Although two visits to Catalina within such a short time span (two months) is unusual for me, the special conditions at the Mole in 2021 warranted such a trip, especially when it would be helping a friend celebrate his birthday. Unfortunately the second visit would prove far less successful than the first.
Pre-Catalina — Sunday morning comin’ down...as in heading down state Hwy 99 on a lazy Sunday morn. Leaving Fresno, you’re soon passing by the farm fields of the Central Valley, the Big Valley, one of the world’s greatest centers of agriculture. In time you’ll reach Bakersfield and perhaps spot Buck Owens Crystal Palace (and see glimpses of Merle Haggard Drive).
Next will be the Grapevine and the mountains with their dry high desert terrain, mountains that for some separate NorCal from SoCal. Soon you see Pyramid Lake near Castaic and then you’ll drop down toward Six Flags Magic Mountain. More and more houses filling every canyon, more and more traffic, and you’ll be nearing Shakey Town, Los Angeles to those illiterate in the epistemology of trucker lingo. You’ll pass through the maze of freeways and it’s on to Long Beach and the landing for Catalina Express. A four to five hour trip taken many, many times and one that you could seemingly traverse in your sleep. But, there are always differences.
Traffic on this Sunday is light and the drive boring. You turn on the radio and it’s a choice between Sunday morning sermons, country music (or what tries to pass as country music today), Spanish language stations with Mexican music, and a polyglot mixture of other stations with diverse programs and languages sure to comfort and confuse the masses. Unfortunately there’s no Wolfman Jack to add spice and humor to the day. Of course there’s also little “rock and roll.”
But there are those paid health commercials promising an end to pain, the benefits of natural fruits and vegetables, and the drugs that will keep you mentally sharp as a tack (when you’re getting into those twilight years and can’t find your pills). Hogging the dial are all those diet plans and vitamins to make you look great and feel great, and perhaps with the help of a little testosterone you can reenergize your libido. The spokesmen sound about as honest as a politician!
You try to find some sports but first are confronted with a guy who has a surefire way to bet on sports. He has picks guaranteed to win, and he’ll make you rich if you just follow his simple program, his system. Just call for the free, guaranteed to win, introductory game. No thanks.
But finally you hit gold. An NCAA March Madness game that lives up to the hype. It’s Loyola of Chicago going against No. 1 seed Illinois, two prairie state teams with one representing the “Windy City,” the other representing the state. But Loyola has their 101-year-old chaplain Sister Jean Dololres Schmidt who has been to the big show before and Loyola upsets Illinois. The game provided entertainment for more than two hours and makes the ride far more enjoyable.
The reason for the long drive (500+miles round trip) is simple, you’re headed to that special island known as Catalina for some fishing and you want to be ready. The seven P’s—“Proper Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance,” define the pre-fishing planning. A variety of rods and reels, a variety of hooks and terminal tackle. And of course the right bait, so a trip to Big Fish in Seal Beach is needed to pick up the bait you ordered (since live bait can run out quickly on a weekend), a variety of bait—ghost shrimp, bloodworms, and lugworms. You already have some market shrimp you bought divided into baggies, some left over mussels, baby octopus (since you couldn’t find squid), and even a small bowl of garden snails that you want to test out as bait.
Once the bait is in the cooler you also hope to spend a few hours fishing the new piers at Pier J in Long Beach. Unfortunately you reach the site and find its two small piers still blanketed by signs prohibiting fishing. You wonder what happened since the piers were supposed to open in February.
But that’s OK. You’ll go to bed early since you’re catching the 7:05 ferry in the morning and you’re supposed to check in an hour early. Plus, given all the gear and clothes you are bringing for a three-day stay you also need time to properly fix and secure the items on the pier cart, items whose weight undoubtedly surpasses the recommended weight for the cart. You’ll arrive by 5:30 at the latest.
There are two nagging questions. The first is the weather. All of a sudden after some beautiful weather the temperature is projected to fall by over ten degrees, a quick temperature drop that could affect the water temperature. You know that a quick drop in water temperature can affect fish and put fish “off their feed” if only for a few days. But, you only have a few days lo catch ‘em.
The other question is a nagging shoulder and arm that made casting on your last trip, especially any long distance casting, painful and prohibitive. You’ve started physical therapy but a visit two days prior actually resulted in more shoulder pain and it hasn’t improved. Can you cast for the bonito, if they show up, or even cast for an extended length of time? A previous visit, just six weeks prior, had seen fantastic fishing, but will or can it be the same? Que sera sera, what will be will be, you have no control over these questions.
Catalina — Day One, March 22 — After the early morning festivities—waiting in line to park, loading the cart, standing in the line for the tickets, meeting up with Hashem (the birthday boy and companion for the trip), standing in line to board, and carefully loading the cart onto the ferry, you are off. The morning has seen its change from an ebony sky to the mild orange of dawn and finally to the bright daylight that will accompany the ferry on its trip to Catalina.
Naturally there are the warnings on the ferry—keep your masks on and be sure to cover your nose, no eating or drinking on the boat (keep those masks on), try to stay apart (a little difficult given the number of people), and oh yea, this is how you put your life jacket (Mae West) on if the boat starts to sink.
