12/28-29 Santa Rosa Island

[Iceman]

A slice of heaven.......Report to follow..............

[Holy Mackerel]

Wow, nice!!! can't wait to see more pics!

chris

[Zed]

Sweet.

[kurt]

Great trip, great photos. I hope their are more trips coming aboard the Black Pearl. They really seemed to have the kayak loading and unloading down. Thanks again for setting it up, Andy.

[dgax65]

Wow. Looks like an awesome trip. Beautiful pictures.

[Edwaters]

I guys,

The trip was awesome.

The crew was great, the food was great, and the yakers good people.

Learned alot this wk-end.

Thanks to Iceman for setting up the trip.

Late Edwaters

[TheRatYak]

Great pics!

[lamb]

looks bitchen, can't wait for the story

who's the big bold bendo guy??

[EFISH]

Kurt they do have more trips coming up. Jan 17-19, Feb 14-16 they are going down to mexico. PST, Camalu, Colonet and Isle San Martin. I'm going to try and make it out on the Feb trip I think it's longer.
Peace
EFISH

[joyjiggin']

Andy,
Beautiful pics of a great trip!! It was an experience! Enjoyed the company of 8 other great kayak fishers. And next time I am going to do my own gaffing!

way to go ICEMAN

[esdees]

Beautiful pictures. Thanks for setting these things up Andy.

[landwhale]

Great Group of Kayakers
Great Captain and Crew
A Couple of Kayak Firsts for Me
Unbelievably Great Weather
The Channel Islands























Only downer of the entire trip 1 broken camera

Thanks Andy

[Iceman]

The Black Pearl is a 65 foot sport fishing boat with a 30 year veteran skipper who offers year round kayak mothership trips, from overnighters to multi day. Like several of the SoCal boats they run from SD when that is the place to be and from Oxnard when the islands are popping.

We loaded up Friday night with 9 kayakers and 4 crew. Crossing the channel was incredibly smooth following the small craft advisory. We arrived at Santa Rosa and set up on some squid. We only managed a few pieces that night, but had plenty of fin bait in the tanks. Hit the bunk for a few hours. Breakfast was french toast, eggs, bacon and hot coffee. We were all spread out on the water a little after sunrise. Weak current made for a slow start. I managed 3 jonny bass on plastics. Cheese burgers and potato salad for lunch and a move of the boat put us in very fishy waters for the afternoon. I fished iron......and more iron. Released a bunch of smaller rockfish and kept a few good ones, reds, blues and browns. Lost the biggest red I have ever seen lifting it by the jig. Released a good sized ling and caught my biggest cabby ever. Sheephead took the day 1 jackpot.

Loaded up at sunset to move to the opposite end if SR Beckers Bay. Ate lasangna, salad, and garlic toast along the way. We hit up the squid grounds and slowly picked away at 100 peices as the sals had the squid on the run. The plan was to hoop for lobster, but I was spent and hit the rack. The 2 that went did not find the lobster, ony rock crab.

Breakfast burritos and back at it. This time with some squid. We spread out and stumbled upon the halibut hole. First one was lost at gaff, but gave me more than enough confidence to keep at it. Finally got one to go on the squid after a few had been taken on both squid and sardines. My first turned into a leapord, several other sharks were caught. 20 feet, second hook up was the right kind and gaffed a 31 incher. Got another just over legal and missed too many. Got one more 28 incher in 6 feet of water just outside the surf. The chase skiff also reported seeing 3 WSB in that zone.

After fish and rice for lunch we hit it for more with some opting to rockfish and some pounding sand. The day's jackpot was landed in the afternoon a 3 foot halibut. We loaded em up at sunset and ran 40 miles home.

We lucked out with amazing weather, clear and crisp but very light winds up to the last afternoon. Hard working crew! Chase skiff was there to toss you a beer, lend a hand, hand off a fish or even gaff it.

Black Pearl is setting up some Mexican coast trips with Coastal Kayak Fishing in January and February, departing SD. I will be booking some trips in Spring, departing Oxnard. Thanks Capt Rick/ Black Pearl crew and to those that climbed aboard. Too much fun/ 2 days fishing was almost enough

[dorf]

Originally Posted by Iceman

This is a great shot.
At first glance it looks like snow in the back.
Thanks for sharing the pics.

[kareem korn]

I would actually cough up some cash for a trip like this. The pictures are insane, and tell the report by their selves. No words necessary.

[bellcon]

great report Andy
and thanks again for getting it all going
was it worth the stress?

I gotta get my daughter to play with my photos on photoshop
yours look AWESOME!!

looking forward to the next time buddy

[MKNOTT]

I gotta put in a good word for the crew of the Black Pearl. It was hands down the best sport boat service I have ever experienced. Capt Rick went way out of his way too make sure everything went smoothly when it came too getting on and off the boat, not to mention pulling out the charts and giving us a detailed picture of the areas we were fishing. He also made sure we got some live squid. I love those Northern Chanel Islands and cant wait to go againe.

MKNOTT

[Dan]

Killer Stuff. Sounds like you guys fished hard and caught some nice halibuts. And man did you guys luck out on wind.