Barge fishing in the late 60's, early 70's

There's not much for barge fishing these days. Matter of fact, there may not be any left....that I know of anyway. When I first started fishing in California in 1963 there was a lot of barges. My dad used to take me to Malibu Pier to fish. I remember being envious of the guys with long rods that used to fish for halibut. My tackle was an outfit from Thrifty drug store. A Roddy combo sufficient to catch perch. In fishing from the pier, I would hear the announcement over the PA - 'the Way We Goooo!' I think that was the name of the ferry boat taking anglers out to the barge - 'Star of Malibu'. After telling my dad how much I just had to go fishing on the barge - he took me out there. While I don't have any detailed memories of the fishing, I do remember hooking large bonito. By the time I went to the barge - I had a Tuna King rod and an Optimo reel. Thrifty Drug Store used to carry fishing stuff - the line was this bright blue line. I wish I had pictures. I used to also go to Payne's Sporting Goods on Redondo Beach Boulevard. There was a guy named Jerry working there that fished everywhere. I also used to go to Yo's. All via a skateboard I made in Mr. Creasy's wood shop at Peary Junior High School. By the late 60's I was fishing a lot. At Pierpoint Landing, there was a barge tied up at the end of the docks - 'Davey's Locker' or something like that. Matter of fact, I think it was parked by Dearden's Fish Market. Lots of tomcod and bonito, and lots of fun. I also fished a lot in King Harbor (Redondo Beach) - riding my Schwinn Stingray from Gardena. The bonito fishing was awesome in the harbor. I'm almost positive there were three (3) barges you can fish from Redondo. The Sacramento, California and danged if I can remember the third one. There were two ferry boats taking anglers to and between the barges - Cutty Sark and Voyager. I think the Voyager is still at Redondo. Fishing on the bottom you could catch these slimy icky things called black cod. Man, if I only knew. I love eating those things today. Quite the delicacy. The Sacramento was the nicest barge - I think it was a converted gambling ship - so there was lots of shady areas to fish from. The other two were all open - so on hot days, you got cooked. I didn't really catch anything particularly interesting - bonito, mackeral, various rockfish. I remember hearing about bluefin tuna being caught - but never saw one. The only tuna I saw were on the half day boats out of Redondo. That was a lot of fun. Barge fishing was fun - but once I discovered fishing from open party boats, I did not fish much from barges. I think there were a lot of barges to the south - Seal Beach, Huntington Beach and even further south. I recently got a book describing barge fishing in California. I think I caught the tail end of this type of fishing. I wonder how they would do now?

Another long trip for the books

It's been a few weeks, but I had the privilege of going on another long trip. I finally got to go fishing with my old friend Brian, on his boat American Angler. The boat was as described by Randy on the Star. It was identical - sans a few details. There are no heads downstairs. I don't know why I wake up multiple times to pee when I'm on a boat. Doesn't happen when I'm at home - only on the boats. I have to think about that one. At any rate, the lack of a bathroom downstairs was a thorn. I am relatively convinced that at least some of the passengers pee in the sink. I find it hard to believe I am the center of the universe on this issue - and so the next time I am on this boat, into the sink it's going to go. The weather stunk the whole trip. The way down was only reasonable because we were going with the weather. The only reasonable weather was when we were in the anchorage area of Clarion - for dinner and sleep, and the last two days of travel before we were back at the dock. The fishing in the zone was in lumpy weather. But the fishing was good. We had four and a half days to fish - this was a 12 day trip. Once we dialed in the big fish bite to be around 4 in the morning - I promptly hooked one big fish each morning. I hooked four - and handed off one. I put three big fish in the holds - along with another seven from 100 to 160 lbs., along with a couple of hoo. Good fishing. I now have twelve big fish for the last three trips. The odds are now stacked against me for big fish on future trips. I cannot possibly keep catching big fish at this rate. 4, 5 and 3. Wow. The crew was awesome. As I suspected, Brian had assembled the best crew. Nobody had to tell any of them to do anything. They all knew exactly what to do. Every night at dinner, Brian would give everyone an update on what the fleet was doing. Brian turned into one of the deckhands whenever we were fishing. The only time he was a captain was when he was running the boat to and from the fishing zone. My partner Mark did not go on this trip. But I am certain he would have agreed that the experience would have been one of the better ones. Henceforth, I think the long trips are now down to two boats - Star and the Angler. At some point, I would like to go on the Excel and Indy. But until they get their RSW fish dialed in, it will be tough going on the big boats. By chance, I shared the stateroom with an old friend, Tom. Tom was a deckhand working with Brian about the same time I was working on the Mustang. Tom had gotten off the boats - and established himself at a very prominent BMW dealership and is doing well. He's been going on one long trip a year - similar to what I'm doing. The only thing missing - was a big fish (200+ lber). I was fortunate enough to be able to help him reach that goal. Should have seen his face. He couldn't stop staring at the fish - nor could he wipe the smile off his face. Classic. I'll write a more detailed report later on this trip.