Last week, I got out on a 2-day charter with Charter Group So Cal (Facebook page) with Jeff Spiszer as the charter master. The trip was aboard the Fury out of Dana Wharf with Capt. Marcus Bailey. We departed on Wednesday night (Sept 2nd) and returned Friday night (Sept. 4th).

Given that I’m currently at 9/10 on my annual Top 10 with only tuna left to catch, my hope was that we’d be doing the offshore thing looking for kelp paddies, birds etc. and targeting yellowfin tuna, dorado, and yellowtail. I even brought a big Nomad DTX 220 Minnow in the hope that my El Nino dream of catching a wahoo might be answered. It didn’t happen this trip.

The trip started out on a positive note when we loaded up with healthy sardines (above), a rarity this season. From there we headed out to San Clemente Island. The weather was up, so the gameplan was to anchor up there that night in Pyramid Cove, and fish the island for Day 1. Hopefully, the second day would provide an opportunity to get out to the Tanner/Cortez Banks for a shot at bluefin. I brought gear primarily for doing the typical offshore gameplan, but I had enough gear to make do with the captain’s plans. I enjoy island fishing and I haven’t been to Clemente yet this year, so I wasn’t disappointed with the plan.

The ride over was rough. Despite that fact, I managed to sleep pretty well, until I heard a huge crash. I thought it was someone’s tackle box hitting the deck. Instead, it was a case of beer that fell out of a storage area by they stairs in the bunkroom. After that incident, the sea was still rough, and I didn’t sleep the rest of the way. I considered trying to sleep once we anchored up in the cove, but I could smell the cook (Dick) getting his breakfast service started, so I got dressed and went upstairs to get some coffee.

Some guys were already fishing, but coffee was my priority. By the time I had a couple cups in me and eaten a breakfast burrito, the sun had come up and I ventured out on deck to see what was going on. Guys were mostly fishing dropper loops with either sardine or cut squid. There were a couple legal bass in the kill box along with some whitefish. I considered joining in, but I noticed one guy had on a 12 oz sinker and the current was so strong he wasn’t holding bottom. I didn’t bring anything that heavy, so I waited it out in the galley to get my fishing day started.

After pulling anchor, we made our way along the island and stopped at various reefs and rocks where Marcus either marked fish or had been successful in previous trips. The stops produced mostly whitefish, with some smaller sheephead in the mix and a few legal bass. In between stops, we’d troll. Nothing really happened until a jig strike produced two larger sized bonito. No follow up fish, so we moved on.

The next stop was a different story. Again, stopped on the troll, but this time it was small yellows. People connected on jigs and flylined baits. I threw back a small jig and hooked up, but it got unpinned near the boat. I saw it…small yellow.

Gear Timeout

One thing that I discovered over the course of these stops, was I was really liking the combo I was using. Awhile back, I had GT Custom Workz (a Fishing Syndicate dealer) make me a custom spinning version of the FSC 900L (15-30). The original goal of having this rod made was to catch a yellowtail off the shore (this might be the year), and I think I’ve put together a combo to get this goal done. I recently paired this rod with a 13 Fishing Kalon 5.0. It’s a 5000 size spinning reel. It has a 5.2:1 gear ratio, 32 inches retrieve per turn, 20 lbs. of drag, and weighs in at only just over 10 ounces. I spooled it with 40# braid (200+ yards) to a short leader of 30# mono. In my pre-trip planning, I thought it would be good to throw on kelp paddies from the bow. I’ve been bringing out a spinner on sportboats and pangas of late, because it allows me to get off a decent cast, even if I’m not in an ideal spot (like along the rail next to the house). The lure is an Ocean Legacy (Australian company) Keeling 105 heavy. I had originally picked it up at Fisherman’s Access in Brea, but they no longer have it. I liked it because of the small profile (105 mm / 4.1 inches), but weighing in at around 40 grams (official specs say 38 unrigged, 42 with hooks, but I removed the middle hook leaving only the back treble). Other heavy lures I’ve tried don’t swim great, but these swim really nicely. It’s also about the same weight as a full size surface iron, but much smaller. So it’s fishable on heavier line, while still presenting a smaller profile…ideal under the current bait situation.

This combination could cast a mile! Multiple passengers and crewmembers commented on it. I’m definitely taking this setup to Campo Siete (Ensenada) to try and get my shot at a shore yellow.

So back to the trip…we got stopped again on the troll. Small yellows again. I had posted up near the trolling rod in the starboard corner. As that passenger was reeling, I casted to the outside of his line. The lure hit water, and I paused to let it sink a bit. Reel, twitch, bit.

Note – yes, this is a small “rat” yellow, but they were all this size. If there were bigger fish to be had, I probably would’ve released it, but I kept it.

I ended up catching another small yellow that afternoon while casting toward shore over a rock looking for a bass. And yes, the Keeling worked well on bass too.

Later in the afternoon, the weather turned on us. The sun gave way to clouds, and it got windy. Topwater wasn’t working anymore. The best lower column setup proved to be a sliding sinker, bead, hook and squid. Shoutout to my guy Robert for letting me borrow a bead. That setup was great for mostly whitefish and dink bass, but the occasional legal made it worthwhile to fish. We took a turn going outside to rockfish, but even with the heaviest jig I had (250g), I couldn’t hold bottom. Overall slow afternoon. Marcus tried to go up toward the West End of the island, but we subsequently got kicked out by the Navy. We returned back to where we had success earlier in the day, but nada.

That evening turned out to be pretty interesting as the crew endeavored to catch flying fish. If you buy these things, they go for about $30 apiece! They were all around us, so why not try to get some?

As far as our regular bait, we had almost a tank left of sardines. Marcus heard that the boats who tried to fish the banks got beat up with little to show for it. Given we were already running low on sardines, and the likely prospect of losing what we had in transit, we opted to stay at the island. We found a quiet spot to anchor up for the night and that was the day. The boat had around 30 yellows to show for it, but nothing over 10lbs. My personal bag was 2 yellows and 3 legal bass. I also caught several whitefish and a pinkie sheephead, but threw them all back.

Day Two

While I was having my breakfast, I heard some whooping and hollering coming from the bow. I got out there in time to see passenger Josiah decking a nicer grade yellow. He got it on a dropper with a meatball of squid strips. Maybe the day held promise for bigger fish?

It wasn’t to be. We got a few more yellows. I added one on bait with my 20lb setup (Fishing Syndicate FSC 800L, Trinidad 16A with half 30# braid, to 20# mono to the top, 1/0 bait hook). The highlight of the day was Marcus taking us to a rockfishing spot where despite its close proximity to the island, it dropped down to over 200 feet deep. Unlike the previous day, we enjoyed perfect conditions to fish it. On the first drift, my new friend Brian Martz hooked into a nice one. It proved to be the ling pictured up top.

We had to bail from the island around 2 pm to get back in time for their next trip, another 2-day charter with Okuma. For jackpot weigh-in, Brian’s ling checked in at 10 lbs to edge out Josiah’s yellow. Unfortunately (for Brian), he didn’t buck up for jackpot, so Josiah took it!

We finished out with 40 yellows for the outing, a solid amount of calico bass, several smaller keeper sheephead and limits of rockfish and whitefish if you wanted it. Thanks to Capt Marcus for making the best of a difficult situation (between the conditions and the Navy). Thanks as well to his excellent crew. The guys were very helpful and friendly, and galley cook Dick was hilarious and served up good grub. Thanks also to Jeff for putting together the trip. Good group of guys, and solid group of anglers. Despite not being the trip I hoped for, it was a good time and solid fishing. Good luck if you get out there.