Channel Islands Rematch - Day 2 (6/28)

[Latimeria]

... We were going to throw the light out tonight but didn't want to deal with it all so we decided to get a good night sleep.

The next morning, I woke up first before graylight and saw some great marks on the sonar!  Definitely game fish! The guys bounced out of the bow and we put rods out right away.

While fishing, I noticed something popping off the bottom to check our baits showing up on the sonar.  Then I get hit but it never stuck.  Then Scott gets hit and fish on!  We pretty much knew it was a halibut from the way it fought and voila!  Their biggest Hali from this particular island spot they have ever caught!



It wasn't huge, but the biggest one in their 40+ years of fishing this famously named spot.



Nothing else came to investigate and we decided to hit that mighty Bottom Fish spot for some deep-water denizens.  We made the long run to the grounds and found really difficult conditions with big swell and surge with wind against the tide.  Even with 28oz weights, you only had a few minutes to hook up before having to reel in and reset.

The fish were definitely big, but nowhere near the size of the ones we got the last time.



Also the last time we never lost a fish and we lost at least 6 good ones on this trip.  Not exactly sure why, but we caught a bunch of them, including some pests.  Lol







We got some huge starry rockfish, and Matt was stoked when I said this one would have been the IGFA World Record  (just to find out the record was crushed last year).  Lol



We got some tugboat lings also!



I had a double header and I swore it was going to rip my arm out of the socket.



Then I thought I had a Cowcod when I realized, nope... It's a Yelloweye!  New species for me and one of the least expected for some reason.



We descended it with the 6# ball sinker I brought and the electric reel which was a wonder to use for descent purposes!

The big reds started to make a showing...



We had a note pad to mark every fish we caught as not to go over any limits (and to remember what we caught as they started coming up fast and furious!

Them my next 3 fish were all beauties in their own right before losing an absolute beast!





Another Yelloweye...  Ended up releasing 3 of them this day... Thank goodness for that huge ball of lead I brought as well as the automatic descender that opens up at whatever depth you set it to.  Lol



I hooked into something that even with my Penn Fathom 2 speed in low, I could barely bring it up.  I bought this rod/reel for cow tuna and whatever bottom fish this was, I was in awe.... 30 feet from the surface and poof... gone.....  We watched something huge on the sonar swim all the way down back to the bottom.  I was deflated

Next one was Scott's beast.  Same thing... He got his about 20" from the surface when *poof* gone!

We reset a few more times for the usual suspects... as well as another HUGE ling.



Beast of a Lingosaurus!



Then I get bit by something big.  It didn't fight like a ling or Red... It felt just different, but heavy.  A little like the one I lost but different.  I get it to the top and WTF!  Holy Cowcod!





This thing wasn't even inflated and mean as hell!  We went to attach the descending device when it bit my thumb, and I dropped it in the water.  I went to grab it again to get it on the device, but it shot down like a rocket!  We went to look at the sonar ands we saw that son of a bitch swim all the way down to the bottom!  Absolutely amazing!

Well, we got our 3-day limits of reds as well as a bunch of other denizens and decided to head back to the islands to see what we could see.  After all, the goal was to get Halibut, or WSB.

We cruised around a few of the islands when my buddy said "Let's take a look at the front side.  Apparently, people don't anchor overnight on this side because the weather is always hitting them, but it was nice as hell so we decided to stay.  That and they saw a few boats they know are fish killers, so we scoped out a spot of squid to jig up and dropped the hook for the night.

We made a few drifts to see if we could find any halibut and on my first drop I nail one!  I could tell it was small, but since every halibut we caught was over 32", it was hard to distinguish what a 27" halibut looked like.  I was going to flip it in the boat since Matt wouldn't gaff it so Scott hand grabbed it for the second legal halibut of the day!  Albeit a little 27" model.  LOL



We set out a late afternoon snack and prepared for the evening bite... or at least to set up for the morning.



We were only supposed to stay for 2 days, but we opted for a third night.  Hopefully this would elevate our trip.

The fog settled in and before you knew it, it was getting dark.



We set out the night gear, but if you got too close to the bottom, the squid or crabs would eat your bait.



We reeled up for the evening and set out the squid lights instead to try and scoop a bunch for fresh frozen when we leave.  We couldn't get a bunch to float, but a lot came up in the lights and we scooped about 30.



The mist would come in and out and those squid lights made for one eerie glow!



Well, that was it for this day.  One halibut, but a ton of bottom critters to make things right again!  Hopefully tomorrow brings more luck!

[jrodda]

Sounds like you were losing the battle with some lingosaurs...reminds me maybe I do wanna fish a two speed in a place like that. Nice haul this day.

[Tim524]

Wow, another fun and exciting trip, you better ice that shoulder for a week !