Its4Reels!-Parker23
Well-known member
Short Report: No yellows, 150+ calicos, 170 miles in less than 24 hours.
Armed with the latest on the water info (Thanks Erol) we headed out to the White Rock area of San Clemente Island. We left Davie’s around 11:30pm and baited up at Nacho’s. The sardine’s were so-so and lasted pretty much the entire day. The full moon was bright and seas were calm and we made it to White Rock in a little less than 3 hours. It was so bright that I rarely needed to look at the radar as we had very good visibility. We anchored in 80 feet of water next to a motor yacht that was bigger than my house. Along for this trip was Alfred Castro, his son Alfred “clickerboy” Jr., and a newbie to my boat and to salt water fishing in general, Junior. Junior is a freshwater bass expert and really put the hurt to the calicos with the Berkely Gulp in the sardine jerk bait model. We were lined up with all the sport boats and private boaters waiting for the yellows to come through. They made a couple of brief showings and Alfred had a hook pull on one fish, I had a breakoff on 20lb Penn/Mustad line, that I will be giving or throwing away, and a solid quick hit and miss on a surface iron (mint) thrown to a school that broke just off the boat and that was it. Did not see anyone else boat a fish and the Sunday counts reflected the slow yellowtail fishing. The fleet started to move around and we decided to do the same. Went around Pyramid Cove and set up just inside of China Point for a couple of calicos. Water was 64.5 in Pyramid and 69.7 to 70.5 on the front side. I also have to mention the seals. They were relentless in eating our sardines and keeping the fish away. They would not leave us alone in Pyramid and they were going from boat to boat on the front side. Although I have had many experiences dealing with seals Sunday’s was one of the worse I have dealt with. We made our way back to the front side and slow trolled some ‘dines for awhile for nada. Saw a school of bonito cruise by and that was it. We picked up the trollers and dropped the hook just outside of Purse Seine Rock. It was wide open on the calicos with maybe 40% being of legal size. Little Alfred also was catching some of the biggest blue perch I have ever seen on cut squid. It was now 2pm and we decided to head home taking a line from Purse Seine Rock to the 277 fathom spot. Tolling gear went in about 4 miles from the island and we only saw 1 paddy the entire way to the hi-spot. Junior saw something jump in the distance and that was it. Water was 70-73 degrees most of the way but was not the deep blue color that we like to see. From there we made our way to the 14 mile bank and saw a couple of small kelps with nobody home. 170 total miles traveled 90.3 gallons burned. We need a couple of chubascos to push up some of the warmer water and the fish from the south. No pics (you all know what a calico looks like). Had a great time with cool people. Can't wait until we do it again.
Armed with the latest on the water info (Thanks Erol) we headed out to the White Rock area of San Clemente Island. We left Davie’s around 11:30pm and baited up at Nacho’s. The sardine’s were so-so and lasted pretty much the entire day. The full moon was bright and seas were calm and we made it to White Rock in a little less than 3 hours. It was so bright that I rarely needed to look at the radar as we had very good visibility. We anchored in 80 feet of water next to a motor yacht that was bigger than my house. Along for this trip was Alfred Castro, his son Alfred “clickerboy” Jr., and a newbie to my boat and to salt water fishing in general, Junior. Junior is a freshwater bass expert and really put the hurt to the calicos with the Berkely Gulp in the sardine jerk bait model. We were lined up with all the sport boats and private boaters waiting for the yellows to come through. They made a couple of brief showings and Alfred had a hook pull on one fish, I had a breakoff on 20lb Penn/Mustad line, that I will be giving or throwing away, and a solid quick hit and miss on a surface iron (mint) thrown to a school that broke just off the boat and that was it. Did not see anyone else boat a fish and the Sunday counts reflected the slow yellowtail fishing. The fleet started to move around and we decided to do the same. Went around Pyramid Cove and set up just inside of China Point for a couple of calicos. Water was 64.5 in Pyramid and 69.7 to 70.5 on the front side. I also have to mention the seals. They were relentless in eating our sardines and keeping the fish away. They would not leave us alone in Pyramid and they were going from boat to boat on the front side. Although I have had many experiences dealing with seals Sunday’s was one of the worse I have dealt with. We made our way back to the front side and slow trolled some ‘dines for awhile for nada. Saw a school of bonito cruise by and that was it. We picked up the trollers and dropped the hook just outside of Purse Seine Rock. It was wide open on the calicos with maybe 40% being of legal size. Little Alfred also was catching some of the biggest blue perch I have ever seen on cut squid. It was now 2pm and we decided to head home taking a line from Purse Seine Rock to the 277 fathom spot. Tolling gear went in about 4 miles from the island and we only saw 1 paddy the entire way to the hi-spot. Junior saw something jump in the distance and that was it. Water was 70-73 degrees most of the way but was not the deep blue color that we like to see. From there we made our way to the 14 mile bank and saw a couple of small kelps with nobody home. 170 total miles traveled 90.3 gallons burned. We need a couple of chubascos to push up some of the warmer water and the fish from the south. No pics (you all know what a calico looks like). Had a great time with cool people. Can't wait until we do it again.
