{"id":191,"date":"2015-02-11T11:18:04","date_gmt":"2015-02-11T19:18:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pamsharp-fishing.com\/?p=191"},"modified":"2015-02-11T11:23:37","modified_gmt":"2015-02-11T19:23:37","slug":"eclipse-epic-winter-yellowail-fishing-january-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pamsharp-fishing.com\/?p=191","title":{"rendered":"Eclipse – Epic Winter Yellowail Fishing! January 2015"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Eclipse<\/a>
Eclipse at the dock at Seaforth<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

I\u2019d never done a trip to Colonet, so I jumped on a chance to get out on the Eclipse for a trip planned to that area.<\/p>\n

Packed and ready to go, I checked on-line one more time and found I had a message from Chris Dunn\u2026 the Fishing Weatherman.\u00a0 Our personalized weather report for the weekend called for light wind\u2026 and rain.\u00a0 Great.\u00a0 I added my rain suit to my backpack and threw it in my car.<\/p>\n

\"Hearty<\/a>
Hearty breakfast to start the day<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Danny and I drove down to Seaforth Landing and parked right in front of the entrance.\u00a0 (Parking at Seaforth is FREE, and always plenty of room.)\u00a0 Sharla arrived and checked us in, confirmed our reserved bunks, and we were on board and ready to go ahead of the 6:00 PM departure time.<\/p>\n

\"Own<\/a>
Own and Captain Mark Gillette at the helm<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We rigged up some, and finished after the safety speech and game plan.\u00a0 Our crew was Captain Mark Gillette, second Captain Adam Williams, with Steve and Ryan (\u201cChewie\u201d), with Jason in the galley.\u00a0 There was lasagna, brought down by one of the passengers, that was wonderful!!<\/p>\n

\"Big<\/a>
Big red rock fish on the Bait Wraps Jig<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We loaded bait and I was off to bed and up early in the morning to start fishing.\u00a0 The first drift produced first a large bonito and some big reds, and then the yellowtail started biting full speed.\u00a0\u00a0 Initial losses were high, but once we got in the rhythm the fish started coming over the rail!\u00a0 First stop was for 15 yellows, all 20-25 pound fish!<\/p>\n

As soon as the bite fizzled, Captain Mark was on the move and looking again.\u00a0 One stop after another, each producing 15-20 fish.\u00a0 We didn\u2019t sit long if the fish didn\u2019t bite, or if they slowed up.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The author with a 28.8 pound yellowtail<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Improvised<\/a>
Improvised rain jacket<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Around 10 AM it started to sprinkle, just as Chris had predicted.\u00a0 Then it started to pour!\u00a0 A few of us had rain gear.\u00a0 I thought the jacket would be enough, but the rain soaked my Fishworks pants, gluing them to my legs, and the water ran down from there into my boots.\u00a0 I ended up with \u00bd inch of water them!!\u00a0 Fortunately the weather was relatively warm, being wet wasn\u2019t a huge issue.\u00a0 Rain was pretty steady until around 3:00, then finally stopped.\u00a0 My pants dried in 20 minutes, but my boots were wet for the rest of the trip.\u00a0 Through it all, the fish just kept coming!<\/p>\n

The only way to describe the day was EPIC!\u00a0 With near limits all the way around the first day, Captain Mark was at a loss of what to do the second day.<\/p>\n

\"Steak<\/a>
Steak Dinner<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At night sitting on anchor with the squid lights out, the boat was surrounded with red crabs so thick the sea was clouded with red.\u00a0 Huge numbers of crabs had been around us all day, and the fish were stuffed with them!<\/p>\n

\"Big<\/a>
Big yellowtail on the Bait Wraps jig<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We headed back up the coast drifting some high spots for shallow water rock fish, but amazingly, we couldn\u2019t seem to avoid more schools of big yellowtail!\u00a0 Full limits of yellows were quickly finished off, and we had to release the yellows that were hooked, while one spot produce nearly wide open ling cod for a short while!\u00a0 No more rain, but a bit more wind, made some of the drifts a bit challenging but with a little more weight it was still totally fishable.<\/p>\n

\"Captain<\/a>
Captain Adam and a few anglers<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It was truly an amazing trip!\u00a0 Captain Mark said he had never seen that quality of fishing in this area, and the quality of fish rivalled Cedros!\u00a0 The crew was on top of it the whole time, gaffing, bleeding and tagging fish.\u00a0 We had a wonderful group of anglers who worked together and got the job done!<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t imagine how you could top a trip like this!<\/p>\n

\"Chef<\/a>
Chef Jason showing off a bacon wrapped sausage sandwich lunch<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Jason was in the galley serving some awesome meals, including a dinner of fresh yellowtail that was delicious, steak dinner another night, and even pancakes on the morning we returned to the dock!<\/p>\n

Fish count for 24 passengers was limits of yellowtail, most of them 20-28 pounds with a few into the 30\u2019s, and 90-some lings with plenty of rock fish to go along with it.\u00a0 Most of the yellowtail were caught on jigs, with fishing this good, color didn\u2019t seem to be a factor.\u00a0 The lings were mostly on sardines, but a few of those bit the jigs as well.<\/p>\n

Just an incredible trip\u2026 and home in time to watch the Superbowl!<\/p>\n

Thanks to Captain Mark Gillette and the crew of the Eclipse!\u00a0 I can\u2019t wait to do it again!!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  I\u2019d never done a trip to Colonet, so I jumped on a chance to get out on the Eclipse for a trip planned to that area. Packed and ready to go, I checked on-line one more time and found I had a message from Chris Dunn\u2026 the Fishing Weatherman.\u00a0 Our personalized weather report for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pamsharp-fishing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pamsharp-fishing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pamsharp-fishing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pamsharp-fishing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pamsharp-fishing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=191"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/pamsharp-fishing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":216,"href":"https:\/\/pamsharp-fishing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191\/revisions\/216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pamsharp-fishing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pamsharp-fishing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pamsharp-fishing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}