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Jesse's Hunting > Fishing Articles > Articles > Catalina Dreaming
Catalina Dreaming
Dave Blake - JHO ProStaff
- Southern California
August 24, 2005
A friend of mine called and invited me on an overnight trip to Catalina Island to fish the kelp beds. Being the fishhound that I am, I couldn't pass this one up. The prospect of catching numerous species including the potential large white sea bass was impossible to pass up.
Calico bass for dinner!
Everyone went home with plenty of fresh fish for the table. |
The plan was for our group of five to meet at Pier Point Landing in Long Beach on a boat called the Dreamer. The Captain of the Dreamer is Allyn Watson who has a great reputation for catching lots of giant white sea bass as well as other species.
A last minute change of plans prevented Captain Watson from joining us. Instead we were well taken care of by Scott Weedman, Jeff Ruddock and Jeff Shabada. These guys took care of everything we needed.
We left the dock at 10pm for the long ride to the other side of Catalina Island. During that time most of us hit the bunks for some shuteye. By the time I woke up it was blue light and everyone else had a line in the water.
Although we were targeting white sea bass with live and frozen squid, it didn't take long for us to start hooking up with calico bass. My first one was a nice 4 pounder. Deckhand Jeff Ruddock landed one shortly after mine that we estimated to be about 8 pounds. It was easily the biggest calico any of us had ever seen.
We jumped from spot to spot in search of the giant white sea bass that Catalina Island is so famous for. A couple of false alarms ended up being large bat rays that put up a good fight. Although we were able to get three or four of the white sea bass hooked up, we didn't boat any of them.
At our last stop before heading back to the dock I put a sardine on a red leadhead and dropped it to the bottom. When a gentle strike straightened my line I set the hook and was answered by a strong pulling fish.
After a three or four minute tug of war a nice barracuda came to the gaff and was put in the cooler. That turned out to be my largest fish of the trip.
Jeff Ruddock spent the return trip with the filet knife cleaning our catch which included several calico bass, three or four sheepshead, one nice halibut, one barracuda and a lot of blue perch All of us went home with plenty of fresh fish to eat.
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