2007
November 2 - 8
To celebrate my "49er"
birthday I headed down to Baja with my husband,
Jeff, and some friends. Jeff & I had a head
start to our adventure by flying down a few
days early and staying at Rancho
Leonero to kick back and relax. I love staying
at "The Ranch" as it's lovingly referred
to.
We joined up with the rest of
the group in Los Barriles, and drove up to La
Paz, and settled in with my friend, Jonathan
Roldan who owns Tailhunter
International. It's always a pleasure fishing
with Jonathan and this trip was no exception.
We paired up in pangas for three days of fishing
that included dorado, yellowfin tuna and wahoo!
I could give a more detailed account
of the trip but this was a special group and
"What happens in Baja, stays in Baja."
____________________________________________________________
September 28 - October 9
Well I'm going to burn the midnight
oil and crank this baby out since my cohorts
(A bunch of
Full Speed Fishing peeps) are as follows:
Henry is hammered (as of a recent
PM anyway)... and John and Pence are probably
still recovering from a trip to Tijuana (something
about a donkey show?)... So here goes.
Henry rolled up to my place for the drive down
September 27th. It was smooth sailing until
we got into LA traffic on interstate 5…
smoke starts wafting from the vans' driver’s
side front wheel. The brake caliper is locking
up and we’re at the edge of Pico Rivera
and Downey and it’s closing time at the
tire store we limp into. We attempt to throw
money at them but it doesn’t work so we
head across the street where a really cool mechanic
bleeds the brake and presto we’re back
in action. We have to stuff $25 in his hand.
Don't you just love Ford, especially when they
go over 100,000 miles. NOT! Give me a MOPAR
any day of the week.
.After playing phone tag with Pence and John
we all team up at the Captain’s Quarters
near Fishermen's Landing, where I hand Pence
a T-shirt I picked out while killing time at
a mall earlier in the week. The T-shirt reads,
"Dip me in beer and throw me to the drunk
chicks." I slam an Irish car bomb with
the boys before we head off to find our rooms.
I THOUGHT I had a reservation at the Travel
Lodge but after some drama trying to figure
out where they were and why I couldn’t
be found in the ‘puter, Henry suggests
we just head to Denny’s and then on to
the Dolphin Motel before I have a complete meltdown.
(This winds up better since they have twin beds
and he doesn’t have to sleep on the floor
like he would have at the TL.)
The morning of the 28th we’re aboard
the Royal Polaris all ready to go for our 11
day adventure and we start the trip at approx.
12:30 pm. Our captain is Billy Santiago and
we have Dharyl, Jesus, Raphael and Brook as
crew with Jim and Mark in the galley. Pence
and John get “lucky” number 13 to
bunk in while "Mr. Hat" (it's a Full
Speed thing...) and I wind up with room 6. Henry
is a sport and takes the top bunk. There is
an essence in the hallway that will haunt us
for a couple of days but the crew finds the
problem and fixes it before we have to resort
to stealing Pence’s Febreze (Henry eventually
does steal it later in the trip.) We steam for
Alijos Rocks for the next day and a half.
En route we stop briefly to hit some action
here and there… I put my first yellowfin
in the deep freeze and give the galley a yellowtail
I pop up. I also get a Pagina (sp?) and a sculpin.
Pence and three others score killer snowy grouper.
On October 1st, on the anchor at Alijos Rocks,
I land my second yellowfin tuna (and release
a small one) and 9 dorado in a wide open bite.
I take pity on Pence and staple one of his tags
on a dodo. At the end of the day we leave the
rocks for Magdalena Bay to make bait; mackerel.
October 2nd at 1:30 in the morning we wake
up and work on filling the baitwells for about
3 hours before skippy gives us the reprieve.
The macks were NOT WFO so we will have to make
good use of what we have for now.
Later that day we proceed with the run &
gun for tuna on Flathead Bank since a tropical
storm is heading straight for Alijos. I score
a fish I estimate at 70 pounds (I was close;
he weighed 71 at the dock.) This feels nice
since I had a 50 pounder pull the hook just
out of gaff range prior to this fish. Veteran
RP customer Chris Petersen has took me under
his wing when he saw that happen and he loaned
me a 60 pound outfit to nail the bigger fish.
I wander onto the deck that night after dinner
to see what’s going on as we drift in
beautiful flat calm conditions, and I see Pence
has started to toss Humboldt squid onto the
deck. They are big and they are pissed. I haul
one up with the hand line and learn you can
write your name on them. (Learn something new
every day, lol!) It’s a little surreal
as others follow up to the surface and try to
grab flying fish.
