Catalina Mole 11/22/2016.. No kayak.

[Mahigeer]

I wanted to have some lobsters added to the Thanksgiving feast, so I decided to make a two day outing to the Catalina Island.

Below is a short (for my posts) account of the trip.




Tuesday October 22, 2016


By 8:00 AM I was on the Mole making my first cast of cast-a-bubble with a green bucktail hook.

Twice I hooked to fish that fought harder than bonito, so perhaps they were yellowtail. I did some back and forth fighting, but each time they got unhooked.

Puzzling me was how the fish got off after being hooked and pulling drag several times.

I also used a sinker setup bonito rig and lures to catch the below surface bonito. No hook up on those either until later in the day. No bait fishing today.

Anyways my first landing a bonito occurred around 2:00 PM. After that until I left for lobster hooping, it was almost a fish on every cast.
Not very big ones, but even in that size, the fight was fun.



1-A sample of the bonito caught all day on Tuesday afternoon. Most were smaller, and one or two bigger, but not by much.





There was an angler who was on the same boat as me that had heavy duty setup. He told me that he was targeting black sea bass.
He knew it was illegal to keep, yet he was targeting them.
He hooked and brought one to the rocks. Using a gaff to hook his mouth he brought fish close enough to remove the hook and released the fish.
By this time the fish was exhausted and floating belly side up.


2-The angler landed this monster and then released it. It was not doing too well and it was not able to turn itself.



3-A Good Samaritan local was at Mole witnessing the release of the fish and not being able to turn itself, took the boat and grabbed its tail and turned it right side up.

The fish did a powerful kick and swam away.

The angler continued fishing for them all day. Only one was “landed”. Next day I had to clean after him the trash that he had left and filthy cutting board.




Around 5:30 PM, I was on the other pier setting up hoop nets. I was the only one all night.

4-No lobsters in the net all night. Not even one short one. However, lots of these were climbing on the side of one net. Most fell as I pull the net.



As I was sitting at the end of the pier, I heard what sounded like ladies shoe with a hard heel. It was a large male mule deer.
It got frightened when he saw me.

I was surprised to see him as well. I had seen deer there before, but not on the pier.

5-A family of mule deer surprised me when the Male one came all the way to the end of the pier.

By the time I was able to take this picture, they were too far. Hard to see, they are in the middle of the picture.






Wednesday October 23, 2016



I packed around 5:00 AM and headed toward the Mole.

6-Sunrise is always welcomed after a night of staying awake.




Once more, I set up the cast-a-bubble rig and the diving rig, as well as the float and pea setup. I chummed for opaleye with bread crumbs and peas.
I caught a lot of small bass as well as other species.

Once again the sunrise hours did not produce any bonito, but I caught some later in the day.
However, it was not the same wide open bite as the day before.


7-Memory not being as good it used to be, this could be the first smelt that I have caught there.



8-I witnessed this osprey hit the water surface twice, before catching a smelt. It was an interesting sight.



9-Some hikers “bartered” for this trap while hiking. They must have thought that they could use it for catching crabs in Southern California.

I informed them of the regulations.




By 6:00 PM when it was dark, I had packed everything and was resting and relaxing at the Mole waiting for the 7:30 PM return boat.

Luckily the freeway was fast and I was home with no delays. I had not slept since Tuesday 3:45 AM. The bed felt so good.

Next day I saw Cowboys make it a 10-1 season.

Life is good.


The End.