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Via Odium
Thank you for everyone who participated in the charter, without you guys we would have never had such a great trip! An especially big thank you for Coastal Angler Magazine, Channel Islands Sportfishing, Pacific Islander Sportfishing, Gentleman Sportfishing, Tradition Sportfishing, Davey's Locker, Big Hammer, Phenix, B2 Squid, Pro-Cure, and all of our other sponsors who donated raffle prizes.
Saturday afternoon was a bit of a blur; picking up carpool partners, buying tackle, eating dinner, and then rushing off to Channel Islands Sportfishing. But amongst the chaos, I held true to my normal routine; aka, food pictures!
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We decided on some Vietnamese food for dinner.
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Even though I was co-chartermaster on this trip, I was the last to arrive. . . When we got to the landing and started loading our gear, a few of the guys were already fishing the slips for kicks and giggles.
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Bye bye Skunk, now drop that into the bait tank!
After I safely stowed away my stuff, Hakaveli and I laid out all the raffle prizes for our charter.
Captain Steve Virtue called Hakaveli and I up to the wheel house to decide on what our final plans were for the trip. We knew the live squid was still scarce and none of the boats have been reporting out sightings on any of the exotics, so we opted to go for safer bet and shoot out for San Miguel island.
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Once we made the decision, Steve called everyone to the stern and briefed everyone who the crew was, conditions, what we would be fishing for, and how we should rig up.
Our crew consisted of:
Captain Steve Virtue
Deckhands Brian and Chris
Galley Cook Amy
We were in for a slightly bumpy night but all the reports and forecasts stated that the conditions would lay down.
After the briefing, we asked the beautiful galley cook. Amy, to help us select our first round of raffle winners.
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Pack of Big Hammers Lures.
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Phenix Reel Cover.
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16 Oz Diamond Jig.
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12 Oz B2 Squid Jig
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16 Oz Diamond Jig.
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White Sea Bass Kit filled with hooks, lead, leadheads, and sliders.
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As we motored out of the harbor, we hit a bit of chop and most of the guys ducked into the bunks. I finished tying up my rockfishing rig, snapped this photo, and went to sleep.
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The Pacific Islander has some very, very spacious bunks.
I woke up around greylight, just as the engines motored back. Tossed on my boots, woke up the guys who were still fast asleep, and stumbled on deck. Checked in with the Captain and we would be fishing between San Miguel and Santa Rosa this morning.
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We had a couple sets of rollers this morning but they waned as the day went on.
We started off the day drifting a combination of deep structure and rocky bottom. The bite would be a little slow for the first minute or so, but then we'd drift over a nice set of rocks and BAM! half of the rail would be sporting bendos.
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I was fishing a neon green bucktail and a 16 oz chrome jig. I opted not to tip my hooks this morning to see how voracious the fish were.
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Aside from some angry chuckles, I ended up pulling out like six baby lings.
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Still somewhat amazing that these guys will bite a jig just as big as they are.
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Nice Chuckle Jacky!
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Get em James!
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Hakaveli snuck his Johnny Bass from last week onto this trip. . . Haha Jk.
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Angler David with his first legal Ling. Good job buddy!
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And with his second Ling! Just kidding, same ling, he couldn't figure out which way he wanted to hold it.
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Fishing wasn't WIDE WIDE WIDE open, but it was consistent and filled with quality. Aside from the baby lings hiding in the rocks. This was the score board after two drifts.
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We were sporting a whole buffet for the rockfish on the bait board. Octopus, baby octopus. Squid, shrimp, mackerel, and some smelt.
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Fishing while eating my breakfast sandwich. I figured it would finally happen, I got slammed in the middle of eating my sandwich. I kind of did this lame looking grind while holding the sandwich, as I was about to put the sandwich on the rail, Amy popped her head out of the galley window and said she could hold my sandwich till I got the fish onboard; gotta love top notch service! The fish turned out to be a really nice red.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
But I was only able to bask in the fame for two seconds till David pulled up this fatty.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
During one of the moves, we spotted one angler with a taboo item. He wasn't aware of the bad mojo associated with bananas so we gave him a quick briefing.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Lazy man's fishing. . . One foot up and the rod on the rail.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
A couple of the guys went all out and tagged themselves with the stickers available.
