Report by Floyd Spangler
The trip started off well, except our new friends from Salt Lake City, UT. took a little extra time to find us, yet we were off by 9:00 p.m.. The landing had cured sardines at the receiver and then we picked up 15 scoops of squid. Captain Tom was at the helm, with Ichoro in the galley and Connor on deck.with captain Bob as the the night skipper. The ride over Catalina was comfortable. We set up in West Cover right next to the Dreamer, which had been catching seabass during the week. We sure did drown a lot of squid. As seabass are know do, they were no shows for all the boats in the cove. At about 6:00 a.m. we started over to San Clement Island. There were reports of strong winds on the back side, which made it necessary to fish the front or lee side of the island. There was wind on the front side also, but not as strong, although it seemed to blow from all directions and over the top of the island. At the first stop we did have some yellowtail boil up toward the bow of the boat. Tom Handzus hooked what appeared to be a yellow, but it came unbuttoned. We made many moves during the day. There was a slow but steady pick of Calicos. The boys from Ut. had a great time catching Blue Perch. The big fish for the trip was a 5lb. 4oz calico caught by Floyd Spangler.
(It says something about the trip when a calico is the big fish) The fun part, Floyd said, was that the fish was caught on a hand painted jig!!
In the evening we went around the corner of the island and the wind had laid down. This made for a great dinner spot. Ichoro got the BBQ out, which he said they do not do for many trips now. I guess they still like us. While dinner was being prepared we caught a few more Calicos and the lone barracuda.
The boat started back at about 11:00 pm. A good time was had by all aboard. I guess what you could say about the trip was it would have a good day to go sailing.