Just got off the third Bait Wraps sponsored trip on the Pacific Quest.
I scored a parking spot in the main lot, and took my gear down to the boat. 8:10 and only one other passenger ahead of me. Everyone else was there by 8:30 or so and we loaded and got settled in.
We checked in, and everyone got a free bait wraps yoyo “BB” jig…. and fresh baked cookies!
Captain Greg gave the safety speech and game plan. We had some squid already, and would not be stopping for fin bait. Saturday’s trip had stayed at Catalina, tonight we were heading to San Clemente, try to get some more squid in the dark, and set up to look for seabass at gray light.
We got to the island around 4 AM. I woke up when the engines slowed, but went back to sleep until I heard the anchor drop 30 minutes or so later. The squid were thick around the boat, and they guys were easily filling the tanks just with scoop nets. We fished a bit there, too, but not even a nibble.
When the tanks were sufficiently filled, we moved in closer to the island. Greg metered fish where we were sitting, but there was absolutely no interest in our hooked squid. We hung out in the cove until light, hooked a few very small yellowtail, most of those were released.
Bone chilling winds in the morning gave way to a sunny afternoon, but still quite breezy. We passed the day moving from one spot to another, catching fish pretty much all day… Just not any of the big seabass or yellowtail we would have liked to have seen.
A few of the guys fished the Bait Wraps jigs, catching a few nice bass on them, as well as a white fish. Ken fishing one in the bow had something follow it all the way up that Captain Greg thought at first was a nice sized yellowtail, but when it came into full view it was actually a big bat ray that followed it all the way to the boat and snagged a “wing” when it turned to head back down!
About mid-day we had a visit from the Department of Fish and Game. Two wardens boarded the boat, checked licenses, took a peek in the fish hold, and were on their way.
With nonstop action all day, we ended the trip 31 yellowtail, 57 calico bass, 14 whitefish, 7 sheephead and one blue perch (it was a big one!). Lots and lots of yellowtail and calicos released.
Back by popular demand, after the April Bait Wraps sponsored trip on the Pacific Quest, we set up two more; one in May and one in June.
After boarding and handing out jigs to everyone, Captain Greg came in and went over the game plan; we’d be going to Catalina to see if we could continue the recent seabass bite, look for some squid in the dark, fishing into gray light, then looking along the beaches for yellowtail or seabass. We had some squid left from the previous trip, so there would be no stop at the bait dock.
I slept for the ride out and got up around 2:00 AM. Most of the passengers were up, and one by one drifted back to bed with no biters. I went back to my bunk around 3:30.
I woke up again at around 5:15, still anchored in the same spot. I was debating whether to get up when the second captain came down and said it was gray light, we should be up in case there was a morning bite.
15 minutes later Matt came out and dropped a squid on a dropper loop and got bit immediately. He hadn’t been fighting it more than a minute and I was bit as well! We landed both fish, 25# class. But there were no more bites. When it got light, Captain Greg started hunting around the other beaches.
It was slow picking around all day. There were a few bat rays, a few bass, and some tiny white seabass released. Captain Greg said he knew where there was a hot bite of some really small yellowtail. We could go get in on that, or we could keep looking around. The consensus was, keep looking for some better grade of fish.
Late afternoon, perseverance paid off. Around 3:30 we anchored up by a few other boats and within a few minutes the yellowtail started to bite. Decent grade, maybe 8 to 10 pound range. We put 41 of these fish on the boat in just under an hour. Pretty much non-stop action, with the fish coming through in waves biting 3-4 people at a time.
So that’s about it! Great breakfast burritos and burgers from Geoffrey in the galley. And once again a really fun group of anglers. A stiff wind over night died down pretty well by morning, and not a bad trip home. And everyone got a new Bait Wraps Kraken surface jig to take with them.
Thanks again Greg and the crew of the Pacific Quest! I can’t wait to do this again. The next trip, Sunday June 5, is sold out.
The Pacific Quest will be running trips to the islands and offshore from Pierpoint in Long Beach through June. Remaining trips are selling out fast! They’ll move back down south July 1 for the tuna season. A complete schedule can be found on their web site:
It’s always fun to fish with Captain Greg Obymako… He posted up a
Danny Lynch with his first small yellowfin
weekend trip in mid-September on the Pacific Quest and I saw some friends who said they were going, so Danny and I booked a couple of spots on it as well. Good thing! The trip filled up really fast!
