The Gold Coast Lady Anglers' Blog

2012-01-02T09:12:00.000-08:00

The Gold Coast Lady Anglers would like to wish a Happy Birthday to the lovely ladies who celebrate their Birthday in the month of January!!!!!

Andrea A - January 3rd

Marion I - January - 14th

Anne L - January 30th

Adela T - January 30th

December Birthday Girls!!

2011-12-05T20:27:00.000-08:00

The Gold Coast Lady Anglers would like to wish a Happy Birthday to the lovely ladies who celebrate their Birthday in the month of December!!!!!

Lucia P. - Dec 8th

Nettie F. - Dec 31st

Guadalupe Island 5-day

2011-11-19T10:15:00.000-08:00

Well guys.....It's been a while....Been suffering through some health issues and Fred and I never got a legit honeymoon so we decided to do it via a 5-day trip to Guadalupe. Just the two of us, plus 17 other random people, most of which were a great group to share a rail with for the stretch.

I had never been there and Fred said it was a must for me being as avid a fisherman as I am....Being that it is his favorite place to fish as well we booked the Vagabond.

I was soooooo amped for this trip. We could hardly sleep the night before and we took off early Tuesday morning. Loaded our dock cart and waited....

Boat was killer.....We had a nice stateroom all to ourselves and a fabulous ride...weather was great and everyone we met seemed really cool.

We headed to Ensenada to go through customs...That was a trip. They boarded us to do the paperwork and I was asleep in my bunk....Woke up to the door opening and an M16 staring at me....he quickly closed the door and left me to my slumber...Off we went to the Lupe!

We trolled around on the day long ride there...We got 3 jig strikes....decent schoolie yellowfin tuna... We pulled up on the Lupe at sundown...what a magnificent sight.

We stayed up to dropper loop the yellows, but none came to play. Some of us spent a lot of time loading up the trash cans with the "carnada" for the Lobster fisherman that live there...That ended up being pretty fun. I crashed early...the sooner I fell asleep, the sooner I could wake up and start fishing!!!!

Sunrise was gorgeous. We metered around and Mike made the call to start a chum line port side.....We ended up drifting on a spot. Capt. Mike suggested the yo-yo for some yellows or fly-line for tuna. A few of us grabbed the jigs and pretty quickly Cristen hooks up on her pink SX....About a half hour later we hear the thud on the deck....We thought she had a nice yellow on, but it turned out to be a fatty yellowfin tuna right around 65-70 on her dorado 6X Jr...How cool is that??!! No more love so we continued on.

"Chum line, starboard", We watched and my heart pounded as the tuna started to boil....Fred finds a hot bait and connects with the first bait fish of the trip on 40#...I saw his 80 pounder hit the deck and my heart started racing....

I wanted a big ass fish like that soooo bad. I snapped a few pics and got back in the water...A few more hook ups and I was getting anxious... I lobbed out a hot one and my 50 # started screaming....Finally my turn....

Fred said i got really lucky with this fish...I guess it was ready to die because it was only a couple of times up and down the stern before the gaffs went into it on the corner.....My new PB yellowfin tuna, just over 75 pounds...What a rush.

Pics and then I was in the water again. About 8 fish in this spot and we moved a ways down the Island. Next stop is where the magic happened. Fish were boiling on the chum line all around us...Fred dumped one.....then he gets bit again, then I'm on too....then we both lose them.... Freddy ends up connecting with one on the 50# and it comes over the rail at right around 90 #'s......

My 50 lb rig takes a shit so I grab the 40 and connect with my second fish of the trip....This fish was NOT like the first...It was bigger and way pissed off. I got my ass kicked by it for over 45 mins, rail rodding it, getting dragged around like a rag doll all around the boat. I beg Capt. Gordon to stay by my side...I wanted to beat that fish soo freakin bad...Right then the Tax-man shows up and I get nervous.... I was on this fish for a while now and already saw two heads come over the rail. Gordon sticks by my side and talks me through it, insisting I can do it...I tryed to act like I was a tough girl, but inside I was crying...wondering if I was gonna make it. Fred was resting and got some action shots of me pulling on this beast.

Gordon screams at me to pull hard and the gaffs went into my 2nd and new PB yellowfin tuna at 90# to match my hubby!!!

That was all she wrote for me....Noodle arms could barely re-tie.....I had myself a celebratory cocktail and rested my weary body.

I watched a couple fish over the 100# mark come over the rail. Fred connected on a long soak and fought a fish well over a hundy for almost an hour....A big White Shark started circling the boat and we threw in a severed head to keep him off Fred's fish, which worked, but the fish finally busted off after coming to deep color twice....ugh....

So that wrapped up day one....We ended up with 23 big tuna and even though I felt like I had been hit by a truck, I could not have been more stoked with the days events. What a rush....

Day 2 we woke up to yet another beautiful sunrise....I grabbed a bowl of oatmeal and hit the rail to try for a dropper loop yellow.

No love so we pulled the hook and cruised around.... A few stops and Fred had the only tuna connection for the morning....Lost it and the search continued. I hooked a nice yellow but lost that one at color.

Guadelupe Island is a beautiful place...A few shots of the spectacular scenery as we metered around.

We ended up on the other side of Outer Rock on a yellow spot. I dropped down a Scrambled Egg Tady 4/0 and on the first wind connect with a nice yellow...

It was on from that point forward....Just about every jig in the water was bit and these were toad yellows....

I connected with a slug which ends up being the biggest forkie of the trip....kicked my ass. But a nice fish and a new PB for me at just under 50 pounds...

Fred and I hooked up over and over again....On fire and the adrenaline is overpowering the sore muscles so we just keep going. Lost count of how many yellows come over the rail for us, but I know I stated handing them off to those who were struggling. Just an amazing day. George suggests the surface iron to Fred so he grabs the long rod and heads to the bow...He tosses out his Salas 7X in mint green and connects instantly....A nice 25 pound yellowfin tuna comes over the rail coutesy of the Ulua. Fred was stoked....I got tired of feeling the burn and started flylining some baits back...Connected with a schoolie yellowfin tuna, nice way to end the day....

Another hot shower, killer dinner and great experiences to talk about as we wrapped up our last day at Guadelupe.

The way home straight up sucked...We took some weather head on....Tried to troll, which was somewhat successful, but few bothered as we had a ton of fish and we were worn out.

Customs went smooth as silk and so did the offload....My first time to Guadelupe certainly won't be my last. Although it will be hard to beat this trip and 2 PB's for me. Also my first time riding The Vagabond.... Capt and crew were just awesome, service was excellent and so was the food. I can not wait to do it all over again next year.

2011-11-19T10:11:00.000-08:00

The Gold Coast Lady Anglers would like to wish a Happy Birthday to the lovely ladies who celebrate their Birthday in the month of November!!!!!

Christy E. - 11/8

Jeanne Z. - 11/18

Susan D. - 11/22

Kristin W. - 11/30

The Ladies Sing the "Blues" !!

2011-09-05T11:07:00.001-07:00

OMG - what a fantastic trip on our annual Pacific Dawn Tuna Charter. We were all singing the blues - Bluefin Tuna that is. We got kind of a late start Thursday evening as we didn't leave the landing until 10pm instead of seven, but no big deal. We all got signed in, got our tackle ready, and then hunkered down in our bunks to prepare for the tuna battle. As the morning approached, Capt Dustin woke us up for the "grey" bite. I think it was new member Laura who hooked the first fish and it was "game on". One by one everyone was hooking up and bluefin tuna were all over the place. These fish liked the light line - 15 to 20# test seemed to be the ticket what a blast it was to bring them on board. Lori - the HOT stick of the trip could do no wrong. Every time I looked at her, she was fighting a fish. Our buddy Jerry Stussman also had a hot stick. On the second day he told me he was going to heavier line because he was too exhausted catching all those fish - obviously not a lady angler !! As lunch time approached, we had to refuel and some of us even had to take a power nap, but it was soon back to task at hand. The afternoon brought even more bluefin and us rookie tuna slayers were really getting the hang of it. Then late afternoon, we had another lull in the bite and feasted on some of the best ceviche we've ever had. As evening approached the bite starting raging once again.

Louise was hooked up once again. By the end of the day on Friday, we had 101 Bluefin tuna on board. Unbelievable !! By this time though, we were low on bait, so Capt Dustin went all the back to San Diego That night to get more bait and we were back in action at the same area by Saturday morning. What a crew - we couldn't have asked for anything more. So Saturday morning we were back in action. Lori's stick was still to hot to handle as she just kept those bluefin's coming. By time our day was over and we started to head back home, we had a whopping 146 Bluefin tuna in the hole and our two jackpot winners were Louise and Chris.

Congrats to all the ladies on board for a fine showing of the GOLD COAST LADY ANGLERS ! One of the highlights of this trip for me was that I was able to gaff my own fish. It's a lot harder that it looks, but look out deckhands, I'm coming after ya !!

The weather was decent and Eddie in the galley prepared fabulous meals and snacks for us. The sashimi on the way home was to die for. Enjoy the pics below and get ready now for next year cause we are going to put the hurt on tuna once again !! Many Many Many thanks to Capt Dustin, Jake, Moses. ManDog, and Eddie in the galley, for making this trip so memorable !! The Pacific Dawn rocked !!

href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-A-nSZsvKF-w/TmUjUtDZNNI/AAAAAAAAAWs/Qn7i-wmJwts/s1600/Go%2Bget%2Bem%2BGirls.JPG">

2011-09-01T06:40:00.000-07:00

The Gold Coast Lady Anglers would like to wish a Happy Birthday to the lovely ladies who celebrate their Birthday in the month of September!!!!!

Vita F. - 9/2

Barbara Mc. - 9/3

Melinda H. - 9/5

Ana K. - 9/6

Miryam L. - 9/13

Mary Lukas on the Polaris Supreme

2011-08-27T17:26:00.000-07:00

Hi Ladies....Just got this fabulous photo from Mary from her 5-day trip aboard the Polaris Supreme...She caught this monster yellowtail that tipped the scales at over 46 pounds!!! What a beast and quite a catch from another Gold Coast Lady Angler!!!!

