3 Day Islander Trip - Memorial Day 2009

[Sea Hag]

Visions of early season tuna danced in my head when I heard a few had been taken in fairly close range in mid-May. About ten years ago, the Islander was one of my favorite boats out of LA, so I decided to give that one a try again.

Arriving at the boat, we were warmly greeted by the crew, who helped us get all our gear on board. Once you had your number, four rod spaces were assigned to each passenger, with numbers assigned when your reservation was paid. Any rods in excess of four could be stored forward of the last assigned spaces, and there was plenty of room for everyone’s gear.

It was great seeing Kyle and Dell there! Its always nice to fish with friends. Also Charlie, who was the second captain on one of the trips I did on the Ultra a couple of years ago.

The boat looked great! The galley has been totally and beautifully redone since the last time I was on the boat! It had seemed a bit dark and closed in before. The new design was much brighter and more open, and now has seating for twenty passengers, which seems like a lot more than before. They also have a beverage bar, where you can help yourself to soft drinks at no extra charge.

Staterooms have also been redone. Traveling alone for this trip, I was pleased to find when I checked in that I would not have to share a stateroom with men I didn’t know. There was carpet on the walls to keep the noise down, nice soft bunk pads with fitted sheets, a flat sheet and a thick large comforter, and air conditioning! In addition, the stateroom layouts were as I remembered, with lots of floor space to move around, a cabinet of drawers, a sink, and a small window. The room was impeccably clean!

In fact, the whole boat was impeccably clean!

The boat is also equipped now with one spray brine hold for freezing, and one RSW (Refrigerated Sea Water) fish hold. Rubber landing mats cover the deck in the stern to keep fish from getting the skin scraped, and this keeps the saltwater from getting into the meat in the RSW.

We left the dock at noon, and while the crew loaded bait (big sardines and some nice anchovies in case we found albacore), Captain Shane came down to give us a safety speech. Then he introduced the crew. Our second captain would be Jason, we had Greg and John on deck, and Rick and Brandon in the galley. It was Brandon’s first trip, and unfortunately the young man did not take to the sea, and we didn’t see much of him. It also put an extra burden on Rick, who was left to galley duties alone, but did an excellent job anyway!

The game plan would be to stop that afternoon by the Coronado Islands for some barracuda, and try to find any yellowtail that might bite around there. Saturday we were going to run off shore to look for tuna and yellows on the paddies. Sunday would depend on the outcome of Saturday, either more time offshore, or head in to the islands inside for some rock fish.

After the speech, Rick served up some chili dogs and chips. Then we all had some time to unpack and gear up, and maybe take a short nap.

We pulled up by the Coronados for a brief nip by some big barracuda, along with a couple of really big calico bass and two nice ling cod. But looking around a bit we found that there were no yellowtail that wanted to play, so we were off for the overnight run off shore.

In true long range style, there was an afternoon snack of buffalo chicken wings, and dinner was country ribs with sour kraut, potatoes and fresh bread, with shortcake and fruit topping for desert. There were hot snacks morning and afternoon every day.

Bright and early we were on the troll at 6:00 AM. After a breakfast of Chorizo and eggs with refried beans, our first paddy stop produced one yellowtail, about 12 pounds. Troll rotations were about 30 minutes, so not bad. A few more paddy stops produce a few more schoolie sized yellowtail. The weather was overcast, but pleasant, with only light cool breezes and relatively calm seas.

There was peach cobbler for mid-morning snack, later some great bacon avocado cheeseburgers for lunch. Captain Shane metered a few of what appeared to be schools of small albacore down deep that would not come up to play, and we passed a puddling school of football sized bluefin that sank out at the mere sound of us! One spot of albies produced one hookup, lost to an overactive thumb. So it went all day. We ended up with about 14 yellowtail for our efforts.

Dinner was Hula chicken, veggies and rice. Captain Shane came down after dinner to discuss options for tomorrow, pretty much as stated at the beginning of the trip, and put it to a vote. The majority would prefer to go inside for some rock fishing and whatever else might be happening along the beach, so we were off in that direction.

I heard the anchor drop in a fairly calm spot around 1:00 AM Sunday morning. The engines started up again at gray light, and we were off looking for promising spots for some bottom grabbers. While we were looking, breakfast was crab eggs Benedict. All morning we ran around, found a spot, drift it a few times for some big reds, then move along to another spot. Most spots we were fishing in 200-250 feet of water, and as the current and wind built through the morning, more weight was required to get to the bottom and stay there for any length of time. I started in the morning with 8 oz., and by afternoon I was using a pound of weight. One area the skipper told us was known for some nice ling cod. Big sardines got me a nice ling cod on each of the two drops we did there.

Lunch was green chili and beef burro’s, and by then we were starting to work our way north. Captain Shane started us heading north to check out a few spots for some yellowtail again, but the only ones who wanted to play were the rock fish. By 5:30 we had to call it a day and run for port. Dinner tonight was the best; lamb chops with rice pilaf and snap peas, and a wonderful cheesecake for dessert.

This was an Izorline sponsored trip, and in addition to hats for all the passengers and free fills of line, the guys had a special “Sportsman’s” trophy, that went to Erika who was just back from graduating from Michigan state, and was out fishing with her dad. A trophy also went to the biggest fish caught on Izorline, which was also the jackpot fish: A yellowtail that weighed in at around 15 pounds.

Nearly all of the crew members have been on the boat together for 4-5 years, and they all work together like a well oiled machine to make sure everyone has all the help they need to make the trip a good one. I was extremely impressed with the crew and the improvements that have been done to the Islander since the last time I was on it. I will definitely be back. My only regret is not having spent more time on this boat over the last few years!!

We’d like to thank the Captain and Crew of the Islander for a really fun trip. Check out all of the Islander’s trips scheduled at www.islander-charters.com, or call (619) 224-4388 for reservations.


It was nice getting out and fishing with Dell and Kyle again. Good fun!



One of Kyle's big ones...



Dell, in full camo... sneaking up on the fish! ; )



Remodelled Galley


Stateroom...

[Mutt]

Not to sound dumb but what on earth is that sticking out of that fish's mouth that Kyle has??

[Sea Hag]

Looks a little weird, doesn't it....???

That's the fish's air bladder. We were catching these fish in 250-300 feet of water. (Yup, lots of fun hauling up the fish, or sometimes two at once, plus a pound of lead weight...) Anyway, pulling them up that quickly from that depth they had decompression problems and their air bladder blows up and pops out. Unfortunately this also makes it nearly impossible to release these fish... even the smaller ones suffer the same fate. I try to use bigger hooks, as it makes it a little harder for the small ones to get hooked.

Ling cod, the darker fish Dell is holding, have no air bladder and can be released and they will swim back down. Which is good because there is a size limit on those. I think they have to be at least 22 inches. Ling cod are voracious preditors, they bite hard and run for the rocks. I took a picture of the mouth of one of them on this trip, and they have long sharp teeth all the way around that big mouth, and another row of teeth in their bottom jaw around their tongue. Their teeth are made to hold onto pray and swallow it whole, not to bite chunks out. Sometimes if you catch a smaller red rock fish, before you bring it up a ling cod will grab it. I've seen them hold on to that fish all the way to the surface, and only let go when you start to bring their head out of the water.

They come in different colors. Some have blue-green spots mottled in with the brown. When you cut those up, the meat also has that weird blue-green color! The ones that are more of a solid brown have white flesh. They are very good eating!!

[Mutt]

Ok thanks. I thought that was a air bladder but wasnt sure. It is kinda creepy for sure lol. Thanks for the info see even old farts like me can learn something new lol.