The Fib’ers second 2020 1.5 Day trip aboard the Fury was Tuesday, September 1st. We departed Dana Wharf Sportfishing around 10:00PM. There were 21 of us, plus crewmembers. The weather around the dock was nice, and not too windy. Because of the California Coronavirus lockdown regulations, all passengers and crewmembers were required to wear a coronavirus prevention face mask, and also bring their own bedding.
After departing the dock, Charter Master Bernie Clayton led the group in prayer, requesting the Lord guide us safely as we traveled, and that we would have enjoyable trip. Fury Crewmen Travis mentioned that we would be heading to the Tanner Bank to fish for Blue Fin Tuna. Travis indicated it would be about a 10 hour ride to our targeted fishing area, and that because of the smaller 3”-4” bait, he suggesting rigging up with smaller hooks, such as a #2.
The ride down to the Tanner Bank was fairly rough. We started looking for Blue Fin Tuna around 8:00AM. Captain Marcus metered a school of Blue Fin a couple times, and we stopped to fish the schools, but no one hooked up. On a stop around 10:30, Captain suggested catching some bottom fish, as there were a large volume metered. As we switched to bottom fishing set ups, everyone started catching various bottom fish such as Salmon Grouper, Whitefish, and Rockfish. Fib’ers Tom Handzus and Floyd Spangler hooked up simultaneously, and were the first to bring a fish aboard. Both brought up Salmon Grouper. Fib’er Nick Rocco brought up the first “double hookup”, two Salmon Grouper, each weighing approximately 2 lbs. Jr. Angler Kevin Waits, son of Fib’er Ed Waits, caught his first legal calico bass, about 2 lbs. Ed Waits caught a large sheepshead that weighed 5 lb 8oz. Dan Spangler brought up a 5 lb 14oz barracuda, which turned out to be the jackpot fish of the trip.
Since the Blue Fin we spotted weren’t biting, Captain Marcus gave us a choice to continue searching the Tanner Bank area for Blue Fin, and see if our luck changes, or offered to head North to San Clemente Island and try our luck there. After discussing that idea amongst ourselves, the Fib’ers agreed to head to San Clemente Island. Shortly after beginning our trek to San Clemente Island, Captain Marcus spotted a school of Blue Fin. We pulled up to the school, and tried our luck. This time, Rick Chalmers, fishing a sardine, hooked up, and brought in a 12 lb Blue Fin Tuna. Rick didn’t sign up for the jackpot, so even though his Blue Fin was the largest fish caught this trip, it wasn’t the jackpot fish. There were no other hookups, so we continued our drive to San Clemente. Again, Captain Marcus spotted school of Blue Fin, but this time there were no hookups, so we headed to San Clemente Island. After a 3 hour ride, we arrived at the backside of San Clemente Island, and tried our luck. It was very windy, with wind swells, making the fishing more difficult. A few Fib’ers caught bottom fish, but no more luck with Blue Fin.
As we finished fishing around 7:30PM, Crewman Travis was preparing a nice Ribeye Steak Dinner with asparagus, scalloped potatoes, rolls, and ice cream & cookies for desert. We ate in two dinner shifts, and then as everyone finished dinner, we headed to bed.
We arrived back at the dock at 3:45AM. Before departing the boat one of the crewman took our group picture. Although only one Blue Fin was caught, we all headed home with tasty bottom fish filets that we would enjoy eating.

Report by Dan Ross

“Frustrating but fun!”

“Still beats working.”

“Amazing how many fish were puddling and breaking all day long.”

“Two eyes and a squirm.”