Dave’s big yellowfin
So I snuck out of work early on Friday and we ran down to the landing. Got a parking spot and went to make the rounds looking for some other friends heading out that night. Then off to Mitch’s for a mixed seafood platter… all the good stuff! Calamari, beer battered cod, crab cake, shrimp… yum! And a local craft beer on the side! Finished that off and found Stew Suenaga and his friend Dave watching a dock cart of their stuff and ran and got ours out of my car. Mike Blackburn was also among the group, and a few other people waiting around. There were lots of boats going out tonight. Lots of people to chat with. Good fun already, and we weren’t even on the boat yet!
Mike fighting his fish
Captain Greg came in with his group from a two day. They’d lost a nice wahoo at gaff, but had decent trip out of it anyway. Greg promised to have the boat turned around quickly and get on our way. Didn’t take long at all to unload, load the galley, and get us on board!
Along with Captain Oby, we had second Captain Cal, Jeff running galley as well as working deck, and Jake on deck with him. Jeff gave us the rundown on the way to the bait dock. We’d be fishing US waters, heading to Cortez where there’d been some good scores in the last couple of days on better grade yellowfin. We loaded up on big sardines, both bait tanks and the slammer, and we were on our way!
Captain Greg assisting
Up in the morning and still on our way to the bank, breakfast burritos were served before we made it the rest of the way. First few stops were a couple of smaller grade yellowfin (8-10#) and massive quantities of skipjack and bonito, that rushed every bait that hit the water. Jeff on deck suggested trying chunks of sardine, but the skippies eventually went for that as well. Then I tried a flat fall and they murdered that. After releasing a couple of skipjack off of that, on a third drop they rushed it and I think one of them bit the line. I watched my $20 jig sink away, with the skipjack following and snapping at it until it sank out of site.
Mike with his big yellowfin
Greg had had it with the skipjack and made a move.
My yellowfin, first of 5
We stopped on a dolphin school and hooked up 4-5 large ones. Only two yellowfin made it to the boat, Mike and his friend Dave. Think these were 50-60 pound class.
Danny with a nicer grade of fishWe landed these two at about the same time
We drove around for quite a while, chased some bird schools and had burgers for lunch. I grabbed a nap, and got up when we stopped again on a pod of dolphin, for no biters. We finally stopped on a spot of fish that started to bite late afternoon. Greg said they were bigger fish, I landed one on 40# but then couldn’t get bit, so I dropped to 30# and started nailing them! We had a steady pick at them for a couple of hours until it started getting dark. We put probably 30 of these 25-30# fish on the boat. I ended up with 5 of them. One guy was still hanging a bigger fish in the bow when the bite fizzled. Greg said there were no fish on the meter, and they chased this guy’s fish around for a bit while Jeff started serving a spaghetti dinner. He eventually broke it off.
Jeff, taking a break from Galley and Deck duty
We started the next morning at San Clemente Island for yellowtail. The bite had been early morning. Greg metered a school in gray light, but they weren’t biting. We ran around a few other boats out there as the sun came up, but never found the school again or any biting fish. Greg’s not one to wait around, we left and headed offshore to look for paddies.
Stew and Jeff crossing lines
Shortly after we started trolling, Stew hooked up on the troll and landed a nice big yellowfin. Unfortunately there were none of his friends in the neighborhood who wanted to play.
It was a wasteland out there. Very few paddies, almost no birds. We found one paddy packed with 12” yellowtail, another with some even smaller. One of them through the tiny yellows you could see a couple of dorado cruising around, but they could not be coaxed into biting.
Greg rigged up the trollers for wahoo. We’d been running them an hour or so when one of them suddenly went limp. The marauder was gone, wire leader shredded. No one heard a sound. Had we gotten bit and snapped off that quickly?
We arrived back at the dock, tired and sunburned. It had been clear and sunny all weekend. Hot!
Awesome fun trip! We ended up with 39 yellowfin, 62 skipjack (many more released), 6 yellowtail, and 15 bonito.
Thanks Greg and the crew of the Pacific Quest! I love this big little boat!! There’s always plenty of room with the loads limited to only 12 passengers! I have some great trips on this boat, and this was another one! I can’t wait until they move back up to Long Beach, I hope to get some fall, winter, or spring trips with them before they move back down south for the next year’s tuna season!
Just got off the third Bait Wraps sponsored trip on the Pacific Quest.
Bone chilling winds in the morning gave way to a sunny afternoon, but still quite breezy. We passed the day moving from one spot to another, catching fish pretty much all day… Just not any of the big seabass or yellowtail we would have liked to have seen.
