Two Harbors Catalina Trip

[Ktown808]

Went out to Two Harbors Catalina two weekends ago and had an epic trip.

Launched from King's Harbor early Saturday morning and had a great crossing for the most part. Water was relatively calm but there was a nasty cloud covering that made things a bit nippy with the wind on you.
Pulled up to our first spot and was greeted with a SOLID 35ft of viz plus...Top to bottom crystal clear, just sitting on the surface watching Big Calico's swim by on the bottom. Got into hunting mode after just admiring things for 20 minutes. Bait was not an issue as there was rivers going through the kelp bed and included, Sardines, Mackerels, Smelt, Blacksmith, etc…

I knew there must be some game fish around considering the loads of bait so I was 100% committed to trying to land a WSB or YT, passing on the multiple 5lb Calico in an effort to stay committed to the cause. After about an hour without seeing anything I hollered at my buddy Wardo and told him we should head up the kelp bed to the topside of the current. When we got up there we saw some Barracuda but nothing we were looking for so after about an hour of sitting on the edge of the bed staring out I started kicking through the kelp again to see if I could just bag some Calico.
I made it into a clearing in the kelp that had a massive rock probably the size of a car sitting in the middle of it. I was halfway down to the rock to check it out at about 15ft and low and behold a school of 10-15 WSB swim right in front of me over the rock. Nothing big but some decent 15 pounders I started tracking on a fish but they were swimming pretty quickly and really confused. I didn’t take the shot from about 7ft because I had been diving for 3hrs at this point and didn’t want to blow it with a bad shot.
I figured I would go back to the surface wait in the area for a while and they would breeze through again and I would get my fish. Like they always say, everybody has 20/20 hindsight... I waited another hour in the kelp and never saw them again. Shoulda, woulda, could… O well next time.
We ended up getting some nice Calico spotting some nice bugs and having a great time at Xandu Festival at Two Harbors which is a whole different story.

Cheers,

Logan

[jaxwax]

Too bad about the wsb, but nice fat calico! Mind if I ask what kind of gun that is in your last pic?

[Lompoc Local]

Originally Posted by Ktown808

I knew there must be some game fish around considering the loads of bait so I was 100% committed to trying to land a WSB or YT, passing on the multiple 5lb Calico in an effort to stay committed to the cause.

I didn’t take the shot from about 7ft because I had been diving for 3hrs at this point and didn’t want to blow it with a bad shot.

Dude, you've been reading too much Spearboard. Pull the trigger on 5-pound bass and WSB from 7 feet. Are you kidding?

[Ktown808]

Originally Posted by Lompoc Local

Dude, you've been reading too much Spearboard. Pull the trigger on 5-pound bass and WSB from 7 feet. Are you kidding?

LOL your probably right... There is some additional back story that I didn't include. I had a great year with Calico this year shooting my biggest fish and getting pretty consistent with getting them every dive I was looking for fish. WSB for me this year is a LOOOONNNNGGGG story, lets just say I am truly Haunted by the ghost and from what I have read over the years it sounds like I am in good company. My last Catalina trip I wasn't looking to just put some Tacos on the boat I really really wanted my trophy fish. There is always next time but yeah I probably should have just taken the shot and probably psyched myself out with all the "technical Jargon" you hear about.

Next time... I'm just pulling the trigger.

Cheers,

Logan

[32Juan]

Ha, Xanadu... that was interesting. Hog calicos bro!