Mission Viejo – March 22.
Started out with a chance of a little drizzle, but it turned out to be a beautiful day. We had 9 people showing up, and we caught fish. Steve Bermudas decided to fish the shore while Suzie walked the lakeshore. Steve started catching fish right away from the shore and was quickly inundated by other younger anglers who crowded into him. Dave & Cathy Shill and Chuck Wheeler rented one boat and as they were on fish all day long, they had many break offs. The big one must have got away, Dave said that the hook was straightened out! That’s power. Other than the usual catch of trout, Dave had caught a blue gill which he was looking forward to having for dinner that night. Art Gomez and Mike Keene were in another boat. Mike was trying out a new pole that he bought at the Fred Hall show, the $19.95 special. Mike and Art caught a few fish but they bailed out at 11:00 deciding to go home. My wife and I fished down by the dam and we were on fish most of the day. During the day I attempted to call Dave and tell him where we were, but he didn’t answer his phone..his comment was something to the affect of “ I don’t answer my cell phone when I have fish on”. Julie and I were close to getting our limits when I did not secure one of our stringers to the boat and three fish got away..they would be dinner for the Bass. Then we relocated to a new location and had a nice drift for our last two fish of the day. Julie had her limit before I had mine.
Afterwards we all weighed our fish in and we had no big fish. There were a couple of trout that were caught in the MVLake Tournament that were over 6 lbs. MV Lake threw us a nice barbeque with the usual hamburgers, hot dogs, chips, salads, cookies and sodas.
After we had our barbeque lunch, we swapped fish stories and pictures, cleaned our fish and headed home around 1 in the afternoon. Steve decided to hang out longer to see if his luck would return. All in all a nice day and we look forward to perhaps doing the same next year.

Good times at San Clemente Island!

Jim and Dave fished Round 1 of the 2014 Saltwater Bass Anglers series and bested the 55 team field, with a 2nd place finish! This event was based out of Long Beach, and the fishing was incredibly tough! Nearly half of the teams did not weigh a fish, and only six teams weighed a limit. WTG guys!

Check out this post on the SWBA site: SWBA

Seasons is an awesome charter operation! Capt. Jamie Thinnes is a very cool dude, family man and knows his stuff. Used to work at Davye’s Locker on the T-Bird and Freelance back in the day. On Deck was Bob Beyer; Bob used to come to FIBers back in the day 7-10 years ago. His work schedule and two little kids at home combined with his wife’s schedule made it where he couldn’t come the meetings. But he was stoked to hear that we were FIBers guys.
The rigs are clean, very nice and very fishy! We were on the 34 foot Parker which Jamie runs with guys of 4-6. If doing overnight or 1.5 day they run 4 due to sleeping accomodations. The other boat is a 25 footer which they will run 3-4 guys on (maybe two for overnights) run by Duane. They run all year doing this rockfish from Nov-March, switching to the islands for yellows and whiteseabass from March-June, then offshore all summer. During seabass season he parks the 34 footer at Huntington Harbor and runs to cat and sci. The other rig stays in SD and hits up Coronados and La Jolla.
This was a very interesting and productive alternative to fishing overnight or 1.5 trips out of the Landings to Mexico to fish for rockfish during the closure. The cost is a hair better, the quality of fish is awesome, you fish on a clean, modern and efficient rig and you do it with a few of your close friends. The service is top notch. The best part is not having that long boat ride to the grounds and back. You get a better experience in a 3/4 type of trip! Pack some food and drinks and go have fun!
Report time; Manny, Robert, his son Garen and I met up at Dana Landing at about 5:45am. Loaded onto Seasons 34 foot parker pilot house powered by twin 350 horse 4 stroke Yammies. The boat is equipped with sleeping quarters for four, a head with shower, seating area with table, two flat screen TVs, sink, microwave and mini fridge. Their fishing electronics were all top Furuno products. Intros between us and Capt Jamie Thinnes and Bob Beyer on deck followed by safety first and intro to the rig. Stopped at the receiver and loaded up with some fisty, very well cured, mini macks!
Crew took care of all the gear, rigging and baiting. They are equipped with Phenix rods and Shimano two speed reels spooled with Spectra and a very short top shot of heavy mono. Mini max were pinned to a 7/0 mustad hook on a dropper loop above a 12 ounce torpedo. You are welcome to bring your own gear and tackle but Seasons is very accommodating and their gear is top notch. In addition to the mini macks the crew had fresh dead squid which a second dropper loop was tide and a whole squid was pinned to a 3/0 hook.
Short ride 45 minutes from Mission to a high spot North of the Coronados. Glass conditions with clear skies and little wind. Watched the sun come up and did some whale watching on our way, thank you Lord for your awesome creation, what a display of His glory were we blessed with! As soon as we got to our first drift a fog bank rolled in and hung over the coast for the rest of the day with very few pockets of sun peaking through. We made several drifts over a high spot dropping our offerings down to 350 feet. The soft wind made up and down fishing very easy. We picked away at bottom critters with most drifts getting bites and hanging one to three fish at a time. Due to the size of the baits and the area Capt. Jamie had us on, the fish that broke the surface were quality in size. The very elusive (yeah right!) Salmon Groupers were chomping on the fin bait as were the lings. Many lings would grab the fin bait without sucking it down first so it took some finese to let them eat it before setting the hook. I was able to bring the first ling of the day over the rail and what turned out to be the largest fish of the day. Large Reds were mostly eating the squid, but a couple decided they wanted the fin bait as well. By the time our fishing time was done we had brought up 3 lings, 5 large reds and 12 of the ever elusive salmon grouper. Afternoon winds and current did make the drifts a little harder but we still had our shots even through the last drift of the day.
Bob cleaned fish and the washed down while we enjoyed conversation and fellowship in the wheelhouse and on deck. We were back at the dock before 3pm. After taking care of this great crew, grabbing our heavy sacks of fillets and saying “Until next time!” (and there will be a next time) we headed off to Old Town for dinner and football before hitting the road home.

