Outrider June 18 – 19 trip, first trip of the year and everyone is excited about fishing, the white sea bass limit is now 3 fish per day, people are fantasizing about catching 6 white sea bass in 2 days. On June 18th 11 people boarded The Outrider, out of San Pedro. As we start out of the harbor, the captain comes in and gives us the run down of the fishing. He says that he might tell us a story, but he would never lie to you. He said fishing has been very tough the last few days at Catalina Island, and only a few boats have scratched a white sea bass here and there. He told us the water temperature had dropped 3 degrees down to 57 degrees and that there has been no current around the island. So with cold water and no current the fishing conditions are not very good. As we got out of the harbor the wind was blowing a good 10 knots which made for a bumpy ride heading to Catalina Island. We got to the island at about 3 and started fishing. We caught a few small Calico Bass. We moved a few minutes later and fished from 3:30 – 7 around Indian Rock. We fished there for the next 4 hours. Mike Kaneen ended up catching a 2 ½ lb calico bass which was the jackpot fish for the day. Hats off to the cook, we all had a very nice steak, potato and salad for dinner. The cook’s name is Otis, and all the meals that he prepared were very good. Day 2 started out where ended up Day 1. Stopping at various spots here and there we fished all the way around the island. We were fishing kelp stringers for mostly small Calicos a few rock fish and the ever exciting blue perch. Val Handzvous caught a white fish that weighed 1 lb, 1o 0z WOW-WEEE, which ended up being the jack pot for the second day. By the fish count it was not the most exciting fishing trip by any means, but I wanted to say that I truly enjoyed the friendship and fellowship fishing with fellow FIB’ers, which always makes for a great trip. The skipper and crew were very helpful. We are still trying to get the dye from the squid out of our clothes. The total for the trip was 5 white fish, 4 sheepheads, 2 spargo, 1 short halibut, 1 octopus (thanks to Tom Handzvous)
Thank you to everyone who came!
Report by: Rick Chalmers