We’ve slowly been working through the
kite rotation which started with number 28 (my
number is 17) and I’m starting to think
that October 3rd might just be the day I get
a shot at it. I have a Penn 70VS loaded with
brand new Jerry Brown and a top shot of 200#
and three kite leaders all ready; squid, sardine,
flyer. I box 2 YFT around 50-60 pounds each
as we pluck away on the tuna. During a brief
visit to my room I encounter the “spider
prank”. Pence has tied serious monofilament
to everything in the room. That night we run
to Potato Bank to make bait but it fails to
produce so we get to go to bed, but not before
I screen the movie American Beauty.
By October 4th I’m really getting cozy
with my Torium 30 (the one I won at a FSF lunch
from Alan) which I have 65 Power Pro and a 65
top shot on. I put a 30 pound yellowfin in the
boat and then put the hammer on a really nice
fish! John is also on one and we tango as our
fish pass each other. Another passenger heads
my way and the dude’s got a fish on mono.
Rather than saw him off I put the reel in free
spool and thumb my fish until we’re free
of each other. John and he both land their fish
but mine pulls the hook just (you guessed it)
short of the gaff. Rafael puts the bastard at
approx. 70-80. I am not as bummed as I thought
I would be. He fought well and earned his freedom.
Mono dude is in good spirits and buys me a beer
after it’s explained how I helped him
keep his fish. Ordinarily I don’t drink
canned beer but a stash of Negro Modelo has
made its way to the beer cooler so I indulge.
I also get talked into shot-gunning a beer after
John makes a red cup shotgun.) That night we
hit Mag Bay again and the macks are practically
leaping into the boat. I hook up my thumb and
the phrase “don’t cut the rig”
soon becomes my new mantra. I also hook my neighbor
at the rail through his T-shirt and John pipes
up “Bev caught herself a man.”
On October 5th we’re trolling the ridge
for wahoo and our team (number 4) gets its first
rotation. Remember the Spiderman trick Pence
pulled? Well it’s payback time. Pence
is everywhere on the vessel EXCEPT tending his
troll rod. We tied the massive monofilament
“bird” that we saved from his "spider
prank" to his reel and I stuffed a sardine
way down in it for good measure. Chris observes
our work and comes up with the piece de resistance;
he cuts the head off a rotten squid and applies
a rod butt “condom.” We then have
the galley page “McLovin" (AKA for
Pence.) It’s a slow day and I mange to
eak out a football that I actually make Dharyl
gaff instead of bouncing into the stern.
October 6th finds us in the San Pablo region
and I spank a lot of yellowtail. Along the way
I also release a small dodo and give Jesus some
whitefish. A huge (close to 300 pound) black
seabass is caught and stuffed into the fresh
well (almost need a shoehorn here) after it
fails a release attempt.
By the 7th we are whomping big yellows at Cedros
and I pin down two really nice ones on my Tiburon
8 reel. I’m so excited during one pass
that I forget to nose hook the mack and I stare
in horror as a beautiful butt-hooked mack sails
over the stern and we’re still not stopping.
I thumb it as best as I can and pray I don’t
run out of line and pop off the mack or get
hit and spooled. Finally I’m down to the
last 30 feet or so of backing and we stop. I
wind about 50 feet on before I get slammed.
It’s another toad. In the end I win. Sweet.
I take a break, tie on a swimbait and pitch
towards the shore where I fight and release
a couple of fine calicos.
October 8th is rockfish day and we hit it for
awhile. I rig a dolphin for bait. (When I say
dolphin, it's a 4-inch soft plastic toy that
I stumbled across.) I keep a few vermilions
and start to break my gear down. The weather
is awesome for the final 200 miles to get back
to San Diego and I am anticipating an awesome
prime rib dinner. I am not disappointed!
Henry – Thanks for not snoring too loud
and the YT handoff was cool (I'd have had him
too if the top shot hadn't poofed.)
John – Thanks for keeping us abreast
of Pence’s antics and nice job on the
boot labeling. I guess it’s time to come
clean and let him know I was the culprit. (I
cut a VERY ripe banana in half and lined Pence's
boots.) You also made me a great Red Cup Navy
shotgun.
Pence – Thanks for the great entertainment.
I would have never thought about hand lining
squid while on a long range trip. Pence also
made sure I was covered on the really Good fish;
bonito, miniscule rockfish, a mack and a trophy
lizardfish.
____________________________________________________________
September 9
I Fished Harold's boat again with
Henry along this time. Great jackass combo!
