leadhead with a white 9" swimbaits.  If I am fishing shallower water (50'-200') I prefer to fish a Calstar 900XL paired with a Trinidad 12 filled with 50lb braid.

Southern California Striped Bass?!

While growing up on the beach I spent many hours checking the surf with a fishing rod in my hands.  The summer of 2001 was an especially good year for corbina.  One morning, during my early morning ritual, I got ripped by something much larger than your typical corbina.  The fish picked up my sand crab and made a screaming run parallel to the beach.  It was immediately apparent that I was going to get spooled so I started running down the beach after the fish.  My favorite 4lb ultralight rod was absolutely no help as I hopelessly tried to turn the fish.  After a brisk 100 yard run the fish found a rip, turned and started heading out to sea.  I watched as my spool got smaller and smaller.  With only a few wraps left on that tiny piece of aluminum I began to wade out after the fish.  After a few minutes in chest deep water I was able to turn the fish and gain some line back.  It was now twenty or so minutes into the fight and I was finally able to get a look at the fish.  A swell began to crest in its evolution into a wave just as the fish made a darting run across the face of the swell.  It was a striped bass!  The fish took one more good run before I was able to get her near the beach again.  A set wave came in and with a well timed effort I was able bring the striper up onto the sand.  The fish tipped the scale at 15.6 pounds.

First Big Flatty

At the age of fourteen I started working on the sportfishing boats out of Channel Islands Harbor.  To the right is a photo of my first 30+ pound halibut caught at Santa Rosa Island, circa 1996.