Trip #1:

Boat: Thunderbird 2 day

Departs: Thursday June 8th

Fishing: June 9th & 10^th

It’s finally here. The kickoff to the DWRRC 2023 fishing season.

Two promising days of fishing adventures aboard the Thunderbird.

Jeff Markland and Chris at the helm, Goofy in the galley, Steve, Colin and Beck keeping us all in line, ready at the bait tanks, helping with tangles and on the gaff when the action starts.

I love fishing with this club and on the Thunderbird.

To begin this adventure, I secured a Primo parking spot at the end of Adams Street. 

Not as good as Tom Hill's front parking spot on Adams Street, but I will take it any trip.

It is good to be on Balboa peninsula at the landing.

A glorious sunny day after all the May gray and June gloom we have been having. 

It was great to meet and greet longtime friends from the DWRRC fishing family.

One of the first people I encountered was Gary (New Eyes) Thompson. 

Now showing without glasses sporting 20 / 20 vision. I do believe he might be wondering why he did not do this sooner. A few $$$$ to Gary, however he now needs sunglasses as the world is so much clearer and brighter.

It’s always good to say hi to Hayden. Rumor has it Hayden was in line before 10 AM.

I say hello to Ryan, the Beall’s, Tom Hill and Bill who was our charter master and. I’ve never heard Bills phone ring so much. 

I need to send huge a shout out to Newport Landing for making this trip possible by filling several openings we had on trip one. This trip was in jeopardy of being cancelled. Thank you to all who made this possible and thank you to the anglers who joined us on this trip. And to the club members that helped fill these spots. It was a good mix of anglers that fit in well with the club.

 I secured a spot on the rail, set up my chair and joined the group in the shade. 

Lots of catching up, rigging going on, decisions on setting up the big stuff, jokes.

More members were making their way in as I took a walk pier to pier.

Dang, my feet dislike walking on concrete.

A very clear day to see Catalina and up the coast to Palos Verdes.

Upon my return, I caught up with Patrick T and Justin to share a few of their beers and jokes with them.  Thank you guys.

We had a special guest join us on this trip. Mike Thompson. He had with him one of our junior anglers, Jason, his grandson. Another junior angler was Morgan Clay.

I looked up and noticed the Thunderbird was in.

The crew was busy readying for the first DWRRC trip of the 2023 season.

Many made their way for their favorite pre boarding dinner.

Some for Mexican food. Justin and I did Thai. Muy Bueno.

As time neared to depart, we did the orderly bunk assignment and getting gear on board.

It seemed we were on our way in no time and at the bait receiver well before 9.

Tanked up on good quality and size of Sardines.

There was also limited live squid for pre gray fishing on day one and two.

It was a smooth ride out.

I sat around chit chatting and sampling bourbon until late.

During a conversation with Mike Thompson, he talked about when he was running fishing trips.

It was not about catching the biggest fish. It was all about making sure his customers had a great trip.

A good rule to live by.

Time for shuteye. Cortez was our destination for day 1.

Day 1

At Cortez around 6 AM.

Pretty much overcast and cool all day long.

The Thunderbird was the only boat on the Cortez Bank.

Before I made it up top, talk was that New Eyes Thompson already had two on board working on a third one.

I do believe he may give us a run for the money going forward.

Way to go Gary. 

We fished Cortez for most of the morning putting on a fine showing of Yellow Tail.

Finned bait, yoyo and surface irons were doing the most to capture.

Stop One yielded 6 YT.

A few more stops yielded 24 more YT.

Many anglers were getting in on the action.

There were a few in the group that were hot in catching more than one.

I do believe Gary now has 20 / 20 Fish Ray vision.

Jim Bertella was a hot stick.  Junior angler Morgan was doing well for himself.

Captain Chris was doing his part to hook up and hand off.

When we moved to shallower water (60 feet), more than one of us was rocked by some larger grade fish.

Just could not get the fish to turn.

If you could get a sardine to swim away from the boat, odds are you were going to get bit or have some very nervous fast swimming bait.

I saw Mike Thompson on more than one fish of these a few he handed off to Jason.

Then I witnessed a once in a lifetime event.

Mike asked Jeff to tie Fluro on to his rig. I did not check if he was using a circle hook.

This was a good decision as he got bit shortly after that. 

Unfortunately, this was a larger grade fish that eventually made its way to the depths and the dreaded rocks.

on the starboard bow, I hooked my only YT to be gaffed. 

Scrambled egg Sumo Jr. about halfway up on the retrieve, 30 lb. line, gaffed on the port corner on the rail.

I will say a decision I made last year to change out the less than optimal factory treble hooks on my colt snipers to quality single hooks was a less than optimal decision.

I lost a few on the drop and had a few long line releases on the retrieve after short lived hooks up.

One that I was sure I would land, let loose after several seconds on the line. 

Mike T pointed out after witnessing this, "It sucks to be you".

Not totally as I did get bit, however I did thank Mike for pointing this out.

It is so cool when we are on a bite and the crew really gets into it yelling FISH ON THE BOW!!!!! 

FRESH ONE!!!  CRASHING FISH UNDER THE BIRDS!!!! ANOTHER ONE!!!!! THAT ONES ON YOUR BAIT!!!!