We pulled away from the launch ramp at Pillar
Point Harbor at 5 in the morning. Henry is into
the Oreo's before we even pass through the jetty.
Harold and I let Henry make the call on what
to run on the trolling gear to start off. He
rigs two of his spreaders bars (one tuti-frooti
pink and one lemon lime) and settles on my Jerry
Garcias to complete the set. Speaking of completing
the set... The Jerry Garcias would have made
a great pair of earrings to go with my Elvis
surgical scrubs. Anyway we started at 10 &
10 (along with half the free world...) and we
have three rods in the quiver, at the ready,
all sporting Storm sardines.
Had our first double at 7:25, both on "Jerrys"
and Harold's fish comes off right at the boat.
Dang! Henry drops in an 18 pounder. WE'RE BACK!
By 8:00 we have 5 nice albacore
in the box and they've been hitting in pairs.
By 9:00 Jerry Garcia is hitting the skids so
we swap out for stuff leaning towards Mexican
Flag and variations thereof. The water temperature
is holding at a steady 61.0 and with so many
boats around we decide to make a move. We're
hungry now too, so out comes some string cheese
and "Slim Jim" style duck. Henry cracks
open a Moosehead and offers me one as well.
Brownie bites appear next to the Oreo's... No
shortage of chocolate today.
We shake up the gear a bit and even toss a
purple/black cedar plug back just to see if
that's what the fish are looking for, but we
get no takers. We have also turned around and
returned to the first murder scene since reports
of hook ups elsewhere are sketchy at best. Conditions
are awesome again today with a nice calm ocean
and it's sunny.
We decide to toss the Jerrys back out and 15
minutes later we get another double. These guys
are both 15 pounds and they join the others
in the box. As we wait for the next strike,
Harold and I plow into our sandwiches; smoked
albacore salad on sourdough. This time I choose
a Yellowtail pale ale to wash it down.
Shortly after noon we get another double and
one is a peanut, but the fish count is now up
to 10. Henry decides to shake it up a lot with
a lure he calls "Liberace", and we
drop back a petrolero too, however the next
lure hit is a Jerry Garcia. Henry had to park
the beer he was just in the process of opening
in order to land the 16 pound albie. That one
barely gets stowed and we're nailed again by
a fish that's looking to be one of "Jerry's"
kids.
At about 1:30 we finally get a triple as the
music of the Babys fills the air. It's time
for the chicken dance! We all start pumping
on a fish and as they get to the boat we take
turns gaffing and whacking them. The guys humored
me until about 4:00 at which time even I decided
we should bag it for the day and run in.
____________________________________________________________
August 29
Harold Lawrence (Seahare) and
I made a pre-dawn departure from Pillar Point
Harbor and cut through the fog towards the Guide
Seamount. It’s always nice to find someone
who can hang all day long and since he had been
up working on the boat until midnight, I had
immediate respect for Harold’s never-give-up
attitude. As visibility increased we picked
up speed over the barely discernable swell which
continued to flatten to pond-like conditions.
We monitored the water temperature on the Grady
White’s dash while enjoying some friendly
banter and took a few pictures of my “Elvis”
theme surgical scrubs. The famous pink boots
topped off my killer attire.
When the gauge hit 58.0 I had the rods ready
and Harold had given me the thumbs up for our
first choice of color to run in the spread.
Four rods, including a couple of Sabre Strokers
I had brought, had small blue/silver clones
and the two longest lines out sported larger
chrome heads in blue/green shades. At 59 and
change we armed the battle stations and loaded
the CD player with rock N roll.
Bang! An albacore around 8
pounds slams the long line on the starboard
side. Screw the ladies first crap, I insist
Harold go for it. He brings it to the vessel
where I plant the gaff and flick it in. Ladies
and gentlemen the skunk has left the building…
A treat is now in order and I searched for
the Reese’s peanut butter cups (also “Elvis”
themed) and discover that there is banana crème
in the standard peanut butter & chocolate
confection. Whoa! We ate them and I vowed to
wear reading glasses next time when choosing
snacks in the wee hours of a 7-11. Half a package
of Reese’s isn’t going to cut it
for breakfast though, so I pop the top on a
can of milk chocolate Slimfast. Harold is in
awe of this combination, (which really doesn’t
make sense as it defeats the purpose of which
it was invented) so I explain that it’s
my version of a quick hassle-free meal.
