Aboard the Monte Carlo off San Pedro.12/4/2016 Loong, w/pic.

[Mahigeer]

Monte Carlo 12/4/2016


I was to be alone at home on Sunday and since the Dallas Cowboys had already played on Thursday evening and won (thank you very much), Sunday was free for fishing.


I checked the Monte Carlo Sport Fishing website for reservation and saw only (4) people have signed up as of Friday.
It sounded too good to true. Although I knew there were going to be more anglers, I booked one spot anyways.

I left home at 4:30 AM for San Pedro for the prompt boat departure at 6:00 AM.




1-The sunrise was breathtaking as usual as we were crossing the channel while welcoming a new day and a new adventure in fishing for me.



There were actually (23) anglers for a (80) angler capacity not including the free riding bird.

2-Just enough room to be fishing. Any more, and it would have been too much in my opinion.
We still had some tangles, but mostly loosing rigs to bottom structure. After all we were rock fishing .

The Captain kept saying to wind up ten turns on the reel, once the bottom was reached, but not everyone would listen.


3-Since the boat was traveling a trolling speed, two anglers put out their trolling rigs both ways during the (3.5) hr. of crossing each way. There were no takers.


It is not a typo. We spent (7) hrs. between 6:00 AM to 6:00 PM on board just for traveling; which left (5) hrs. Less the time spent moving to different spots and re-anchoring---for fishing.


4-I had bought this radio headset long ago for these types of trips. It provided the possibility to listen to a jazz station, or football game while cancelling or reducing the annoying engine noise.

I sat on the upper deck on soft bench cushions enjoying the scenery with some coffee while we were on the way.


5-I am thinking the big indentation in the mountain at the island is the Two Harbors.



6-We saw some dolphins on the way.



7-This little boat with its little engine passed us very easily.



8-The captain had to maneuver between many commercial lobster trap floats and their respective ropes.



9-We passed the island on the north side and dropped the anchor for fishing behind the island.




As everybody got to do bait fishing, I was casting my bubble rig for top water fish like bonito or yellowfin.
After a while with no boils, I too switched to live bait and squid as bait fishing.

My first good size Salmon Grouper came up with live bait.


At this time the sun was making it a little warm, and even though I had taken Meclizine, I started to feel seasick. The pills also made me drowsy, so I went on the upper deck and took a nap to feel better and catchup on my sleep. After a while I did feel better and the third pill started to take effect, so I got a second wind and went down to start fishing.

I used a rockfish rig which had two hooks dressed with green and yellow feathers. I added squid for scent. I hooked two fish at the same time.
I had my two speed Avet reel on the boat, but it had a live bait rig on it, so I put on the rockfish rig on my Shimano 6500 spinning reel.
It was not easy to reel up both good size fish on the spinning reel, but I somehow managed.


10-Pictured is a sample of several lingcods that were caught among other fish.
I had one heavy fish come up, but it got off before I saw it. There is a good possibility that it was a lingcod.


The anglers at the stern had a better catch of lingcods. One angler reeled in two legal ones at once.


No more fish of the size worth keeping for me for the rest of the day.



11-Steve the hard working deckhand (on the left) and the galley attendant cleaned the fish on the way back.
I had similar size fish to the one that Steve is cleaning. They gave me more of different species fish to make my daily bag limit.



12-Sunsets are also very calming and can be beautiful.



13-Pictured is a very hard working and pleasant deckhand, Steve.

Since I had the setting on sunset mode, the picture is darker than it should be. My bad.


14-A nice way to finish the day on the water I would say.



The experience was good, albeit the fishing time was too little (about 4 hrs.) for the total cost of $90.00 for me. If I go back, I will take a trolling setup.

The fish count (for what it’s worth) posted by their website:
7 Sheephead, 46 Red Snapper, 41 Salmon Grouper, 153 Rockfish, 15 Lingcod. The Captain was happy.



On the way home I topped the trip by a stop at our regular Persian restaurant for some rice with fava beans and dill along with braised leg of lamb.




The End.