Especially Jeff. He is like a kid at Christmas. His enthusiasm is contagious and gets the rest of us fired up.

Action slowed on the yellow tail so we geared up and moved for some rock fish.

This was a great stop for quality fish being brought up on some long drifts.

I tried to talk Tony to put his reel in low gear during the long retrieve when pulling up twin quality fish.

He refused and cranked them up slowly in high gear. Way to go Tony.

After a few very productive drifts, we had our fill and looked around for a few more cooperative yellow tail.

We had one hit and miss on the YT.

That was the cue for heading to SCI in search of the elusive Blue Fin Tuna.

A bit of bourbon may have been shared during this trek.

A few stories surfaced. One story Tommy shared was about a member nick named Sawzall.

I spoke with Charlie Uhl late last year and he told me of this nick name bestowed upon him.

After the journey from Cortez to SCI, Jeff said he saw no activity of Blue Fin on the way to SCI and into BFT waters.

Nada. Squat. Zilch. Nothing.

The decision was made to head into the island in search of some fishy action.

Where we eventually settled in for dinner and fishing in the cove.

Dinner on Friday was a treat. Tri Tip that was medium to medium rare, very tender and tasty.

Accompanied by a side of scallop potatoes, salad and dinner rolls.  Thank you Goofy and crew for a delicious dinner.

Yes, there was even a wide selection of red wine being offered.

After dinner, Tommy casts the inevitable question, Hey Goofy, Hayden was wondering if there are Klondike Bars for dessert?

Goofy went off asking is that the best we can do with the same lame question.

Hayden then offered, Hey Goofy, Tommy wants to know if there are Klondike Bars for dessert.

Goofy allowed us to trade dirty dishes and silverware in exchange for a Klondike Bar.

For those interested, after dinner drinks consisted of bourbon supplied by Patrick T. and some pretty good jokes by many.

Many fished late into the evening in hopes of picking up a Yellow Tail, WSB or anything else wandering close by.

Tom Hill did manage to catch a barracuda as did another.

Most used Squid on a dropper loop or slider.  When I attempted to use fin bait, Captain Chris asked me why I was fishing for Sea Lions. I switched to Squid.

The sea dogs were merciless grabbing squid off the bottom resulting in more than one excited angler to curse the dogs once it became apparent what was on the other end of the line.

Notable quote of the day from Hayden.

Jeff, Get the F out of my way.

The Junior anglers are very good fishermen.

I missed the play by play that Gary gave when a fish handed off was overtaken by a sea lion.

It was said to be an epic tale.

Day 1 tally

• 34 Yellow Tail (several weighing in the mid-twenties)
• 1 Sheep Head
• A few white fish. One very sizable one.
• Reds for all who wanted to play.
• Day 1 Jackpot went to this scribe. I am grateful for two-speed reels. 

Day 2 started in the cove pre light. Squid on Dropper loops.

No action to speak of.

We then headed towards China Point about 6 AM.

The weather was pretty much the same as day 1.

Overcast, a bit warmer with brief filtered sunshine throughout the day.

Dare I say the finned bait on day two was in very good shape and live squid was available for those wanting to use it. We were amongst the Amigo, Fury, El Dorado and a few private boats.

And the yellow tail were playing.

Yells went out, hook up. Fresh one. Another One. Fish on the bow. Crashing behind the boat. 

The action kept up for a good while and we made a good showing. 

However, the dogs were ever present.

Jeff moved off to find some willing fish and to get a brief reprieve from the sea lions.

We found some bonito. Bill seemed to have their number.  Or they had his.

One was bonito hooked on the troll. More yellow tail were located and the game was on again.

Fresh one. Fish on the bow. Fish under the birds. All in all, a good day of fishing.

Tony landed the first sizeable Calico of the season.

4 pounds 10 ounces.

Day 2 tally was:

• 38 Yellow Tail
• 6 Bonito
• 1 white fish
• 1 legal sized catch and release Calico (Tony Beall).
• Bill Parks took honors for big fish.

As the trip was coming to an end, during our trip back to Newport, Jeff Spotted crashing blue fin.

Some very sizable fish were showing.

Jeff put us in position for those still rigged to make various offerings. 

Blue fin being Blue Fin, ignored everything thrown their way and disappeared.

It is still exciting to see these beasts crash the surface. Awesome

It was a smooth ride back in.

We were back at the dock by 6:30 PM.

Gear back to our vehicles, fish picked up.

All said so longs, see you next trip and so on.

Getting off the peninsula was a breeze compared to years past.

This was a great kick off trip for the 2023 fishing season.

Thank you to the club officers that once again keep this experience going forward.

And to the crew of the Thunderbird.

The Anglers:

Ryan Burson, Patrick Beall, Patrick Thunyakij, Bruce Granse, Tony Beall, Bill Parks, Jim Bertella, Justin Becker

Tom Hill, Gary Thompson, Hayden Claisse, Jeff Hinrichs – Scribe, Jeff Granse (BGg), MikeThompson, Joe Gigante

 Saif Liswi, Richard Meyer, Jeffry Rice, Ion Danes, Kevin Piero, Christopher Pratt, Ken Diaz   

Junior Anglers: Jason T (Mike T) and Morgan Clay.