Next we pump the stomach of the fish and out
come a dozen microscopic squid. We decide to
change the colors in the spread to petrolero
(squid). I just happen to have a small 3”
vinyl/feather, chrome headed set of these in
my tuna arsenal. We redeploy and are rewarded
with a double shortly after. The deck is getting
bloody now! The size of these two fish are bigger;
about 15 pounds each. One of their stomachs
revealed little 1/3” fish and the other
had krill. Most of the fish had empty tummies.
After we boxed the new additions, another reel
starts screaming. I grab the rod and get some
serious “bendo” going. The fish
makes some scorching runs before I bring him
in for Harold to swing on. This bad boy is what
we were looking for; 30 pounds. Sweet!
We took turns at the wheel and sifted through
the food. I had not been able to find the longhorn
cheese I brought, so I grabbed some potato chips
and opened a Henry Wienhard’s black cherry
cream soda (which is to die for) and take a
break. I see a lone whale off in the distance
and notice the water is still getting warmer.
We are now 63 degree breaks and it’s starting
to climb even more. (Before the day is over
we’d see 64.5 degrees and hear of a yellowtail
being caught.) With the sun becoming more prevalent,
we slap on the sunscreen. We also try to mix
it up a bit in the spread by tossing out a few
Jerry Garcia’s, and a pearl Mylure, but
we get no takers.
Over the next few hours things slow to a steady
pick of singles and doubles. The fish do not
feel like hanging out at the surface and going
nuts. We have time to chatter, whip through
a sandwich and open a bag of peanut M&M's
that are light and dark pink (made to raise
money for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.)
Harold has also located the “missing”
cheese for me so I open it up too.
Our final color choice of the day is a batch
of saury colored feather jigs that I had Ballyhood
make for me a few years ago. The game is on
again as Harold brings in a 20 pound fish. I
start to fight a fish that is running like a
bat out of hell. And for good reason, he’s
being chased by a 4 foot blue shark! It’s
so calm, and the water is so clear, that we
can witness the chase going on 50 feet below.
I manage to get the fish up unscathed and I
give the shark the Full Speed Fishing salute.
We decided to put one more rod out in the center
with a Storm sardine. With seven rods working
we had started to take on the appearance of
a “Tred Barta porcupine.” I throttled
back on the next strike and as Harold went to
pump on that fish I saw the sardine get snapped
up. I had my Pro Gear Albacore Special on a
Seeker rod and it was a blast to finally get
a fish on lighter tackle.
I’m on another fish and I look down in
the water and see another blue dog giving chase.
It careens and spins all over but fails to nail
the albie. Bev 2, sharks 0! This shark then
moseys up to the side still looking for the
tuna, so Harold gets out some anchovy tray bait
and I start tossing them out. In no time at
all I’m practically hand feeding him and
I grab his dorsal fin which he’s fine
with. I then grab his tail and he turns to snap
at me. We play with him for about 15 minutes
before he leaves. We hit a few more to round
out at an even ten in the fish box. Only one
hook up had been lost to a shark or tuna with
big sharp teeth.
Reports of tuna biting on the inside prompted
us to move in. We saw a juvenile male killer
whale as we headed east, and within a few more
miles we thought we saw crashing tuna. We heeled
the boat to the starboard side and ran up to
check it out. Turns out they were a school of
Pacific white-sided porpoise. They were displaying
the characteristic signs of calling in other
porpoise to feed; tail slapping and breaching.
We tossed the swimbaits down anyway as the more
curious of the porpoise came within mere feet
to check us out. A few even went so far as to
jump several times 15 feet off the stern. You
couldn’t get this kind of show if you
paid big money to go to Sea World!
As we moved off we saw porpoise racing in from
all directions. The day was winding down and
we could see the fog bank in the distance. We
pulled the boat out at around 8:30 and I was
home by 11:30 with 5 nice albies iced and ready
for canning, smoking and freezing.
____________________________________________________________
August 26
The Queen
of Hearts hosted the first "Ultimate
Mini Rod Challenge" so I grabbed my trusty
Emmrod and hopped aboard. Great weather, nice
people, and good fishing made for one awesome
day of rockfishing.
Up near the bow I started getting
quality fish right away and on 12 pound test
(which everyone was using), it was a blast fighting
with really light gear! A gopher
started off my limit followed by a big grass
rockfish, and then a colorful China
joined the sack. Next I released a small olive,
but was rewarded with a huge bolina
soon after. A big blue made
the hit list and a few more gophers which I
released too.
I couldn't get a lingcod to hang
long enough although I did get some nice bites,
however I hit pay dirt with a very decent cabezone.