The ride is smooth and in just over an hour you arrive at the Mole in Avalon and deboard the ferry. Straight in front of you, just a few hundred feet away, is your destination, the railings of the Cabrillo Mole. You quickly head over to the railing, quickly stake out your space near the left corner, start setting up your gear and soon are fishing.
Luckily the weather during the first day is fairly calm. Sunny and warm in the morning, a couple of hours of blustery wind, calm once again, and toward the end of the day wind once again.
Unfortunately, the fishing is not the same as what you saw in February. As example, there are no bonito, the main species sought by your fishing companion Hashem aka Mahigeer. No birthday gift of hard fighting boneheads for the birthday boy. Nor are there the usual opaleye, the second species Hashem is targeting. Hashem has made up a concoction of things in a bucket that will attract the opaleye— a mishmash of peas, mealworms, and other items, and some of the fish do show up, but not in the usual numbers. A group of Korean opaleye fisherman are parked out down the pier on the right side but even they with all their specialized equipment and skills are getting few fish.
Worse for me, the resident species of fish are also not in the mood to bite as they were previously. The water is crystal clear, too clear, and you can see the fish but they just don’t seem hungry. Often in such conditions the fishing will pick up later in the afternoon when the pier’s waters are in shadow but you’re going to have to work for the fish today. And that’s how it was for much of the day. A few fish but nothing to get excited about.
Pretty much all of the baits were tried. The bloodworms produced most of the sheephead although some hit on the shrimp; most of the garibaldi hit on shrimp; one scorpionfish hit on shrimp, one on a bloodworm, and one on a garden snail; the halfmoon hit on shrimp, the senorita, kelp bass, blacksmith, giant kelpfish and blenny on worms. One nice–sized fish was a somewhat unusual yellow-colored scorpionfish (they are usually more red) that was filleted for a later dinner.
Ten sheephead were caught, not a bad number, but only two were legal size.
The favorite fish, excepting the scorpionfish, was a largemouth blenny, a feisty fish that only showed up in California a few years ago and is still considered uncommon. It is my fourth at the Mole, the prior three being taken in 2017 when they were still considered rare (and I also took one at the Green Pleasure Pier that year). I always enjoy variety and unusual fish.
March 22, 2021, Cabrillo Mole
Fished 9-11:30 and 12-6:15 (8.75 hours)
Fish 65, Points 127 (based primarily on size)
26 Garibaldi (all safely released)
10 Sheephead (only two legal-size and both returned to the water)
8 Halfmoon
7 Senorita
4 Kelp Bass
3 California Scorpionfish (one a good-sized fish that will be kept.
3 Blacksmith
3 Giant Kelpfish
1 Largemouth Blenny
Overall, a fairly decent day but definitely a step down from the previous trip in February that saw 82 fish the first day, 122 the second, and 90 fish the third. We would head to our hotel a little tired but had an excellent, sit-down fish dinner at the NDMK Fish House. It turned out that apparently everyone on Catalina has received their vaccine shots and the island is more open than the mainland. Good fish and a couple glasses of beer helped provide a good night’s sleep.
The plan for day two was that I would get up early and head down to the Green Pleasure Pier (GPP) for a little fishing. Eventually Hashem would meet up. He needed to give the harbormaster some new fish measurement signs to put up on the Mole and Green Pleasure Pier but wanted to avoid hauling all his gear out to the end of the pier. Hashem would then head out to the Mole and I would join him (depending upon how the fishing was at the GPP).
Pre-Catalina — Sunday morning comin’ down...as in heading down state Hwy 99 on a lazy Sunday morn. Leaving Fresno, you’re soon passing by the farm fields of the Central Valley, the Big Valley, one of the world’s greatest centers of agriculture. In time you’ll reach Bakersfield and perhaps spot Buck Owens Crystal Palace (and see glimpses of Merle Haggard Drive).
Next will be the Grapevine and the mountains with their dry high desert terrain, mountains that for some separate NorCal from SoCal. Soon you see Pyramid Lake near Castaic and then you’ll drop down toward Six Flags Magic Mountain. More and more houses filling every canyon, more and more traffic, and you’ll be nearing Shakey Town, Los Angeles to those illiterate in the epistemology of trucker lingo. You’ll pass through the maze of freeways and it’s on to Long Beach and the landing for Catalina Express. A four to five hour trip taken many, many times and one that you could seemingly traverse in your sleep. But, there are always differences.
Traffic on this Sunday is light and the drive boring. You turn on the radio and it’s a choice between Sunday morning sermons, country music (or what tries to pass as country music today), Spanish language stations with Mexican music, and a polyglot mixture of other stations with diverse programs and languages sure to comfort and confuse the masses. Unfortunately there’s no Wolfman Jack to add spice and humor to the day. Of course there’s also little “rock and roll.”
