[Sea Hag]

Every year for the last few years, I’ve dragged my dear ol’ dad out here from Minnesota, and made him go out with me to look for some big fish.

This year, I chartered the beautiful 50’ Delta from Newport Landing, the Ultra. I’ve had some really fun trips on that boat in the last couple of years, so I gathered a few more friends to build a fabulously roomy trip for 8, and we were good to go!

We were greeted on board by Captain Doug, second Captain Dustin, and Jessie on deck. My dad and I were joined by Fred and Kyle, their friends (respectively) Scott and Del, my friend KennyMac, Stef from Newport and Davey’s offices, and my dad, we boarded the boat and headed out a little after 9:00.

The plan: Head to the Butterfly Bank and see if we could find some offshore action, then spend the second day at San Clemente chasing some of my favorites, yellowtail and calicos!

It was beautifully calm seas heading out! We put out the troll lines under gray light. We ran around for a while, and then finally what he wall wanted to hear! “Hook up!” But a number of spots all day produced one or two troll fish, and one or two bait fish. Empty kelp paddies and an occasional jog stop got us 12 albies and 1 bluefin for the day. Plus we got incredibly close to some beautiful big whales, and a couple of huge schools of dolphin! The wind picked up a bit in the afternoon, but all in all it was a great day on the water.

We pulled in the troll lines at dusk, had a wonderful steak dinner, and sacked out while we headed for Clemente.

Gray light, I woke up at the island. We spent the day around the island, in a steady bite of beautiful calicos. Early morning Fred boated a big halibut (that day’s JP) and we picked up a couple of yellowtail in the mix. My dad had the hot ticket on the sculpin, and we played with a few breezing packs of bonito as they passed through. Mid-day in the blazing heat, a few of the crea and passengers took the opportunity to grab a cool swim, and after a calm and relaxing morning of fishine, we headed for home.

What a great trip! With a really light load and group of good friends, we really had a nice weekend! We passed around the bites on the troll so everyone got to catch at least one albacore, and we all had a really good time.

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 trip on the Ultra next year!

I’ve got two trips booked for next year already! Good dates sell out quick, so if you want to get on the Ultra, or any of Newport Landing’s other great boats, you’d better start thinking about making your reservations now!

Dear ol' dad with a nice albacore





Stef, from the Landing office:


I got one, too! (In fact, we all got at least one...





Sunday morning Fred got a nice halibut:


KennyMac got a yellowtail:


Low and behold.... so did I!



And we got a MESS of calico bass... most were released:





And a few bonito... here's my dad with one...