I topped off my bag with a few more bolinas
and gophers.
Top honors went to a couple of
nice lingcod this time, but watch out... Capt.
Bob will be scheduling more of these fun tournaments
soon.
____________________________________________________________
August 22
Things were slow at work so I
took a day off to go out on the Queen of Hearts.
No wind today, however there were
considerable swells on the inside, so we tried
Deep Reef and managed nice limits of rockfish
with most anglers getting at least one or two
large vermilions. I released
five olives and took some bolinas,
gophers and a blue
to top off my pair of nice reds.
The guy next to me on the bow
also produced a rare catch to win the jackpot;
a thirteen pound wolf eel!
____________________________________________________________
August 5
I hooked up with a few of my fellow
coffee drinkers from Blvd Coffee today. Our
group represented about half of the limited
load out on the Queen
of Hearts. Capt. Bob was refreshed
from a recent trip on the Royal
Polaris were he got to fish for a change,
and of course we had the best deckhand, Heather,
with us. (Thanks Bob for bringing fresh yellowtail
for everyone to sample while we fished.)
Our weather was awesome, however
we did have to contend with some residual big
swells for the first few drifts. The further
south Bob took us the smoother it got and the
fishing started to pick up too. Rockfish hit
iron, plastics, shrimp flies and seemed to like
a little squid here and there.
I released a few small blue
rockfish to start but had my sights
set on a lingcod. I did see some huge vermilions
landed around the boat and the gophers
were toads today. Chinas, blacks,
bolinas, yellow and
blacks, comprised most of the rockfish
species taken. We did get a few seatrout,
cabezone, and three
lingcod... nope, none for me today.
On the final drift I did get an 18 pound halibut
to jump on a small diamond jig made by my friend
Harry Boos.
____________________________________________________________
July 13 - 14
Loreto's largest annual fishing
tournament, Torneo de las Misiones (Fishin For
The Mission), was a huge success this year and
I was happy to be a part of it. I entered with
an all-girl crew aboard Bella. Loreto
resident, Karen Brown, was our hostess and captain.
Cheryl, who I flew in with, was nicknamed our
galley slave. Jutta , (another local), came
aboard for this adventure. I rounded off the
team by reprising my role as winch wench in
charge of anchoring duty.
On the afternoon of the 12th we
attended the official sign up meeting at James
Duggin's home in Loreto. Over 80 boats were
signed up and the Tecate, Corona and Pacifico
beer was flowing freely. (I paced myself since
I had been out at Mike's bar rather late the
night before.)
We boarded Bella which
we had brought up from her mooring at Puerto
Escondido and headed out to drop the hook in
Puerto La Lancha at Isla Carmen, approximately
15 miles due east. Karen whipped up a nice dinner
while I rigged a few lures. After the sun went
down we brought out a night light and lit up
the bay off the stern. Much to our delight,
needlefish flocked to the area and kept us amused
for hours. Jutta managed to net one for some
quick pictures.
At dawn after breakfast (I had
scored some coco crispies for day one) we pointed
the boat northeast and started trolling. Water
temperatures were colder than normal so we needed
to cover some ground to get to find a more productive
spot.
Two small dorado hit the spread
but we released both and a third, and still
small, dorado came unpinned shortly after hook
up. A fourth dorado was seen racing through
from the side but it failed to bite. Encountering
a lull in the fishing we popped open a few cold
ones and tossed some music into the CD player.
We plodded our way up to San Juanico
stopping at a couple of reefs to try for bottom
fish and I broke out some iron. One mystery
fish grabbed a River2Sea Searock and pumped
away. I had the bugger halfway up before it
bit me off. Dang!
San Juanico's protected anchorage had a lone
sailboat awaiting us, so we had plenty of room
to drop our parking brake. Cheryl hit the water
and Jutta and I shortly followed. Styrofoam
"noodles" were supplied by Karen so
we could float around and cool off while Karen
put out a tasty cheese and cracker platter and
broke out the pina coladas.
After dinner I pulled my sleeping cushion up
to the bow to enjoy a wonderful breeze and have
the best seat in the house for the star show.
The constellation Scorpio was the center of
the stage and the sounds of fish jumping all
around the boat helped lull me to sleep.
On day two of the tournament we headed further
north to Ildefonso, putting us about 45 miles
north of Loreto. Our first stop on a reef near
Punta Pulpito yielded a. popeye catalufa, that
is normally a nocturnal fish. I enticed it up
with a Searock jig. The fish taped out at 12
inches and are known to go to 13, so I had a
moment to reflect on thinking of another IGFA
record possibility... We wound up eating it.
