Thread: Eldorado - Saturday June 6 - Monster Halibut at SCI

I decided I needed to get some local island fishing with Eddie and the Eldorado before they move south, so I got a reservation and got down to the landing at about 8:00 Friday night.

Checked in at the office, and a few minutes later, deckhand Billy came up and told us to come on down. We loaded up, and were greeted by Izorline reps Capt. Tom and Mikey. There was free line for anyone who wanted a fill, and a lot of the passengers took advantage of the opportunity to spool up while we waited to get underway.

All aboard within a few minutes, we were waiting only for the second captain, and then we were on our way. The crew for the day would be Captains Eddie Moreno and Anthony Fisher, with Dave in the galley, and Billy, Ralph, and little Eddie on deck. After the captain’s speech we were on our way, then we had a word from our Izorline sponsors. The plan was to head to San Clemente Island and look for yellowtail. We had a fair amount of squid on board, but Eddie planned to look for some more as soon as we got to the island. So I turned in for the night.

We got to the island at around 3:00 AM. The squid wouldn’t float in any quantity, and what did was quickly scattered by seals. Seal bombs did little to deter them. They manage to pick up a little more squid, but nothing significant.

So the anchor dropped a little before 5:00 in Pyramid Cove, and I was up and on deck soaking a squid with quite a few of my fellow anglers. No action there, so Anthony made a move to China cove. Not much home there either, so he headed back to look around Pyramid again, with the intention of running deep a little later for some rock fish. Well, the Navy had other plans, and we were invited to leave the area. This development blew Captain Eddie’s game plan for the day completely out of the water... no pun intended! Most of us grabbed breakfast in the galley while we made a little longer move to the front side of the island.

Overcast and a bit cool, at least we had calm seas. We parked in several spots with a light pick at the bass. Then in a sandy cove one of the guys hooked up something with some run to it! After it had taken him nearly around the boat they gaffed and hauled up a nice halibut, that weighed in at 33 pounds!! A few minutes later, Howard, also from Izorline, but along as a passenger, pulled up another halibut, about 15 pounds! We sat there for a few minutes, with no more action, so Capt. Anthony pulled up anchor and we ran a couple of drifts across the sanding bottom where we’d caught the first two halibut, but no more of the flatties wanted to play.

We ran around from spot to spot, with some occasional good picks at the calico bass, a couple of flurries of mackerel and some big blue perch, and an occasional sheephead. We ended the day with the two halibut, 26 calicos (many more released), 14 sheephead, 6 rockfish, and a few perch.

As this was an Izorline sponsored trip, a trophy went to the biggest fish caught on Izorline, which was also the jackpot fish: Gene Wheeler of Orange County took the trophy with his big halibut!

We’d like to thank the Captain and Crew of the Eldorado for a great trip. The fishing was a little slow, but it was certainly not for a lack of trying, as Captain Eddie moved around looking for something for us to pull on.

The Eldorado will be running out of Long Beach Sportfishing until July 19, when they move to San Diego.