chapter 2 - Beginnings

The trips out on the Malibu barge was a good foundation. I'll only go into detail on these memories if I remember them. The other rod/reel setups I remember were the Roddy's. Shortly after the barge trips - I was introduced to Pierpoint Landing in Long Beach. What a hopping place that was. And all the boats - the three big boats, Freedom, Liberty and the America, the half day boats - Pierpoint and Matt Walsh. I don't remember all the charter boats, the Miss L I remembe though. The Miss L was to eventually become the Sea Hawk out of Sea Landing in Santa Barbara. There must have been another landing it was at in between, but that's the last place I remember it. A fella by the name of Merit McRea ran and owned it. Nice guy. The Freedom is at 22nd St. Landing now - owned by Tommy Lee and Mike Frank. Mike and I have a long history - I'll get into that later. The Liberty, I believe is being run out of a landing in Long Beach somewhere. Last time I was on it, I caught a 66lb Albacore - with Gary Nordbye running the boat. This is another story I will get into later. The America is now the Grande in San Diego. I don't know what happened to the Pierpoint. It kind of looks like the City of Seal Beach - but, I don't know if it is the same boat. The Matt Walsh is running half day trips out of Port O Call - I think its LA Harbor Sportfishing now. Anyway, it was just amazing. All these boats, and a Television show too. 'Fishing Flashes' with Mac McLintock. He had film clips from various trips and gave the current fishing news. Many great memories from that place. There was a barge parked right next to the landing. I recall lmy dad taking me down to the landing and fishing from this barge. Lots of big bonito, tom cod and a few halibut. Somewhere along the line, I got to go on one of the big boats - I do not remember which one. After I started to go on those trips - I went on all three. I think it was the Freedom, where I met the deckhands - who I would see in 2004 or so on the Royal Polaris on a 8 day Long Range trip, his name was John. This is now about 1967/1968 or so, John offered to let me on the boat for free if I scrubbed the boat. 'YEAH!!!!' was my response. My first job as a pinhead. One of the trips I remember vividly. We left the docks and made tanks of squid at Catalina. Then on to San Clemente Island. I am relatively certain we went around the East end of the island and somewhere around China Point. It was light - maybe 6 or 7 in the morning. We made a big chum circle and all hell broke loose in the circle. Yellowtail, White Sea Bass, Calico Bass - all up and eating chum. We anchored and started fishing. On this particular trip - Bobby Carr was skippering the boat. My tackle nor experience were enough for the yellowtail. I seem to recall I hooked one - when the fish took off, my reel blew up - my Optimo spinning reel. Shit!! Bobby came down to the deck and hooked one on a boat rod and handed it to me. It was just too much for me. I recall looking around the boat and seeing amazing things. A guy fishing on the bottom had his limit of halibut - all big ones, with tails sticking out of his gunny sack. The fishing was just phenomenal. On other trips, a Japanese guy was running the Freedom - Taka Tanaka, who I will become well acquainted with later in life, along with his sons. And Jim Peterson, he would end up owning Ports O Call Sportfishing, the Sport King and my dear friend's boat - the First String. There was another landing in the same area - Pacific Sportfishing. They had the Pacific Queen, Estrella, Fisherman I and II. I think my first Albacore trip I was on the Pacific Queen - I did not catch one. I was given one though - and pretended I caught it. Cheesy at best. Oh well. There were also rock cod trips on the Fisherman II. Deep water codding off the West end of Catalina (600/800ft) - Big Salmon Groupers and Cows. Up the coast a bit, there was Redondo Sportfishing. I'll start off my next segment there.