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Angler Arvil with a nice chuck on the lucanus.
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James started using the rail to his advantage as we progressed through the day.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Super lazy man's fishing! The Pacific Islander has a bench up on the bow.
During one of our drifts, Angler David gets slammed and its pulling some drag.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Turned out to be a pinback shark.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Angler Jacky landed an elusive granite grouper.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Conditions had really flatted out as the day progressed.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
The Pacific Islander had an awesome floater retriever, luckily we didn't need it at all on our trip.
We were just short of rockfish limits after about 2 hours, so Steve decided to motor us into some shallow sticky spots for Lings, Cabbies, Sheephead, and maybe some whitefish.
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Lucky Angler Marc pulled out this mean looking cabbie out of the rocks.
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I was fishing the bow when I saw Angler Blu hook up on a fish on the iron. Unfortunately, he got rocked by the fish and he got rocked hard! After a minute or so of battling it out with the fish, the rod gave way first.
A couple of minutes after that, I hooked up on a sheephead while fishing a leadhead/squid combo.
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Off in the distance, I saw some birds working, but as they got closer, I saw it was a about 30 baby seals pushing bait up. Rather than letting them get on top of us, Steve asked everyone to wind em up and moved over to another spot.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
We picked a couple of fish off the next two spots but it was tough fishing with such a sticky bottom.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
The days special was some awesome chicken tacos.
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Short cabbie, I got on the Leadhead/squid.
It was just after 2PM when Steve gave us the final wind em up call.
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Nice chucks Spence!
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Good going Jonas!
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Another lucky angler was able to pop his ling cherry on our trip.
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Nice going David. make sure to gloat to your buddies because they didn't wanna come out with you.
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Nice job Hak.
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My largest chuck and my sheephead.
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In addition to the monetary jackpot, we we're also giving away an Avet SX 2 speed reel. Congrats Marc! He easily took the jackpot with his 10# Cabbie.
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David's mixed bag.
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As the crew setup for fish cleaning, we set about selecting the rest of the raffle prize winners.
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Bryant with a King's Jig and Pro-Cure Scented Baits.
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Blu with a Phenix Reel Cover.
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Butthunter with a King's Jig and Pro-Cure Scented Baits.
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Steve with a Big Hammer Lures and B2 Squid combo.
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Vince with a B2 and Pline plastics combo.
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Jason with a plastics and jig protector combo.
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Reallen with a CISCOs Shirt, beanie, and Big Hammers Lure Combo.
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Arvil with a White Sea Bass kit.
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David with a Pacific Islander hat and CISCOs shirt package.
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Spence won the Barska Binoculars.
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Bryant with a glow in the dark B2 Squid.
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Reallen with a Western Digital hard drive.
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Blu with a 1/2 day Pass out of Davey's Locker.
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Congrats Jimmy on the trolling rod!
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Congrats Jason with two passes on the Gentleman. I hope your daughters slay when you take them out!
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Congrats on the Tradition Pass.
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Freelance Pass out of Davey's Locker.
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Butthunter was the lucky angler to win another overnight pass on the Pacific Islander.
I think just about everyone won about two items on our charter.
As everyone was settling into their bunks or tearing down their gear, I notice Vince was getting some attention on the stern.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
One of the deckhands hand handed him a fat eye out of a red. I'm sure you can guess what would happen next. . .
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Oh ya! Yummy, oozing goodness. . . When I asked Vince what they offered him to eat it, he said he didn't get offered anything. . .
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Bad things happen when you pass out in the galley with friends around. . .
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We made it back to the dock around 6:20 and the crew did a great job of running our fish up the ramp and making sure everyone had the correct bags.
