Islander 2014 - REPORTS

Thats good shit.  I have a question.  Are Calico's good eating?

Nah! If you're unlucky enough to bag any, I'll take 'em off your hands.  They're DELICIOUS, Jeff, as long as I'm not eating my own cooking.

I had a great trip and almost recovered  .  Awesome crew and a nice ship. Amazing how fast they had us in the water fishing then back onto the boat for lunch and dinner. A few pics from day one to start…

Hell yea fellas.
Thx for the pics!!
Shout out to Cochino!!!! Job well done young man stud!

Good food, friends and I am sure a whole lotta bullshit stories. Wish I was there.

One of these days.  .

We lived it through you guys. .Thanks  !!

Alex

This was hands down one of the most exciting fishing trips I have ever been on, despite the slow bite on day one and two.  Day three certainly made up for it.  It was an amazing privilege to be in the water at such a wild and primitive place like San Clemete.  I certainly plan to do another trip like this in the future.
I had not met most of the group prior to this deal schmeal.  It was a real pleasure getting acquainted with and fishing with all of you.  Thank you all for your hospitality and welcome. 
As Rockhopper explained, there is a lack of fish pictures because the bite was quite slow on the first two days. Day three saw a furious bite on Sheepheads and Calicos.  The entire group was too focused on redemption to mess with photo shoots.  I was however able to make some stills from the GoPro footage.

  looks like a good deal schmeal

Eat, fish, eat, fish, eat, sleep.  That was the routine and it fit me perfectly.  On the last day I spent 11 hours in my kayak and had my lunch delivered by the skiff.  Thank goodness for my gel pad.  No pains at all.   Nothing better than bait and lunch being delivered off San Clemente Island.  Fishing was slow the first two days, so I decided to pedal out about 100 yards and I was in 250 feet of water.  Three drops and six Boccaccio later, I was limited out.  It was amazing bringing up two of those fish at a time.    The most memorable quote of the trip was when we were laying our fish on the deck for pictures.  Chris, Andy's son, looked at my fish and asked what kind of a fish is that?  He was pointing at the only halibut caught on the trip by yours truly.  Someone behind him said it was a halibut.  Chris then said, oh, I thought they were bigger. .  It was 23 inches caught on the first day.  It may have been small but it was a 133.00 fish as it was the biggest that day and brought me 1/3 of the pot.  The second day I was returning to the Islander and as I was coming in, the usually boisterous crew was silent and was just staring me.  After I got out of my kayak and was standing on the landing, I was told that there was an 10 foot Mako shark trailing right behind me.  I'm glad they didn't tell me to turn around.  The 3rd day was simply bait, drop, hook up.  First it was calico bass, then later in the afternoon till 6pm, goats.   It was everything I expected.  Thanks to  Allen and OEX for making this trip happen.  Next year there is talk for a 5/6 day trip to an island in Mexico.  You don't want to miss that one.

More pictures.

Here's some more pics. 

On Friday Kiel, DP, Kris, Andy, and I went up to Point Loma to the military cemetery. Awesome views of the coast and SD.

After sightseeing at a local bar we headed back to the Dolphin. Even though we were officially checked out of the motel the owner let us all chill on his property next door until we were ready to board the boat. He even opened it up for us to use the restroom if we needed to.

Can't say enough about the local hospitality.

Finally it was time to start getting ready to load the boat!

In the last three pics you can see the Dolphin in the background.

 

Welcome to Stateroom E.

Here's some pics from fishing Day 1 morning.

I don't even remember what I caught. I might not have landed anything, and if I did it was a small calico or two.

We fished it hard, though, and I didn't land until just before lunch time on the big boat.

Kylee wants daddy. More tomorrow.