These were a few things said about this trip. It all began two days before the trip when Captain Marcus called and told me that there’s a large volume of Bluefin Tuna off the backside of San Clemente Island. They haven’t been biting a lot but we all remained optimistic. All 20 of the registered Fibers wanted to chase the Bluefin, and chase we did! Everyone arrived at the docs between 7 and 9pm. The docs looked like a normal weekend night. There were a lot of people enjoying their meals at the local restaurants and strolling along the walkway. I thought about COVID and was thankful that we were allowed to get out to fish and have a somewhat normal adventure. We all checked in a little after 9pm, started preparing our gear and off the boat went to grab some bait. The crew gave their safety talk and gave us info on what was working to catch the fish the day before. We opened the trip with prayer and off we went to San Clemente Island.
Most of the anxious passengers started rolling out of their bunks around gray light, and then the search started far behind the west end of the Island. The plan was to chase these fish south along the Island. We soon pulled up to what would be our first of many puddling fish. They sunk out as soon as we rolled up on them. This would be the routine for the day; Pull up to fish that we soon found out were feeding on those tiny anchovies (AKA two eyes and a wiggle). Finally, around mid-morning Charlie Massingill hooked a nice sized Bluefin. The fish came off after a few minutes. This seemed encouraging or so we thought. Every stop seemed to be the same routine of guys throwing Colt Snipers and Kent Elmore launching his 10” Mackerel pattern hard bait at those picky Bluefin. It seemed like we would have a better chance hitting them in the head and knocking them out. Frustration started setting in. It was around 12 when Valarie Handzus and Kent Elmore landed the first Bluefin that were both in the 28lb range and both were caught on Sardines. The routine continued as we chased what felt like endless number of bluefin.
Johnny Dewitt and I were the next to hook up sometime in the early afternoon. Fish seemed to be all over the place and the captain got on the speaker a lot and said, “Marking lots of fish 60 to 120 feet.” We all had hope that these would start feeding on the Sardines, but it just wasn’t meant to be. There were so many fish jumping and the big fish were mixed in too. It was crazy. I have seen Bluefin act like this before, but not the large volume that we saw everywhere we went. I ended up handing my fish off to one of the new young guns, Greg Shade, because he hasn’t caught a tuna yet. It wasn’t meant to be. The fish spit the hook. Johnny landed his Bluefin in the 20lb range. The day continued, and we picked at the fish up until it got dark. Tom Handzus landed a nice Bluefin in the mid 40 pound range which ended up being the jackpot fish. Nice job, Tom! We got to see Greg Shade hook into his own fish only to have the fish straighten what appeared to be the wrong type of hook. Greg had that blank look on his face as if to say, “what in the world just happened.” It was great to see him hook up. A lot of the guys didn’t get bit. Many went down to 20lb test but we all were hooking them on line up to 40. It wasn’t that they were line shy as much as full of the abundance of anchovies.
The last stop of the day proved to be the most entertaining. Kent Elmore hooked a fish earlier in the day on his popper but it spit the hook. This time was different. I think we all heard a splash at the bow and everyone up there went crazy with excitement. There was Kent, bent over making his way from the bow to the stern in what felt like 2 seconds. He had a nice one on. He fought it back up the starboard side all the way back to the portside stern corner. We all saw the fish come up and make a huge splash pulling line back out. Kent was able to bring the fish back up and the deckhand sunk the gaff in and pulled the fish over the rail. That fish ended up being in the 70lb range. It was the big fish, but Kent didn’t enter the Jackpot. This fish spit up a lot of those smaller anchovies…..all of the bluefin were plugged with them.
The fish put on a show the entire day. We held up hopes of the fish going nuts on our baits, but it wasn’t meant to be. We still ended up with 7 nice-sized Bluefin. Kent graciously donated his fish to those who didn’t catch any fish. Kent ended up being the hot stick with 4 hookups and 2 fish landed. Throughout the day we saw private boaters and a few party boats. The day had very little wind and we had the most smooth ride back to the harbor. I kept waking up thinking we were back at the harbor. The conditions were calm and overcast all day. A lot of the guys were very frustrated because they didn’t catch fish. That’s Bluefin fishing, right? Overall, we were all happy to just be out fishing on a great boat with an awesome crew. Captain Marcus is great to fish with and I look forward to the next time I get to fish on his boat.
Stay safe and, until next time, tight lines!