Till next time, good luck and tight lines!
-Odium
Thank you for everyone who participated in the charter, without you guys we would have never had such a great trip! An especially big thank you for Coastal Angler Magazine, Channel Islands Sportfishing, Pacific Islander Sportfishing, Gentleman Sportfishing, Tradition Sportfishing, Davey's Locker, Big Hammer, Phenix, B2 Squid, Pro-Cure, and all of our other sponsors who donated raffle prizes.
Saturday afternoon was a bit of a blur; picking up carpool partners, buying tackle, eating dinner, and then rushing off to Channel Islands Sportfishing. But amongst the chaos, I held true to my normal routine; aka, food pictures!
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
We decided on some Vietnamese food for dinner.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Even though I was co-chartermaster on this trip, I was the last to arrive. . . When we got to the landing and started loading our gear, a few of the guys were already fishing the slips for kicks and giggles.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Bye bye Skunk, now drop that into the bait tank!
After I safely stowed away my stuff, Hakaveli and I laid out all the raffle prizes for our charter.
Captain Steve Virtue called Hakaveli and I up to the wheel house to decide on what our final plans were for the trip. We knew the live squid was still scarce and none of the boats have been reporting out sightings on any of the exotics, so we opted to go for safer bet and shoot out for San Miguel island.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Once we made the decision, Steve called everyone to the stern and briefed everyone who the crew was, conditions, what we would be fishing for, and how we should rig up.
Our crew consisted of:
Captain Steve Virtue
Deckhands Brian and Chris
Galley Cook Amy
We were in for a slightly bumpy night but all the reports and forecasts stated that the conditions would lay down.
After the briefing, we asked the beautiful galley cook. Amy, to help us select our first round of raffle winners.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Pack of Big Hammers Lures.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Phenix Reel Cover.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
16 Oz Diamond Jig.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
12 Oz B2 Squid Jig
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
16 Oz Diamond Jig.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
White Sea Bass Kit filled with hooks, lead, leadheads, and sliders.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
As we motored out of the harbor, we hit a bit of chop and most of the guys ducked into the bunks. I finished tying up my rockfishing rig, snapped this photo, and went to sleep.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
The Pacific Islander has some very, very spacious bunks.
I woke up around greylight, just as the engines motored back. Tossed on my boots, woke up the guys who were still fast asleep, and stumbled on deck. Checked in with the Captain and we would be fishing between San Miguel and Santa Rosa this morning.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
We had a couple sets of rollers this morning but they waned as the day went on.
We started off the day drifting a combination of deep structure and rocky bottom. The bite would be a little slow for the first minute or so, but then we'd drift over a nice set of rocks and BAM! half of the rail would be sporting bendos.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
I was fishing a neon green bucktail and a 16 oz chrome jig. I opted not to tip my hooks this morning to see how voracious the fish were.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Aside from some angry chuckles, I ended up pulling out like six baby lings.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Still somewhat amazing that these guys will bite a jig just as big as they are.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Nice Chuckle Jacky!
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Get em James!
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Hakaveli snuck his Johnny Bass from last week onto this trip. . . Haha Jk.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Angler David with his first legal Ling. Good job buddy!
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
And with his second Ling! Just kidding, same ling, he couldn't figure out which way he wanted to hold it.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Fishing wasn't WIDE WIDE WIDE open, but it was consistent and filled with quality. Aside from the baby lings hiding in the rocks. This was the score board after two drifts.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
We were sporting a whole buffet for the rockfish on the bait board. Octopus, baby octopus. Squid, shrimp, mackerel, and some smelt.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Fishing while eating my breakfast sandwich. I figured it would finally happen, I got slammed in the middle of eating my sandwich. I kind of did this lame looking grind while holding the sandwich, as I was about to put the sandwich on the rail, Amy popped her head out of the galley window and said she could hold my sandwich till I got the fish onboard; gotta love top notch service! The fish turned out to be a really nice red.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
But I was only able to bask in the fame for two seconds till David pulled up this fatty.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
During one of the moves, we spotted one angler with a taboo item. He wasn't aware of the bad mojo associated with bananas so we gave him a quick briefing.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Lazy man's fishing. . . One foot up and the rod on the rail.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
A couple of the guys went all out and tagged themselves with the stickers available.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Angler Arvil with a nice chuck on the lucanus.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
James started using the rail to his advantage as we progressed through the day.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Super lazy man's fishing! The Pacific Islander has a bench up on the bow.
