[Sea Hag]

After a whole month off the water I was dying to get out. Busy with the holidays already, I found this last weekend completely clear on my calendar, and booked a spot on Saturday.

But by Friday the forecast for Saturday looked pretty bad. After discussing with several friends who were going with, a few of us moved our booking to Sunday.

What a wonderful choice that turned out to be!

I dragged myself out of bed bright and early, and headed for the landing in Redondo for a 6:00 AM departure. When I met up with KennyMac at the landing, I informed him my car thermometer read 46 degrees. But we weren’t the only one ready to go… Lining up to get on the boat with us were 21 more faithful Spitfire regulars, ready for whatever the day may bring!

We boarded by 6:00, greeted boarding by our crew: Captain Craig at the helm, Morgan, Bobby and Johnny on deck, and Derrick in the galley. After a quick stop at the bate boat for some anchovies, we headed off to the north. First stop: Sculpin!

On the way to the fishing grounds, I enjoyed one of Derrick’s fabulous breakfast burritos!

It was a pretty quick trip to the sculpin spot, and a pretty short time to load up and call it near limits. We pulled up anchor for a longer run up to the BKR!





A couple of nice sculpin from our first stop...

The weather was just beautiful, with flat calm seas, and mostly clear skies. We had almost no wind, and no swell, and by 10:00 the heavy jackets we had all boarded with were piling up in the galley!!



Dolphins playing in our bow wake for a few minutes... hundreds, of them!!

We had a stop here, stop there, with a decent and pretty steady pick at the rock fish for the rest of the day, and nearly every kind of bottom fish you could imagine, including a few big sheephead… and one really nice ling, that of course had to go back. The 23 of us ended up with 15 sand bass, 14 sheehead, 19 whitefish, 70 rockfish, and 100 sculpin!



Whatever this guy was doing, it was great for getting crabs. (Ok, be nice...!)



JP Sheephead, 6#...




A few more shots.... you can count on Captain Craig to put you on some quality fish!

Check out the water in the background... it was just freakin' gorgeous out there!!!
The Spitfire is a great fishing platform, there was really lots of room for everyone. As always, the boat was spotlessly clean when we got on, and the crew was very knowledgeable and helpful. Derrick fixes up some great breakfasts and burgers, and had a nice hot pot of chili on for the ride home. Boy was that good when the sun started to set and the temperature cooled! And Captain Craig really knows how to find those fish!

I would like to thank the Spitfire crew for another great trip!

The Spitfire runs ¾ day trips most weekdays and weekends, but call ahead as they do frequently run charters. Call Redondo Sportfishing for reservations or details at (310) 372-2111. I’ve fished the Spitfire a lot, and always had a great time! It’s a nice riding boat, and a great option for getting the kids out on the water!!