Jutta landed 2 nice size triggerfish and Cheryl
managed to coax up a larger than average sculpin....
We ate them too.
While running back to Loreto, we assumed the
troll positions again. I hooked up a booby that
dove in after a pearl Mylure turbo troller jet.
Cheryl grabbed the bird and I cut it free with
minimal damage to it's wing.
Back in port we cleaned up and headed off to
the awards dinner where we feasted on spectacular
tri tip and fixings and washed it down with
ice cold beer. Since the event benefits the
mission we were seated in the open court adjacent
to this historical church. After awards, raffles
and auctions we were treated to a great local
band that specialized in covering the musical
needs of several eras of "gringo style"
hits. I sweated my way through the first set
before calling it a night.
Thanks to Karen and Don Brown who hosted Cheryl
& I for our visit. While I was missing Puma
I did make a new friend with Shadow their terrific
dog. Also I attended the monthly ladies luncheon
at Domingo's (formerly El Nido's) and met quite
a few new gals over an awesome hamburger.
Thanks also to Kathy Gonzales, who whipped
up a Fishin for the Mission Ladies’ Night
at her bar, Stroker’s
Reef. We ate, drank, ran the pool table
for hours, and danced the night away.
And last but not least, thanks to Augie whose
bar is the coldest bar I've ever been in aside
from the Elbow Room in Dutch Harbor, AK. Hearing
that it's a customary rite, Jutta and I passed
through to cool off before the awards dinner.
____________________________________________________________
July 4
I recently returned to work after
a nice seven year hiatus. Since this now hampers
my fishing time I thought it best to enjoy the
holiday out on the Queen of Hearts.
We worked a bit of a lumpy ocean
for limits of rockfish which included a few
lingcod and some very nice
cabezone. It was nice to see
a few regulars (Gene and Jay) as well as Capt.
Bob and Heather.
There are a few spots open on
Sunday, August 5. The gang from Blvd Coffee
in Los Gatos is joining me for a day of spectacular
rockfish action and who knows we might land
a few halibut too. Contact me ASAP if you want
to go... bev@bajabev.com
____________________________________________________________
June 23
Today I was part of the crew on
the Panda Angler entered in the First Annual
Full Speed Fishing Halibut Tournament of Champions.
With Gary as our captain Richard, Mike and I
filled out the rest of the team.
We left the slip at Coyote Point
and headed to the receiver in San Francisco
for bait. I tried briefly to see if there was
any interest in fishing under the receiver.
Normally it's not a bad idea. Reports of stripers
in the area discouraged us though so we headed
for Baker's Beach.
I jumped up on the bow to drift
fish while the boys worked the stern. Nada!
Our drift wasn't going so well either so we
zoomed across the channel to Bonita Cove. Mike
caught a "just under" leopard
shark which we shot (with the camera)
and then released. We took a stab at trolling
here too.
Next we tried Angel Island for
awhile to no avail. (The winning fish was caught
here though!)
Towards the end of the afternoon
we headed over to Berkeley Flats, the pier and
the barges. We drifted there and decided to
switch to trolling again.
Our discouraged crew headed into the marina
at Oyster Point for the weigh-in and BBQ. It
was great to see a bunch of friends and party
even if we didn't get a halibut. Thanks to Tyrus
and James I got hammered... tequila was involved
(SHOTS!!!)
____________________________________________________________
June 16
I returned again to fish the Grady
White Invitational out of Santa Cruz. Dave and
Cheryl's son Kyle rounded off our team. Most
of us were tired from jet lag or sleep deprivation
and nap time was on everyone's agenda if the
fishing was slow.
We started off at a spot known
as Mulligan's. While we found bait and birds,
we also found grass and kelp. According to the
radio there were a lot of silvers being caught
too. Too add to the drama we lost the use of
the starboard downrigger, so I rigged up a rod
with a salmon trolling weight to keep that side
fishing.
Nearby Leo from MTM Sportfishing
was running a six pack charter and his passengers
were whooping big salmon. Moving in for a closer
look we took a few photographs and checked the
port lines on the downrigger. While waiting
for some action we took turns getting some sleep
below.
On the afternoon watch, as Dave
and Kyle were putting the lines back in, Kyle
had a fish strike. He fought the salmon
which hit a blue Kajiki as he was dropping back
down and was somewhere around 50'. Most fish
caught, that we heard from reports, were between
150 - 200 feet deep.
