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Posted by jas on 10:36:36 04/19/03
(summary & fish count at bottom)
Arrived at the SB landing pleasantly surprised. What a great boat. Significantly wider than any of the charter boats I've been on. Huge galley, soda fountain, racks for some kayaks, and very very very nice bunks. I met Captain Don. What a cool guy...it certainly set the tone; professional,
courteous and personable.
I got the feeling that working with kayaks was a relatively new experience for the crew which I think they handled well along with the help from Mark Pierpoint, Rhyno and other fellow anglers whom helped out here and there. What a different vibe from years and years of going on open charter party boats: "watch my lines, coming down, that's my spot, that rig won't work, etc;" The Truth was in a class of it's own as far as my experience with Charters goes.
Forecast was yucky wind, 15-25 with higher gusts in the pm. When we arrived at the Arch (Anacapa) the wind waves were already 2-3 ft. Bait was tiny anchovies. I gave it a try for an hour before giving up on the bait and fishing the open water. A drift chute was pretty mandatory. I moved inside and plucked a Calico off of some boilers. After a couple hours of that, we were called in to make a move to some protected waters.
We moved to Yellow banks (Santa Cruz Island). The captain found a nice place to give it a shot. I think everyone was happy to be fishing calmer waters even if it was away from the main WSB bite.
Slowwwwww fishing. I mean really slow. No bite at all. No rays even. I saw a couple of rockfish and some how plucked a 10lb(28") Halibut out of a sandy zone (32ft) with a scampi tipped with squid. Rhino found a sculpin zone and managed to catch/release a few fat ones. Yakattack and Fishhead saw some rockfish and managed a legal Sheephead, one of the only fish landed.
Since I was hosting a big fish give away, the 2lb Sheephead took the Big Fish Category.
Since the fishing was so dead, we raffled off the rest of the prizes on the way in. Surf to Summit
donated a Hot Seat, Luhr-Jensen contributed 3 gift bags with assorted lures and I kicked in some gear leashes and a retractor with gear clip.
I think if everyone's going to share a common memory about this trip, it's going to be about the ride back. Unless you were a Navy man or really lucky, you were sick. The wind waves combined with the swell kicked our you know whats. I've never been in the Channel when the weather was like that. For an hour or two we were getting slammed by waves as high as the boat.
Fish Count: 1 Calico, 1 Sheephead, 1 Halibut (other fish caught and released were Sculpin, Rockfish, Calicos, Baby Ling.
Summary: The Truth is an awesome way to go
The weather was
awful
The fish took a vacation
Jeff "Rhyno" Krieger is a great Charter Master
Great bunch of guys to fish with
jas
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