We had a great cod trip this year, but only 2 white sea bass were caught and 2 halibut. We did have 14 ling cod caught and every one caught or at least brought home limits of rock cod. The cod were big this year many going over 4 pounds. We caught very few small cod this year.

Our crew was great and the group of FIB’ers who came on the trip were super. All had patience when involved in knitting parties; the crew skillfully untangled the several messes. We had the usual open tackle box of sharing with each other whatever was needed . Walt G. won the jackpot with his Halibut.

The ride out and back was very smooth. Our evening departure was shrouded in fog, but smooth. We staggered out of bed about 4:30 and Val caught the first fish, a big white fish. Our luck on white sea bass was not good we tried for the ghost fish until 10am. While drifting for white sea bass and halibut we did pick-up some rock fish. Then we headed out for our meat run. We were successful on our first drop and every other drop produced a nice catch of good sized rock fish and some lingcod, too . Most rock fish were caught on squid but a few hardy souls were successfully using jigs off the bottom. Our bait was good; we had plenty of live squid for our white sea-bass fishing and used cut squid for our bottom fish.

Our boat total for the 19 fisherman:
2 Halibut,
14 Lingcod
22 White fish
190 Rock cod
2 white sea bass.

Big Fish Report
Walt Galen – Halibut 14.5
Steve Bermudes – Lingcod 10.4
Ron Withers – Cod 6.3
Shirley Bruhl – Cod 5.3
Val Handzus – Whitefish 5.2
Rodger McClanahan – Whiteseabass (no weight)

Around 9:00 PM August 9, 2019 Fiber Members and their guests departed Newport Landing aboard the newly remodeled Thunderbird, for a day and one-half of fishing. There were 29 of us. Before departure, Captain Jeff Markland gathered the group together to mention we would be heading out to fish San Clemente Island. He mentioned that unfortunately strong winds and a moderate swell were having an adverse effect on fishing results. As we departed the dock, Bernie Clayton led the group in prayer for a safe trip, and a trip with God’s blessings.
Friday was Fiber Ron Withers’ birthday. Ron’s good friend, and fellow Fiber, Dave Bruce brought Ron a wonderful large Birthday cake inscribed “Happy Birthday Ron – You Stud”. Unbeknownst to Dave and the rest of us, Ron had to cancel his trip RSVP at the last minute. However, we all gave Ron a Happy Birthday tribute, and ate his Birthday cake!
After getting bait at the bait barge, the Thunderbird was on its way to San Clemente Island. Cole, one of the crewmembers, gave a seminar regarding the various fishing techniques and tackle recommendations for Saturday’s day of fishing. Our main target was yellowtail.
Captain Jeff was right, as the swell was up, and the boat ride that night was a bumpy one. However, the bunks of the newly remodeled Thunderbird were quite comfortable, and despite the bumpy ride, nearly all Fibers and guests were able to get some sleep. Early Saturday morning, while still dark, Captain Jeff spotted a very large school of squid. The crew filled two large garbage containers with squid, and also loaded a large amount of squid into the boat bait tanks. The trip was off to a good start!
As gray light appeared, everyone was up and ready to fish. Captain Jeff suggested dropper loop set ups with squid while early fishing for yellowtail. Fiber member Val Handzus was the first person to catch a fish. A large 27lb, 13oz yellowtail. Val caught the yellowtail on a squid baited dropped loop. About an hour later, Val’s husband, Tom Handzus, caught the first legal size calico bass, measuring about 15 inches.
As the day progressed, sardines became the bait of choice. However, the sea lions were quite the nuisance, causing Captain Jeff to periodically do the “run and gun” fishing technique.
The biggest fish of the day, and Jackpot winner, turned out to be a large yellowtail caught on a sardine by Tony Marino. The fish weighed approximately 28 lbs, 5 oz. Tony was the “hot yellowtail stick” on the boat, eventually catching four large yellowtail. Ian Evans caught the largest calico bass. It weighed 4 lb, 13oz. It was caught on a sardine. Rick Chalmers caught a large 5’ – 6’ Leopard shark that was brought to the boat and then released. Fishing a sardine, Rob Whittaker caught a large bonito, the crewman estimated to be 10 lbs – 11 lbs. Paula Kunkel and Dave Bruce each caught a trigger fish (sardine was the bait). Paul Cowe caught a barracuda. A second barracuda was caught, but the person catching it was unidentified.
The final fish count for the trip was 20 yellowtail, 41 legal calico bass, a large number of non-legal calico bass (all released), two bonito, two barracuda, and 2 trigger fish.
As we arrived at the dock around 4 am Sunday morning (8/11/19), one of the crewman kindly took our group picture.