GCLA Annual Family Picnic

2011-08-14T10:57:00.000-07:00

Well, for those of you who were not able to attend our first annual GCLA family picnic yesterday, you missed a lot of fun. Many, many, many thanks to Ruta for organizing such a fabulous day. The fish balloons, the games, the prizes - it was just amazing. Babsie will be posting some very funny video of the musical chairs game and the sack races - my camera is broken !! We also appreciate Kathy W's superlative commentary of the day with her bullhorn. She's such a natural she should have her own TV show. And thanks to all the Ladies and their families who came out and enjoyed the day with us. It was a blast. Can't wait to do it again next year !!

August Birthday Girls!

2011-08-03T09:23:00.000-07:00

The Gold Coast Lady Anglers would like to wish a Happy Birthday to the lovely ladies who celebrate their Birthday in the month of August!!!!!

Susan V. - Aug 7th

Mary C. - Aug 8th

Jamale C. - Aug 18th

Veronica H.-Aug 25th

Lori R. - Aug 26th

Cheryl O. - Aug 26th

The Sweet Smell of Victory!!!

2011-07-10T07:26:00.000-07:00

After a loss by mere ounces last year, The Gold Coast Lady Anglers were ready for a rematch and pumped to get on the Mirage to duke it out against Ventura County Sportfishing Club. Seabass had been in the counts and we were hopeful to get our shot at them! We boarded, grabbed our bunks, rigged up and quickly put on the first round of rally gear that Ruta brought!!

Ride across was a bit rough but once we reached our destination the sea flattened out and we rested well till right before the grey light.

Mary was first up at around 4:30.....She woke me up and asked if we could start fishing and I said, "Hell Yeah" and popped out of my bunk as well. We were first out on deck and in awe at the parking lot of boats that surrounded us...Guess we were in the right spot!!!

I rigged up a dropper loop on my 40 lb set up for fear of the batrays and seals that bite so well in the dark. Sure as the sun rises i get picked up by a freakin' flapper (bat ray, mud marlin, etc...) and Mary follows quickly behind...Wide open Bat Rays!!!

More and more people started to rise from the bunks and soon the rails were full....Game on, let the competition begin!!!!

As the sun began to give us light the fish came under the boat...Tap Tap....I'm on!!!! I land the first fish for the girls team...A Seabass, small, but fiesty and a contribution for the girls team.

High Fives and cat calls all around and moments later Sophia is bent. We took a quick pic.

One is boated for the opposing team by Linda who is a member of both clubs, a woman fishing on the opposing team...Still only women on the board.

Suddenly Miryam comes down the rail grunting and groaning, or should I say moaning, with her rod bent all the way over...As the gaff came out and the fish hit the deck, the entire stern was blinded by her glow and deafened by the sounds that came out of her as she landed her very fist Seabass. She joined us for the shot, and then there were three..........

I hook up to a second fish which is lost at the gaff, but Chris makes up for it as she hooks up and lands this amazing halibut.

I catch 2 more and at this point the guys are starting to hang their heads low....watching us catch fish after fish.

Barbara's on...MONSTER HALIBUT!!! Which ends up being the Jackpot...

Louise is on...Seabass!!

Ruta is on...Seabass!!!!! and then a barracuda holding true to her name:

"RUTA BARRACUDA"

Mary and Jeanne are the only one's left without a fish to contribute so far...we all rubbed them for good luck!

The bite slowed down and Tucker decided to take a look around for a school that wanted to bite better. It was warming up nicely so the sweatshirts came off and the "bresticles" came out. I discoved that Barb';s were actually scratch-n-sniff!!!!

Then the boas made their way to the deck....We were so happy to be in the lead and even happier to be rubbing it in. Check out our hot to trot fearless leader!

The head gear came out next...Louise brought her umbrella hat to poke the eyes out of the "frenemies" but ended up poking our eyes out instead, lol!!! Ruta's wine cork hat was a hit as well!!

We decided to look around in the kelp lines for more fish...we pull up and I suggest the reverse dropperloop for Sheephead...Jeanne takes the suggestion ans nails a huge Goat which tips the scales 10 pounds further our way...The men were so quiet at this point....or maybe we just couldn't hear them over the hootin' and hollerin' we were doing!

We land a few more....Mary boats a FAT Cabezon to contribute to the weigh off!!!

Tucker decideds to try one last time to catch another Seabass before we call it a day... We drift for a while and as we are chatting Ruta gets nailed...Another Seabass, and this would be the last fish of the day for us.

I ended the day with three Seabass boated...one lost at the gaff...3 for 4 aint too bad. I was happy to have a limit as you can see from my ear to ear grin.

The fish came out of the hold and we were ecstatic....We all gathered for a few pics....Barb has the Jack pot NO QUESTIONS ASKED with her huge Butt that ened up weighing in at 26 pounds.

I got out a plate and a pen and each member pulled out their biggest fish. When all was said and done:

VCSC - 72 pounds

GCLA - 105.2 pounds

Can I get a WHOOP WHOOP!!!!!!!!!

What an amazing day on the water...Just gorgeous weather, a fabulous group of fish-killin' women and a great bite to go along with it...Several times we laughed to tears and my cheeks are still sore from smiling so much all day.

We gathered for a group shot on the stern...

Back at the landing we recieve our trophy and pose proudly as we thank the fishing gods for such an AMAZING day... Ruta had organized to donate a portion of our catch to the Food Share Program...Thanks RUTA!!!

Big thanks to the Ventura County Sportfishing Club for partnering for this event and the Crew of the Mirage who were fabulous as always!!!!

2011-07-08T08:26:00.000-07:00

The Gold Coast Lady Anglers would like to wish a Happy Birthday to the lovely ladies who celebrate their Birthday in the month of July!!!!

Patty G. - July 2nd
Louise C. - July 17th

Babsie S. - July 23rd

Candy S. - July 24th

Alaska 2011

2011-07-05T12:28:00.000-07:00

What is green and white, has two eyes on one side and has never been on my hook? It is a halibut! This fish has eluded my hook for many years. I have been on trips where anglers on both sides of me have hooked up on halibuts or there was a hot halibut bite the day before and after I went out. Well, all that changed June 10th when I went fishing with Kingfisher Lodge and Charters in Sitka, Alaska. As we began our descend through the clouds, the view of the islands and town of Sitka opened up. All the mountains were green and the very top snow covered, there are so many islands in the bay some with private homes or B&B's tucked between the trees. When we landed two guides were waiting for our extremely excited 8 person group. They assisted us with our luggage and tried to get us focused enough to get on the shuttle bus to take us to Shee Atika Totem Square Inn, where we spent our first night.

The first full day in Sitka was spent divided with the 5 "newbies" sightseeing and the 3 "oldies" went on a beautiful waterfall hike and to Fortress of the Bears. We (newbies) visited the Totem National Park, dropped off postcards at the Post Office, walked to the Raptor Center and hitched a ride with Fortress of the Bears shuttle van around town then he dropped us off at Fortress of the Bears. After the bears, we took a taxi to the Sheldon Jackson College Hatchery and Aquarium. If anyone would like my tested "One day Sitka tour map" let me know. ;-) Kingfisher picked us up at 3pm and took us to their lodge where our fishing adventure begins! The accommodations are amazing: 4 bedrooms with a bathroom in each, spacious living/kitchen/dining area, washer/dryer (soap provided) and lastly an incredible view from our balcony. With 7 Lady Anglers and 1 Gentleman Angler we were so comfortable and needed nothing else. Around 5pm delicious appetizers where dropped off in our kitchen and dinner started at 6pm. The food was wonderful, 3 options for your entree, a soup/salad bar, and most importantly dessert which usually included ice cream! Rise and shine was 4:30, breakfast started at 5am, the vans took us to the harbor at 5:45am and we were on our way by 6am each day.

The first day was on the Kaiya with Captain Bryan our end of day count was 9 halibut, 2 yellow eye, a dogface shark, a skate, 3 kings, 1lingcod, at least 20 pinkies and tons of jellyfish on the line. We saw puffins, sea otters and humpback whales. Conditions were unbelievable: flat seas, blue skies, no wind and too much fun. Second day was on the Titan with Captain Paul and our end of day count was lots of miscellaneous rock fish, 4 kings, 4 pinkies, 1 silver, 3 short lingcods, 2 yelloweye, 2 big coppers, several black bass and 1 china rock fish. We had a grey whale 20 ft off the bow of the boat and again flat seas, blue skies and no wind. The third and final day was back on the Kaiya and it was exciting! Sandi reeled in a 200 lb halibut and was it was safely released, a 47" lingcod, a 25lb king, 37" halibut, limits on silvers and pinks, some black bass and chuckleheads and 2 sharks!! Thankfully the weather was amazing for the third day in a row! The fishing was everything I hoped for and definitely would love to go back next year!

p.s. I forgot how to add pics throughout the blog so here's a link to my facebook page for more pictures. It seems you can click on "facebook page" and it will take you there..

Fishing in Alaska

2011-06-30T17:39:00.000-07:00

Well , we sent to Alaska again this year, to a different Lodge in southern Alaska. We flew into Ketchikan this time and took the ferry over to Prince of Wales Island about a 3 hr trip, very smooth and quiet and were met by our hostess Jeannette Haydu of the Kingfisher Charters and Lodge and driven the 30 min drive across the island to their home and lodge on the sound.

We stayed just below the small town of Crag and about 140 miles south of Sitka.

This is a husband and wife and their 5 daughters who run this fishing and wildlife lodge. the lodge faces the water and has it's own dock. The girls do the cooking, baking cleaning and make the lunches for the guests. The Haydu's home is in the center of the property and a processing building with freezer room, foul weather gear room, office and tool bench. Just of this building ( attached to the front side are 2 separate units of condo Apartments Each unit has 3 bedrooms with 3 bathrooms a full kitchen sitting area and dining room.

We were served a wonderful and generous dinner each night in our own dining area. We had a fully stocked refrigerator with cereal & milk, eggs bacon & bread.

This is Chuck Haydu our guide and boat Captain. He is a hunting guide as well and has been an outdoorsmen in Alaska a good part of his life. This is about a 19 lb yellow eye caught on one of those bright green mobambo tails and about a 20/0 hook.

The salmon we caught were all in the range of 18 - 25 pounds. Jake has a nice one.

We caught them moching with dead herring, on jigs and on the troll with lures. We caught them in the open ocean at 200 feet and in quiet bays at 30 feet.

Our captain/guide knew where to go when they were not biting on place we would try another.

32 foot walkaround boats , very nice for everyone.

