Gail Force Aug 7th

[Eric H]

My girlfriend chartered the Gail force for her company.

We had a few open spots, a scsf member joined us as well as a few other fisherman that were pretty cool.

We headed out at 6am for our 3/4 day at catalina island.

First stop was to pick up some bait. A few sardines hit the deck as they were filling the bait tanks. I fed them to a nearby sea lion and he wouldn't leave. He sat like this for a good 5 minutes staring at me like a hungry puppy :lol:



We arrived at the island and set a drift.

I fly lined a sardine and got picked up. Shortly after I bounced a small yellow over the rail. Unfortunately it was pretty small, the same size as the other one pictured below.

A couple other small yellows came over the rail along with some calicos.

We continued going from spot to spot. We pretty much had to get in and get out. The seals would show pretty quick and shut the bite down. The captain was shooting them with his pellet rifle. You could hear when he got a solid hit on them.

The bait was fine the first half of the morning but at this time they would run for about 20 feet then stop swimming. I got tired of switching baits so I grabbed another rod and began throwing a Tady 45.

Shortly after I bounced this one over the rail.




I stuck with the surface iron for the rest of the day and landed an estimated total of 10 calicos, one of them being legal.



My girlfriend only fished for about 10 minutes because she was tired. I helped her out with her rental spinner. Put on a flouro top shot and a 1/0 circle for her, nose hooked the bait and tossed it out for her. I handed her the rod and explained how to let the bait run. She said somethings pulling on it and I said no that's just your bait running. Again she said somethings pulling so I grabbed her rod and flipped the bail back over. Yeah something was pulling so I gave it back to her. Coached her a bit during the fight and she bounced a Big cuda over the rail

A few other big cuda were caught along with some big bones. Unfortunately none were mine.

As we pulled up the anchor from our last stop the deckhand yelled out "look" and pointed. It was a big shark (not sure on the ID) swimming right behind a small inflatable boat that 2 teens were on. The captain got on the loud speaker and notified the 2 kids. They turned around and spotted it.

They continued looking back at it while doing S patterns at a slow pace. They thought it was pretty cool.

At this time it became very clear that it was in fact following them :lol:

The sharks behavior changed and it started moving at a much faster pace. It whipped its tail and began thrashing water around. At that very moment the 2 teens hit the gas and sped away. Definitely a good call by them.

I just couldn't believe how cool this was to see in person. It took place right in front of us.

We had a total of 12 yellows for the day, all of them being small. A ton of calicos, and a handful of large bones and cuda.

Slow day over all but I had a good time.

Hope things pick up soon, ill be watching the counts.

[Pinoyfisher]

I'd trade in your day for what we have going on down here   It's so dead. Those YT are pretty fun on bass gear!! Cool shark story too. No one got pics?

[Eric H]

My gf's co workers were snapping pics with their phones. I'm gona text her right now to ask around for one...

[vdisney]

Glad you had fun Eric, there's always next time...................................

[Latimeria]

Great report Eric!  I wonder if it was a Hammerhead from the way you described it swimming?

Hey, catching is better than not catching and it looks like you made something happen.  Next time will be your time for sure!

[Eric H]

I can't say for sure what it was, it did have a very similar body shape as one though.

The incident immediately reminded me of that video of the kayaker getting harassed by a hammer last summer. The way it darted around thrashing water around with its tail. I'm gona find that video. What I saw was identical to that incident.

[xjchad]

Sounds like it was better than your last trip at least 

[WheresMyBeer]

Sadly won a $250 jackpot on a recent trip with one that size ... 

[Eric H]

Sadly won a $250 jackpot on a recent trip with one that size ... 

I've seen one that size win as well, the guy didn't even know how to fish.

[WheresMyBeer]

Even worse ... didn't eat the damn thing. Lost to freezer burn