Scott's Blog: 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...