Seasons Sportfishing

Thursday, October 3rd was another epic, season ending 1.5 day trip for 16 FIBers aboard the “Pride” It was the very same day last year we ended the season, and ended BIG! Last year it was wide open yellowfin fishing to 48#, this year wide open blue fin fishing to 33#, with limits all around!! The weather was great as usual, and Capt. Greg Gawitt and crew put us on fish at greylight and we were still on fish at sunset. It was bluefin fishing at it’s finest, and we thank the Lord we were there! This was our first trip aboard the Pride, and Capt. Greg and crew are carrying on a tradition of So. Cal. sportfishing at it’s best: friendly, professional, courteous service. Thanks to all the members and friends who support these charters and hope to see you again next year!
Dave Shill

It was a zoo at Seaforth Landing on the Sunday night we were on leaving for our 1 day trip on the Voyager. All the weekend charters were coming in and the buzz at the landing was that there were fish, they were close, and there were a lot of them. So we left Seaforth at around 9:30pm with our Capt. Todd Meyer at the helm and were off heading south. The plan was to head about 60 miles south and paddy hop in search of yellowtail, dorado, yellowfin, and possibly bluefin. Todd told everyone on the boat ride down to start the morning off using their 40lb set ups, he told us these fish had been so aggressive that light line was not necessary, not to mention a few larger class yellowfin that had been seen in the area. We awoke in the morning to find ourselves in the middle of some rough and rolling seas, but nothing that could keep our fishing spirits down. At grey light we dropped the trolling rigs in and were on the hunt for Kelp! We hit a few paddys early and they produced small yellow tail and dorado, but nothing of decent size. The morning went on and we finally hit a small paddy but boy was everyone home! Right off the bat the yellowtail were jumping out of the water to grab our baits, after that bite started to mellow down out came the yellowfin boiling all around the boat, if your bait wasn’t bit after 1 min, you needed to pin on a new one. That yellowfin fishing was awesome, and in the middle of that, a school of larger size dorado started to circle the boat, we were able to land some of those nicer dodo’s with Floyd landing a 17#er. As the day came to a close we turned to see all of our sacks full with tails popping out. For a 10 person trip, it was awesome! Huge thanks to Capt. Todd and his crew, they always keep a positive attitude and help us get on the fish!

K&M is run by Kelly Catian and his sons. It’s a first class operation. It was a great trip, one that I would probably do again. Our trip benefited from a seminar by well known BD Outddors and WON writer Eric Landesfiend, who came to our club and gave a great seminar about San Quintin a few days prior to our departure. Kudos to Eric for the great tips which were very beneficial.
We left OC early on Wednesday the 21st for a smooth drive down to San Quintin. We left at 6:00 AM and were down there around 2:00 PM. The road was very good. We stayed at the Hotel Jardines which is about a mile from the launch ramp. I highly recommend the hotel. The grounds are immaculate with lush landscaped gardens and friendly service. The security there appears to be good as well. One of our club members triailered down his brand new 23’ Triumph – the boat was totally safe parked at the hotel. He hired a guide to go with him as San Quintin bay is very large and very shallow in places and it should not be navigated without the assistance of a guide to get you safely out of the bay.
Here are some pics of the hotel…


The bonus to this place is Jardines Baja restaurant right next to the hotel. The food was outstanding as well as the service and the prices. I was told by our skipper that the restaurant is owned and managed by a former military officer who is strict with food quality and service. The restaurant did not hesitate to take some of our fish and prepare it for appetizers before each meal. We enjoyed an outstanding presentation prepared various ways including sashimi and ceviche.

