Trip Cancelled... PB Fish still caught

[Denis_Ruso]

6/15 - Spend all night wiring and rigging a bait tank and packing from the 2.5 day Mothership trip.

6/16 - 3 hour drive from Los Angeles to San Diego, get there at 1pm. boat doesn't start loading until 6pm. I go to OEX and buy a timer switch for my bait tank. I stop by West Marine and buy a VHF radio to communicate with the Mothership when I'm out at the Island. Then drive over to the landing to eat dinner and drink lots of beer so I can sleep on the ride out to the island.

6:00 PM - Kayak and all my gear being loaded in the Islander.

6:30 PM - More beer at the landing.

8:00 PM Islander crew announce that the trip is canceled due to weather.

8:05 PM Unloading gear and kayak from the mothership.

9:00 PM Sobering my ass up to make the drive home, sleeping in the back of my truck.

6/17 At the risk of wasting my precious vacation days taken for this trip. I was going fishing!

12:00 AM - 3 hour drive back to Los Angeles

3:00 AM - Sleep

4:30 AM - Time to fish. Drive to Malibu and launch at one of my favorite spots.

5:30 AM - I feel like I haven't slept, slightly hung over, I pull up to my launch spot. with 3-7 foot swells breaking. Some peaking close to 10 foot faces. Timed my launch, got out past the breakers. And began paddling into the distance.

The sunrise was beautiful, the smog lingered above the city as the sun rose with a show of vibrant red and orange over a glassy ocean. The ocean amplified the beauty as it reflected all the color to double the effect of the sunrise. Todays was worth it just for that moment. Not a single soul out on the water this morning.

Now to the fishing. The day started off slow. I threw some 5" swim baits for no love. But I was seeing calico spines. The calico would boil every 5 minutes or so inside the kelp. As the calico would boil they would penetrate the surface of the kelp and I would see their spines slither back down into the patty. But I couldn't get them to bite. So I tried something new... I paddled up to a visual boil, and I started dipping my swim bait into the holes in the kelp. HOOOOKUP! First fish is an 13" Calico which I pulled directly out of the kelp. Now I have the confidence for the rest of the day.

The bite is slow for the next hour or so, but I decide to paddle out deep towards some diving birds. I get some crazy fish finder readings. 75 ft depth and there is bait for 60 ft of it. Football field size schools.

I make bait.

I make my way to shallower kelp 50-60 feet and finally find my wide open calico bit. For about 2 hours I get a consistent but of 10-14" calico almost every cast. I ended up landing 10 that day and had about 30 bites. I would watch as wolfpacks of calico would come up and fight for my swim bait. I ever watched one bite the tail of my swim bait as I has another calico on it.

Towards the end of the bite I get one nice cast in and get absolutely Nailed! Feels big. I get it close to the boat and it a perfectly hooked calico but not any calico. Biggest calico I have seen on the water. I get him up on the boat and the sheer power of this fish reminded me a lot of grouper. The fish is approximated at 6 1/2 to 7 lbs and measured in at 20 1/2 inches and also my new PB calico.