Thread: Overnight Charter on the Pacific Star – Sunday, April 5, 2008

When the newly formed Line Class Fishing Club invited me to join them on an overnight charter on the Pacific Star, I jumped at the chance! And as the date grew closer, the weekend weather forecast was looking really good. A Friday morning e-mail from Chris Bullard announced to all signed up that there had been one cancellation, and I successfully talked one of my co-workers, who’d never been on an overnight boat, into joining me.

So we all arrived at Pierpoint Landing in Long Beach for a 9:00 departure. The boat was at the dock when I arrived, but still getting cleaned up. I found some of the rest of our group and we made introductions, and waited anxiously for Captain Bullard to give us the go ahead to board.

Now, I realized that a year ago to the day, I had been on this boat. The plan on that trip was to head to San Nicholas Island. Weather stopped us last year at Santa Barbara, where we got a nice load of red and other rock fish. So I was pleased when Captain Mike said again we were planning on heading there again for the ling cod.

When everyone was on board and assigned a bunk, 2nd Captain William came down to introduce the rest of the crew. We’d have galley cook Stan, and deck hands Mike, David, and Bob. He did a brief safety speech and tackle seminar, going over what they recommended for tomorrow. We were loaded up with fresh dead squid for bait, and planned a stop at Catalina Island to get some live before heading to the island.

After a smooth ride out, I got up at 7:00 AM when the engines finally shut down, to a strange sense of déjà vu! San Nickolas looked mysteriously like San Clemente Island this year!





Over night, we had a medical emergency and one of the passengers was taken off after a partial trip back to Catalina. We were assured that they had heard back already that he was fine, and would be heading back to the mainland on the Catalina Flyer.

We set up on our first drift within a few minutes. I had rigged the night before, but came out on deck to find a number of people standing around with rent rods, a heavy sinker and a couple of hooks, waiting for help from the deckhands rigging. I helped out a few of them, quickly teaching groups of two or three how to tie their own dropper loops, so they could handle it themselves the rest of the day. And on my first drop I was rewarded with a nice fat vermillion rockfish!




I went in for a nice breakfast – eggs over easy, hash browns, sausage patties, and English muffin. Stan was also making up biscuits and gravy, but after a similar breakfast and extremely rough conditions on a fishing adventure in Alaska... well, we won’t go into that!

There was little wind and light current. The captain was having a hard time getting an even drift as the breeze would shift, and the boat would swing. There were a lot of tangles, but also a lot of people just really enjoying a day out, so it was no big deal. And my friend from work who came with me slept in, but when deckhand Bob saw her come out, he took her aside immediately and gave her a crash course in hooking live squid, and taught her the finer points of rockfishing. He stuck with her until on her third drop she pulled up two big salmon grouper. He told her she didn’t need any more help, and left. She didn’t. She pulled up limits of rock fish herself as well, in spite of the late start! (Before the next trip, though, I need to teach her to tie a dropper loop!)









We ended up with limits of rock fish, almost all reds, with limits of salmon grouper in the mix. A dozen sheepehead, 45 white fish, and a single legal ling, and several almost legal released.









Stan offered an early dinner on the way in, and timed it to start serving when we left the island a little before 3:00. We had a choice of Chicken cordon blue, or carnitas tacos. Remembering carnitas burritos from last year, it was a tough choice, but I picked the chicken. People who had the carnitas raved about that as well!





We would like to thank Captain Mike and the crew of the Pacific Star for a wonderful trip!! I’d also like to thank Big Mike and Big Rob from the Line Class Fishing Club, for inviting me along, and letting me bring a friend. Really a nice group of angles!!






The Pacific Star is running out of Pierpoint Landing right now, and in the summer will be moving to Seaforth, closer to San Diego. Captain Mike runs a nice clean boat, with all the luxury and excellent food you’d expect of the long range fleet, and well as a friendly, helpful, and very professional crew.