Dave netted the fish and I beat
it to death, happy to get a little blood on
the deck and the skunk off the boat. Salmon...
It's what's for dinner.
With the wind picking up and food
on our minds, we cruised back in for the BBQ
and weighed in the fish. 15.3 pounds (cleaned)
was good for 5th place.
____________________________________________________________
June 10
I finally had a chance to go out
for salmon, for the first time this year, on
the New Rayann today. "Crow", a friend
of mine, pulled together a charter for some
close friends and I made the list along with
Gene, James and Barbara...
We hightailed out under the gate and rolled
up to Stinson Beach. The vessel is a Delta 50'
and since this was my first trip on her I checked
her out on the run up. Nice, clean and very
fishable. I set my rod up outside the wheelhouse
door where capt. John Atkinson searched for
salmon.
A short ling was tossed back when it made the
mistake of grabbing a trolled anchovy that passed
close to the bottom. The action was slow and
bait was scattered, but we did have a great
time celebrating Crow's birthday. While I didn't
get much more than a drive by today, we put
four salmon to 23 pounds in
the box. Gene released a short salmon and also
had a potential keeper bust off close to being
in net range. That fish stole his red Kroc.
The wind picked up to 30-35 by the end of
the day and the seagulls scored several times
as they hovered above us on the ride in. Well
it was time to wash that jacket anyway
____________________________________________________________
May 28
After hauling LutyFish out at
the launch ramp last evening, Gary had called
to invite me out on Panda Angler (29' Shamrock).
I had fished with him last October for the first
time and we'd had an epic day at the Farallone
Islands hammering rockfish, and nailing a 35
pound salmon too!
Richard (who had also been on
that trip and fought the salmon) joined us at
the slip in Coyote Point Marina. Today I was
slightly more prepared as far as my lunch was
concerned. Instead of a couple of Slimfasts
snagged from the fridge, I had raided a Safeway
for a killer roast beef sandwich and some Guinness.
After running up to San Francisco
for some live anchovies, we boogied over to
Angel Island to drift while the weather was
decent. Nothing was happening, (although I did
see a halibut boated there), so when the wind
picked up we shifted over to Berkeley Flats.
Still scoreless we moved to the
Alameda Rock Wall where we released 7 short
halibut, as well as Gary's
brown smoothhound shark and
bat ray.
We finished the day by trolling
off Oyster Point, but aside from "dogging
up" with a couple more sharks, the bite
was over. It was still a great Memorial day
spent with friends.
____________________________________________________________
May 27
"Senor Cracker" AKA
Mrcake or Brad rings me up somewhere around
6:30 am (while I am about 4 1/2 hours into an
Ambien induced coma, and says he's dropping
the LutyFish (21' Trophy) into the bay in half
an hour. He's asks if I can roll. I mumbled
"yeah" and raced out the door a few
minutes later.
I arrived at Oyster Point Marina
where Brad and Mark (another Full Speed Fishing
Club member) were just getting ready to launch.
Using large herring, we trolled
between Oyster Point and Candlestick for 5 keeper
halibut ranging from 22.5 to
35 inches. The biggest fish hit during a slow
turn uphill in only 8 feet of water. A couple
of short halibut were also released, giving
us almost a 3 fish per rod average.
Not wanting to throw in the towel
early, we kept at it all day and found plenty
of time in between fish to photograph "Full
Speed Fishing style" pranks... And just
when I was thinking about how I was going to
sleep in the next morning my cell phone rings.
"Hey Bev, what are you doing tomorrow?"
____________________________________________________________
May 5
Those who know me, know I fish
tough. Last night I almost pansied out and stayed
home with a bad case of bronchitis (Thank God
I had got it AFTER I was done diving in Cozumel!)
I called up a few friends from Full Speed Fishing
and wound up riding down to Virg's Landing in
Morro Bay with Dangerous Trebles (Mike), Chilly
B (Brian) and MrCake (Brad). The road trip alone
was worth the price of admission on this trip.
Around 30 of us from Full Speed
Fishing descended onto the vessel "Admiral".
This caused at least one local bar to have to
close early due to lost patrons. The excitement
was palpable.
Being a "bow-babe" I
tossed my gear into the forward bunk arena,
knowing full well that we'd be leaving at night
to run uphill through the pasture with the BIG
SHEEP. Nobody snored loudly and I was packing
Ambien just in case.
I awoke just in time to get my
bearings, say good morning to a few I had missed
last night, grab a cup of coffee and watch as
Capt. John picked our first drift.