During one of our drifts, Angler David gets slammed and its pulling some drag.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Turned out to be a pinback shark.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Angler Jacky landed an elusive granite grouper.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Conditions had really flatted out as the day progressed.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
The Pacific Islander had an awesome floater retriever, luckily we didn't need it at all on our trip.
We were just short of rockfish limits after about 2 hours, so Steve decided to motor us into some shallow sticky spots for Lings, Cabbies, Sheephead, and maybe some whitefish.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Lucky Angler Marc pulled out this mean looking cabbie out of the rocks.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
I was fishing the bow when I saw Angler Blu hook up on a fish on the iron. Unfortunately, he got rocked by the fish and he got rocked hard! After a minute or so of battling it out with the fish, the rod gave way first.
A couple of minutes after that, I hooked up on a sheephead while fishing a leadhead/squid combo.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Off in the distance, I saw some birds working, but as they got closer, I saw it was a about 30 baby seals pushing bait up. Rather than letting them get on top of us, Steve asked everyone to wind em up and moved over to another spot.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
We picked a couple of fish off the next two spots but it was tough fishing with such a sticky bottom.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
The days special was some awesome chicken tacos.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Short cabbie, I got on the Leadhead/squid.
It was just after 2PM when Steve gave us the final wind em up call.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Nice chucks Spence!
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Good going Jonas!
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Another lucky angler was able to pop his ling cherry on our trip.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Nice going David. make sure to gloat to your buddies because they didn't wanna come out with you.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Nice job Hak.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
My largest chuck and my sheephead.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
In addition to the monetary jackpot, we we're also giving away an Avet SX 2 speed reel. Congrats Marc! He easily took the jackpot with his 10# Cabbie.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
David's mixed bag.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
As the crew setup for fish cleaning, we set about selecting the rest of the raffle prize winners.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Bryant with a King's Jig and Pro-Cure Scented Baits.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Blu with a Phenix Reel Cover.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Butthunter with a King's Jig and Pro-Cure Scented Baits.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Steve with a Big Hammer Lures and B2 Squid combo.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Vince with a B2 and Pline plastics combo.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Jason with a plastics and jig protector combo.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Reallen with a CISCOs Shirt, beanie, and Big Hammers Lure Combo.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Arvil with a White Sea Bass kit.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
David with a Pacific Islander hat and CISCOs shirt package.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Spence won the Barska Binoculars.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Bryant with a glow in the dark B2 Squid.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Reallen with a Western Digital hard drive.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Blu with a 1/2 day Pass out of Davey's Locker.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Congrats Jimmy on the trolling rod!
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Congrats Jason with two passes on the Gentleman. I hope your daughters slay when you take them out!
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Congrats on the Tradition Pass.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Freelance Pass out of Davey's Locker.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Butthunter was the lucky angler to win another overnight pass on the Pacific Islander.
I think just about everyone won about two items on our charter.
As everyone was settling into their bunks or tearing down their gear, I notice Vince was getting some attention on the stern.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
One of the deckhands hand handed him a fat eye out of a red. I'm sure you can guess what would happen next. . .
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Oh ya! Yummy, oozing goodness. . . When I asked Vince what they offered him to eat it, he said he didn't get offered anything. . .
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Bad things happen when you pass out in the galley with friends around. . .
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
We made it back to the dock around 6:20 and the crew did a great job of running our fish up the ramp and making sure everyone had the correct bags.
Till next time, good luck and tight lines!
-Odium
