As we stood in front of Newport Landing office, Tom Handzus and I looked at each other and felt the SW wind blowing against our backs. SW winds at Newport are not a good thing. We boarded the Amigo, with Captain Tom at the helm, all the kids were very excited and ready to go. Heading out to the bait receiver the rods were being prepared, with the help of Connor on deck. At the receiver we held our opening greeting, introduction and prayer time. A good load of sardines was put aboard, too bad they were not anchovies. First thing Captain Tom did was head out to the bell buoy to look at sea lions and had all the kids meet him up at the bow. He wanted to tell them not be on the bow on the way out, it was going to be very wet up there. Captain Tom believes a wet cold kid is not a happy camper. A very wise skipper. The boat headed down the coast toward Laguna. It was a little rough with stiff wind blowing. As we were traveling down the coast a great breakfast was served in the gallery by Ichrio – breakfast burritos, my favorite! The first place we stopped we had the wind and current opposite. The next spot had the right conditions, we started picking at fish, the bite was slow all day, but all the kids did get to pull on fish. The big fish for the trip was 2lb. 2oz. calico caught by Joe Cameron. There were other calicos caught, besides sand bass, tree fish, china perch, sculpin, and a lizard fish(boy they have a lot of teeth). Also we were mack attacked. As the bite slowed down toward the end of the morning, I heard one of the FIB’ers say, “If the fish won’t bite I will,” next thing we could smell burgers in the galley. Many new friends were made by both the Kids and the adults. As we started back up the coast the kids enjoyed their time on the boat, their new friends and the burgers. As we entered the harbor we had our closing prayer and gave the crew a grand cheer. Raffle prizes were given out to the lucky Jr. FIB’ers. We then took our group picture up on the bow. Captain Tom was great with kids. Good job to the crew of the Amigo, as usual. It was a really really fun trip, every one had a good time, and the fishing was soso. May God continue to bless the FIB’ers.