July 27, 2019 – I heard the difference between a hunter and a fisherman was the hunter lies in wait, while the fisherman waits and lies. That was not the case for this trip. Only the facts, Man. Only the facts! The only thing that required waiting was the long boat ride from Dana Point Harbor to the squid grounds off Pyramid code at San Clemente Island. All of the 20 eager Fibers started piling in around 8pm. This Charter Master tried to arrive at the docs before Tom and Valerie Handzus. I think I may have to camp out the day before if I want to beat them to the docs. We all wondered where we’d be hunting that day. The answer would come after we were all checked in by Jared the deckhand. All of the fellow FIB’er hunters loaded their gear, setup their rods and got their bunks ready. Captain Marcus called us to the galley and went through the safety info and trip details. I went through the FIB’ers trip info, opened with a prayer and off we went to SCI. Everyone retired to their bunks which is where I sat and stared into the darkness for what felt like an eternity. Not one wink of sleep. Not even the slow rollers could put me to sleep. Even the new addition of bunkhouse AC could help me sleep. The AC units are a nice addition to the boat.
Everyone started rolling out of their bunks around 4 or 5. There were a few boats around us lit up and trying to catch some live squid. The squid were periodically darting across our light in single digits and sometimes in a pack. Skip, Tavis, Sam and Marcus waited at the stern in anticipation of the squid swimming into their nets. We spent some time getting what ended up being just enough squid to fish dropper loop at first light. We made a short move close to the kelp and all of us dropped down to the bottom with a fresh squid. The hunters didn’t have to wait long or lie about what we caught. Things were kicked off when Tom Handzus was quickly bent with what ended up being the right kind. Tom landed a 24lb yellowtail. Then Walter, the Cameron brothers continued the action before the yellowtail went silent. There were a few barracudas and small bass mixed in with about a half dozen yellowtail.
We made a short move east around the front side of the island and anchored up close to the kelp. As always seems to be the case, the seals got the memo and were in full force. A few of the FIB’ers were able to get their decent sized sardines past the seals and were able to hook into some short and legal Calico bass. Rick Chalmers caught a nice 5.1lb Calico on a Sardine (released). Good job, Rick. After a few stops we were able to pick at more bass and some small and jumbo yellowtail. Mark “Yellowtail killer” Ross landed what would be one of five yellowtail throughout the day. In fact, he went 5 for 7 and was on fire. Two of his yellowtail came on mint green surface irons. Fred De Maria landed a solid 31 pound yellowtail on a swim bait. He dropped the swimbait back off the stern when Captain Marcus slowed the boat down and threw out some bait while we were moving. Nice catch, Fred! Jack Cameron’s Yellowtail went 14.15 pounds and is the biggest Yellowtail for a Fiber Jr. so far this year. Let’s see if another Fiber Jr. can top that catch this year.
We ended up on the far west end of the Island later in the day. Mark Ross hooked what would be the final and most memorable Yellowtail of the trip. There were seals everywhere and, you guessed it, Mark’s line started peeling out and up pops Mr. Seal with Mark’s yellowtail. If you know my brother then you know he’s an amazing fisherman and always determined to catch fish. This fish was no exception. Rick Chalmers caught the action on video. The endless tug of war ensued and we all know this usually doesn’t end well for the fisherman. This was the case throughout the day for a few heartbroken fisherman. To the spectator’s amazement Mark was able to start gaining line. Maybe there’s a chance he will land this fish. Mark even used the rail and put his Penn reel and Phenix rod to the test. Mark slowly gained back line and was able to pull the yellowtail close enough for the crew to gaff it. The only real damage to the fish was the guts were completely gone. The fish still had all of the quality meat on what ended up being a gutted 26lb yellowtail. What a battle!

