FIB’er friend Manny M. hooked and lost the largest trout of his fishing career at Irvine Lake this morning fishing with his 7 year old daughter. After a monster fight and five jumps out of the water, this is all that the monster trout left him with!

This is the kind of stuff that makes you come back for more – Keep at it Manny!!!

Ron Withers and Jayson Quimby sent in this report from their adventures during the SWBA California Offshore Challenge:
Day 1 & 2 always begin in total darkness @ 5AM sharp. We leave Two harbors, Catalina and venture 38 miles to San Clemente Island; the home of some of the best Calico Bass fishing in the world.

Day 1
The seas were as good as it gets. Flat calm and a little 4-6 foot NW swell allowed us to be set up in about an hour! On board with us during Day 1 was JT from “Stoked on Fishing” shooting stills and video for an upcoming episode of the show. {all photos by Eric “JT” Belson}

Until next time – God Bless!

Fellow FIB’er, Julie Dunn, recently contributed a story to the Coastal Angler magazine about the October 4th 1.5 Day Charter on the Pac Voyager.
Nice job Julie!!

Check it out on page 26!

http://www.coastalanglermag.com/magazines/2012/orange-county/

Report by, Jayson Quimby
I never had the privilege of fishing on the Pacific Voyager until this year. I had heard many great things about the boat and its crew. To say we had a great 1.5 day trip on the Pacific Voyager last week would be an understatement. The fish bit all day and we actually limited early and left them biting! The boat left the dock early with 21 FIB’ers aboard. We baited up less than 100 yards from the dock with what the captain and deckhands were calling the best load of Sardines they had seen all Summer! Anticipation of a great day ahead escalated as Captain Tom went over the basics and emphasized that the fishing for Yellowtail, Dorado, Yellowfin Tuna and Bluefin Tuna had been outstanding the last few days. The goal was to head 80 miles SW of San Diego near the 1010 Trench, to look for Kelp Patties and biting fish. We were all up at sunrise, and within a couple minutes the trolling rods were bit – small Skipjack and Yellowfin Tuna were bounced aboard. On one of the first troll stops, Jim Kiech soaked a Sardine, and caught a Short Billed Spearfish (a very rare catch off our coast!).
Captain Tom insisted we keep moving in search of a kelp patty to fish. It didn’t take the crew long to find one – you can see it over Rick’s shoulder in this picture
It didn’t look like much from above the waterline, but man, I would have loved to take a look below! Once Todd got the boat positioned every bait and lure that hit the water was instantly bit! First it was small Yellowtail, then it was medium-sized Dorado, and as we drifted further away from the kelp patty it turned into straight Yellowfin Tuna. Wow, talk about wide open, it doesn’t get any wider than that! From bow to stern, every rod was bent. Andrew Gomez was even hanging YFT casting a Shimano Waxwing on one of his Bass rods! Immediately, the crew went to work maintaining a steady chumline, untangling lines, gaffing fish, unhooking fish, tagging them and putting them in the fish hold. Todd and the crew put on a great show by excitedly narrating the entire scene. I found myself smiling not just because the fishing was so good, but because of the way they brought everything to life with their enthusiasm. I could go on and on about the captain and the crew, but I will just end with saying this was probably the most entertaining crew I have ever fished with! We drifted away from the kelp for several hours catching fish after fish! TAKE A LOOK IN THE FISHHOLD!
Eventually it slowed to a pick bite, and Todd decided to look for another kelp to fish. It didn’t take long, maybe an hour, to find another one, and before you could say “Dorado!” your bait was bit and line was peeling off your reel! Man that is such a great feeling! Like the other patty, this one was absolutely loaded. As we drifted away from the patty the YFT went wide open and some nice Bluefin Tuna were also caught!






It was this patty that also kicked out several jumbo sized YFT. Santa, Phil Diment, Rick Chalmers, and Tom Handzus each caught fish that easily cleared 35 pounds




Their fish was topped by Dave’s nearly 50 pounder. Dave caught it on 25# test mono, and fought it for nearly an hour and a half. It was good enough to be the biggest one he had ever caught, and it ended up being the jackpot fish of the trip. Below is a video of the gaff and Dave lifting the beast!

One of the most exciting and new things that happened to me was catching a YFT on The Kite. Captain Todd liked the setup I was using (thanks Ron Withers) and asked me if I wanted to fish The Kite. He said he had seen a nicer grade of BFT on the surface down swell from us and that the kite would be a really good way to try to get one to bite. First they fly the kite, and then they bait two hooks on a specially designed rig. The baits are then sent out down swell skipping along across the surface. It didn’t take long for the voracious tuna to crash the surface to get the bait. Even though I only caught an average sized YFT, seeing it crush the bait on the surface was a site to see, and definitely worth the price of admission. After this drift we fished the kelp another time for similar results. We ended the day with the BFT just beginning to make a solid showing, but since the fish holds were both plugged with fish, and we were getting low on bait, we made the decision head for home a little early with full limits of YFT and a very nice sampling of Yellowtail, Dorado, and BFT.

