By Del Brunning
August 7, 2009
On a windy Thursday evening, 10 FIB’ers and 3 guests
left Newport Landing on the “Amigo” with high anxiety and
the hope of fishing for Yellowfin Tuna at the Cortes Bank.
Captain Mike informed us that the weather was being
reported as “nasty” by some boats ahead of us with 15 mph
winds plus gusts. After loading up with some nice “dines,”
and with live squid on board, we headed out. As we got
under way, we were all instructed to stay off the deck for
our own safety. The ride across the channel was all that
it was reported to be as we ROCK ‘N ROLLED all the way
to San Clemente Island. It was just way too stormy to do
anything else.
The early birds got a nice bite on Barracuda, but it went
away quickly. Jim Kiech managed a 6 pounder. This was
followed up by a nice Yellowtail bite in which Jim Kiech
landed the jackpot fish, a 27# Yellowtail. The remainder of
the day was spent fishing the coves of the island in fairly
pleasant waters catching a variety of nice fish including
guest Chris Yates’ 5.25# Halibut, and guest Greg Henry’s
11# White Sea Bass. Tom Handzus and Jim Kiech also each
landed a beautiful 4# Calico Bass. When we did venture out
to try to meter some fish away from the island, we played
“How far can we tip the Amigo on its side before…..”, so
we gave that up.
All in all, the day proved to be a beautiful day for fishing
as we landed a wonderful quantity of quality fish.
Final tallies were (fish kept): 14 Yellowtail, 8 Barracuda,
1 Halibut, 1 White Sea Bass, 20 Calico Bass, and a large
variety of other rock fish.
The trip ended with the traditional evening dinner which
is always the “eating highlight” of the trip and the weather
laid down a bit for our trip home. The Lord again blessed
us with some fine fishing, great fellowship, and safety.
Thank you Lord!