Amigo Overnight with “Club Fish” – Saturday, May 12, 2007

[The Sea Hag]

I got a call from Steffanie at Newport Landing saying they had a charter with a fishing club – “Club Fish” – on the Amigo, and they were looking for a couple more people to fill a charter. I jumped at the chance to meet a new group of anglers!

I got to the landing and met up with the group, and 10 of us boarded a little before 9:00. After quick run to the bait dock where we picked up some huge sardines, we were off. The crew consisted of Captain Mike Thompson, 2nd Captain Bob Melville, and we were all welcomed aboard by Shon on deck, and galley cook/deck hand Ichiro.
The plan was to run to Catalina and look for squid, then on to San Clemente. There was no mention of squid jigs, so I assumed we were planning to get some from one of the boats out there. At the island, the squid were not to be found, but Captain Mike found one of the light boats and bought us plenty of squid to keep us busy for the whole day!


At gray light we had a slow pick at the yellows for about an hour. About 12 hookups put 6 fish on the boat, to 26 pounds We hung out there for a while over a sandy bottom, marking some smaller grade fish after that, and then took off to look around.

We made a few drifts where they’d caught yellowtail the prior days, with no success. We tried it all… yo-yo iron, squid and sardines on dropper loops and fly lined. Nothing. In the process, we picked up a few nice sized halibut, the biggest 18 pounds.


Mike took us to a spot off a little closer to the island on the edge of some kelp and anchored up, and we loaded up on some nice calicos, and landed some BIG ones. I’m happy to say most of the 5+ pound fish were carefully released, and a few of the really nice ones were also photographed before they were sent home!


As always, the food was great! I had a wonderful breakfast burrito, with ham, bacon, eggs and cheese. And Ichiro makes some of the best hand made burgers in the local fleet! None of those little frozen preformed burgers…!! The weather was pretty decent, after a rough ride out, the water did lay down pretty well in the morning. It was a pretty cool day, with some wind, but we had sunshine by early afternoon, and a nice smooth ride home.


We ended the day with 7 yellowtail, 5 halibut, 78 calico bass, 22 perch, 11 rock fish, 10 sheephead, and 2 white fish. Jackpot went to Ben for his 26 pound yellowtail.


I'd like to thank Captain Mike, who did his best to put us on some fish. Newport Landing has some great boats to check out, if you like fishing the smaller boats with lighter loads. They can be reached at 949-675-0551.


I’d also like to thank the great anglers with “Club Fish”, who made me feel really welcome with their tight little group. You can check them out at their web site: ClubFish.

[michael]

Nice pics and thanks for the report.