Cookaholics Bulletin Board

I'm new to the San Jose area, been here less than a year. Before that I was in Ventura and Los Angeles counties (SoCal area). My handle is Tunaoue, it's a variant of my mother's Japanese family name of Tanoue or Tanouye. I'm a Fisherman, so the variant is Tunaoue.
But you can call me John.

Anyway, here's a fishing report of an attempt with friends to do a twilight (afternoon to evening) fishing trip last fall. It's somewhat painful but realistic outcome of more trips than most of us would care to admit. Bad day of fishing means at least you can laugh at yourself. ENJOY!


******************************************************************
Last Friday I mentioned the albacore were still showing off Morro Bay and that maybe we should try towing the TROPHY up North to try our luck. Vic says he thinks since the yellowfin are still showing off the 14 mile bank, that we should try the Saturday afternoon bite until after sunset, then go in-shore to Catalina and go lobster diving.

YFT for the main course and lobster for dessert? I’m there! So we make tentative arraignments – Me, Dan and Vic agree to try and launch out of Cabrillo (22 street area) about 2:PM. Intent is to get out to the spots that others have already found and work the tuna for the afternoon to evening bite. So I figure Dan and I need to meet about 12-noon.

It almost worked out that way. Saturday morning; I run errands, and then call Dan; he says he can’t meet until 2:30. (Hmm, well, that’s okay – we’re goin’fishin’). We meet in the Sport Chalet parking lot in the SFV, head over to Vic’s; he has the boat hooked to his truck. All we have to do is get there and go!

Well, it didn’t quite work out that way either. Dan gets there nearer to 3:15, but I understand – stuff to do. The afternoon traffic on the 405 to L.A. is a littler tougher than we thought. When we got there we found Vic still had some guests. See, his wife’s Aunt died and that morning was the funeral, so a dozen of the folks were still hangin’ around. Well, we couldn’t disrespect the dead, so we HAD to mind our manners and not seem like we were in much of a rush (pssst, “Hey Vic, the sun is headed down, take care of your folks, don’t mind us, but the SUN is GOING DOWN”) So EVENTUALLY, . . . Vic exercised his diplomacy and explained how he had “other personal issues to attend to”. We discretely transferred the ice, poles, tackle boxes, hoop nets and scuba gear from the truck to the boat and politely excused ourselves.

Whew! Okay, we’re on our way. (Hmmm . . . come to think of it – I never asked Vic how the funeral was).

NOW, we need to do a standard 7-11 stop for munchies and drinks, . . . and we need to gas-up the boat. We try to pull into the Standard station and whadyaknow, but the GAS truck is in our easy-in, easy-out spot. So we get in-line to the other island without blocking too many others. They leave we pull-in and gobble about 75 gallons of regular.

This is awesome, we're gassed and ready to go fish huntin'.
Head to Cabrillo, launch this baby do a high-speed run and setup for the troll.

Well, . . . let’s see, how can I explain this?
We get in line to launch, Vic climbs in the boat and discovers the battery switch was ON ever since the last time they used the boat -- about two weeks, so it drained BOTH batteries deader that his wife’s Aunt. Hey, but Vic has a portable jump starter on board. Awww, but that’s not charged up either. Well, we’re here and one way or another we’ll get her started. We pull up to get ready to back down the boat. I’m noticing a family about to launch as well so I mosey over to ask for a jump. The MOM screams at me to “Get the HELL Away, Mind your own Business!!” and chases me off. (Oh well, no bruises, no foul.). We backed the boat into the water (yes, we had the drain plug in), and tied her to the dock.

Vic parked the truck about 200 yards away because being a Saturday afternoon in the summer in Los Angeles . . . – you get the picture. We asked an incoming boater if he could help jump start us and he kindly obliged. We had the jumper cables, but they were of the whimpy sort – good enough to charge, not gauged enough to carry the current to start us, so after 15 minutes of charging with minimal results, we let the kind boater go in. Vic and I walked up-hill the 200 yards to unbolt the truck battery. We found we didn’t have enough tools, so Vic went back to get the BIG tool box out of the boat and lug it back up. We did this a couple more times and I finally said to Vic “You know, we could have plopped the boat battery next to the truck and just charged it with the cables by now with all the time we’ve wasted”. ”Hey that’s a great idea, let’s just do that and quit messing around”. We head back to the boat where Dan is setting thing up and we notice the ENGINE IS RUNNING!!! “Cool, how’d you get it started?” “Another boat came in and they had a portable jump starter. Hooked it up and she fired right up”. We had the truck battery with us and weren’t about to risk a weak battery out in the ocean – this was our portable jump. We idled the engine another 20 minutes, stopped, started okay, alright – LET’S GO FISHING!!