I will conclude with some testimonies from some fellow passengers on this epic trip:
“The Pacific Voyager never ceases to give this club amazing fishing trips and this trip was no different! The wide open Yellowfin Tuna bite was steller. Not to mention landing a nice YFT on my bass set up with a Waxwing lure. This was such a great trip with amazing people. I can’t wait o do it again!”
-Andrew Gomez

“Tom and Valerie Handzus caught YFT, BFT, and Dorado during this epic 1.5 day trip. Tom got his personal best YFT of 37+ pounds. We caught so many fish we are wiped out and very happy. Fantastic fishing. Best trip in a long time. Good crew – good food.”
-Tom Handzus

“I caught my first Yellowfin Tuna, Dorado, and Skipjack. My fish were aprox. 10 pounds. I had a great great time! God is so good. Jesus really blessed our trip. Good Times!”
-Julie Dunn

“This was truly an epic trip – the quality of fish off only 2 kelps was amazing. When we slid in on the paddy it was instant Dorado – just crazy, and they were 15-20 lb. class Dorado. Then the bite turned into hours of non-stop Yellowfin. At our late-afternoon stop, several anglers managed to catch some nice-grade Bluefin. It was an awesome trip. We were blessed!”
-Phil Diment

Please enjoy all of the pictures from this trip below.

Report by Floyd Spangler –
Talking to Captain Tom, we agreed to leave an hour early. Everyone was at the dock early, loaded and we left the dock at 8:00 pm. At the bait receiver Captain Tom had put aside a box of sardines, in good shape. Ichiro and Conner loaded the bait and we were off. It has been a long time since we traveled down the coast, parallel to it. By five the next morning we were in the area we were going to fish. This area was next to Tiajuana, but about forty miles offshore. The morning started by looking for kelp paddies. The first few held only a few fish. Then we found the right paddy holding a good number of fun sized Yellowtail and a few Dorado. Everyone caught their share of fish. Santa got his first Dorado.

The rest of day was spend looking for and fishing kelp paddies. We caught about a 100 Yellowtail and 5 Dorado.Sam Camarillo was the lucky jackpot winner with a Dorado that weighed 11 lbs.

The crew made sure that the fish were put on ice down in the hole on a regular bases. This made for some really tasty eating. Everyone caught fish and had a really good time.

Report by Phil Diment
I finally managed a Dorado. We left from Huntington Harbor on Sat and went way past the 14 mile bank in some pretty rough water. Found a group of sportfishers around a good sized paddy. We fished it for quite a while and were just reeling in to leave when this bull Dorado hit me on the retrieve. It weighed a little over 18 lbs.

Andrew Gomez was the gaffer — Jeremy (Andy’s SWBA partner) did the filming.
A very rough ride back home. Over 70 miles put on the boat.
Phil

Cedros Adventures Trip August, 2012
After a year of planning and anticipation we started out early Monday Aug. 20th. At the last minute 2 of the previously people were not able to go due to family crisis. We were able to fill one of the spots and one angler generously donated his ticket to one of our club members. The only contingency was that the donor would bring back some yellow tail filets for his family.
The team met at my house at 3:30 am after everyone’s goods were packed by Gilberto, our friendly chauffer, we left at approx… 4:15 am. We drove down and crossed the border with no trouble, stopped in Ensenada for a bite to eat. The restaurant that we stopped at was part of a hotel. The hotel had all the normal accommodations which were very much appreciated as we were told that the plane was going to be departing in approx. 3 hours. We were then told that we could lounge around the pool to pass the time, or we could use a room to take a snooze in. This is where I took nap #1. At approx. noon we were loaded back into the van and headed to the Ensenada airport, and there we had the usual check of luggage by the Mexican Military. The service that Gilberto, our chauffer gave us was just amazing. The entire time we did not have to move any of our own luggage. At approx. 1 PM we all got into the airplane and took a nice flight to Cedros Island. On our flight down, we were able to see the beautiful Baja coast along with many whales being sited. The landing at Cedros was very smooth, taking into consideration that the terrain looked a bit rough. Once again the Cedros Adventures guys grabbed all of our luggage and loaded it onto 2 trucks and we were off to the villa, approx. a 10 min. ride. The villa offered beautiful views of the ocean, in fact it sat right on the ocean. When we arrived at the villa we hunted down our rooms, which were all nicely appointed with comfortable accommodations. Each room had its own refrigerator which was stocked with bottled water and all the soda you wanted. Plus all the cookies and chips you could ever ask for. These items are all included – there was no additional charges for these much appreciated snacks/beverages.
After we got all of our gear out, a few of us decided to check out the sea shore. Casting out multiple times, there was only 1 Calico Bass caught. Now our hearts were ready for more excitement, but not till manana.
Dinner and the appetizers were always delicious and more food than most people could ever eat. Topped off with my favorite dessert, ice cream!
Tuesday, we woke up at 5:30 am and after a light cereal breakfast in our rooms, we were on the water by 6:15. My boat included Jim K & Jayson. Of course we can’t neglect to mention the food that was packed for all of us, always the best breakfast burritos followed with beef burritos for lunch. Personally, there is nothing better than the breakfast burrito chowed down while on the water. We started out jigging for yellow tail and caught a few averaging 20 – 30 lbs. Then Jim hooked up into a nice fish, that turned out to be a black sea bass at 47 lbs.

