Catalina Mole 3/8/2017 with "Specieshunter". Looong, w/pic.

[Mahigeer]

On October 7, 2016, I read this post on another fishing website:

Originally Posted by Barthold D.

Hi Guys,
My name is Barthold D. and i`m a fanatic specieshunter from the Netherlands. I'm hooked on fishing new places and catching new species.
My friend KenT informed me about this great forum. He helped me a lot on my previous trip to Florida (http://www.soortenjagers.nl/jager.as...filter_land=25).
The plan is to fish 4/5 days during a roadtrip from LA to SF (march 2017). Since i have never fished the Pacific before, all help is very welcome! So if you have any advice, like good species rich spots, or other sort of advice, please reply or send me a message. I would really appreciate :-)
I like to fish piers/harbours and of course i like Surf Fishing. I don`t have real targets, main target is to catch as many species as possible. There is just one fish i really would like to catch: a leopard shark.
Thanks in advance!
KR,
Barthold

I of course had one recommendation which was after KenT’s post.
Catalina Mole is the place.
Thus, began start of many emails back and forth and the waiting which was hard.
Bart (as I was allowed to call him) may post his version later. He will be on the road for a while. After Catalina he will be traveling north toward San Francisco, with stops on the way to fish. He then plans to go to three islands in Hawaii and then to Texas before heading home. Let’s wish him a safe and productive trip.




Finally the day arrived and below is my account of the trip.


Wednesday, March 8, 2017



The crossing over was very smooth and even though I forgot to put on my ReliefBand to prevent seasickness, I was fine.
I felt very safe on the boat, since there were many fireman and police who were going for a day of training on the island.
I got to talk to the firemen. My daughter is married to a firemen family.

As we got close I noticed the cruise ship from the distance.

1-It has been my observation that bonito bite is not very good when a cruise ship is there.
My theory is that the bait seeks cover under the ship and the bonito is there looking for them.
It is always too far to cast for them.





I was on the island by 7:30 AM and setting up my camp at my usual north corner by the flag pole.
I setup my arsenal of rods for bonito and bait fishing.


2-As usual, I had the pier to myself for the most part. Occasionally there would be others, but never strayed too long.



3-The wind was calm most of the trip, but there were occasional breeze that felt good. It helped cooling from the heat.
Not too many visitor boats at the island this time of the year.




I made many casts both days for bonito with different lures, but not only did not catch any bonito; I did not even see a chase after my cast-a-bubble rig. Very disappointing I must say.

After many casts I would switch to bait fishing and alternate between making casts and bait fishing.


4-The newly discovered artificial bait worked well.
Berkley Gulp salmon egg in green with garlic scent.
It caught verity of fish.




5-The kelp is starting to grow and loosing fish and rig is becoming the norm now.



Bart had decided to spend the morning in San Pedro and he had caught a smelt there.
He then took the boat from San Pedro via Two Harbor to Avalon; which he liked since he saw more of the island.
He arrived at Avalon around 5:00 PM.

6-I was playing host to my “specieshunter” visitor from Amsterdam.




After a short visit, he went to town to check in to his hotel and then after some rest and meal he joined me around 8:00 PM to fish until mid-night.

7-Bart, my visitor caught this large mackerel with a floating rig which was intended for sharks.




After seeing the mackerel caught, I setup a light-stick rig and made casts. However, to my surprise instead of mackerel, I kept catching Calico bass. Later in the night I lost two good size fish to kelp.


After Bart left around mid-night, I was all alone on the Mole, well not entirely!

8-This bird [Black-(crowned or hooded) night heron] came to visit and stayed all night with me. He was much tamed.



9-The bass caught at night were bigger.
In fact the only 5.4 lbs. bass that I have caught there was at night.




I kept fishing and resting on my chair. Finally I fell asleep for perhaps an hour or two before the sun was up. I needed it badly.




Thursday, March 9, 2017


10-Sunrise is always a lovely view from the Mole.




11-MY companion was there until sunrise.





With the 7:00 AM arrival boat was my friend from pierfishing.com website. He knew Bart and I would be on the island, so he decided to join us for a day of fishing.

12-My friend from PFIC website joined me today to meet and fish with our guest.




After a somewhat rest, Bart joined us at the Mole and proceeded to catch verity of fish. Later he took a walk toward the Casino, but if I recall it was not productive, though he saw some new vistas.


13-Bart with the California Marine State fish. A Garibaldi.

The common name is a reference to the Italian military and political figure Giuseppe Garibaldi, whose followers often wore a characteristic scarlet or red shirt. Source Wikipedia.


14-I wanted to make this trip also a memorial trip for my friend who had a birthday this month.
He left us too soon. May he rest in peace.

He would wrap fishing rods as hobby and donate it to our volunteering events. I have two and they are fantastic rods and prized possessions of mine.


15-Bart and Arcadian, waiting for the return boat to arrive. An end to a good outing, but always a sad time for me.


According to Bart he had added (10) new species to his collection.


Ride back from the island was very smooth, and this time I had my ReliefBand on.
We said good-by to Arcadian at the terminal and I dropped-off Bart at his place of stay for the night.


Hopefully he will have a safe journey.


THE END



Now a little rant:
Bad enough that there are many lazy anglers who do not place their trash in the proper receptacles, another trash container was missing. A good excuse for the lazy bums to leave their trash on the ground, where some breeze would dump them into the sea easily.

16-There is lack of trash receptacles at the Mole. The yellow caution tape and the white plastic barricades are there to prevent stepping on the rusted grids. The support girder beams below the grids have detreated to a point of being be deemed unsafe.





17-Concrete is in bad shape in many area of the Mole, I am sad to say. There is a plan to completely demolish the Mole and rebuild it, but the money is not available as of yet.



Not a very good first impression for many tourists that visit the Island.

[Saba Slayer]

Thanks Hashiem for another good read and photos....!