Rpt-Sun. 3-21 Plan C at Catalina

[Tunaslam]

Fishing Sun. 3-21-04 for the first time with Mike Slater on his sweet 24' Orca "Baja Special", & new friend Ruben. Plan A was for chasing tuna & tails, Plan B was for fishing at San Clemente Island, both shut down by the weather, so plan C was fishing at Catalina. We launched out of Davies in Long Beach at 4am, picked up a half scoop of live squid at Nachos and headed out in beautiful seas for the East end of Catalina. As we rounded the east end, we ran head on into mixed seas, and 2-3 foot swells and a slight headwind. We decided to fish for bottom critters first at the Farnsworth Bank, before conditions got too bad, and after nearly an hour to go 10miles, any thoughts of San Clemente quickly disappeared. The first few hours we only found scattered marks, slow fishing for some Starries, Barber Poles, Johnny Bass & a couple of Boaccacio, a few Reds and a ripping current. We continued to look around and Mike stumbled on to some clouds of fish in 250 feet and they turned out to be almost straight Red Vermillion. We quickly limited out.

Here is Mike with a couple of nice big Reds caught with squid strips.



Here is Ruben with a nice Red and Huge Johnny Bass caught with squid.




I also caught some dandy Reds, with the Jax jig & shrimp fly combo, tipped with squid.




Here is Mike and Ruben showing off their best fish!





Here are the day's victims!




At 10:30 we headed to Ben Westin to try and catch some WSB or a few Calicos, Whitefish & Sheephead. With little action after an hour, we moved on to Iron Bound Cove, then West Cove, Johnson's Rock and finally Starlight all for very little. The breeze and whitecaps were building at 1:30 pm. so we called it a day. The ride home a bit bumpy, but manageable and only took 70 minutes. Disappointed we could not take advantage of the tuna bite, but happy we salvaged the day at Catalina on the bottom critters. The radio was real quiet.

Thanks again Mike for the invite, I had a great time and enjoyed fishing on your boat. It was a pleasure to meet you Ruben, next time will hopefully be on the outer banks for all of us.

Hook up! Cory

[Catman]

Tunaslam, looks like you may have made the correct choice. Early reports on the days albies are not encouraging. You on the other hand, have a nice bunch of tacos and fillets.

Congratulations and THANX for the nice report and pictures!

[blues shark]

Being out is what is important, Grand haul.

[Surfdoc]

Smart Call .... Gotta agree, I'd rather be down south on the prowl.. but Mother nature rules!
Great follow up plan Corey! And another great report as always.. hell we didn't even pull the camera out...

[Tunaslam]

Yeah even on a cat the conditions would of sucked. Happy we were on the water and able to catch a few and avoid a the southern beating we would of gotten. Thanks for the feedback. Cory

[Squid Vicious]

.....plan " C " looks like it worked out real well , congrats on the bottom critters , and the great pics .well done Cory .

[Tunaslam]

Appreciate the feedback, thank goodness bottom fishing is open, or it would be some dreay days to face. Cory

Even as seaworthya boat like that Orca, I think you guys made the right choice. Those are some nice size reds.
Good report Cory.
What was the temp at the Island anyway?

John\Get Happy

[Sea Hag]

Yo Cory,
Hey any fishun better than no fishun.
Glad to see you had a backup plan.
Thanks for the report.

[Tunaslam]

It is always good to be on the water and catching some sort of fish. Glad your trip was reasonbly successful, despite the weather. Cory