Cat Hoopin & Hookin…Way Too Much Fun!!!
With a killer weather forecast for Sunday and Monday Mark and I decided to do a goof off trip on the “Pacific Edge” Sunday evening thru Monday afternoon over at Cat. We launched at 3pm and exited HH to find 5knts or wind or less with flat calm seas and bright blue skies. We ran at 20knts over to the island and as we were running I baited up the new set of Promar Ambush Nets and got the gear ready.
We arrived at Cat about an hr before sundown and picked a couple nice spots to drop the gear. We dropped two 50’ ropes, four 75’ ropes, two 100’ ropes and two 150’ ropes. We did around 6 sets and managed 9 or 10 nice keepers (about the same amount of shorts) and then called it a night at 9:30pm. Here's a pic of the lobster as we where working on trying to get limits
Everything we caught was in the deeper nets and the crawl died early for us with the bright full moon straight up over our heads. We tied up to a mooring and Mark cooked up some filet mignon and lobster with rice pilaf. Good stuff right there!!! After the good eats we crashed out with plans of getting up early and hitting some rockfish and ling spots.
Dawn came early and even after pulling what seemed like 2 miles of rope the night before I felt surprisingly good
!!! I walked out onto the deck to see a nice sunrise turn as the fog rolled in.
It was a cool sight to see, kind of eerie actually. Anyway, we ran up to hit a few of Marks rockfish/ling spots. Just like the night before, the water was flat calm and not even a breath of wind. We anchored up (in 32 fathoms) on a nice high spot and started picking of some starry’s, chuckle heads and some reds. Here's Marks secret ling cod tail bait.
About a 1hr into fishing I got a solid bite and set the hook and Oh Man!!!! it was game on!!! It was a tug of war for about 10 to 15 seconds as I put as much pressure on the 65lb spectra and 30lb fluro as I could without popping the line and unfortunately the fish got the best of me and dragged my line into the rocks below and popped me off. Fired up and wanting to find out what I lost I re rigged and dropped back down and about 30 min later I get that same type of bite and set the hook and again it was a tough tug of war but this time I was ready and turned the fish and slowly brought the fish up to color.
It was a decent ling.
Sweet!!! I haven’t caught one in over 10 years. Took some pics and we went back to work.. But conditions unfortunately started to die so we moved up west more.
Tried another spot with the anchor going into 40 fathoms but the fog wind up there picked up big time and it made fishing the deeper water too tough. So we moved inside to try and catch a c-bass in some nice looking water Mark saw.
Anchored up and started pitching some squids. Man the giant macks where biting full speed!!! Then Mark tied into a little bat ray that got our hearts pumping there for a second. Later I got bit and set the hook on a drag burner that got my heart pumping again but it turned out to be a nicer grade bonito.
Caught a few more bass and sargo before deciding to call it a day early as the fog was still thick in the channel and we didn’t want to get back late and miss Monday night football and the World Series game.
A look back at the island on our way back home
A few pics of our catch
My take to go with the lobsters. Nice freezer speacial trip
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Another great time on the water!!! Mark, had a blast fishing with you on the first of what is hopefuly many more hoopin and hookin charters on the Pacific Edge, thanks for the trip and lets do it again soon!!!
For anyone interested in booking a Hooping and Hookin Charter contact us at the tackle shop at 714-840-4262 or check out the charter info on our website at PacificEdgetackle.com
Tight lines,
Behdad
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