Good Night Goliath...

Lost my favorite pup Saturday... Poor little guy had quite a bit of fluid build up in his little lungs... We all knew he wouldn't live forever but we surely wanted him to.. Goliath (Go-Go for short) was a part of the Mikkelsen Herd for the last 13-14 years I believe... I will miss him..


Goliath in his natural state...

RIP little guy...

-Scott

Long Weekend...

Nothing to exciting to report for the holiday weekend. Business as usual with the exception of half day fishing expedition on the S.S. Woody... Actually his skiff is named "Paddywhack". Not sure about the spelling on that one. I got up about 3am and grabbed the camera and some sunscreen and headed over to Jason's place. From there we hit his Pop's house to pick up the boat. Nice 24footer with lots of deckspace. Then to fuel and off to pick up my Dad. My Pop lives about a mile from the launching ramp at Sunset Aquatic Park in Huntington Beach. We hit the ramp at about 5:15 and were underway by 5:30 or so. Took the long cruise out of Huntington Harbor and then hit the bait station. 3 scoops of chovies and some sardines. Jason had his charts with and of course all of the electronics necessary to find his way about the Pacific and we hit about 4 or 5 areas that he had visited before with success. It was a little slow with the casting at the first spot but Jason rigged a pole with a fat sinker and 4 hooks and let me mind it after he dropped it to about 600 feet. Did that twice and let me tell you it takes a while to reel in 600 feet of line that's running to the ocean floor. Nabbed a Red Grouper both drops! Big bug eyed screaming red fish. Jason got a juvenile halibut too. Cruised through a pod of dolphins on the wayout as well. Those things are hard to time with your camera. I need to upgrade...

Off to the second spot where things were a little slow. Then the 3rd and fourth. Things started to pick up at that point and by the time we had his the last location on his charts everyone was getting hit pretty regular. Pop was really slow until this point. Must have been casting on the wrong side of the boat. The Calico Bass were very active and every so often a mackerel would grad the bait fish. Jason even got a really ugly Sculpin at one point. I wasn't grabbing that thing for anything. Spines all over the damn thing. Mostly Calico throughout the day. They put up a pretty good fight.

Small scare when the boat wouldn't start whilst we were waaaaay out at sea. Turned out the battery cables just needed a little cleaning so it was all good. Put to shore a little after Noon and I was ready for a nap. Good times for sure.

Here are some more snappies of the days excursion...




Leaned alot about knots and hook configurations too. Probably take a little longer to learn to navigate...

-Scott

Finally some time to post...

Okay, so it’s been awhile since I posted last. I’ve been busy!! Work is somewhat hectic with Customs paperwork and all but I’m settling in and did manage to have some fun the last few months.
Back on the 22nd of October Jason, Melissa and myself attended Walking with Dinosaurs the Live Experience at the Honda Center. It was pretty cool stuff. The Production company drew from the BBC documentary series and then spent 6 years and 20 million dollars putting the road show together. Kinda like attending the opera or a musical but just a little different in that the entire arena floor is the stage. An actor portrays a Paleontologist and narrates the show and describes the dinosaurs, their diet and lives as we would imagine them to have been. The kicker is while he’s doing this some of the most amazingly lifelike puppets and animatronic creatures are roaming the stage and playing out hunting methods and confrontations with other species. Visually stunning. The Brachiosaurus was something like 3 stories high and 57 feet in length. The show was very impressive to say the least. There was a little levity mixed in as well. For instance just before the show began the PA announcer asked that all cell phones be turned off as there wouldn’t be any reception for another 165 million years… Good stuff and I highly recommend attendance should the show hit your area. More info about the show and tour dates can be found at www.dinosaurlive.com ... Here’s a few shots from the show. You can take stills but no video…


Mama T.Rex making her entrance...


And her exit after protecting her offspring from some bully Allosaurus...


Livin' Large...

-Scott