Challengers Angling Club - Pacific Star - April 5, 2008

[Sea Hag]

The early week forecast looked like Saturday was going to be beautiful. By Friday night, the prospects didn’t look so good. Once again, high winds off shore were in the forecast, and our group had our sights on San Nickolas Island. After meeting at Pierpoint, and boarding the Pacific Star at a little after 9:00 Friday night, prospective destinations were put to the vote. It was nearly unanimous, San Nick. (Yup, all the guys in the galley cheering “SAN NICK! SAN NICK!” And me, shaking my head, going “It ain’t gonna happen….”)

So, 25 club members of the Challengers Angling Club and a few guests were introduced to the crew, Captains Mike Bullard and 2nd Butch, galley cook Stan in for Shane who is on vacation, and deck hands Marty, William, Allen and Rick. Then the crew did a brief safety speech and tackle seminar, going over what had worked while they were out on Friday, and what they recommended for tomorrow. We were loaded up with fresh dead squid for bait, and would be heading from the docks directly to the island.

It was a pretty bumpy ride out. In the morning it seemed pretty calm, and I got up to see what was going on. Strange, in the early morning light, San Nicholas looked mysteriously like Santa Barbara Island. Well, it seemed the weather was looking pretty nasty. A couple of other boats headed there (the Freedom and the Toronado) turned around and went home! I’m guessing it was largely because our March trip was called for weather, when Butch woke him up in the middle of the night, Captain Mike decided to try some rock fishing for us in the calmer area around Santa Barbara. We were going to stay in the calm of the island until after breakfast, and then go see if we could find some rock fishing biting a ways out. I ordered my breakfast burrito, it was wonderful!! Then got an update from the deckhands on recommended rigging, and got my gear together.

We went out looking around. It was probably close to 10:00 before Mike spun us around and set us up for the first drift. I had a really heavy sinker, about a pound and a half, and double dropper loops with 4/0 Owner hooks, and cut squid. On our first drift, my weight barely hit the bottom when my rod loaded up! I cranked up two really nice reds!!



My friend Jason joined us for this trip, and was doing really well with a JAX Jig and a dropper loop. He went down for a nap while we were running around, and missed the first drift, but had no trouble catching up! He also got his first in season ling cod!





There was a lot of wind, and we spent a lot of time resetting for the short drift over the spot, but most of us were near limits by lunch time. I ordered a fabulous carnitas burrito for lunch, with a nice purple cabbage cole slaw on the side. I heard the BBQ chicken sandwiches Stan cooked up were great, too.

So that was pretty much the day, drifts in mostly the same spot. We got limits of big reds (the ones in the pictures were what MOST of them looked like, seriously!!), limits of baccochio, and 15 lings for the day!



On the way back in Stan made a great penne pasta with meat sauce and garlic bread. Wonderful again!! I’d have to say the lunch burrito was the best!

The crew filleted up our fish on the way in, and weighed up the jack pot. Honors went to John Hart, with a nice big ling cod! (Pictured).



We would like to thank Captain Mike and the crew of the Pacific Star for another wonderful trip!!

[Granny Fish]

Full bags of multi species is always nice - quality fish too! Great report as always.

[PADavid]

Thanks for a great report