San Clemente island on the Islander 2.5 Day

[Iceman]

I scarfed down an awesome bowl of clam chowder from Mitch's while waiting for the boat to come back from loading the bait. We had a decent mix of sardines and mini macks in with those YUCK! anchovies Light load on the Islander, we left port a little after 8 pm on Thursday evening. Very smooth ride out until we hit some unexpected wind and swell half way there. In the morning John said he was this close to turning it around with water over the wheel house. Wind was blowing pretty good at first light and our only option that was open was the White Rock area.. The crew got the kayaks out of the rack and ready to set up on deck as we finished eating french toast and sausage. We all got on the water pretty quickly and were passed bait from the boat into our live wells. I would see the schools of 5- 6 pound bonies come under me. Fly line sardine landed a few, dropping to the bottom would bring up a calico We drifted south along the island until lunch where we all boarded and ate amazing fresh cod sandwiches and coleslaw Lots of bass and bonito for me and most with some deep rock fish coming in as well as Dave's DEEP jack pot winning halibut. After dinner I crashed, the pound cake with blueberries, whip cream and chocolate sauce was the knock out punch.

The boat moved and tried to get the squid to float but after 60-70 pieces were made the dogs were relentless and never let it float again. We rode up along the weather side and settled into West Cove to start and picked away at bass and at least 1 heart breaker that freight trained into the kelp. Eating lunch we moved to North West Harbor and on the way saw tons of terns a mile off the island, so we chased the yellows a bit and had them showing on the meter and side scan but no luck. Anchored and in the water we spread out. Chuck picked up day 2 jackpot in 80 feet and I headed out from the beach and settled in about 65 feet. Pulled up a 20 pound BSB that had me hoping for something better. A while later I got a decent halibut and was happy to have the meat part of the trip taken care of. Wind got to be more than I wanted to fish and I hopped back on the boat around 6:30 and enjoyed a hot shower and a bunch of hot wings. Fished from the boat for a while and pulled up a couple chunky calicos on the yoyo in 80 feet. Tri tip and baked potato for dinner and slept like a rock until we hit port at 6 am. Fun times, great crew and boat and good guys to fish with. hopefully Drew and the film crew puts together enough cool footage for an upcoming episode.