After a long week of 'business' in Palm Springs, I drove to Torrance late Thursday night. We had originally planned to fish Friday, overnight at Catalina, then fish Saturday as well, but the boys were having a shiny new Evinrude E-Tec 200 put on the boat that week, and the mechanic was a day late getting it done. So we picked up the boat Friday night and drove straight to the launch with the intention of crossing in the dark to be in the perfect spot at pre-dawn (the best time to catch the elusive White Sea Bass). But the wind had picked up by then, it was pitch dark, we were getting soaked, and then discovered that neither the VHF radio or the GPS was working. Dave has handheld backups to both, but it was the final straw of ambition. So we decided to go back to the apartment, fix the broken stuff, and try again in the morning.
Two hours of sleep later, we got up and stumbled into the truck for attempt #2. This time was fantastically successful, and we were fishing in no time. Mostly small stuff for a while until a big ole' sumpin sumpin grabbed a live mackerel off the bottom and headed out to the open ocean. Took quite a while to get it in, so we were highly dissappointed to see a big sting ray come up and have to cut him loose.
Sometime afterward, while trolling live mackerel along the edge of the kelp patties, one of the rods went buzzz and then BUZZBUZZZZZZ and wouldn't you know it, we had a white sea bass on the end. A great fight, unique in feel with a lot of head shaking (this was my first wsb), and a beautiful 28lb fish. I gave it the whoop, Steve gave it the gaff, and Dave gave us all high five. What a great way to break in the new boat, motor and my first trip to Catalina.
Thanks again to Steve and Dave for their hospitality and top quality tackle.