The afternoon eagle show on the front lawn as about 20 eagles, adults and immatures tusseled over the salmon carcasses.

Unforgettable Sitka, AK

2011-06-21T13:28:00.000-07:00

I may have two left feet, but us GCLA girls can Frackin' Fish!

The 'best fishing trip ever, caught my 1st Salmon, too!'

'Small' part of the Salmon Haul!

Yellow-Eye and no need for 'Refresh Tears':

Story of my life... this guy wasn't BIG enough!'

And finally... I caught a halibut, estimated at 200 lbs! But all I came back with... is this!

;-)

Enjoy!

HQ!

June Birthday Girls!!!

2011-06-02T07:40:00.000-07:00

The Gold Coast Lady Anglers would like to wish a Happy Birthday to the lovely ladies who celebrate their Birthday in the month of June!!!!

Diana P. - 6/2

Linda K. - 6/7

Peggy T. - 6/9

Jena N. - 6/15

Julia Y. - 6/22

Rickie M. - 6/22

Payton W. - 6/27

New Ink!!!

2011-05-10T13:12:00.000-07:00

In honor of my upcoming 8-day trip and what I hope is an outstanding tuna season coming up! This piece is on the back of my calf, right below the knee....Turned out gorgeous, but since it wraps around it was tough to get a good shot...

May Birthday Girls!!!

2011-05-04T07:48:00.000-07:00

The Gold Coast Lady Anglers would like to wish a Happy Birthday to the lovely ladies who celebrate their Birthday in the month of May!!!!

Dorothy R. - 5/1

Karen H. - 5/10

Jacqui A. - 5/16

Deana S. - 5/18

Erika S. 5/30

Santa Rosa Sea Biscuit Trip!!!

2011-05-04T07:30:00.001-07:00

Well the forecast was questionable to say the least. Bobby, the Capt. of the Sea Biscuit, and I watched the wind closely for two days before we made a decision....In the end he left it up to me and I said "Screw it....We're going! The girls were excited and happy to be getting out so we all boarded the boat with enough gear and food to last a year...would you expect anything less???

Once bunks, sign ins and the JP were handled we did the normal gathering and mingling we do oh-so-well.....

The ride across was bumpy to say the least. A few gals felt a bit queasy but with so many remedies on board they popped a couple Scopace, etc...and hit the rack. We woke up in the morning on the back side of Santa Rosa Island. The crew was able to get a few pieces of squid under the lights so I put on 50 layers of clothes, braved the elements, pinned on a squid and soaked it in hopes of the mighty White Seabass. A few dared to join me, but soon retreated back to the warmth of the galley and the smell of bacon frying.....

As the sun came up the girls hit the rail....The wind was backing off and the seas were laying down...conditions got better and better by the minute, but the Seabass wanted no part of our baits so we pulled the hook and headed to the deep water to get some fish in the sacs.

Once we were set up for our drift it was game on....!!!! Bent rods all the way up the port side as Bobby kept the boat in position...

We got into a few Lings....Started off with this whopper and they got bigger from there...

Then nice quality Reds, Chucks, and Boccachio littered the decks and started filling the sacs nicely.

Jeanne wins the prize for the best dead red impersonation EVER!

We end the day with limits and as the sacs are dumped out on the deck we are humbled by the Red, White, and Blue.....

Jeanne salutes to a great day on the water in this great country!

A few exotics were caught as well....

Aside from the great fishing, we thouroughly enjoyed our relaxing day on the water with great weather, great fishing, and great friends!

Vita nails her first ever JP with this keeper Ling and poses for the shot...

A great sport, Tanner tries on the fish hat and poses proud....he loves the Lady Anglers!!!!

Special Thanks to Bobby, Matt, Jeff, Tanner and Jonathan for excellent service and great fishing once again...You guys rock!!!!

Santa Rosa on the Sea Biscuit!!!

2011-05-04T07:12:00.000-07:00

Once bunks, sign ins and the JP were handled we did the normal gathering and mingling we do oh-so-well.....

Once we were set up for our drift it was game on....!!!! Bent rods all the way up the port side as Bobby kept the boat in position...

We got into a few Lings....Started off with this whopper and they got bigger from there...

Then nice quality Reds, Chucks, and Boccachio littered the decks and started filling the sacs nicely.

Jeanne wins the prize for the best dead red impersonation EVER!

We end the day with limits and as the sacs are dumped out on the deck we are humbled by the Red, White, and Blue.....

Jeanne salutes to a great day on the water in this great country!

A few exotics were caught as well....

Aside from the great fishing, we thouroughly enjoyed our relaxing day on the water with great weather, great fishing, and great friends!

Vita nails her first ever JP with this keeper Ling and poses for the shot...

A great sport, Tanner tries on the fish hat and poses proud....he loves the Lady Anglers!!!!

Special Thanks to Bobby, Matt, Jeff, Tanner and Jonathan for excellent service and great fishing once again...You guys rock!!!!

Sea Bicuit

2011-05-04T06:27:00.000-07:00

What a great blog and kudos to Erika for her fabulous job as Charter Diva on this trip.
All of us had a blast and came home with sacks of quality fish. I also want to extend our big GCLA thanks to Capt Bobby and Crew - great boat and awesome crew !! Just can't wait for that 2-day in October.

May Birthday Girls!!

2011-05-01T20:00:00.000-07:00

The Gold Coast Lady Anglers would like to wish a Happy Birthday to the lovely ladies who celebrate their Birthday in the month of May!!!!

Dorothy R. - 5/1

Karen H. - 5/10

Jacqui A. - 5/16

Deana S. - 5/18

Erika S. 5/30

First WSB of 2011

2011-04-22T18:55:00.000-07:00

I'm very happy to announce I got my first WSB of 2011. Even though it's on the small side, none-the-less, it's a white seabass and it's hopefully the first of many for 2011. I was invited on a SeaJay charter by our good friend Jerry Stussman and all his buddies. Being the only female of 11 of us onboard, 4 WSB were caught and I was one of the lucky ones. We spent the morning casting plastics as that's all they were biting. But as we know, the "ghosts" disappear just as fast as the come, so I was thrilled to land one. After that, we went rockfishing - which was OK. All and all, I can home with my WSB, a red, and 4 chuckleheads. Not a bad day at all - good weather, good friends, and GREAT fish !!

April Birthday Girls!!!

2011-04-04T21:05:00.000-07:00

The Gold Coast Lady Anglers would like to wish a Happy Birthday to the lovely ladies who celebrate their Birthday in the month of April!!!!

Pat W. April 14th

Sandi V. April 21st

GCLA Camping

2011-04-01T22:35:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone, and yes, I just learned how to blog so this is last years info, but fun just the same.....and we hope to do another this year. Jeanne, Meli and I started out Friday morning heading to Lake Cachuma with enough food and drinks to last us several days. The lake was beautiful when we arrived and as you will see from the pics, it just kept getting better. People came to visit – helped with the tents and stayed the night. These ladies know how to camp and are so prepared! I learned that the tough survive and these girls made that mark look easy! Jeanne and Meli are awesome campers and seem to have everything one could think of so I was busy taking mental notes of what to take next time...... 1st - a tent that works! Oh well, I made due and it was great. (I ended up in my car), but they had lights, toilets, stoves not to mention the obvious of tents and sleeping bags. They had every that they could need and then some. Mental note to self: No one should go camping with out everything that they alone should need. These ladies are awesome teachers!! Anyway, there was the brief fire on the outskirts of the site that they put out using the water from the lake (pics below) on the first day. Meli made some wonderful tuna salad that was to die for which we ate while watching them put out the fire. The fishing was non existent and it was super hot without shade near the lake but the best part was the camaraderie! Ana came early on Saturday and then Marion and Renee joined us for the day. By Sunday we were a little melancholy to go back to reality. But we promised each other to do it next year. I hope you enjoy the pictures and maybe next time you will join us, pop a tent and sit by the fire with us.

Aloha Spirit - March 26, 2011

2011-03-30T09:24:00.000-07:00

The weatherman said rain in the morning and afternoon so we were expecting choppy water, but as you will see from the pictures it was beautiful. We left at 5:00 just as we were supposed to (even though I over slept - I hate that), and took a while to get out to Santa Cruz. So, with the overcast skies and a beautiful ocean, with the green island from the rain, wonderful Gold Coast Lady Angers and a couple of new friends we began fishing. We started out with Vita Loca bringing in ONE AFTER THE OTHER, but 2 at a time! Then Louise started giving Vita a little competition and they would compare who was bigger. I on the other hand was catching didley but just loved being out there. (isn't that what I'm supposed to say when I don't catch anything?) I continued to tell Vita if she didn't stop I was going to put her in the bait tank and would compare her to the bait tank size at which point Rickey started calling me Babzilla! (When the minister calls you 'Babzilla' you might question if you will see God when you get up there) But I wasn't the only person teasing on boat, Corey our wonderful deck hand... well you can see the guilty look on his face as he's trying to get away from whatever he did., He would walk around tapping our rods to make us think we got bit. Sometimes it worked and sometimes ot. One time Vita said regarding one of her fish 'Is that a good size' to which Corey replied 'That's as big as that size is going to get'. Corey made a funny! I finally got a really nice chucklehead and red together and once we caught limits we went for a halibut run, to no avail. But we appreciated the shot at it. The fish were there, but they weren't biting. Jackpot: Our GCLA winner was Chris with a 4lb 2oz chucklehead (who knew what she was catching so quietly on the other side of the boat!) beating out Mary and Vita on all of their catches. Greg took home the guys Jackpot with a beautiful red. All in all - great day on the water.

Gramma Zap!!!!!!

2011-03-10T07:07:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to share the news that Jeanne is at the hospital with her daughter and looks like as of today we can officially call Jeanne GRAMMA ZAP!!!!

Let's all put Jeanne and Andrea in our prayer boxes for a wonderful easy labor and delivery!

Congrats Jeanne!!! Can't wait to see the new addition to our awesome group of Lady Anglers!!!

GCLA Dominates the Colnett once again!

2011-03-10T07:01:00.000-08:00

GCLA hit the Colnett once again aboard the fabulous Dominator. We headed out Friday night to fish the Baja coast on a trip that rescheduled due to last weekends foul weather....

The weather forcast was great...The ocean was grease and the ride was smooth all the way there....I always pray to the fish Gods on the way to Colnett for a shot at the Yellows, but again, no luck on the exotics this time.