The light started to fade while we were anchored up on the front side of the island. The fish started being sorted and memories were captured on camera. Robert Gist landed two Yellowtail over 30lbs. One was on bait and the other a surface iron. His 33lb yellowtail ended up being the jackpot fish. Awesome job, Robert! Did I mention what felt like the entire population of San Clemente Island seals followed us the entire trip? There were few losses to those pesky dogs and a few losses to failed line and pulled hooks. The keeper and short bass were very consistent during the trip. This Charter Master threw a 7” Viejos swim bait throughout the trip and ended up having one of the best Calico trips in a long time. Lots of quality keepers for everyone too. The boat counted 25 yellowtail, 107 Calico bass (217 released), 6 sheepshead, 10 whitefish and 15 bonito. The crew, as usual, were amazing and attentive to everyone. I couldn’t ask for a better group of people to fish with. I always look forward to fishing with the FIB’ers and getting to know everyone. What an awesome time and talented group of fisherman. We had 3 yellowtail over 30 and would have been 4 if Mark’s didn’t have the guts eaten by a seal. The Yellowtail ranged from smaller 4 pounders all the way up to 30+ fish.
Before going to bed, we broke down our gear and settled in for the uneventful boat ride home. We ended up at the dock around 4am, unloaded and headed home. Another banner trip and a few FIB’ers caught their biggest Yellowtail. Everyone caught fish and nobody got sick on the trip. Thanks again to all of the FIB’ers who were able to make it. Also, thanks for being patient with the trip dates being mixed up. Until next time, tight lines and God Bless!

Mark Ross

Robert Gist

Our Mirage trip was awesome! Our fishing crew began arriving around 5:30. Many arrived early, checked in for the trip, and then went to dinner. Five of us went to “Quincy Street”. Others went to various restaurants around Oxnard. We all made it back to the dock for boarding the Mirage at 9:00pm. Many of us had long faces after looking at the fish count for the previous day’s dock total: only 3 Whiteseabass were caught for the whole fleet.
We boarded the Mirage and began setting up our tackle. Captain Ryan shared that for the last 8 days Whiteseabass fishing was slow. We left the dock at 10:00pm. The first part of our fishing adventure was a little rock & roll. We arrived at Santa Rosa Island at about 4:15am. Captain Ryan took us to a spot that had not been fished for 8 days because of rough seas. Today’s weather was foggy and seas were calm with just a little roll. We started fishing for squid. An adequate amount of live squid were caught. We began fishing for whiteseabass at about 5:50am. Paula Kunkel caught the first whiteseabass a 12 pounder at 5:55am. Within a few minutes fishing bedlam broke out. We had at least 6 hookups going at all times, the scene was wild with fisherman running about, hooked onto big fish. The crew was GREAT! For the next 3 hours we had steady hook-ups of whiteseabass: 29 were landed and a few sad hook-ups were lost. We also experienced several sharks that gave many a false hope battle only to end in disappointment when it turned out to be a shark.
We had a dead time for about 2 hours before we headed out for rock fishing. The boat total for our trip was 2 California, Halibut, 2 ling-cod 31, Ocean White fish, 133 Rock Cod and 29 WHITESEABASS.
We had several top gun fisherman: Mike Kaneen landed 6 of the prized white sea bass, Adam Ho brought 5 on board. The over limit fish were shared with other fisherman. We also had a top gun woman fisherman (I’m old school), Paula Kunkel, landed not only 3 of the prized fish but she caught the largest at 18.5 lbs.
Special thanks needs to be expressed to the crew on the Mirage: Captain Ryan, Second Captain Chase, Alex in the galley and Victor & Larry on the deck. They were excellent at helping all fisherman land hooked fish and at untangling line, both for whiteseabass and rock cod. Erin, in the office, helped our club by adding two extra fisherman: Bob Gradias and Mercy Urrea, both very nice people and excellent fisherman.
The trip home was on glassy seas, with low clouds and small patches of sun. Our trip was “ONE FOR A LIFE TIME” for whitesea bass fishing. Wish more of our club could have experienced this trip.
Ken Kunkel, Charter Master