A few minutes later I hooked into a white sea bass that turned out to be the biggest white sea bass ever for me, at 57 lbs.

By noon we had 9 yellowtail, between 20 – 30 lbs. So our captain heads to a kelp covered high spot to catch calicos. Over the remaining 5 hours we caught over 100 calicos with the fish ranging from 2-6 lbs.
Over the next few days, the other boats had some great catches. On Floyd’s first day he lost 3 makeral baits to the sea lions, as these were being slow trolled behind the boat. On his second and third day he caught a 39 lb yellowtail, calicos up to 6 lbs., bonito at 10 lbs and a barracuda at 9 lbs.

Ken and his son in law, Eric, had many large yellowtail including Ken’s largest one of the trip at 40.1 lbs.
Eric had many yellowtail up to 37 lbs and calico up to 8 lbs.

Mike K and his buddy Eric and Merrilee were together.
Merrilee brought home yellowtail 27-28 lbs, she had more of her big makeral baits and Yellowtail eaten by our seemingly ‘very friendly and cute well-fed sea lions’.

Mike K and Eric also went home with many good size yellow tail and calicos

We all fished till we were more than tired. Our boat fished 11 ½ hours most days while other boats chose to come in after a 9 hour day. You could fish as long as you wanted or as little as you wanted. You were even able to come in for lunch and then head back out. It was always your choice.

Day 2 on our boat (Rick, Jayson & Jim K) fished for Calicos, we easily caught 100 calicos a day. Jayson and Jim were tied for big fish honors with 2 Calicos at 7 lbs each. My largest was approx.. 5 lbs. Our skipper knew how to maneuver the boat right into the rocks using the waves so that we could cast right to the spots that we had targeted. Every spot produced good size fish.

Day 3 we fished for nothing but Calicos, however Jayson did catch an 11 lb Sheephead, and we caught a few small yellowtail in the kelp which is always fun on bass gear. Jayson and Jim had to break their tie for the largest calico bass, it came later in the day and Jayson hooked up with the largest calico for the trip at 8 lbs 11 oz.

I came back with my personal best with 2 fish almost back to back with 6 lb 10 oz followed by another bass at 6 lb 11 oz.

After a day of fishing the employees at the villa would always be waiting anxiously for us and offering us 3-4 platters of appetizers, which ranged from quesadillas to ceviche, guacamole and chips and much more.
The hotel accommodations also offered a great place for us to rinse off our gear with fresh water, and every dinner that we had was always better than the day before. The last night we were all treated to 2# ribeye steaks cooked over a wood barbeque. The last night I was also surprised with a strawberry cake celebrating my birthday.
This was definitely the best trip of my life time! There have been many wonderful places that I have had the privilege of fishing, but this trip was the best of the best. There was no detail that was left undone. It was so outstanding that it is hard to describe each and every detail that was so lavishly provided for us.
The staff was always very friendly and very happy to answer any question and meet any need that we had. They were always there with a helping hand, asking what they could do to help.
We have already scheduled a trip for next year in June 17-21st. As of right now, there are only 3 openings left.

Video of our trip down:

Below is a quick edit of some video of Rick Chalmers, Jim Kiech and Jayson Quimby getting some good ones the first morning.

Below is an edit of Rick Chalmers, Jim Kiech and Jayson Quimby getting some good Calico Bass fishing in!!

FIB’ers Cedros Isalnd Calico Bass Fishing 08222012 from Kelp Kritter on Vimeo.

Below are over 300 photos taken on 4 different cameras, and placed in no particular order.