We threw a couple scoops on the high spot to encourage a bite and Fred and I worked the yo-yo solid for the first hour and a half....Frank wasn't seeing anything on the meter, but I kept trying until my shoulder just gave out.....then it was the dropper loop for the remainder...

The sun came out early and everyone started stripping off the layers....It felt so nice to feel the sun on my skin for a change...should have broke out the sunscreen when I saw everyone else doing it...oh well. By the end of the trip I was the same color as the Giant Reds we caught all day.

I struggled for the first few drifts....With a pound I would hit the bottom and instantly come up...Current was ripping for sure as everyone else reported. Frank told us we were drifting at 2 knots!!!! Craziness...I scoped out to make contact with the bottom again and EVERY FREAKIN TIME I would hang the bottom.....We were drifting so fast there was no chance of popping it off either...Between Fred and I, I think we donated 15qty 16oz sinkers to the big blue and then bought another 7 off of Frank....Frank sold 37 pounds of lead by the end of the trip...Jeez...Expensive freaking Lings!!!

We had a split JP on this trip because over half ended up being guys because a lot of ladies couldn't make the rescheduled date...I secured the Ladies JP with a Ling that went around 15 pounds. Josh took the men's side with a beast close to 20....We ended up with 43 lings and easy limits of consistantly huge Reds in the 5-8 pound range and a bunch of whitefish and misc. rock fish in the mix. Even 2 or 3 sheephead! Side note....I didn't have our infamous fish hat for the JP shot, so pardon my photoshop!

We also caught two "Mexican Reds" (the one on top in the pic below) I think they are just boccacios, but the crew said they are Mexican reds.... I laid it next to a red for comparison....Just goes to show one never stops learning!!!

Meals were off the hook once again...French toast and breakfast burritos in the manana, chicken fajita burritos at lunch, and veal picatta for supper with steamed asparagas....TO DIE FOR!!! and my favorite cookies and cream ice cream for dessert!!! Special thanks to Mondo for sneaking me all the big chunks of cookies!!!!

The Dominator has quickly become one of my all time favorite boats for sure....Not just because the boat is so comfy and wide and almost every bunk is a double.....but the crew is so killer cool it's like being with family. They really treat you right and with Frank and Randy at the wheel, that boat just kills the fish...

Thanks to Frank, Randy, Mondo, Paulie, and Kevin for another fantastic trip and fat full sacs once again and also for treating the Gold Coast Lady Anglers like the queens we are!!

March Birthday Girls!!!

2011-03-08T07:09:00.000-08:00

The Gold Coast Lady Anglers would like to wish a Happy Birthday to the lovely ladies who celebrate their Birthday in the month of March!!!!

Gena V. 3/1

Julie H. 3/6

Renee L. 3/21

February Birthday Girls!!!!

2011-02-08T17:07:00.000-08:00

The Gold Coast Lady Anglers would like to wish a Happy Birthday to the lovely ladies who celebrate their Birthday in the month of February!!!!

Anne C. February 4th

Kathy W. February 8th

Tina N. February 10th

Meli F. February 23rd.

Sally Jo M. February 25th

Sophia H. February 27th

Shirley M. February 28th

Fishing Shrine Workshop

2011-01-25T08:51:00.000-08:00

Hi Everybody!

I have been asked to do a workshop with the Altoids Tin- Pocket Fishing Shrine. I will offer a work shop at my home/ Studio on Presidents Weekend.

There will be 2 sessions :

Saturday Feb 19 10 am - 1pm

Monday Feb 21 10am - 1pm

I will proved a kit with Altoids tin, resin cast fish, interesting papers, and power objects - 5$ ea

the sessions will cost 20$ ea and you will have the use of my tools, paints, glues and get demos from me, an award winning, nationally recognized fine artist.

Please contact me by phone, email, etc for my address and directions.

This workshop is open to everyone so bring your friends. ( not just GCLA)

I encourage you to bring small items that you might feel are personally lucky for you, or mementos to Incorporated into your shrine. If you feel you want to do some other theme with your shrine or want to make a larger version, just let me know. As you will notice - in my studio all things are possible!

http://www.bbmcintyre.com/

Fish4Food Event Update!!!!!!

2011-01-19T10:43:00.000-08:00

Hey lovely Ladies!!!

I just got the info on a new web-site that is up to reserve and pay for your spot at this awesome event...

http://fish4food.eventbrite.com/

You can now conveniently pay on line...Hope we get great participation for this worthy cause....Let's show them how the Gold Coast Lady Anglers roll......

Wooo Hoooo!!!!!!

More Dominator Pics!!

2011-01-11T09:58:00.000-08:00

Here are some more pics, courtesy of Susan V...

Forgot to mention that we said farewell for the final time to our good friend Bob, Lori's brother. He has shared many 'o great trips and good times with us. Rest in peace, Bob......

Dominator

2011-01-10T21:10:00.000-08:00

Erika - On behalf of all of us on board the Dominator - THANK YOU for putting together this fabulous trip and for being a superlative DIVA !! We could not have started our 2011 fishing year any better than this. What a way to celebrate 10 years of the GOLD COAST LADY ANGLERS !! Let's tip our rods to the crew of the Dominator who treated us like the Queens we are - they were just awesome. I can't stop looking at your ginormous ling. The Dominator ROCKS !!! GCLA ROCKS !!! Fishing ROCKS !! The whole world ROCKS !!! Let's go do it again !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dominating the Dominator!!!!!

2011-01-10T17:03:00.000-08:00

The Gold Coast Lady Anglers had their first trip of the year, kicking off the 2011 Season aboard the Dominator out of Point Loma Sportfishing for a 1 1/2 day fishing Colnett. We hoped there would be decent weather, good times and a shot at the yellows.....well.....2 out of 3 ain't bad.....

We left the dock a bit early to get a head start on the early morning yellows. Once we loaded bait we gathered in the stern for Anthony's fishing seminar...Poor Anthony....He kept asking if we had any questions and all the ladies could ask is, "Are we there yet?"...Yup, we were amped!

Normal scene, a bunch of women, some alcohol, and a whole bunch of food. The girls rigged up...I nibbled for a while, tied on an iron and hit the rack.

The ride over was awesome....I slept like a baby and woke up to the sound of the motors backing down. We settled on the high spot and threw a couple scoops. Once Frank told us to let 'em go it was yo-yo central along the rail. 24 of us felt the burn as we tried to get the yellows to go...A half hour later the ladies started to tire and one by one, the jigs came off and the dropper loops got tied on. First fish on was a ling caught by Lori and then the fishing got epic....Whitefish came under the boat and were so fiesty that they were eating the iron and sardines... A couple of gals switched over to the squid strips and slaughtered them. The rest of us targeted the lings.

The day continued on and drift after drift we put the wood to lots of big lings, huge reds, a few grouper and starries, and even a sheephead!

The ladies had a blast, even as the seas started getting sloppy. They toughed it out and stayed at the rail in rough seas and wind, Shirley even took a hook through the back of her hand and Frank had to remove it...That was pretty cool, well I guess not for her, but she was a champ and bandaged up and kept fishing! At 'a girl!!!!

Fred was a gent as usual and helped out Anne who was having a hard time getting bit. Fred got bit and called her over. He handed her the rod and she struggled a bit winding it in....it was a big fish for sure.

Frank grabbed her a fighting belt and she kept winding away.....her catch was amazing (It was one of the biggest reds I have ever seen)!!! and boy was she grateful.

Anyway...limits of Monster Lings and Reds with a bunch of whities and a few misc. bankies, grouper, etc....

I ended up with the JP fish...a fat girl that weighed in at just over 20 pounds, although plenty of contenders had me nervous....

I can not say enough about the crew...Frank, Randy, Anthony, Mondo....you guys are so awesome!!! The greatest group of guys and a pleasure to be around. Outstanding customer service even when dealing with a boat full of needy ladies...you guys are the best!!! Thanks for taking such great care of us!

So many pics...I'm just going to attach them all here at the end....Hope you enjoy!

2011-01-10T07:32:00.000-08:00

Hi Ladies.....Frank put us up on the Front Page of 976-Tuna!!! Here is a copy of his little report but there are pics to go along with it... Check it out! I will post a longer version with tons of pics later this afternoon...I was wiped out from the fishing slaughter!!!

Report

The Dominator Report
Sun Jan 09 2011, 02:24PM by Richie
Our first trip of 2011 started off with a bang as The Gold Coast Lady Anglers and friends fished a 1 1/2 day trip at Colonet. Weather was good and great times were had as these gals got the job done and filled their sacks with limits of nice Lingcod and Reds. The Jackpot Lingcod, caught by Erika Simo, was just over 20 pounds. Reds up to 10 pounds. Also in the Mix were a nice grade of whitefish and a sheephead. Way to go Ladies!!!

Dominator heads back out this friday night on an Overnight trip to the Banda bank.Join in on the fun and fill your freezers with fresh quality rockfish! Call Point Loma Sportfishing to reserve your spot now (619) 223-1627

2011-01-06T09:59:00.000-08:00

Hey Gals.... The Gold Coast Lady Anglers along with Ventura County Sportfishing Club are putting on a great event for the second time called the Fish for Food Event!

It's going to be held out of Channel Islands Sportfishing in Oxnard...Tuesday, March 22 from 9am to 4pm. There are a ton of boats participating including the Mirage, Gentleman, Pacific Islander, etc... The Capt's are all donating their boats and time. The $25.00 cost is to cover fuel.

You still need to pay for fish cleaning, galley tabs, etc....just like a regular trip, but at the end of the day your fillets get donated to the Food Bank! Every participant gets a raffle ticket and there will be an awesome bbq and drawing after we get in from fishing...

You can contact Channel Islands Sportfishing for details at 805-382-1612

It's a ton of fun and a great cause. If you would like to purchase a ticket send your payment to:

Jerry Stussman

3303 Jonquilfield Rd

Westlake Village, CA 91361

If you can't go yourself, you can purchase a spot for someone who can...

Good Stuff!!!

Here is the updated Flyer....

New for 2011 - Tin fish Shrine Kits

2011-01-05T16:32:00.001-08:00

Dear GCLA Ladies

Happy New Year!

New Art Project for 2011

Pocket Fish Shrine Kits

Last summer I went fishing with a charter group of guys for tuna on the Apollo. When I go on those trip I take some small art supplies and work on an Artists Journal while we are trolling.

