Report by Kenneth Kunkle
We had a great trip again with a wonderful group of young people. We left the dock about 7am under cloud cover, picked-up a load of bait, and were off in search of fish. It did not take long until we found some very cooperative bass and mackerel. Most of the bass were of the 12 to 13 inch variety, but several keepers were caught. Some of the mackerel were of keeper size and were kept and cleaned to provide for fish tacos for our fishermen. The weather was overcast with calm seas. It was great to see the excitement on the fishermen’s faces all trip long. We caught fish until it was time to return and Mr. Sun paid us a visit. Thanks to Julie, Valerie, Paula and Neil and especially the crew on the Aggressor for all their help assisting our anglers with respect and patience during our fishing adventure. Special thanks goes out to the Friends of Rollo organization for their financial assistance with this trip.

Our trip aboard the Sum Fun started bright and early at 5:00 AM the day before Father’s Day. 26 FIB’ers all arrived on time, got checked in and got acquainted with some new and some old friends. The captain and crew quickly filled the tanks with beautiful Anchovies from the bait recievers. Captain Brain Wooley decided that we would spend the first part of the day looking offshore for kelp patties. We looked hard, but only found whales. Afterwards, we ended up off San Onofre anchored up just off the kelp line. We immediately started to pick off smallish Calico Bass. Unfortunately, as quickly as the bite started, it fell off as a giant Sealion came in an put the kabosh on the bite. Then we moved south to another kelp line where the same thing developed – a decent pick on the bass, then a visit from a Sealion. We continued this routine well past the Barn Kelp before working our way back up. The seas were nice and it was sunny out with a trickle of current pulling some of the kelp below the surface. At one stop, 2 Trigger fish were caught within seconds of each other. The biggest one was by Ed Waites which tipped the scales at 4#’s. Ed’s Trigger fish turned out to be the jackpot for the trip.

The largest Calico Bass of the trip was caught by Mark Montgomery – 2.3#’s

Mike Ricigliano caught the largest Sandbass – 2.3#’s

One of the coolest catches on this trip was made by Ron Withers Sr. who caught this Spotted Bay Bass along one of the kelp lines miles and miles away from any harbor entrance.

We made our way in at around 4:30 and arrived back at Dana Point Harbor by 5PM. All in all, it was nice day of fishing the local kelp lines. New friends were made, and one group had 3 generations on the boat – Isaac, Jayson and Dorian Quimby.