Islander Mothership 6/23 - 6/26

[Uncle_Tomas]

Hope everyone is doing great. I apologize for super late report from our mothership trip to SCI.

As you all know this year has been pretty windy up until recently and we were not sure if our trip was a go or if they are going to change it to BFT trip until few days before our departure. Captain Pete’s decision was to stick to kayaks which is what we were waiting for for so long!

First day we started fishing on the front side and the weather was not very inviting. Pretty windy and gloomy right off the bat. Wind was getting gradually worse resulting into choppy ocean with some decent swells. Not ideal conditions for any sight fishing at all.
Right after launch I started making my way down the beach heading south which was the planned direction of where the boat was suppose to go once everyone launched. There was a lot of bass and Bonito to be had but no game fish for me on that day.
There were few yellowtail caught up to 15lb which were caught closer to the boat if I remember correctly.

At night captain announced that we are going to make a move south and anchor at the pyramid cove where we should be better protected from the wind and swells.
Conditions were a lot calmer at pyramid cove early in the morning but got gradually worse wind wind picking up creating chop and white caps by lunch time.
Pyramid cove has a lot of structure consisting of ridges and huge kelp bed.
Most of us started fishing kelp bed where I picked up 19” calico on a flyline sardine. Shortly after I started to make my way away from the kelp into little deeper water as I was looking for yellowtail while trolling sardine on a dropper loop for a halibut. As I was drifting through an area that I liked I had a a rod with heavy jig ready to drop on a mark. At one point I saw something that looked like possible fish on my fish finder and sure enough my Savage Gear Squish Jig in yellow/red color gets bid on the wind in. Seconds later line starts to peel off and I knew I connected with the right kind.
At this moment I started questioning my decision to use my light rockfish jigging set up with 30lb braid and 30lb mono top shot on my XH Californian rod with Avet SXJ as this fish felt pretty good. Since I was in 100+ feet of water with no kelp around me I knew I can take my time and keep light drag. After ~ 5 minutes (which seemed like 30 min) of fighting the fish and not making any progress at all I felt that the fish was getting little tired and I push the lever past strike just one click which allowed me to start taking some line back. Shortly after I get him to leader and then I got him to color and I realized that this fish is bigger than I thought. After an awkward gaff job I finally welcomed my first mothership yellowtail aboard my kayak. The fish ended up being 34lb and it was the biggest fish of the trip.
Another beautiful catch was 25lb doormat halibut caught by one of the guys.

Around noon boat anchored closer to the beach protected from the wind and waited for all of us to get back to eat lunch while we make our way back to front side since pyramid cove was no longer fishable for us.

We made the move and started fishing at Mosquito Cove if I remember correctly. The plan was to go north as that’s where the bot would anchor in the afternoon.
At this time I decided to go find some rocks out deeper for some nice rockfish. One of my favorite things about SCI is that you don’t need to go far to be in 250-300’ of water and once you find a rock there is really good chance of finding nice reds, Boccaccio or even sheephead.
As I was switching out my Squish jig for a knife jig I noticed that my paper clip style clip that I caught my yellowtail on started to open up as I was fighting the fish so I felt very fortunate that the fish did not get away with my jig.

Me and buddies Ryan and Josh caught some nice rockfish and Jeff got nice sheephead pretty quickly as well. Then I decided to go back into shallow water and spend some time casting surface iron. I was throwing jigs quite a lot both days and manage few bass. Surprisingly Bonito were not biting for me at all the second day.

People started heading back around 6 and the swells were picking up pretty good by then as well.

Overall the fishing was never wide open but there were some nice fish caught. I think conditions were definitely a factor but it was still a fun trip with great memories. This was my second time doing mothership and I have only great things to say about the boat, captain, crew and food was delicious as well. I can definitely recommend this trip as it’s pretty unique experience.

Thanks for reading.

Tomas