One of the guys came over and started kidding me about doing "crafts" and did I bring some for everybody?

Well it got me to thinking.....Hmmmm.

Why not - so I came up with this very compact kit to do on board the ship as we trolled.

This is my New Handy Dandy Pocket Fishing Shrine Kit.

In the kit you get:

1- Clean tin prepared for gluing/painting

1- resin cast fish

Assorted-paper scraps for collage

Assorted-charms & bits

Q-Tips for glue and color

I will provide:

Judi Kim's Diamond glaze glue

Krazy Glue

Rub-n-Buff colors

some basic acrylic colors

Front and Back

Inside

I am not prepared to bring these on the Dominator Trip- I need to cast more fish. I am looking for feed back from you ladies. This is a small crafts project, if I instruct and provide materials & glue I would like 10.00 each. If the kit is taken home to do at home I would like 5.00 each. this is to cover my materials and time prepping tins and making fish.

I might add that the trip on the Apollo in September when we made these on board - WE OUT FISHED MOST OF THE FLEET! I told JJ that I know he put us on fish, but I was definitely taking credit for the fish shrines tipping the odds.

January Birthday Girls!!!

2011-01-04T08:00:00.000-08:00

The Gold Coast Lady Anglers would like to wish a Happy Birthday to the lovely ladies who celebrate their Birthday in the month of January!!!!

Andrea A. - January 3rd

Marion I. - January 14th

Tina G. - January 27th

Anne L. - January 30th

ANNE MADE ORIGINALS

2010-12-17T08:51:00.000-08:00

ORDER YOUR ONE OF A KIND ANNE MADE ORIGINALS FOR THE HOLIDAYS

One of a kind hand made creations designed with your colors in mind for that someone special.

Call Anneye at 818 458 0445

to order

FREE DELIVERY!

More Pics from the Ranger 85 Holiday Charter

2010-12-07T21:07:00.000-08:00

Just keep looking at these pictures and reliving every moment. From the beginning

to the end ......................

Lot of good quality fish were caught.

The food was fabulous and we had a great time with our gift exchange.

The deckhands really took care of everything.

Bye Ranger 85 - thanks for a great trip - see ya next year !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2010 Holiday Charter

2010-12-05T09:17:00.000-08:00

What a fabulous blog Erika - they are always so much fun to read. It was a great day on the water as usual, rain and all, - lots of fun, food, and fabulous women. Once again, all kudos go to the incredible women that make up the GOLD COAST LADY ANGLERS !! 2011, our 10 year anniversary is going to be bigger and better that ever !!

2010 Holiday Charter

2010-12-05T07:23:00.000-08:00

As the Gold Coast Lady Anglers wrapped up yet another fabulous year of fun, friendship and fishing, we boarded the beautiful Ranger 85 out of Channel Islands Sportfishing for a 100% all member charter. We loaded up all the food, gifts and enough supplies to survive at sea for 6 months, rigged up our gear and mingled. Capt Frank was not on board, but Dustin and Chad had the wheel and gathered us all to the bow for the speech on safety and fishing. Our boys on deck were Ricky, Robert, and of course my favorite deckhand of all, Tanner.

Weather was forecasted to be beautiful, as far as the ocean was concerned....we had a great ride over to San Miguel Island and slept like babies gently rocked.

The morning came all too quick for most of us and we arose to rain showers. Lori was quick to adapt and got busy trimming the garbage bags for those without rain gear, even created a little hat for Ann-eye! The laughs and creativity went on all day, thanks to a little sharpie fun!

Fishing was instantly very good. First drift had the deckhands running ragged....Help!!! Gaff!!! Those guys worked very hard keeping us tangle free and removing the numerous fish from our hooks.

We even caught a couple of exotics!!!

Ling Cod season just closed so of course we caught a lot of nice big keepers! Heartbreaking to toss them back over, but we did so after a couple of quick pics!

Rain stopped and the sun came out, for all of 5 minutes, but at least the down pour had stopped.

We fished the morning at Miguel, then made a move over to Rosa. Fishing was steady all day and easy limits were caught for all 36 of us plus crew.

Payton wraps up the Jackpot with this MONSTER whitefish that even outweighed a ciuple of big Sheephead caught! Congrats Payton!

Food was fantastic, company stellar as usual. We gathered in the galley for the "fishy" gift exchange and let me tell you....the gift get better every year. Great ornaments, plates and dishes, hats, pillows, wine, soaps, etc....all with a fishy theme.

We polished off some more food and the most amazing caramel dipping sauce for some apples, courtesy of Tisha, and then many people hit the rack. The rest of us kept the boys company as they cut our fish almost the entire ride home. We chatted and enjoyed a beautiful sunset as we closed our GCLA 2010 fishing season.

Lots of great trips already planned for 2011. Can't wait to share a rail with all you wonderful woman in the upcoming year. Speacial thanks to our founders, Jeanne and Jacqui for this fantastic club and all the hard work you guys do all year long to make the Gold Coast Lady Anglers who we are today!

Twins Trout Slay at the Vine

2010-11-27T11:11:00.000-08:00

Fred has been fishing the Vine day after Thanksgiving for years, so as the tradition continues, we bundle up and pile into the car. We make a quick stop in T.O. and grab Babsie and head into the 30 degree fun of Lake Irvine....

We get there just before 5am, secure our pontoon, chatted briefly with Big Steve in the Tackle Shop and got rigged up...Hard to tie knots when you can't feel your hands. The girls were troopers, bundled in so many clothes they could hardly move, but still super excited and eager to get a rod in the water. Fred promised them they could drive the boat so that added to the excitement for sure.

Took us forever to get trolling in that pontoon down...Our throttle had a mind of its own and would speed up all by itself just as we would find the perfect speed...we played back and forth with it all morning trying to get it right and it never cooperated... Fred picks up the first fish of the morning none the less on a red/gold Thomas Bouyant...

I get one on my gold clown Thomas Bouyant and then Tanner picks one up on a SC Shiner. Bites were few and far between...Lots of boats but not a lot of stops. It appears that the troll is not going to get us our limits today so we decided to hit White Cliff and have a try bait fishing.

We had a bucket of crawlers, an inflator, some power bait, power worms and two barbie rods ready for some action....

First bite was mine on an inflated crawler, then Anna, then Babs gets ripped and winds in a crappie...This would not be her last either!!
Fred gets one , then Alyssa and our stringer is filling up quite nicely.

Babsie is getting bummed out because my girls are outfishing her, when she hooks up again...Another crappie!!! She finally gets her glory late in the day when she catches this beast....

The girls get sleepy and pass out while their rods are still soaking power bait....One gets lit up and Fred grabs it....So cute he was winding in that fish with Anna's rod!

Leftover turkey sandwiches, some Bad Religion and great conversation along with a steady pick on a decent grade of trout made for a bitchen day on the water.

We end up with 11 fish, Babs takes the JP with her fish just under 4lbs and the girls get their glory at the Tackle Shop! They already want to do it all again...

Most memorable moment.....My daughter Alyssa telling me, " Mommy are you proud of me and my big fish?? And look, I have fish blood on me just like you!!!"

That's my girl!!

Aloha Spirit Charter

2010-11-10T06:36:00.000-08:00

This was our last "regular" charter of the year. Once again, it turned out to be a really great trip. We had a very nice group on board - lots of guests this time - but a lot of fun people. The rising sun made for a beautiful sky.........

Lori was making sure all her guests were ready to go.

As we cruised out to the west side of Santa Cruz, we noticed a lot birds hovering in one area.

As we got closer, there were hundreds of seals chasing the bait in the water. It was so awesome to see the seals jumping out of the water like dolphins and the birds following every move. It looked like something on the Discovery Channel. It was truly a sight to see.

So the time came to drop our lines. As it has been all year, the fishing started out really slow. We tried for WSB and calico's, but none were to be found. So on to rock fishing. Some decent reds were brought on board and some nice blues as well.

No really huge fish were caught, but a nice ling caught my Jamie won the jackpot.

As you can see, all three generations were really proud of this fish.

One of our guests, Julie, caught her first fish ever.

The trip ended up being very nice as everyone came home with a decent amount of fish. All of our guests said they had a really great time and we enjoyed having them. Even though Lori had to keep him in line, Stuart, who won the men's jackpot, was very proud to wear our "ceremonial" fish hat.

I have to end this by saying I'm always blown away by how beautiful the Channel Islands are. Everytime we are out there, I realize how lucky we are that this is our "backyard". People pay a lot of money to visit here and we live here. It just doesn't get any better than this.

The Vine - Opening day

2010-11-07T07:27:00.000-08:00

Fred and I were gonna hit Santa Barbara Island for the Yellows and Seabass, but the bite was dying down so we switched it up and decided to hit Lake Irvine for the Trout Opener.

We showed up at 4am and ended up in row 6 for entry....Fred rigged up and I sawed some logs for a bit till we heard all the engines start up...

We rented a little boat and started trolling Thomas Bouyants...Gold Clown for me and a red and gold for Fred. Wasn't long before I get lit up....

Totally killer first fish...This thing was pissed off and made about 6 or 7 jumps completely out of the water for my morning delight! Got her to the boat, Fred was on the net and I was stoked with a solid 3 pound or better fish.

Off we went again and I get a few bumps but nothing that sticks...Fred's not getting bit so he swaps out to a rainbow pattern and gets a lick that sticks....

We trolled around the same area (Santiago Flats) for quite a while getting bit every 10 minutes or so...Very decent fish, drag rippers and quite a few arial displays. The Thomas Bouyants, and Rainbow Rapala CD-5 worked the best for us.

The day warmed up fast and the lake was flat greasy slick...The beanies and sweatshirts came off and we soaked up some sun as we finished up our limits.

Stringer was nearly full and Fred gets slammed by the big fish of the day, solid 4 pounds.

Bite was awesome in the morning but of course the warmer it got the slower it got. We soaked some bait for a little while, but got bored quick and took off trolling again.

Ended the day with a nice stringer and a full limit. Every fish we cleaned was full of eggs...We are not trout eaters, but we made a few close friends very happy with a fresh trout dinner.

Hoopin' on the Cobra!

2010-11-04T07:05:00.000-07:00

They started with a champagne toast and it was off into the sunset they went.....