Sum Fun, Full Day Trip Report
Father & Daughter Gist

5AM- Everyone got on board including three generations of Quimbys. With great reports of hungry Yellowtail at Catalina all of us were hoping to get a chance to catch a few. The crew loaded perfect sized Anchovies and Sardines. We had our group meeting and prayer, and then we were headed towards the east end of Catalina and everyone either took a nap or rigged tackle. The water was slightly bumpy with a brisk SW wind and cloudy skies. We arrived at our first spot near the rock quarry around 8:30am and before the anchor was set, Walter Valk landed a 2# Bonito, and more were added by most of the anglers right afterwards. The Bonito bite quickly fizzled.
10AM – we were 2 stops into the trip and only had a few Bonito and a nice Barracuda caught by Derek Demun.
11AM-Tons of private boats were anchored up all around us, and a few other charter boats and still not many bent rods. We all got excited when Ed Waits hooked into what seemed like the right kind of fish, and fought it up the starboard side of the boat, but all of laughed when we discovered it was actually a seaturtle that was safely released. No one on board, including the captain had ver seen a seaturtle get caught on rod and reel in our local waters, and to add to that, Derek Demun caught one a few hours later.
Captain Brain Woolley worked hard, and moved the boat around a lot, while sticking with his gut that the Yellowtail were going to bite in that east end zone later in the day. Woolley even ventured around to the backside of the island a few times, but not liking the conditions he saw, he kept going back to the eastern tip of the island and sliding in between the boats relying on his hunch that the Yellowtail would show. Woolley’s final attempt to anchor on one of the east end spots ended in frustration and almost running into a private boat that was already anchored up due to the currents swirling around and increasing as the day went by. Thankfully his second try at this spot worked and he got the boat anchored in the position he was trying for. Unfortunately for the guys in the boat we almost ran into, they quickly pulled anchor and were on their way. Little did they know that a big school of hungry Yellowtail were on their way into the zone.
12:30PM- The fish finally came boiling off the stern, and most baits in the water that were swimming away from the boat were quickly gobbled up by hungry Yellowtail ranging in size from 10 pounds to 26 pounds! For the next two hours the crew and anglers went to work trying to convert on our golden opportunity we had been waiting for all morning. Unfortunately not everyone got a bite, and casualties were high for those that did! When the dust settled, we had boated 13 really nice Yellowtail! Kudos to the crew who worked really hard and had a great system in place to give us the best shot at landing the fish – one deckhand stood on the bait tank and threw chum scoop after scoop to keep the fish near the boat, while Woolley and two others helped anglers get out of tangles and gaff fish. Bernie Clayton won the jackpot with a beautiful 26# Yellowtail!
5:30PM – We made it back to Dana Point with tales of victory and the ones that got away.

Bernie Clayton with the 26# Jackpot Yellowtail

Derek Demun with his 4.08# Barracuda

Father and Son fun on Father’s Day Weekend
Jeff & KC Lee