I used to enjoy fishing out of Davey's Locker, but not sure what went wrong. The office staff were friendly and helpful, but it ended there. We got on the Freelance, all 54 passengers, got the usual briefing, but what was odd, the captain stated fishing was slow in the channel the day before however he was reluctant to make the 3 1/2 hour trip to the backside of Catalina Island. I know it doesn't take 3 1/2 hours to get out there, just burn a little more fuel and get there quicker. The Freelance itself is in need of some basic maintenance. The decking is coming up and rust showing underneath. The men's head stunk pretty bad. On a good note there were almost enough rod holders for everyone, considering I saw people bringing 3-4 rods each.
Our first drop was pretty slow on the bite, and what was coming over the rail were small 6"-8" fish. Not worth keeping, unfortunately when fish are brought up from the depth we were fishing, they were basically DOA and were bird food. We stayed on the unproductive spot for most of an hour. The second drop was more of the same. Same for the third. We worked our way shallower and got on a good school of mackerel. I'm not a mackerel fisherman and they went back. We had a representative from CDFG on board who was doing a fish stock survey and he must have been pretty disappointed, I know I was. After about 7 hours of unproductive fishing we started back and scouted around the mussel farm for signs of life, nothing there. The final stop was on a calico/sandbass bed which produced lots of short fish but at least they were biting.
Highlight of the trip was an explosion on one of the oil drilling platforms, we were about a 1/2 mile away and could feel the shockwave, hope no one got hurt.
There seemed to be a lot of new fisherman on board, fishing with too light of weights and I was constantly tangled, but no deckhand in sight, I was using 12 oz myself, I ended up untangling each one. Unhooking their fish too. Heck I was a better deckhand for those around me than the real deckhands. I don't mind it, I was new to fishing too, but this really cuts into my fishing time.
I was disappointed in the captain knew fishing was slow but returned to the same area, stayed too long on unproductive fishing, and deckhands not being around. In the end this turned into a booze cruise, yes I had a designated driver home. At least the beer was cold. Heck a kid was jigging around the docks and caught a 18" ling cod, bigger than anything that came up on the boat.
Will be taking my next deepsea trip to either San Diego or Santa Barbara.
Edit for spelling
Too bad the bite wasn't better,....but, any time you are fishing, is GOOD time, I guess !
Slow fishing is one thing but not working to get on fish is another. Sorry about that Bill. You'll get them next time. Dominick
I'd recommend going to San Diego, there are plenty of great day boats fishing out of there...... Check out the boat San Diego, it's probably the best day boat in all of SD!
Sorry it didn't go well Bill,we've all had trips were the fishing wasn't good but no excuse for the rest of it. There's some great day boats in San Diego. Channel Islands has some good ones too.
I have fished the San Diego before a good boat. It's sad to see a landing go this way. Will need to get my passport card now for the SD boats, that way I don't have to worry if they are in Mexican waters or not. At little farther to drive but plenty of cheap places to stay.
I guess the Santa Barbara boats spoiled me. Stay fishy my friends...Bill
You'll get 'em next time Bill. 8)