10/5 to 10/10/07 - spirit of adventure

[alantani]

thursday, october 4th - time for the annual long range trip! i had a dozen reels to finish before hand, a couple of late shifts at the hospital immediately before and a kid to walk to school that morning. the only thing that was ready was the truck.



i basically packed everything into the truck in an hour and a half and said a short prayer that i did not forget anything critical. let's see, one duffel bag, one hat, one rod tube, one reel case, 4 boxes of reel repair stuff, 1 box of fishing line, my new bow stringer, and an ice chest.



did i mention that they just built a new peet's coffee down the street?



a double shot and i'm on the road.



look at these poor guys, all headed north to work. glad i'm headed south.



finally out of the city and headed over the hills to interstate 5 south bound.



classic california! an 60 year old surfer in a 40 year old woody, complete with bumper stickers and surf boards.



welcome to southern california! i skirted north along through pasadena for a little side trip.



i actually missed a turn. the nav system got me back on track in no time.



welcome to corona, california, the home of accurate reels!



i got caught in traffic and arrived late, and jason was the first person i ran into. jason is the sales rep. if you've been to an accurate booth at any of the trade shows, you've met jason!



when you call accurate looking for parts or service, you've spoken to matt harper.



matt gave me a tour of the office.





george cardenas is



if memory serves, this is a triple axis cnc machine.







at this point, david took over the tour.



they are getting a couple more of these mills, whatever they are, with the goal of making all of their parts in house. nothing, absolutely nothing, will be outsourced or go offshore.







from the standpoint of someone that knows nothing of machine work, it's pretty impressive. they start off with this ......



and finish up with this ......



lathes like this are set up in the afternoon and run all night.





here's the polishing room, and some of the finished products!







here's the assembly room.







ben seacrest came out to say hi! and david took time out to change shirts for a meeting.



one last shot with david. i'd realized that i'd better start collecting business cards. imagine my surprise when i realized that his card said "president."



on the road again. 100 miles and 100 minutes to san diego, two hours late. after all these years, i finally talked my brother into joining me on this trip. we made a b-line to the nearest sushi bar. this is eddie's "three beer" smile!



friday, october 5th - the spirit of adventure arrived earlier this morning and was off loading her passengers and crew. this was an 8 day trip to alijos. a few nice fish in the mix, but not the large numbers that i would have expected on an 8 day. hmmm, this does not bode well.



we brought our gear down to the restaurant area and the guys all start showing up. from left to right, we've got don, harvey, frank, jason and mark. new to the group is mark's son kyle. 14 year old kid, loves fishing! as we wait, the wind starts to blow. hmmmm, this does not bode well either.......



apparently there is a problem with paperwork required by the homeland security office. we are 3 hours late getting bait and leaving the harbor.







i finally loaded up the rods and reels. my lightest set up is a gold progear classic series 501 and a calstar grafighter 700xl that i set up near the bait tank. lined up from left to right, are three more gold progear cs 501's, a pair of accurate 270 two speeds, a pair of accurate 870-2's, one accurate 665-2, one atd 6, one atd 12 and one atd 30. the atd 50 will stay at home for this trip. old school fiberglass calstars are matched up to each reel. the progears have solid spectra, the accurates all have blackwater hollowcore.



lot's of traffic coming in and out of harbor. i used to play sub games on my old computer. i think this is a los angeles class 688 attack sub!



the neat thing about this trip is that they give me my own table. this time i was set up to my own wind on's in addition to the reel repair. i spent a couple of hours splicing topshots for my own reels in preparation for the next day. i loaded up on dramamine and still ended up puking by the evening. splicing the mono into the spectra turned out to be alot harder than i thought.



saturday, october 6th - we finally arrive at noon at guadalupe island, 200 miles and 20 hours south of san diego.



trolling down from the north end of the island to the south end was the first order of business.







nice to have an escort!



we decided to anchor up on the south end of the island and set out the kite.



i was #19 and thought i would be last, but the captain decided to go in reverse order. i gave up my spot on the kite to my brother and he got bit immediately. first fish in the box! we would wind up with 14 yellowfin and 6 yellowtail for a half day of fishing





dean is our chef for the trip. dinner is chicken, rice and zucchini. great stuff!



meet harvey, richie and matt ......



steve, scott and harry .......



ken, joe and jason .......



sunday, october 7th - man, was it slow today. ok, 20 fish for yesterday was passable because we got a late start and it took a while to get in the groove. the problem was that we only got an additional 22 fish for today, all yellowtail.





ed hooked on a nice yellowtail and this was the best look that we got of it. the line broke just before the deckhand sunk a gaff into it.





we did something a little unusual today. we actually headed up to the weather side of the island, up by the military base. in 10 years, i had never been up that far.











we ended up anchored back on south side of the island and made bait. tough fishing today.

monday, october 8th - eggs benedict !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



we fished on the anchor for an hour in the morning and pulled up close to the rock and dropped anchor again. never been this close before.





i'm guessing the captain saw nothing on the meter, because we weighed anchor again and started trolling.



today was more geology class than it was fishing. we ran clear around the windward side of the island. it was my first time. the rock formations around the island are spectacular. um, but the fishing sucks...... here's a quick tour of the island, from the southern most point, up along the windward western coast, all the way up to pilot rock and the north end of isla de guadalupe.































we trolled all the way up ......



the ziti caserole lunch was great!



we saw the small fishing village on the southwest corner of the island ....



by evening, we had traveled from the south end of the island, all the way around to the north end. these guys came up to bum a few beers.



we were treated to a beautiful sunset.





we dropped anchor on the north side of the island long enough to catch one fish and have yellowtail for dinner. we actually ended up with day with 28 yellowtail!!!!!!











the word was we would be leaving the island for waters due north. we would be paddy hopping all day tomorow looking for anything that would bite. so right after dinner we pulled anchor again and ran north all night.

tuesday, october 9th - open water. we were alternating troll teams again with an occasional skipjack, following dolphins and stopping at each kelp paddy to see if anyone was home.



it felt like a "goof off" day. i think everyone was glad to be away from the islands. it felt a little more like we were in the chase.





we struggled the entire day, but the very last paddy lit up for us. two dodo's and a bunch of small yellowfin.









13 yellowfin, three yellowtail and two dorados for day four.



steaks on the grill, topped with mushrooms and onions, baked potato and broccoli!







the rest of the evening was spent cleaning up and stowing the gear.



wednesday, october 10th - back in the harbor at 7am, tipped the deckhands, paid the bar tab and packed the truck. we arranged to have our fish cleaned by world famous smoked fish. we had gotten mixed reviews about his work, but our fish was kept cold in refrigerated sea water (rsw) and not frozen. ed waited a couple of hours for the fish while i hightailed it back home. ed drove back to our parents home and had some fish that night. he said the quality was fine.



thanks to the captain and crew of the spirit of adventure for another great trip.



left to right are jethro, frank, captain mike keating, scott and eric.



gary!



thanks to our cook, dean!



and a special thanks to our charter master, brett townsend, owner of central valley marine in cambell, ca.



back to reality!