A bocaccio weighing
around 6 pounds, tore into my River2Sea sea
knife jig. I gave it to the crew since I don't
eat these. Red rockfish were everywhere and
I saw lots of species while fishing from the
stern... coppers, rosy
rockfish, yelloweyes
(all were released), vermilions,
rosethorn, greenstriped,
greenspotted and starry
rockfish. My next battle was
with an eleven pound lingcod
that hit a 10 ounce plain silver Crippled Herring.
We were fishing in rough conditions at a depth
of over 225 feet and I needed my heavier gear
to get down and stay there. He had a small horn
shark in his mouth that must have been
his previous meal. (Speaking of meals... There
was NO candy for sale but Ghetto Booty (Dan)
had me covered with a handful of peanut M&M's.
What a lifesaver!
With the wind increasing I changed
places and went up to the pointy end to cast
and drop. I had been hunting for another lingcod
but after having a nice fish spit the hook prematurely,
I re-rigged to target my rockfish quota. I had
a shrimp fly teaser tied above a glow/redhead
River2Sea knife jig. Every drop was producing
a big fat rockfish and soon I had not only reds
but a huge olive rockfish too.
I was soon saying "welcome to the glow
light cafe" every time I had a hook up.
By now everyone was close to limits
and it was blowing 30-35 knots making it difficult
to stay on the drift. The captain was very skilled
at jogging us lightly into the wind to keep
us able to fish.
I was hungry and sleep deprived
so Dave whipped me up a hamburger from the galley
so I could kick back for awhile. Turns out that
Rick Freeman and I both had eleven pound lings
so we split the jackpot. He also sent me home
with some very nice homemade jigheads.
What a great bunch of guys. I'm
so glad I made this trip. It was epic!
____________________________________________________________
April 30
After scuba diving a couple of
days in Cozumel, Jeff & I headed over for
three nights on Isla Mujeres. We snorkeled,
shopped, dined and had a VERY COOL dolphin encounter
at Dolphin Discovery.
After taking a short siesta following
the dolphins, Jeff & I went on a mission
to hunt down a panga for a couple of hours fishing.
We trolled through town and had an offer shortly.
A few ballyhoo were purchased for bait and we
were off.
Carlos and Eddie took us out on
the "Halcon" for some bottom fishing
close by. I had my Emmrod with me and they had
a couple of rods inc. a Zebco outfit with Spectra.
We caught yellowtail snapper, blue striped grunts,
and a couple of triggerfish. Jeff also got bit
off by a barracuda. It wasn't a serious fishing
day and the fish were small, but the action
was fast and furious.
I let the guys use the Emmrod and they had
a blast! We left them some fresh mono I had
brought, a few hooks and our fish. Carlos and
Eddie dropped us on the beach in time to pull
up chairs and order cocktails to view the sunset.
In short Cozumel has changed big time since
I was last there (1991) but it is great for
diving. Isla Mujeres is awesome. Weather was
perfect and the town was just the right size
to hang out in for a short trip. We met the
owner and crew on the vessel "Bout Time"
from Texas and hung out with them at the Sunset
bar a couple of nights. I hope to run into this
great bunch of fishermen again!
____________________________________________________________
February 6
Ghetto Booty was looking for someone to cruise
up to Los
Vaqueros Reservoir and do a little fishing.
Well seeing how I hadn't been there in almost
three years, and having nothing on my agenda,
it was pretty easy to twist my arm. http://www.ccwater.com/losvaqueros/
We got a leisurely start arriving around 10:30
and rented a boat. With perfect weather conditions
we started off by trolling, checking out the
blue herons and hawks that were everywhere.
Dan had a fish bump his lure but it failed to
hook-up. As we made our way around the perimeter
of the reservoir it was standard practice to
stop in most of the coves to pitch swimbaits.
Nada!
Further up we hit a stretch that had quite
a few trout actively feeding. Dan even whipped
out a fly rod and we both took turns trying
to coax a bite, but the fish had lockjaw today.
Even tons of birds and a slick of bait failed
to produce. The fish had lockjaw today.
Well, as always we still had a great day on
the water. We'll get'em next time!
Link
to my 2017 Fishing Diary
Link
to my 2016 Fishing Diary
Link
to my 2015 Fishing Diary
Link
to my 2014 Fishing Diary
Link
to my 2013 Fishing Diary
Link
to my 2012 Fishing Diary
Link
to my 2011 Fishing Diary
Link
to my 2010 Fishing Diary
Link
to my 2009 Fishing Diary
Link
to my 2008 Fishing Diary
