Thread: Catapalooza pix
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Old 04-07-2008, 12:46 PM   #10
Dan
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Join Date: Mar 2006
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First off, GREAT trip Andy, thanks man!

Left 9AMish from Marina Del Rey on the Flyer with a group of 28 kayakers from all over California...arrived at Avalon, let a few day trippers go in search of taffy and arcade games and we set off for Two Harbors. When we arrived, the rangers were there to port our kayaks over to Cat Harbor (a mere 1/4 mile)...once we were set on the other side of the island we paddled off to fish our way 4 miles over to Little harbor for the weekend of camping. Andy had arranged for our all of our camping gear to be shuttled over ahead of us. We launched and I jigged up some Spanish mackerel on the way out of the harbor and trolled one high and one low along the well defined kelp line, stopping on meter marks to soak and work the iron, but mostly paddled to get over to camp to set up.

After setting up, we all fished an evening session and got enough calico's, sheepshead and other bottom critters to make a nice dinner on our own. Met lots of cool people around camp that night. We drank and poked the fire at camp and told war stories about big fish and loose women and I called it a night to fish hard the next day, others were going big on the cocktails and just getting warmed up - Mike from orange was en fuego!

Saturday we woke to some snotttttty conditions, but we launched in the shelter of the harbor and I headed to some points that a friend had suggested. One, apparently a good greylight spot for deep seabass and maybe yellowtail when they're around....I found plenty of the ever present blue perch and lots of mini hits on the squid.





I worked my way toward a nice looking beach and pulled in tight to 20 ft in that perfect turquoise Catalina beach water that is supposed to be the spot for schooling WSB (that pic andy posted is me chilling and soaking right up on the backs of the thick shorepound....worked it with fresh dead squid for a couple of hours por nada and headed back towards the camp. I stopped off in some kelp and noticed a really nice looking room in some thick kelp. I tied off and sent a squid down into the open area. Few minutes later---big zing on the clicker and put in gear after a quick count, and I was on a big fish...couldn't turn it with tight drags and it eventually found a rock and broke my leader in no time. F'ing mystery fish..damn. Kept working the spot and ended up with a few calicos and a decent goat to put towards the taco fest that evening. Called it a day when the wind added to the crap windswell and headed for the harbor/camp.



Game plan on day 3 (Sunday) was to break camp, pile our stuff for the ranger to port over, and leisurely fish our way back to Two Harbors to catch the 4PM ride back to MDR.




I made some macs to go with the handful of live squid we had from the Glory Hull - Thanks guys. I didn't want to mess with kelp critters or bottom fish, I wanted seabass. Fished both hard - squid kept getting mauled with no connections, and the macs went untouched for hours of trolling in perfectly fishy water -- coves, beaches, kelp line, deep structure. Perfectly calm seas, good weather and a ripping current. At one point the structure and marks were looking reeealy good and Les gets ripped on his flylined mac and was on what he gathers was a nice yellow from the thumps on the line and he too eventually got dragged into the kelp where he eventually popped his spectra near the leader (um gotta retie everyonce in a while douche nozzel ass hat!).

The sporties and 6 packs were hopping around and the skipper of the Dreamer reported no love yet, but was amused to see a stream of kayakers fishing the coves and beaches.





Shoulda been here Thursday was what everyone told us....yeah yeah.

Got back to the harbor and off loaded our stuff, got into dry clothes and got me a fatty burger back at dock. Back on the Flyer and headed for home. Good times fishing that beautiful island - i'll be back.

To the gentleman with the Exedrin (i'm blanking on most of all the new names) - THANKS - saved my Sunday

The End.
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