A Two-Island Road Trip 11-10/11
Left Huntington Harbor about 1:30pm with a great crew and more gear and beer than this boat has every carried before (or will ever carry again!!!). Went out to the bait barge and got a great scoop of dines from Nachos and then took off for Cat for an evening of hoopin'. Flat calm ride across the channel made for very pleasant traveling and gave us time to get the hoopin' gear ready.
With the gear in early, by the time we got all 10 Ambush nets deployed it was barely dark but the bugs where crawling. Our first pulls where on the deeper nets and it didn’t take long to find that it was game on. The first net we pulled had a couple shorts to get the guys all fired up, and from then on there was lots of action with many shorts and near limits of legals to about 5lbs. Just prior to pulling our last string of hoops we took a break for another killer surf and turf dinner.
After dinner, while pulling the last string the current had come up and swept away one of our deep hoops. After a long look of scouring the water we gave up and started up toward SBI and happened to look over the side a ½ mile from where we had been hoopin’ and saw the light stick and top of the float tipping the surface of the water. When we pulled it, luckily it was empty or the weight of the bugs would have kept it down. Earlier we had a similar problem with one of our shorter ropes and it was a miracle Jamie got it back. The float was 25’ under water and Jamie managed to snag it with a jig. As a bonus it had two bugs still in it.
We left Cat about 11pm and headed to SBI. Conditions where still flat calm and made for very pleasant traveling. There where only two boats in the anchorage at SBI which is one of the reasons I like fishing there, lots of room to fish. We set up for daylight in the same area we where fishing c-bass in the spring and saw a total of six squid but massive tonnage of sardines. In the gray Robert started the day with a hookup that at first looked like he had snagged the bottom but then it started to swim off. By the time we got the anchor up he was nearly spooled but unfortunately broke off the fish shortly thereafter. Those big blacks are tough!!!
That was it for the morning in the anchorage. We checked another spot then moved around back checking conditions for c-bass and didn’t find much so it was time for cods… and they where biting. A full mix of SBI bottom critters and a very green ling cod. When the fish taco meat department was fully handled we came back in and did a couple drifts around the anchorage. We tried to settle the jackpot and had our chance but a frayed dropper loop setup (that should have been retied but wasn’t) let something of good quality get away. Oh well!!!
We made one more stop on a structure spot which provided a good bite on big bonito to cap off the trip and then it was time to get rollin’ towards home. Seatemp at the Island was 62-63 and up to 64 and blue inside the West End. It’s hard to feel the offshore season is winding down, but it will be interesting to see what an El Nino winter brings…some of the past ones were memorable!!!
The beautiful weather continued on our way home making it easy for the fish processing dept to clean and package the trips catch as all pitched in to help. Thanks John, Ron and Robert… you guys are great and we hope to see you again soon.
The boys with a few in a new Promar Ambush net
Jamie fishing for and hooking and reeling in a lost hoop
Caption: Watch the claws!
Some of the previous nights catch
Robert with a nice pair
Cat spider crab
SBI sunrise
Realy green ling
Business end of a ling cod
SBI bonita
Good luck and good fishing…
Captain Mark
We had a fun weekend at the Island! 11/7-8
We had a fun weekend at the Island...helping some new boat owners get their boat on a mooring for the first time and then picking them up for an afternoon bite and an introduction to hoopn in the evening. The fishing was a slow pick on bass, rockfish, whitefish, sheephead and the ever present bonito for more hoop net bait.
Jamie and I got the gear ready just before dark and had the full string of Ambush nets soaking by sundown...and then the fun started!!! For those of us that have been hoopn a while, you tend to forget the magic of watching a first timers face when they pull the first net and there's actually a lobster in it!!! Well...our first pull had two but both were short and had to go back, but our charter was all fired up to see what the rest of the string would bring!!!
Overall it was just fair fishing with the shorts to legal ratio at over 2:1. but buy the time they had pulled enough...we had plenty for dinner that night and some nice ones for their freezer. Before we dropped them off on their boat to spend the night, we fired up the bbq and capped off the night with a steak and lobster dinner with all the trimmings...awesome!!! We killed a bottle of chardonnay with dinner and the next morning Jamie pointed out we even had a nice thank you note written on the label...what a pleasant way to start my day. Gina, Brian, Jake, Lucas...you guys were great!!!
