More old memories - landings and boats

Recently, I heard Dick Helgren passed away. That's sad. Many of the old timers are disappearing. I never fished out of Norm's landing much - but I do know Dick Helgren and Roger Hess ran the two 75 footers from there. I think the Sport King was too. I was also aware of 22nd Street Landing - but didn't fish much out of there either. Most of my fishing time was spent at Pierpoint Landing. It was a lot like Ports 'O' Call village - stores, restaurants, fish markets and gift stores. I can still smell the distinct odor the area had - a mix of petroleum and the ocean. For a while, the landing had a barge parked in front of Dearden's - the fish market. When I wasn't on one of the sport boats - I was on the barge. The fishing was pretty good. Bonito - lots of bonito, and big piling perch - along with the occasional halibut. It was great. I think I wrote a lot about Pierpoint on another one of my posts - but, the three big Dittmar-Donaldsons - Freedom, Liberty and America are all still running today. The big boats were being run by Bobby Carr, Jim Peterson, Cookie Cooke and Taka Tanaka - and probably others. The Freedom is still the Freeom - except out of 22nd Street now. The Liberty is still the Liberty - out of the new Pierpoint Landing, I think. And the America is now the Grande in San Diego. Back to the barge fishing - the fishing was better at the barge in Malibu, but Long Beach was closer than Malibu from our house in Gardena. I also fished out of Pacific Landing - home of the Pacific Queen and Eddie McEwen. The landing also had the FishermenII and III, along with the Estrella. I think I started rock cod fishing seriously about this time. 5 lb sinkers and 4 or 5 hooks. We'd fish anywhere from 60 to over 150 fathoms. It was fun - but a lot of work. I'm going off on tangents. Pierpoint had a charter boat called the 'Miss L'. A 50 foot boat that was known for its speed. That boat eventually ended up at Sea Landing in Santa Barbara - being run by Merit. Great Calico Bass fishing on the 'GM green' candybars and 45's at Naples Reef. There was a landing being run from the Santa Monica Pier - Kiaora is the only boat I remember. I don't remember a boat ever being run from the Manhattan Beach Pier - but, there was a 1/2 day being run from Hermosa Beach Pier. I don't remember the name of that boat. And finally, the biggest landing in that area - Redondo Sportfishing. The Reel Special run by Homer Lightfoot (I remember being in the wheelhouse watching Homer look intently at the paper graph on the fishfinder at Hidden Reef), the Pursuit run by Louie Abbott, the two 1/2 day boats City of Redondo and Redondo Special and the barges. I think at one point, there were three barges there. I don't remember all the names - the Sacramento and California is about the only ones I remember. Ferrying all the passengers from shore and between the barges was the Voyager. I think the boat is still there today, along with the two 1/2 day boats. The Reel Special is called the Royal Pacifico I think and it is being operated out of Ensenada. The Pursuit is now at 22nd Street Landing running the local all day. On the coastline next to Los Angeles, the two big landings were Pierpoint and Redondo. Back to the barge at Malibu Pier - the Star of Malibu. I have great memories of that barge and the pier. I remember meeting Sammy Davis Sr. while he was fishing on the pier for halibut. The ferry was the 'Wae We Go'. Paradise Cove also had a landing - operating on the pier. I can't remember the names of the boats off hand - but, there is a restaurant where the pier used to be - and there are pictures there. If I go back there and see the pictures - I'll post again. Going up the coast, the big landing - and the rock cod capital of California (at the time) - CISCO's - Channel Island Sportfishing Company. Lots of boats here - all fishing for rock cod - Ranger 85, Coroloma and a few others. This is when I got into rockcod fishing big time. 8 lb sash weights and 15 hooks. I was not fucking around here. I made my own rigs. I had Yo make me a 9 foot gaff blank into a cod pole. Look out!! We would fish 60 to 80 fathoms for cows, lings, warthogs and all sorts - and they were all big. I did not venture much further north than Oxnard until much later. I would imagine Virg's at Morro Bay and San Simeon were operating - and fishing had to be nothing short of awesome. I also did not fish much south - Oceanside and San Diego. The only boat I recall was the Point Loma run by Eddie Diehl. White Sea Bass fishing at Tijuana flats - with squid bunched up on heavy 6X's. The sea bass were big ones too. I think the landing at Oceanside has been there for a long time. I have never fished out of there. Oh well. Enough ranting and raving for now.

2007, 2008 and the beginning of 2009 / long range fishing

2008 was not a particularly busy fishing year for me. But in October of 2007, I went on a 10 day trip on the Shogun. I hadn't seen my buddy Norm in a long time, and it would be a good chance for me to catch up with him. And catch up we did....we talked about all kinds of old memories. When he was running the original Shogun - a rocky and rolly Seaway, with his crew - Allan, Vince and Mark. I don't know what happened to Allan, but Vince went on to become a Ventura Sheriff - retired now I think. I saw Mark a few times much later - still working on the sport boats. I had been looking for a Roddy BR100 for a long time - and Mark had one. Bought it and rewrapped it. Nice rod. Anyway, the 10 day trip was mediocre at best. They had caught larger yellowfin tuna outside Magdalena Bay the past year on the 10 dayers, at about the same time of year. But this year, we must have been too early. We caught small tuna and yellowtail at the Ridge. We also fished at Alijos - for small tuna and yellows here also. The best thing to come out of this trip was my roommate Mark. He and I promised to make more trips together. We eventually planned a 15 day trip on the Red Rooster 3, leaving on 02JAN08. We took a straight shot to Clarion and fished outside for nothing. After a look around, we left for Hurricane. Slow plunker bite for 8 or 9 days. We were the second boat to get there out of 4 boats - the Royal Polaris was already there and had great fishing, almost filling the boat, the Qualifier had fished with us at Clarion and stayed a bit longer for nothing and the Independence had left a couple of days after ours and were on their way. We caught good tuna - but you had to soak your bait FOREVER. I hate soaking bait. I finally had to do it, but I hated it. Mark had done well - 3 or 4 fish really close to 200. Until the 3rd or 4th day, I had not caught anything. Finally when I made myself soak a bait - I finally started to catch fish. I did have an exciting moment though. One of the guys had caught a skipjack and hooked a larger fish. So I did the same thing - caught a skippie and started to soak it. With most of my line out - I got bit. I could not have had much more than 150 to 200 yards left on the spool. In retrospect, it was probably a good thing I didn't hook it. So the trip went - a few wahoo every day and a few tuna - for the people who soaked their bait for long periods of time. By the time we started for home - I had maybe 10 fish or so. Mark fared batter - he had at least 3 fish pushing 200 and various others. The only other thing that stands out about this trip was after we got back in. We gave the RSW fish to 4-star and the trade-for-cans to World Famous. The guy from World Famous had run out of cans and promised to send us the cans the following week. A year or more later - and we still haven't seen the cans. The next trip we have planned is a 15 dayer on the new boat - 'Intrepid'. I'll write about that after the trip.