BE it known; the Captain’s log reads that we shoved-off from the Cabrillo dock at 19:32 on Saturday evening. And, it was dark, very DARK.

“So are we still headed to the 14 mile bank?”
“You’re kidding, Right?”
“Well, I think it’s kind of too late now.”
“Okay guys, so what’s Plan-B?”
“I hadn’t considered a Plan-B”
“Well, now is a good time”.
“Anyone for Catalina right now?”
“Hey, the barge is right there, should we get a scoop of bait?”
“What for?”
“Naw, we’ve got dead bonitos and barrys for bait”.
“Let’s head north to the point, over by Marine Land”
“Okay”
“Okay”

(What the hell were we thinking ?)

We motored in fairly calm waters up north to Marine Land. Tooled around and decided to anchor in 45 feet of water. We setup a couple hoop nets with old stinky dead bait, dropped them over. Vic and Dan got undressed and started climbing into their SCUBA suits while I waited . . . and waited . . . AFTER AN HOUR LATER, they were ready to plop into the water. I’ve got my gloves on (Nitrile rubber) to handle the stinky lobster bait, and it’s beginning to get kind of chilly with the night and a breeze picking up.

By now, it’s 9:30. The guys jump in and head off. I can see their lights from where I’m at. I rig up with some dead bate and cast away from them and let it soak. Another pole with a plastic lead-head, cast, let it sink way down and slow retrieve. I look around, check the nets – nothing. Cast, sink and slow retrieve – nothing. Check the dead bait on the bottom – nothing. I see a splash 30 feet off the stern. Pick up another rod, tie on a little jig and cast. Cast, retrieve, cast, retrieve, take a piss, check the hoops, cast, check where the guys are, cast again. Nearing 10:30. You’d be AMAZED how long an hour is when you’re alone on a boat in the middle of the night.

The guys come in with some bugs (lobsters) in the bags. Six altogether, 5 are keepers one is chucked overboard. We MUNCH two right there on the deck with the aid of a propane cooking grill.

We decide to relocate the hoops since they didn’t produce anything, we drop two closer in and head up another 300 yards to drop the other two. We wait awhile to check them, then the others – nothing.

Alright, had enough, we fetched our gear and head in. Lug the truck battery up-hill and bolt it in. Pull the boat, tie everything down and head home. It all took longer than that but you get the point. I finally got home at 5:15, undressed, showered and in bed as it was grey of dawn; The DOGS needed feeding to start their day (sigh!). Sunday was a blur. I would have happily BOUGHT a live lobster at Lucky's instead.

Hope your lines were tighter than mine -
Tunaoue

In my youth I served as deck hand on a weekend dive boat out of San Pedro, California; your story brought back a lot of memories of 'some' of the people we served. My most memorable though was the hotshot who had 'modified' his spear gun so that it had a hair trigger. After it went off TWICE into mid-air while still on the boat, my captain took it way from him! He was pissed but everyone else felt REAL GOODER!!

I have to spend a couple of weeks in the near future on San Nicholas Island ...any good fishing tips?

San Nicolas is controlled by the Navy, so only those authorized and cleared can be there. I have a family friend that has worked there for many years (he's retired now). For many years, the island was off limits to fishing until about 20 years ago. The commander there gives permission for sport fishing, but it's a long haul from the mainland - about 60 miles.
I've fished around the island many times, but never set foot on it. Fishing there is about as easy as it gets -- if you have a boat. I have no idea where the launches are or if the locals have access to recreational boating. Security used to be tight, it may be looser now.
IF you're able to boat out, there are many varieties to target. In sandy bottom there are halibut -- a little risky and a long shot. If you can locate some rocky croppings about 50 ft deep or more, the rock fish are very abundant. Not much as far as fighting is concerned, but awesome table-fare. Use a 3-4 oz sinker with no more than two dropper loops and a #1 hook with squid for bait. (California fish and game law says no more than two hooks). California whitefish are more fun to catch because of the fighting quality, and good to eat. They have smaller mouths, so decrease the hook size 2 or 3 gages.
In the kelp beds are something called kelp bass. Awesome to catch and wonderful to eat -- I like to flour (seasoned) and pan fry in canola oil. They're a grouper, so respect the age - a little barely legal 12-inch fish is said to be 14 years old. Kelp beds also have loads of California sheepshead. Not the same as the Atlantic fish, these feed on sea urchins, lobster, clams, shrimp; so they can taste like the shellfish that they diet on. One trick some of us do is to poach the meat in lemon-lime soda like 7-Up -- I swear it tastes JUST LIKE LOBSTER! There are a lot of sheepshead out there, but check the fish and game restrictions; some months these are banned from taking. Also if you don't care for them much let them go unharmed; sheepshead are very important to the kelp environment.