The weather was beautiful.......They prepared the hoops in hopes of scoring some bugs!!

Veronica gave the gals "crab" lessons...

Louise wore this hat all nite, so we nicknamed her "Heidi".

And although no lobster were caught, the ladies had an absolute blast and all came home with the best "crabs" they have ever caught!!!

Albacore Pumpkin!

2010-11-03T07:16:00.000-07:00

Hearing that there is some trouble getting pics to upload on the blog so I am doing a little one to test it out...Thought I'd share my Albacore pumpkin I carved for Halloween...Turned out pretty awesome...Got the idea from Mary...She did an awesome YFT carving!

Here is Mary's Yellowfin Tuna

Here is my Albie....

Hope everyone had a Great Halloween!!!!

Oct 16th Mirage Charter

2010-10-17T18:40:00.000-07:00

After a long hard week of trying to fill this charter, the day of reckoning finally arrived. First time Diva - Lori - came thru and everyone had a smile on their face as they got on board. The weather was a little drizzly, but very comfortable. No wind and no swells made the trip to Santa Rosa quite pleasant. I slept like a baby as I think most people did. When I awoke, a few of our guests were already on the rail, but not much was going on. Little by little the GCLAs surfaced and were ready to go. Since half of the charter was filled by men, I had to pull our new members aside and reassure them that this was OUR charter and not to be intimidated by the guys. When it was all said and done - GCLA reigned supreme. As Lori and I fished side by side all day, she was telling me that she had never won a GCLA jackpot since she became a member. Well, no sooner than the words came out of her mouth, she landed the winning "Goat".

No only was she the DIVA, but the GCLA jackpot winner and overall winner on the boat. We tip our rods to you Lori - you ROCK !!!

The newbies kicked butt as well. Tina is now known as "Tear'Em Up Tina" !!

Sandi was rocking those reds like nobody's business ~

And Tisha hung tight with us on the bow.

Jacqui, of course, never misses a beat, even living in the desert now for 6 years.

All and all, it ended up being a fabulous trip with everyone getting limits of rockfish and some really nice whites as well. Capt Tucker and all the boys were at the top of their game and took care of GCLA in their usual Mirage style.

GREAT job Ladies - that's how GCLA rolls !!!!!

GCLA RAFFLE WINNERS

2010-10-17T13:27:00.000-07:00

Hi GCLA's,

I just want to take this opportunity to congratulate all the recent raffle winners and ALL the ladies of GCLA for a very successful 2010 fundraising season. Special thanks to Erika, Barb Mc, and Renee for their time and talet, and to Susan D for great job as our ticket DIVA. I also want to thank our special friend, Ben Frasier from AVET, for his continuted support of our club.

Heeeeeeere they are...........

Congrats to Babsie for winning the fabulous custom wrapped GCLA rod:

Congrats to Julz for winning the VERY pretty pink AVET reel:

Congrats to Loca, even though she wasn't at the drawing, for winning the gorgeous handcrafted necklace:

And congrats to Sandra for winning the beautiful, delicate GCLA necklace:

Use and wear these beautiful gifts with GCLA pride - you were the LUCKY ones !!!

Next year will be even better yet!!

2010-09-13T11:32:00.000-07:00

Fred and I have been watching the counts every day and after seeing the 3/4 day and overnight boats scoring big numbers of albacore, bluefin, and yellowfin....we searched for a boat with room and were on the road.

Tanner Banks (my boy) decided to make this trip with us, as did Drew (Albacrazy), so they could redeem themselves after the skunk Battle trip.....and boy did they ever!

We made the drive and landed on the steps of the Dominator. They had been fishing hard the last few days and had seen tons of fish, but had trouble getting those fish on the boat.... we hoped we would change that for them. Got to see Randy Dalo....one of my favorite people in the world...Stoked he was running second on the trip!

This was my first time ever on the Dominator...The first thing we noticed is how wide the boat was. Plenty of deck space and room along the rails even when people were at their rods. The bunks were awesome and the crew greeted every passenger as they made their rounds on the deck introducing themselves personally to everyone. Pretty cool...we rigged up, listened to the speech on the fishing as we got bait and climbed inside our comfy double bunks WITH PRIVACY CURTAINS!!!!!

The ride was great...woke up instantly as the engines backed down...we were on the tuna grounds by 3am because they are only 40 miles out. Too early for me...I went back to sleep and had Fred wake me up in the grey.

We were sitting on a school of fish...deep meter marks so we waited as the sun came up to see if they would come up to play, but no....the jigs went into the water and off we went searching for a more cooperative school. The skiff traffic was rediculous out there. Three different boat sat in our chum line reaping the benefits of the frenzy we riled up.

Fred didn't want to troll so he gave up his rotation...A few minutes later that corner rod blasted off and the first Yellowfin was on the boat. A nice one in the 30 pound class...we soaked baits for a while but no other takers and off we went again.

We rotated trollers and that was the last time for the day. Capt. Frank found a school on the meter and we started the slow chum...Few minutes later we had tuna crashing all around the boat. Drew is one of the first to hook up..Fred followed. Boils all over the place every direction you looked. My heart was pounding....Rods were bent all around me, but I was snakebit... couldn't get bit if my life depended on it. There a few things more frustrating than that.

Fred was an absolute beast on this trip as usual. He came well prepared with gear and decided to play with his new 15# "Good Riddance" rod and small size 2 hooks.... That paid off huge as he was the high liner on the boat going 4 for 5 on the yellowfin. Not to mention the Marlin, Yes I said MARLIN, that he hooked on the same 15 pound set up which gave him an awesome 2 minute thrill as it jumped completely out of the water....What a show.....what a stud!

Tanner and I watched as Fred and Drew put on a seminar... I kept looking over at Tan and telling him, "don't worry babe....you'll get your turn"...Next time I look over at him he is bendo on his 20# stick. Tan puts the wood to this fish and has it bleeding on the deck in a few minutes.

I am so happy and proud of my boy...felt like crying...not sure if it's because I'm so proud or if it's because I'm dying inside because I still have not got a single bite.

Not a lot of pics to this point because I was fishing so hard I didn't want to leave the rail..In fact I didn't even eat the whole day until the ride home.

I was just having one of those days....every bait I grabbed out of the well was retarded... They swam right under the boat everytime. Finally I grab a fiesty dine out the well and pin it on right as we see a boil in the corner...out I cast and FINALLY, line starts screaming off my reel... I throw it in gear and "Fresh One"!!!!!!!!! I am thanking the fish Gods as I pull on my fish and pray I don't lose it. A few nice runs later, my fish has a gaff hole in it and I am gleaming ear to ear!..
No time for pics...Gotta get another bait in the water....

The afternoon slows down...most people quit fishing and ate lunch..I remained at the rail trying to make the most out of our last couple hours.

After lunch Tanner comes out and casts right on top of a boil of 5 or 6 fish in the corner, hooks up and busts of all in the same minute. He shakes it off, re-rigs, re casts and connects instantly. This time I set my gear down and watched my son kill his second tuna of the trip. Proud moments for this mom... Makes me tear up!

So the boat ends up with a total of 23 yellowfin... 9 of which belong to us... Fish came out of the hold and there are no contenders for the huge 40 pound class tuna one guy hooked, but cool side note is Tanner's fish are the second and third biggest on the boat. That's my boy!!!!

What a great time aboard one of our new favorite vessels...For those of you who fish the "Battle of the Sexes" trip with us, we will be on this boat next year as long as Frank has an opening on a weekend. Great crew, great service AWESOME fishing!

Big thanks to Capt's Frank and Randy, Anthony and Paulie on deck, and especially Mondo in the galley for fixin' me a quesadilla even after the grill closed...YOU ROCK!!!!~

2010-09-13T09:10:00.000-07:00

Hope your day is as "Divine" as you are!

Fishing with Dan Hernandez

2010-09-08T12:52:00.000-07:00

What is this?

Well I had a reservation to go fishing on 8/30-31 with the Dan Hernandez show, a limited load on the Mirage.
My Dad passed away very early Sunday 8/29 morning and I had to attend to a lot of details on Monday and I knew I could have cancelled the trip, no problem. I have 2 brothers and a sister and I felt this would be better for me to keep my reservation, even if all I did was sleep in the bunk. There was nothing for me to do on Tuesday and I just didn't want any more phone calls asking me "How are you?"
So I went. One guy flipped out and got off the boat about 9:30, he thought it had been overbooked. Made me feel very sane.

We fished Santa Rosa at grey light with no biters, not even a bat ray . then we move up the line toward Miguel and it got a little windy but we caught some nice fish. we caught lings, sheephead, whitefish, vermilion rock fish and I was fishing next to Dan the man and he consistently brought up Tree Fish- nice sized ones, he seemed to be targeting the Tree fish with his buck tail jig.

I ended up winning the jack pot with a 11lb 11 oz Sheephead- I graciously thanked all the guys on board who had contributed. Once again proving that Lady Anglers have more than good luck.

I told Dan "GCLA stands for Girls Can Land Anything" - with a glint in his eye he said he wasn't going to touch that.

I went on to the graveside service on Wed feeling physically tired and sore but in a good place mentally.

Sitka, Alaska

2010-09-07T23:57:00.001-07:00

Location: Sitka , Alaska

Accomodations: Kingfisher Lodge

# of People in our party: 10

Dates 9/2/10-9/5/10

Target Species: Halibut, Salmon, and lingcod

Well, the big butts did not want to come out to play this season, but we managed to get a few nice ones this year. Carlton Jones landed a 100 lber on day one of fishing, while the highliner for day 3 was captain Pauls boat with three nice halibut up to 60 lbs...

this monster ling cod had to be released because it was too large for the slot limit, and at 53 in. was too smalled to be called a trophy fish of 55".

This Yellow eye rockfish weighed in at a hefty 18 lbs

The accomodations at kingfisher were first rate!

me and Capt. Brian with another huge lingcod

this King salmon took up the whole box

this King salmon weighed in at 38 + lbs, which earned me the biggest salmon prize!

They can't all be monsters, right?

Just goofing around, while shopping in town! LOL

Day One's weather was beautiful at 60 dgrees, and it rained overnight so we were greeted in the morning by a rainbow!!!

