2.5 day to SCI on the Islander

[Sin Coast]

I was lucky enough to go on a 2.5 day trip to San Clemente Island on the Islander. It was on June 7-10 with the NCKA crew for their annual Islander trip.
The weather was incredible. The crew was outstanding. And I had a lot of fun! We fished the front side on Saturday then fished the back side on Sunday. The skipper, Jason, said it was the first time in 5yrs that they took kayakers to the weather side. Like I said, it was FAC.
There were some fat halibut, a nice wsb, and tons of calicos, sheeps, whitefish, etc. It was my first time yakfishing in SoCal and definitely a different ballgame. The techniques & tackle is different, but also the culture is different too. thought I was in heaven when I saw all those sweet yachts docked in Fishermans Landing. Fishing in shorts & flipflops was plush too, for sure. I can't wait to get back down there again soon.

On Saturday evening I was trolling a huge Rapala as I paddled back to the boat. Almost back to the boat (and kinda exhausted), I hooked up in about 100FOW. it towed me over 2 miles in about 1.5 hours...out past 1000FOW. As it got dark we had to call out the skiff, then I climbed in and foght it from there. The fish was tail-hooked with the trebles solidly embedded near the tip of its tail...and never jumped. So we didn't know what it was til we got color = thresher!
She measured out to 8ft 9in and approx 130lbs.
The stupid look on my face is me trying to lift that sucker haha!

Thank you to the crew and especially Jason! I had a great time and I'm stoked to do another trip soon!