We had two days to fish. On Thursday morning we bought breakfast burritos from a vendor who is at the Old Mill launch ramp each morning (not a bad idea to exchange some of your cash into pesos…makes the 5:30 am burrito buy a little less hassle). We launched at 6:00 AM and went straight to San Martin Island. It takes about 20 to 30 minutes just to get out of the bay (going at full speed). Then another 30 minutes to get to the Island. Mornings can be chilly and wet – so it is advised to bring foul weather gear. Kelly’s nice Parkers were in for repair, so we fished on Tiburon’s Pangas (another Panga operator who is connected with Kelly). Kelly’s sons ran the boats. The pangas worked great – they are outfitted with brand new Honda outboards. I think they are probably roomier than the Parkers.
After making a little bait with our Sabiki rigs We trolled deep diving Rapallas (sardine color) on the West side of the island. We were trolling just outside of the kelp line and we were immediately picked up by some nice Yellowtail. We had three smaller grade yellows in the bag by 7 AM.



Just a quick note here. The water temps in San Quitin are normally on the colder side. I hear this has something to do with the way the Ocean currents are in that area — so if you fish there and notice 60-degree water or lower, don’t panic, the fish will still bite.
After picking up some Yellows, we proceeded to fish one end of the tiny island for Calicos using the Viejos swimbaits and the MC swimbaits. We picked up a few nice ones in the 3 to 4 lb range. The Calico bite was not wide open right then, but I have no doubt that this Island produces some exceptional grade of Calicos. Kelly Catian is a world class diver and informed me later that the island is loaded with 10 lb. Calicos. This would be a great location for a SWBA tourney.

After fishing for the Calicos, we headed west of the Island to a high spot a few miles out that was about 275-feet deep. It was game on for quality rockfish and ling cod. Every drop produced an instant bite. I recommend a stiff rod loaded with 50 lb spectra and a long mono leader to which you can tie dropper loops. Our guide Oscar (Kelly’s son) tied trap hooks to which we could attach a sardine. We were allowed one more hook on the ganion to which we’d pin a squid (bring frozen squid!). It did not take long to catch our limits of tasty ground fish. One final note: Bring sinkers from 8 oz. up to 12 oz.



That night we enjoyed a delicious meal. The next morning we launched again at 6 AM and went straight to San Martin Island. It was déjà vu as we again we banged out another three yellows trolling the sardine colored Rapallas. We then decided to make a run for the six spot which is a high spot that is a few miles south of the Island. We were the first boat on the six spot and we started by trolling live sardines that we had caught. We managed some very nice quality Yellows in this area – mostly by drifting live baits. One boat caught them on the yo-yo. A note here: If you fish the six spot, the yellows are the larger model and you don’t have much room to stop them. They will saw you off. I recommend nothing less than 60 lb line. If you fish spectra, use at least 80 lb, with a 60 lb top shot of flouro or mono. 5/0 and 6/0 hooks worked good. I lost two very nice Yellows…my drag was not hammered down and sure enough I could not stop them. I was fortunate to be fishing with my buddies Dave Shill and Jim Keich who have more experience than I do and had the sense to hammer down the drag…we managed 5 or 6 nice Yellows at the six spot.




After fishing the six spot we went to one more deeper spot to fish for lings and reds. This spot was tough to stay on top of due to the current – I sort of wish we had just stayed at the six because I had heard there were plenty of groundfish there and it’s only around 100-foot deep (see other report below on this message board). But other boats had arrived and I think our skipper wanted to get away from the crowd.
All in all it was a great trip. The fish we caught were delicious and Kelly really has it all dialed in down there. I would highly recommend K&M sportfishing. One recommendation I would have is to try to make your San Quintin trip include at least three or even four days of fishing. Have your skipper target a different species each day. We did not fish for WSB but I have heard San Quintin is famous for 50 lb plus sea bass.
Great trip.
-Phil Diment