Channel Islands, CA
Clark and Karen Kroschel
Well, don't know if this qualifies but what the heck. We fished didn't we?
Over Easter weekend Clark and I went down to Oxnard, CA, (north of LA) along with my sister and her sig. other. They have a rather large vessel we stayed on and they took us out to the Channel Islands to fish. It was an absolutely gorgeous day, the water silky and smooth. You don't see the ocean like that very often. We were about 15 miles out, between two of the islands.
The minute I dropped my line in and hit bottom I had a little ole' bite. Finally got it in just before my arms were to drop off to find a "beautiful, yet rather ugly" Ling Cod. It measured 22" long, just long enough to keep. With the weight (?) of it and the #8 weight, it was quite a challenge, to say the least. Got the fish off, threw the setup back in, hit bottom, yep....another fish. This time it was a big bright orange Rock Cod. Third drop in, hit bottom and got another hook-up to another Ling, but he was a baby. Shortly after that Clark hooked up something. His turned out to be two nice sized Rock Cod, together they were the size of my one. My sister and her fella caught five in all for the day.
At one point I was reeling in a really nice Ling as a huge old Pelican sat there right in front of me waiting to see what I could do. Clark had the camera ready but just as the fish was breaking the surface he wiggled off. I lost, the bird lost. Would have been kind of interesting to see what would have happened if I'd have been able to bring the fish out of the water. It was a big one, too. Might have been kind of a nasty fight between the two of us.
I finished the day with three more Rock Cod of average size, Clark was done. But what an experience. As an added bonus we had seals in the marina harbor and here and there where we fished. We had dolphins everywhere, some in a herd (if that's what it's called), and to top it off, whales as we headed back in. Can't ask for a better day than that can you. Oh yeah, the water never did get choppy, just stayed calm.
Karen and Ling Cod
Clark and a double rock
