[Sea Hag]

After a year of anticipation, the Dream Team met up at Newport Landing…the Sea Hag, KennyMac, albacrazy Drew, Rubberhook Tim, Ricky-Ray, P.O.P. jcbowers, MikeeDaGuy, and guest John Yong. When we were met by Captains Brian and Doug, I was sure it was going to be a great trip!

Scheduled deliberately on the first full moon after the seabass limit went to 3 fish, we were all excited and optimistic. But we would have never believed what awaited us! When we were all present, we boarded the boat and headed out a little before 9:00.

The crossing was a little rough, and the anglers were up and down all night, restless with anticipation. The lights were put out when we arrived early morning at the island, the crew gathered a few squid, and waited.

Gray light. Around 5:00 AM the first resounding “THUD” as a fish hit the deck! Then a few minutes later… pandemonium! To make a long story short, by 7:00, it was over. We had our limits of white sea bass, three fish each, the baby of the lot over 20 pounds, the average 25, and the big boy of the morning, 38 pounds. We also wrestled in one 22 pound yellowtail, and a black seabass (released) estimated at 100 pounds! (I really thought I had the JP pulling on that one…!)

We spent the rest of the day in a euphoric daze, traveling around the island, basking in our glory. Three of our anglers had never caught a white seabass before, and to be rewarded with fish that size…

We drove around the island, with a few picks at some calicos here and there (released except for a few that were injured), some rock fish, a few sheephead, one nice halibut, and a dozen or so nice yellowtail, in the 12-15 pound range.

Wow, what a trip! We would like to thank the crew of the Ultra, and the fabulous staff at Newport! The eight of us had a great time, worked well together to make sure we all got our fish to the boat, and hope to get together for another great time on the Ultra, same time next year!