Twins Trout Slay at the Vine

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

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

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!

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!!!