Shogun 3-Day Trip - May 9-12

[Sea Hag]

This was my second trip on the Shogun, and I only continue to be astounded with the service provided by this operation, no matter what the length of the trip!!



The Shogun is 90 feet long, and an astonishing 30 feet wide at the stern, making it an incredibly stable fishing platform. The galley is extra large, and with a long range load of 25 anglers, all passengers can fit into the galley for a single sitting for meals!

Friend and favorite fishing buddy, KennyMac, and I arrived at the landing in San Diego at about 11:00, for a 3:00 departure. I was pleasantly surprised to see the parking lot at the landing only about half full!! We grabbed a dock cart and unloaded our gear and lined up with a couple of other groups, but a few minutes later landing staff came and started consolidating our gear in carts. They would be taking it down and loading it on the boat for us!!! Sweet!

After paying any balance in the office with Andrea, we all had our number and stateroom assignment. We went through small groups for a security check: ID, random peeks through baggage, and off to the boat a little after 1:30. All aboard, gear stored, we left a little before our scheduled departure, and stopped at the bait dock for fin bait. While they were loading that, Captain Norm gathered us in the galley for a safety speech, crew introductions, and a brief description of the plans for the trip. We'd be running to Catalina for squid from a light boat, hopefully, so we wouldn't have to jig it up ourselves. Then to San Clemente by early morning.

Our crew, in addition to Captain Norm Kagawa we had Bruce Smith. We had Randy ("Lurch") and Ryan in the galley, Tommy, Pat and Steve on deck.

Tommy gave us a seminar on our fishing conditions and suggested rigging, and answered any questions. After a great roast chicken dinner, we all turned in for the night.

I got up when the engines stopped in the middle of the night, to see we were in fact getting squid from the light boat! Yea! Back to bed. I rose early morning to the smell of bacon, and hit the deck after a great breakfast. At grey light, the sculpin were biting, as the sun started to come up (yah, a little cloudy, but...) the calicos started to bite, but none of the seabass we'd hoped find in our morning spot. When it was fully light out, we were on the hunt for yellow, but found nothing. Out to deeper water, we did some great drifts for nice quality rock fish (and a big ling cod for the Saturday JP), then back to the island. Finally!!! We came on a feeding school! Iron, squid, fin bait... we tried a bit of it all between the group. It was Bruce throwing iron from the sun deck that got the lone hook up, passed down to one of the passengers and landed, in the 25# class! When the yellows sank away, we were left in a wild mackerel bite, and then back on the chase. With lots more miscellaneous landed (including some more nice bass and a few big sheephead), the yellowtail eluded us for the rest of the day.



Lots of perch. Plus calico bass, sheephead, and other bottom fish...



This big ling cod took Day One JP...



Great food, here's lunch! All meals on the Shogun are served to you by the crew, on glass plate. Just walk into the galley when meals are announced, and the food is brought to you at the table.



Nice Sheephead

After a wonderful dinner of London Broil and garlic mashed potatoes, we were off to sleep off the day's excitement.

Sunday, up again at sunrise. Again, the sculpin gave a good early morning showing. Already, today looked a little clearer than yesterday, bringing optimism with it! But up and down San Clemente Island, we'd see small boiling schools of yellowtail, that would sink out as we came up on them. More bass fishing, along the beaches, with one nice halibut, and more drifts for rock fish. Then a wildly jumping school of yellows, still boiling at the surface as we drifted into them!! This time we hooked a few, but still, only one made it to the boat, and angler Kurt took the JP for the day with that one.



Halibut.



Kenny with another nice sheephead.



Friend Jason with a nice red rock fish.



Day Two JP Yellowtail

Our final counts went something like this: Close to 40 calico bass... with many MANY more released. 24 sheephead, with a few really good sized ones in the mix. 35 whitefish, 23 sculpin, 3 ling cod, 14 salmon grouper, and about 130 miscellaneous others. Plus our 2 yellowtail and one halibut. And a few anxious novice anglers getting some really great lessons both from the crew, and the other more experienced anglers on board.

Well, it's early May, and the yellowtail at San Clemente are there, in good numbers and good size, but just not ready to chew! A few warm days will really set this off.

As always, the food on the Shogun was wonderful, and there was no shortage of it! We were served three fabulous meals a day, plus two great freshly cooked snacks served twice a day, between breakfast and lunch, and between lunch and dinner. And there's candy, fruit, and cookies available all day.. all included in the price of the trip!

There is another great 3-day trip on the Shogun leaving Friday, May 30, and there are a few spots still available. The plan for that trip is much the same, and by then the weather should have warmed up some, and all those yellowtail should be ready to CHEW!

We'd like to thank the crew of the Shogun for another great trip! While we didn't get the big game we all hoped for, we were pretty much in non-stop action the whole trip!