The Gang: Carlton Jones, Jackie Appell, Pat Worthy, Ray, me, Kathy Walker, Doug, Jay, and roger (not shown... Mo)

All in all, we came back with plenty of fish, memories, and friendship. We also caught lots of black bass, and assorted rockfish, as well as our targeted species. I am already planning on returning next year. Kudos and many thank yous to the Kingfisher staff, and Captains Brian, and Paul who I fished with while at Kingfisher.

Pac Dawn Pictures

2010-09-06T10:45:00.000-07:00

I really do need the lesson on posting - here are some of the pics that I screwed up on - Sorry about that.

I'm so embarressed - hopefully I'll get it together next week.

Pacific Dawn Tuna Trip

2010-09-06T10:21:00.000-07:00

OMG - what can I say - just another fabulous Pacific Dawn charter. Thursday evening -boarding time - finally. Everyone got settled in and hunkered down to sleep in preparation for the tuna hunt. Unfortunately, Friday morning got off to a very slow start. Nothing was hitting the trolling rods and people started giving up their turns to take a nap. Well, that's when I had to take matters into my own hands. Somebody had to wake up these tuna. I couldn't help myself so I started "pole" dancing. I worked myself into a frenzy and the tuna gods must have been enjoying it as well, because that's when the afternoon bite hit. When it was all said and done -13 yellowfin tuna were brought on board. I didn't get bit until the end of the day, but got lucky and landed the jackpot fish. I was grateful as I haven't won a jackpot in about 5 years. We were back in business. We then cleaned up, enjoyed "happy hour" and a fabulous dinner, courtesy of Whitney. We even celebrated Capt Pat's birthday. A good time was had by all.

Saturday morning, I was up a 4am and a few of us sat in the galley having coffee and deciding our plan of attack for the day. Around 6am, Capt Pat announced big marks around the boat and to get your bait in the water asap. Well, that's when all hell broke loose. It was one tuna after another coming on board.

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I about 3 hours we had 55 more yellowfin tuna on board in addition to 2 bluefin and 1albacore. Mary Lukas was the only one to hook an albacore.[Image]

It ended up to be a fabulous trip. We enjoyed the company of Jerry Stussman from Ventura County Sportfishing and his pals Bob and Mike. I'd to extend a very special "thank-you" to our very special guest "Bob" who was on the quiet side, but really made an impact on everyone.

It was a great group on board and everyone had a great time and we all came home with coolers stuffed with tuna.

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Many thanks to Ana for giving up most of her fishing time to be filming this great trip - can't wait to see the footage. You ROCK Ana !! Hopefully her assistant Kevin if finally feeling better - poor guys was sick for most of the two days.

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I would also like to extend our sincere GCLA thanks to the Captain and crew of the Pacific Dawn. [Image]
They are just so awesome. It does not get any better than this. I personally learned so much about tuna fishing in just 2 short days from them and am very grateful for their instruction. And I know the rest of the Ladies feel the same way. Too bad it's over so quickly, but we are booked for next year and can't wait to do it all over again.

Happy Birthday Ana!!!!

2010-09-06T07:24:00.000-07:00

Catch a big one on your birthday!!

Happy Birthday Barbara!!!

2010-09-03T06:59:00.001-07:00

Hook Up on your Happy Day!!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY VITA!!!!!!

2010-09-02T07:10:00.000-07:00

Hope your day consists of pulling on giant tuna!!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAMALE!

2010-08-18T15:04:00.000-07:00

OUR HATS ARE OFF TO YOU ON YOUR SPECIAL DAY!

MAY IT BE FILLED WITH TONS OF FUN AND LOVE TO YOU.

New ink for my collection

2010-08-12T07:43:00.000-07:00

After three brutal sessions of pure agony, my official tribute to the most awesome game fish I have ever caught is complete....Check out my completed Roosterfish!!!!

It measures 10 inches tall by 8 inches wide on my right thigh.

Kodiak Alaska Family Fishing Trip

2010-08-10T11:00:00.001-07:00

Josh, Barb Biff & Jacob McIntyre - Kodiak , Alaska

Making friends with the natives, at the airport before our trip over to Larsen Bay.

We got into Kodiak City on Saturday afternoon and were supposed to fly to Larsen Bay to our Lodge on Monday afternoon. Our flight got cancelled due to fog and we ended up on a float plane on Tues morning.

After flying in to the lodge we quickly dropped our bags in the room, used the potty and got on the fishing boat. We fished with our two new best friends Ron & Herb of San Diego, they quickly became the boys new uncles.

The photos are not necessarily in order. The lodge a beautiful and comfy Log Cabin brought in from Tennessee. The Boat- a 40 foot catamaran, great fishing platform, the catch on our last day.

Josh caught an 85 lb halibut on our last day of fishing at the end of the day- wow what a surprise!

On the first day we caught yellow eye on bait and on jigs

We did some beach combing on the Kodiak City side of the Island- purported to have 100 mile of drivable road. The boys assured me it was mostly in circles.

The Kodiak Commercial fishery is one of the largest in the world. The Albatross Shelf extends to the east of Kodiak Island supporting the largest biomass of halibut in the Alaskan waters.

View from harbor.

Campanile flowers

In Kodiak out of stat anglers limits:

2 king salmon

5 silver salmon

10 rock fish

2 halibut

Th's bear visited every morning and evening - he was checking the fish cleaning area for tidbits. The lodge owners said the bears are waiting for the Pinks (humpies) to start their runs in the creeks.

Jake brought up this large octopus on a baited hook, which we released. It is over 3 feet long.

We fish 4 days from about 8am to 4 pm

Tues

4 salmon, 8 yellow eye, 11 halibut

Wed

10 salmon, 10 yellow eye, 12 halibut

Thurs

16 salmon, 12 halibut, 2 black rock fish,

1 Dusky rock fish

Fri

8 salmon, 8 halibut, 4 grey cod

of the halibut caught -most were 30-40 lbs, we had 3 larger ones for the week

110, 85 & 73 lbs

the salmon were mostly silver/coho and a few kings

We each brought home 100 lbs of fillets = 400 lb of fish

This was a once in a lifetime adventure for me and my family. the Lodge was beautiful and the setting wonderful the crew on the boat Joe & Raif were excellent. Our hosts were just great
We saw whales everyday while fishing sometimes within 40 feet of the boat, we saw otters, eagles, puffins, loons and so much more. The waters were smooth and the boat a pleasure to ride and fish on - even on the one windy day.

We trolled, fished with jigs, and bait - all expertly guided by our crew.

Babsie's Birthday Rod!!!

2010-07-29T07:59:00.000-07:00

Made a surprise birthday rod for one of my best friends... Danny, Fred and I pitched in and bought the blank, components, etc... and I am doing the wrap. She has another rod that was custom wrapped a year ago that I wanted to try and match so I snuck some pics of her current rod and attempted to match it. Here is the original....

So this is what I came up with...It was my first time doing anything this intricate, but I think I did ok.... I know I could have done anything and she would be stoked, but I think she will like having a matching set.
Here's mine....

and best of all, her reaction when she got it!!

2nd Annual Battle of the Sexes !!

2010-07-28T07:44:00.000-07:00

After last years trip with the men winning by a few pounds, we knew we had to have a rematch....Fred and I as team captains, we gathered up two teams of 11 anglers to battle it out on the fishing grounds. Fred wanted to test true talent so what better way than off shore chasing tuna???

We picked the Outer Limits out of Seaforth in San Diego. Weather looked great, bite was down, but with a full moon on Saturday we were hopeful that things would turn around for us, and with a group like we had on board, we were bound to have a good time regardless!

We arrived to Seaforth around 5 after the crappiest traffic ever! It was Babsie's birthday and Baja headed up the tailgate party and a big group had already gathered around the grill and table full of food. After hearing journey over the speakers, I quickly grabbed a Guttermouth cd and kicked it up a few notches...We laughed and danced and ate and drank...The ladies made friends with random strangers and ended up getting to put GCLA bumper stickers on numerous vehicles, including Joker and Fred's truck! We played an evil trick on Babs telling her we had forgot a 40 pound rod for her to use...She was bummed until I broke out her birthday gift from Danny, Fred and I...a new custom wrapped Seeker CJB70. Her tears of happines and endless hugs made the entire trip for me before we even boarded.

Since everyone was there, Capt. Paul let us board early...Ana baked a gorgeous cake for our Princess Babs and we carted all the grub to the boat along with a million dock carts of gear. We untied, went to the bait recievers and something felt weird....Was someone missing??? After we loaded bait, we returned to the dock to pick up Joker....and off we went!

Girls team....

Guys Team....

Tanner took the weekend off from the Ranger to come fishing with momma...I love fishing with my son and I hugged him a thousand times on this trip...I miss him!

Paul gave us our options for fishing. He told us things were tough as far as the bite, but he, like us, was very hopeful with the full moon and the fact that the fish had been off feed.....meaning they had to start biting at any moment....Hopefully once we were on the tuna grounds.

The ride was smooth out...we ate, chatted, etc...hit the racks and prayed for tuna.

Day 1:

BLAH! A long boat ride seperated by 2 jig strikes and a couple paddies that held Yellows. Tina got the first bite and brought up a beautiful Albacore. Mary had the 2nd jig strike with a bluefin (Go Rootbeer!) and Fred and David (Telcofish) landed 2 feisty yellows.

We napped, hoped, napped, hoped....rough day 1. We called it a day when Capt Paul told us the best bite of the day would be in the Galley! Steaks, Mashed potatoes w/ Gravy, veggies, salad, and rolls filled our tummies as Paul gave us the game plan for Day 2. We would travel west were some other boats got some fish. Troll fish don't count so Boys team is ahead 2-0. Fred secures Day 1 Jackpot with his yellow. We made a 90 mile move through crappy seas but woke up on the grounds ready to go!

Day 2:

I get up at 5 to see the deck hands settting up. I drop a zucchini broomtail back and cross my fingers. We start calling the fish in spanish, figuring that is where we failed on day one (Mexican fish don't understand english!) and at 6am my reel screams!!! HOOK UP!!!! I bring in my fish and a couple are landed on the bait. We are thinking this is going to be a great day! C'mon tuna!!

Fred stood ready by the tank for hours eyeballing his bait. The other boats from the fleet were all around us. Nothing on the radio but a few jig strikes when we get another of our own....we continue picking off a few bait fish at every stop and slowly start catching up to the boys.

Mary ends up with 2 baitfish, one of which was a hefty 29 pounder...I get one, Julz gets one, Meli gets one, Babs gets one (lasso-ed!!)

