Rick Ferguson "DaGoose"
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Lucky and Fortunate
Aug. 24 2010, 10:13 PM
Aug. 24 2010, 10:13 PM
Lucky and Fortunate
A fortunate man has many good friends to spend time on the water with. A lucky man also has good friends with nice boats! Such was the case recently when invited for a long boy's weekend with Larry Marble on his sweet Sportcraft Dawn Patrol II with Jeff Cozzolino. The armada also included Dave Peter's Teaser crew, with Herbert Presley and his son Dustin, visiting from Texas. Dustin loves to fish. He's good at it too, wanting badly to capture his first tuna. That just wasn't in the cards but the weather forecast was great.
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A fortunate man has many good friends to spend time on the water with. A lucky man also has good friends with nice boats! Such was the case recently when invited for a long boy's weekend with Larry Marble on his sweet Sportcraft Dawn Patrol II with Jeff Cozzolino. The armada also included Dave Peter's Teaser crew, with Herbert Presley and his son Dustin, visiting from Texas. Dustin loves to fish. He's good at it too, wanting badly to capture his first tuna. That just wasn't in the cards but the weather forecast was great.
Thanks to some timely information from Fish Dope, we headed out to Eagle Rock at Catalina, where the squid and white sea bass wanted to play the night before. The crossing was most excellent with greasy calm water. We arrived and set up for the evening with several other well known boats in the area. Jeff warmed up some fine pork ribs he slow smoked all day along with some white corn on the barbie (he really is a great cook!). Maybe, just maybe, tonight would finally be our night after several uneventful evenings to date.
The squid showed up just after sundown. First a few would cruise by as if checking things out. Then they arrived en masse with nearly a full blown float. Unfortunately, in our haste to provision and get under way, we forgot to bring the scoop net. It was fun to see but we were only scratching up one squid at a time with the jigs until a friend Mark on the nearby Catch 22 called us over and loaded us up. How sweet was that?
Mud marlin are fun to catch I guess. Some excitement is better than none. The white sea bass were schooled up tightly on the squid beds and those in “the zone” did pretty well. It was a great evening otherwise. The Teaser crew had similar results.
We decided to do a bit of adventuring the next morning, heading to Santa Barbara Island to check it out for the first time. For a small island, it sure has some great scenery with the blowhole and arch. Large pods of baby seals were frolicking about in the water while the grownups barked incessantly on the rocky shoreline. After a cruise around to check it out, we bounce balled a bit for a 10lb black sea bass quickly released untouched. The Teaser crew scratched up a 10lb flattie as well. With no current, the bite just didn’t happen. After a bit of time working the kelp, it was decided to head back to Little Harbor and spend a quiet relaxing evening. The Teaser crew made the long run back to Dana Point since they left a day before us.
Before settling in, a sundown catch and release calico bass session was in order. They eagerly inhaled each candy bait offering on the light gear. Jeff and I managed to get personal bests. It was way too much fun. After an hour or so, we let them be and dropped the hooks forward and aft in Little Harbor with only a few moored camp boats sharing the scenery. Chef Jeff was at it again with a dry rubbed tri-tip for dinner then to bed to rest up. The skies were clear and stars abundant as Dawn Patrol II slowly rocked us to sleep.
A beautiful sunrise greeted us. Hot coffee never tasted so good. This was it, the last morning before returning to civilization. Weather conditions remained perfect as we set off, getting the bounce ball gear ready for a final flattie session. Chatter centered around how much fun it had been, but deep down inside, adding a nice fish or two to the mix could put it over the top.
Ten minutes after lines in, Jeff’s rod goes off with a nice biter. A solid 18lb flattie hit the deck shortly thereafter. This fish was full it and we breathed a collective sigh of relief. We made another pass and blammo, another nice fish by Jeff at 16lbs. Finally, after many hours of pounding sand waiting for this, it was happening! 2 hours and three nice fish later, we called it day with some fine table fare as frosting on the cake for our great boys weekend adventure.
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It does get better still. This week the Teaser crew got out to bounce ball the kelp edges near Dana Point. Dustin has quickly become very good at doing all those things necessary to get the rigs down and keep them running properly. Very early on, Dustin got a great biter with drags screaming and all. He did a fine job getting her in, rewarded with a 28lb flattie, the biggest any of us have caught this year. And he did it all himself. The smile says it all!!!!
So, the flatties seem to be on the chew finally. Hope you all are as lucky as I am. Get out there with your friends, have a great time on the water, and catch them up.
Tight Lines,
Rick
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August 25, 2010, 10:18 pm
Great writing, and what fun!!!!! No wonder guys love their boats!