Below is a report about the trip by Valerie Handzus
Tom and I finally got to Ventura Harbor Friday after fighting traffic for 3 1/2 hours all the way from Orange County to Ventura Harbor. Before boarding the Amigo for an overnight fishing trip, some of us enjoyed a nice seafood dinner at a restaurant right at the landing.
We left the harbor around 10:00 p.m. with everyone eager to get their gear ready for a hopeful fishing day. One by one everyone retired to their bunk as we were scheduled to start fishing for bait in the morning around 3-4 a.m.
On our way out to Santa Cruz Island we hit some wind chop and swells in the channel which made laying still in our bunks a little difficult and on the way the boat experienced a little engine trouble but the captain managed to quickly address the situation and get us underway.
We got to the fishing grounds at O-dark-thirty and first tried to catch squid and mackeral for bait with little success. No squid showed but we did managed to get about 30 mackeral in the tank. As gray light appeared, everyone tried their luck at catching a whiteseabass. They made a great showing at the island the week before but it looked like we might have just missed the hot bite by a few days as we were unable to get any to come around the Amigo. Before the captain decided to make a short move, one of our club members did manage to entice a nice 50-70 lb. black seabass out of it’s hole and caused a little excitement for all. It was released and sent back to it’s home.
Wind conditions and rough water kept the captain from making it to one of his planned fishing spots so we moved to an alternate rockcod fishing hole that produced around 30 rockfish. Around 9:30 a.m. the captain decided to make another move. Unfortunately, while doing so, the boat blew one of it’s engines and caused us to abort our fishing trip early and head back to the landing. We slowly made it back on one engine and arrived at the dock around 2:00 p.m.
Thank you Captain Ricky for all your effort and for getting all of us back safely, and to Ginny the cook who made us a great breakfast, and to the crew Antonio, Collin and Steve for all your hard work. Although our trip was cut short, we still had a great time enjoying our fellowship and fishing together. I hope the old saying “better luck next time” holds true because the FIB’ers have another trip scheduled on the Amigo again in August.

Thanks to Val for writing such a complete summary of our Amigo trip. To add just a few more details: Ron Withers won the jack-pot with a 4.1 pound Salmon Grouper a close second was Manny Moumdjian with a 4.0 Red Snapper. Jim Kiech was the one who provided the excitement with the black sea-bass. The Amigo owner met us at the dock and promised us a full refund for our trip. Please be have patience with our club as we sort out the refunds.
Your Charter Master,
Ken Kunkel