Fred has no fish for the day and finally gets bit. He screams for Erin V. who had never caught a tuna before. She grabs ahold of the rod and the fight is on. Rod on the rail, bent nearly to the water and she was screamin!!! She ends up with this beauty and Fred wins the nicest guy on the boat award!

Richard gets one pretty big as well. Fred gets his baitfish. Joe gets another one. We know the competition will be a close one and we are eager for the official weigh in. Last troll stop of the day results in a fish for Lori and one for Dave. We call it a day and waited for the crew to bring the fish up from the hold for official weigh in.

Mary secures JP for Day 2 and after the 5 largest fish from each team were weighed...

THE GIRLS WIN!!!!!!!

107 lbs to 98 lbs. Fair and Square, the girls conquer!!!!!

The guys were such great sports, acknowledging that we did indeed kick ass and congradulating us on a well deserved victory.

Drew had a plaque made for us...HOW COOL! Year one goes to the Guys, Year two goes to the Gals. The tie breaker for year three is going to be epic.

A very big thank you to the Outer Limits and her crew. Capts Paul and Steve worked relentlessly to put us on the fish, Keith and Paul were awesome on deck, and of course our German stud in the galley, Grego...Thanks for the grub!!!

I didn't get nearly the amount of pics I wanted...I know the rest of the gang will post their versions and pics up too. Thanks for an awesome trip and great company! Can't wait till next year!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CANDY!

2010-07-24T19:26:00.001-07:00

HOPE YOU HAD AN EXTRA SWEET DAY TODAY!

THE BEST TO YOU ON YOUR SPECIAL DAY.

WE LOVE HAVING YOU IN THE CLUB!

2010-07-08T10:48:00.000-07:00

Well....after Fred and I caught Roosters over 60 in the East Cape last month I had a jones to get tribute ink....

Anyway, worked out great cuz he will work for trade and since he loves punk rock...I am building him a Circle Jerks stick...How cool is that!
I am running out of room to throw ink in locations that can be easily covered for work reasons...the open areas below my knee were too small for what I wanted done so I went to the thigh. Big open canvas for a big trophy fish!
Did my first session yesterday...2 and a half hours for the outline and beginning shading work in black. It measures 10 inches tall by 8 wide...I have a follow up appt to slam the color in a couple weeks.
Here is how it looks to start...

I love it, can't wait to finish it!

GCLA Raffle Rod #3

2010-07-07T07:21:00.001-07:00

Finished the final coat on the our 3rd Raffle Rod. This one turned out just gorgeous....Going to hard for me to let this one go...Hope you gals like it.

You can see it in person at the next meeting, don't forget to bring some cash for raffle tickets!!!!

4th of July to remember...

2010-07-07T07:12:00.000-07:00

So....we decided to go to Ventura College for the fireworks show since they had some cool activities for the kids. There were tons of people there and we hung out near the live band dancing around with the kids. Once the girls pooped out we headed for our seats and Fred says he'll be right back....I figured he was hitting the heads....NOT!

All of the sudden I hear Fred's voice over the microphone from the stage...

"Erika, can you hear me baby???? I just want to tell you how much I love you and ask you to be my wife...Will you marry me?!"

I about died...Burst into tears and my daughters started jumping up and down screaming, "Mommy, daddy loves you!" (They have been calling Fred daddy for over a year now...adorable)

So there you have it, in front of 7000 people I got the honor of saying YES to the man I've been waiting for my whole life. My best friend and I are tying the knot!

Date??? who knows....we'll decide that once the fireworks subside!

What a HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!!!!!!

Ranger 85 in San Diego

2010-07-07T07:04:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to let you ladies know that Tanner went south this summer on board the Ranger 85. This will be his first summer working the tuna season. He is absolutely thrilled to get this experience and I know he is in great hands with Frank, but I already miss him.

If anyone books a trip on the Ranger this summer, make sure to give him a hug from his momma.....and don't forget to tip the pinhead!!!!!

More from the Maximus

2010-06-28T12:24:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Barb and family for a fun day out on the Maximus. What a great boat, and of course excellent company with the ladies and families of some of our GCLA members. No WSB...darn!...but we tried and tried.

We started fishing around midnight in a beautiful moonlit spot off of Paradise Cove and the mackerel and squid were having a party, but the white sea bass weren't biting. It was calm ... but as the night turned into early morning it got colder and colder and most of us just couldn't stay awake. I made it to 4:30am and Barb was still at the rail with her brother and Jacob, but I was sleeping with my rod in my hand. I got up again at 6am to keep at it...and we were on the move. We found BIG reds...saw a beautiful whale...Anneye got a small halibut (18 inches) that she released at the end of the day in the shallows...and we saw a sunfish near our boat. Keith, Pat, John, Chas, Tony, and Stephanie were a great crew. Dogs Otis and Brutus kept our spirits up even when there was no bite. We had good food, even watched Jaws on the big screen (yes that boat got EATEN by Jaws! at 3 in the morning for those of us who were awake...), had lots of fun, and ended up with enough fish. ESPECIALLY Chris who got limits with her husband Aaron and son Randy. She pulled up the biggest red I've seen so far--and she got two gigantic ones with her biggest very close to 10 lbs.

Hope we'll get out on the Maximus ladies. Very comfy and great crew and captain. Thanks Keith!

(Team Glaser cleaned up!)

Maximus June 27 - TOAD RED !!!!

2010-06-28T10:21:00.000-07:00

Well - We went looking for White Seabass but ended up with Reds!

We saw WSB as we entered the area and we fished some of us until early into the AM but they were just not biting This night.

Deena and a double of reds.

This was the fish hold near the end of the day.

Jack Pot Winner

Chris new nick name - Toad Red (like code red) She just kept bringing bigger and bigger ones up.

Our Candi Sweet, pulled in some nice reds, with deck hand John keeping everyone laughing with his creative philosohpy of life. He follows the 1 step program- just ask him.

Louise and Tony with some nice Feesh

Here they are coming 2 at a time.

Louise what the heck is that?

Jacob enjoying the interesting remarks, remember ladies he is listening.

Louise and Biff were having rail turf wars most of the day, Biff just kept laughing.

I got to fish with my brother, Robin- it had been someting like 30 years since we were on a boat together. Cool

Chris brought Aaron and son,Randle
.John kept calling out - Turn the Handdle Randle!!!!

Vita, the fashon plate as ever, kept an eye on the Captain and everything else

It was a fun, comfortable and very pleasant Sunday on the water. The seas were calm, wind was slight and the company was great.

Seabass slay on the Ultra

2010-06-27T21:08:00.000-07:00

What an amazing trip on the Ultra out of 22nd Street Landing in San Pedro....That boat is already bad ass, but with the group we had, we knew it was going to be a stellar trip, regardless of the fishing, which ended up being off the hook!

Day 1 had us rockin and rollin, one hand on the rail and one on the rod...bruised hips as a bonus, but none of that mattered once I hung the first fish....Fred followed and then I lost track as nearly every rod bent and the "comin' downs" and "goin' overs" commenced....my fish was stuck and as quick as I could I got back into the water..Tap, tap.....Fish on again! I had the high count for the morning until Big Gabe got his three fish limit in the late morning. Brian reset a few times trying to escape the Black Seabass invasion and Fred ended up hooking a fiesty yellow to liven up the party.

Day 2 was beautiful, We had no luck in the gray and tried for a while...Tim ended up hooking a nice Halibut in the 25-30 pound range and Jimbo called in the Blacks again along with leopard sharks so we made a move. Brian must have got a hot tip because we got to see those new engines go full throttle as we pulled up to an armada of boats full on bendo...Our lucky day.

Fred got bit instant and lands a complete freakin toad...., then again, then again...He had three fish and I had not even got bit yet...I lightened up the slider and went to my 25 pound set up and finally got a piece of the action...

Fred's 35+ pounder...

My contribution

Jimbo ends up being the hot stick of day 2...heck, he was on everytime I looked over at him. Fred and Bill were right behind Jimbo, just absolutely on fire...Pretty cool having Mike and Tommy cheering us on as we pulled on the fish right between the Big Game 90 and the Freedom....

We called it a day after the bite slowed to a crawl and headed for the barn...

We were pretty sure Fred's fish was the big one of the trip, but once we got all the fish out of the hold it became very apparent!

Big Thank You to Drew for putting this wonderful trip together....and to all the great company we had on this trip. I am truely priveledged to have such a great group of guys that I can call my friends....Love all of ya'!

Brian and crew were fabulous as always. The Ultra will continue to be one of my all time favorites!

Pacific Dawn Charter

2010-06-27T08:50:00.000-07:00

What can I say - just another fun,fabulous,fantastic charter on the Pacific Dawn !! Those bunks are so comfortable, I slept in once again. When I finally rolled out of bed, mostly everyone had their lines in the water already. We had hoped to begin the hunt for white seabass, but Captain Pat said the conditions we not quite right, so we start rockfishing. Our deckhands were hard at work as you can tell making sure everyone was rigged up right
.

I had a lesson this week on rockfishing from my friend Tao, who said to always fish on the bow on the wrong side of the boat. I have to say, his theory worked, I got some nice reds, salmon grouper, and even this bosco on my new GCLA jig. Check it out.

Ana had her "production" hat on all day and kept busy interviewing and taping everyone on board including the crew.

She is going to make us stars !!

It was also good to have Meli back on board and she was enjoying a little "travel" time with the deckhands.

But we have to congratulate Mary for back to back jackpots on the Pac Dawn. I thought I had a chance with my big salmon grouper, but Mary managed to pull this monster out of the water and hold on to her "crown" for another month.

Congratulations Mary !!

The sun was out all day, a little windy at times, but overall, the conditions were fairly decent for a change. We all managed to come home with some nice sacks of rockfish.

Whitney, once again dazzled us with her cooking - breakfast croissants and fish enchiladas for lunch - YUMMY !! She totally ROCKS !!

Many GCLA thanks to Captain Pat and the entire Pac Dawn crew for another great charter on this fabulous boat !!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RICKIE MILLER!

2010-06-22T12:59:00.000-07:00

HOPE YOUR DAY WAS FILLED WITH FISHES AND BIRTHDAY WISHES!

Options

2010-06-21T09:26:00.000-07:00

Miss Erika - you will never cease to amaze me !!