Another fish to be aware of is the white sea bass. It's not a bass, it's a giant croaker (they make a SOUND like grunting or "croaking"). Minimum legal size is 28 inches. I've seen them up to 45 pounds being taken on 10 pound line. They fight hard for 30 seconds then tucker out - not much endurance. The meat is a little fatty and mild tasting. Soak it in Italian salad dressing as a marinade and toss it on the grill. Very yummers.

If you can get out deeper, say 100-200 ft over rocks and structure, there are the salmon groupers, the big reds (very prized), many rock fish and the ugliest fish out there -- the Lingcod. Lings are weird; the meat can be white or slightly green or blue, but when it's cooked it changes to pure white and it's delicious. It's biologically a very ancient fish, like millions of years old. it's truly a dinosaur.

Right now, it's a little early for the tuna and yellowtail. Early tuna are usually bluefin around late June. Albacore move in a little after that, and if the waters really warm up some yellowfin might show for a week or two.

However King or Chinook salmon are off the central California coast, so it's very possible to have these sweet fish make an appearance this far south. Usually a slow troll with a shiny spoon like a Krocodile dragging deep, live anchovies or mooching off a bait ball are the common ways to hook up with a salmon. On one trip, I landed 7 legal salmon using a fresh water rig - an Abu Garcia Ambassadeur with 8 pound PLine and 7 ft trigger stick. Have a 1-oz sinker stopped with a spinner or Carolina Keeper, and give the leader plenty of length -- like 6 to 8 feet before tying the hook. Keep anything that might distract the fish from the bait far away. Keep your drag loose 3 pounds or so and play-out the salmon. Patients and technique. It may take 20 minutes to land a 24 pound salmon on 8 pound line, but it can be done.

Presuming you're stuck on shore, if you can get your hands on a long pole with a good spinning reel you can do some LONG distance casting for stuff. Halibut, kelp bass, sheepshead and sand sharks.

I can talk at you for hours about set-up, jigs, bait, terrain, depths, equipment, fishing knots, boots and attire, whatever.

I suspect your biggest help to Frank would be attire...

Silly boy...boats don't have tires...

John,

We will be staying on the island for either two or four weeks, we have trucks and trailers that must be barged out to the island and the barge only runs every two weeks.

I will go on a scouting mission to the island soon, I will see if there is a boat we can use, P.M. me your friends name and I will mention it when there...might win me points!!

Thanks for the tips!!

The family friend is no longer on the island - he's been retired for about 10 years or more.
I doubt anyone left knows him, an elderly Japanese man with a French name - Chaboux.
He used to collect abalone off the rocks in the 1970s until they made it illegal.

Anyway, trips to San Nic' are treasured because the area is still very "wild" and undisturbed, mostly because of the Naval operations. Even today it's open more than it ever has been but that's no guarantee that the Navy will permit access. Also it's difficult due to the proximity and risk of bad weather turning back the boats. On a really good week, one or two sport fishing boats will visit, where it's usually one every two months.

Here's a video of a fishing trip to San Nicolas:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=dR5TKdXupMs

They start catching the lings, then move on the sheepheads and the white fish and rock fish. Looked like someone had a white sea bass too. Maximum bag limit is 20 per person, and most of us hit that. These trips are usually EPIC on several levels.
Yep, that's what I'm talking about.

Thanks good info...is a California fishing license required?

Fishing license is required.
The local areas are patrolled by uniformed Fish and Game wardens in their Boston Whalers. I used to have a 24 ft SeaRay Sundancer, and have been boarded for search of illegal takes twice (not to mention the inspections at the docks). San Nic' is so far out I doubt the warden will cover that area, but better to be safe than sorry. The fine for fishing without is over $700 per offense. Most illegal items are about the same, so getting caught with no license and 4 shorts will run you $3500 bucks . . . and they're NOT kidding; California is looking for ANY REASON to help the state over come it's financial deficit.

I have a little report here in my den -- a National Geographic "Best Places to Fish in America". Alaskan coast is first, Lakes of Minnesota is second, the Channel Islands off California (i.e; San Nicolas) is third, Florida is forth, . . .