Jamie and I fished the morning on the frontside...soaking up the sun, catching more bonito for bait plus a few bass, sheephead and a couple nice lings for fish tacos during the football game...and we even made it in before dark!!!
We're off on another charter today, but we'll be hoopn different area and then checking anther island for fishing tomorrow...I'll let you know.
Good Luck and Good Fishing...
MarkW
Brian,Gina and Jamie... First time on a mooring
They're not all big ones
Too much fun!!!
Dinner on the BBQ
Jake pulled one to many deep nets
Jamie and soon to be fish tacos
Good eats
On the spinning gear
Catalina Hoop'n and Hooking Report for 11-1/11-2
Cat Hoop’n & Hook’n…Way Too Much Fun!!!
With a killer weather forecast for Sunday and Monday Mark and I decided to do a goof off trip on the “Pacific Edge” Sunday evening thru Monday afternoon over at Cat. We launched at 3pm and exited HH to find 5knts or wind or less with flat calm seas and bright blue skies. We ran at 20knts over to the island and as we were running I baited up the new set of Promar Ambush Nets and got the gear ready.
We arrived at Cat about an hr before sundown and picked a couple nice spots to drop the gear. We dropped two 50’ ropes, four 75’ ropes, two 100’ ropes and two 150’ ropes. We did around 6 sets and managed 9 or 10 nice keepers (about the same amount of shorts) and then called it a night at 9:30pm. Here's a pic of the lobster as we where working on trying to get limits
Everything we caught was in the deeper nets and the crawl died early for us with the bright full moon straight up over our heads. We tied up to a mooring and Mark cooked up some filet mignon and lobster with rice pilaf. Good stuff right there!!! After the good eats we crashed out with plans of getting up early and hitting some rockfish and ling spots.
Dawn came early and even after pulling what seemed like 2 miles of rope the night before I felt surprisingly good 
!!! I walked out onto the deck to see a nice sunrise turn as the fog rolled in.
It was a cool sight to see, kind of eerie actually. Anyway, we ran up to hit a few of Marks rockfish/ling spots. Just like the night before, the water was flat calm and not even a breath of wind. We anchored up (in 32 fathoms) on a nice high spot and started picking of some starry’s, chuckle heads and some reds. Here's Marks secret ling cod tail bait
About a 1hr into fishing I got a solid bite and set the hook and Oh Man!!!! it was game on!!! It was a tug of war for about 10 to 15 seconds as I put as much pressure on the 65lb spectra and 30lb fluro as I could without popping the line and unfortunately the fish got the best of me and dragged my line into the rocks below and popped me off. Fired up and wanting to find out what I lost I re rigged and dropped back down and about 30 min later I get that same type of bite and set the hook and again it was a tough tug of war but this time I was ready and turned the fish and slowly brought the fish up to color.
It was a decent ling.
Sweet!!! I haven’t caught one in over 10 years. Took some pics and we went back to work... But conditions unfortunately started to die so we moved up west more.
Tried another spot with the anchor going into 40 fathoms but the fog wind up there picked up big time and it made fishing the deeper water too tough. So we moved inside to try and catch a c-bass in some nice looking water Mark saw.
Tried another spot with the anchor going into 40 fathoms but the fog wind up there picked up big time and it made fishing the deeper water too tough. So we moved inside to try and catch a c-bass in some nice looking water Mark saw.
Anchored up and started pitching some squids. Man the giant macks where biting full speed!!! Then Mark tied into a little bat ray that got our hearts pumping there for a second. Later I got bit and set the hook on a drag burner that got my heart pumping again but it turned out to be a nicer grade bonito.
Caught a few more bass and sargo before deciding to call it a day early as the fog was still thick in the channel and we didn’t want to get back late and miss Monday night football and the World Series game.
A look back at the island on our way back home
A few pics of our catch
My take to go with the lobsters. Nice freezer speacial trip
Another great time on the water!!! Mark had a blast fishing with you on the first of what is hopefully many more hoop’n and hook'n charters on the Pacific Edge, thanks for the trip and let’s do it again soon!!!
For anyone interested in booking a Hooping and Hook’n Charter contact us at the tackle shop at 714-840-4262 or check out the charter info on our website at PacificEdgetackle.com
Tight lines,
Behdad
10-23 This is what hoopin' is all about !!!