But there are those paid health commercials promising an end to pain, the benefits of natural fruits and vegetables, and the drugs that will keep you mentally sharp as a tack (when you’re getting into those twilight years and can’t find your pills). Hogging the dial are all those diet plans and vitamins to make you look great and feel great, and perhaps with the help of a little testosterone you can reenergize your libido. The spokesmen sound about as honest as a politician!
You try to find some sports but first are confronted with a guy who has a surefire way to bet on sports. He has picks guaranteed to win, and he’ll make you rich if you just follow his simple program, his system. Just call for the free, guaranteed to win, introductory game. No thanks.
But finally you hit gold. An NCAA March Madness game that lives up to the hype. It’s Loyola of Chicago going against No. 1 seed Illinois, two prairie state teams with one representing the “Windy City,” the other representing the state. But Loyola has their 101-year-old chaplain Sister Jean Dololres Schmidt who has been to the big show before and Loyola upsets Illinois. The game provided entertainment for more than two hours and makes the ride far more enjoyable.
The reason for the long drive (500+miles round trip) is simple, you’re headed to that special island known as Catalina for some fishing and you want to be ready. The seven P’s—“Proper Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance,” define the pre-fishing planning. A variety of rods and reels, a variety of hooks and terminal tackle. And of course the right bait, so a trip to Big Fish in Seal Beach is needed to pick up the bait you ordered (since live bait can run out quickly on a weekend), a variety of bait—ghost shrimp, bloodworms, and lugworms. You already have some market shrimp you bought divided into baggies, some left over mussels, baby octopus (since you couldn’t find squid), and even a small bowl of garden snails that you want to test out as bait.
Once the bait is in the cooler you also hope to spend a few hours fishing the new piers at Pier J in Long Beach. Unfortunately you reach the site and find its two small piers still blanketed by signs prohibiting fishing. You wonder what happened since the piers were supposed to open in February.
But that’s OK. You’ll go to bed early since you’re catching the 7:05 ferry in the morning and you’re supposed to check in an hour early. Plus, given all the gear and clothes you are bringing for a three-day stay you also need time to properly fix and secure the items on the pier cart, items whose weight undoubtedly surpasses the recommended weight for the cart. You’ll arrive by 5:30 at the latest.
There are two nagging questions. The first is the weather. All of a sudden after some beautiful weather the temperature is projected to fall by over ten degrees, a quick temperature drop that could affect the water temperature. You know that a quick drop in water temperature can affect fish and put fish “off their feed” if only for a few days. But, you only have a few days lo catch ‘em.
The other question is a nagging shoulder and arm that made casting on your last trip, especially any long distance casting, painful and prohibitive. You’ve started physical therapy but a visit two days prior actually resulted in more shoulder pain and it hasn’t improved. Can you cast for the bonito, if they show up, or even cast for an extended length of time? A previous visit, just six weeks prior, had seen fantastic fishing, but will or can it be the same? Que sera sera, what will be will be, you have no control over these questions.
The Catalina Express
Catalina — Day One, March 22 — After the early morning festivities—waiting in line to park, loading the cart, standing in the line for the tickets, meeting up with Hashem (the birthday boy and companion for the trip), standing in line to board, and carefully loading the cart onto the ferry, you are off. The morning has seen its change from an ebony sky to the mild orange of dawn and finally to the bright daylight that will accompany the ferry on its trip to Catalina.
Naturally there are the warnings on the ferry—keep your masks on and be sure to cover your nose, no eating or drinking on the boat (keep those masks on), try to stay apart (a little difficult given the number of people), and oh yea, this is how you put your life jacket (Mae West) on if the boat starts to sink.
The ride is smooth and in just over an hour you arrive at the Mole in Avalon and deboard the ferry. Straight in front of you, just a few hundred feet away, is your destination, the railings of the Cabrillo Mole. You quickly head over to the railing, quickly stake out your space near the left corner, start setting up your gear and soon are fishing.
Luckily the weather during the first day is fairly calm. Sunny and warm in the morning, a couple of hours of blustery wind, calm once again, and toward the end of the day wind once again.
Unfortunately, the fishing is not the same as what you saw in February. As example, there are no bonito, the main species sought by your fishing companion Hashem aka Mahigeer. No birthday gift of hard fighting boneheads for the birthday boy. Nor are there the usual opaleye, the second species Hashem is targeting. Hashem has made up a concoction of things in a bucket that will attract the opaleye— a mishmash of peas, mealworms, and other items, and some of the fish do show up, but not in the usual numbers. A group of Korean opaleye fisherman are parked out down the pier on the right side but even they with all their specialized equipment and skills are getting few fish.
The water was clear and kelp, rocks and fish were in evidence.
Worse for me, the resident species of fish are also not in the mood to bite as they were previously. The water is crystal clear, too clear, and you can see the fish but they just don’t seem hungry. Often in such conditions the fishing will pick up later in the afternoon when the pier’s waters are in shadow but you’re going to have to work for the fish today. And that’s how it was for much of the day. A few fish but nothing to get excited about.
Pretty much all of the baits were tried. The bloodworms produced most of the sheephead although some hit on the shrimp; most of the garibaldi hit on shrimp; one scorpionfish hit on shrimp, one on a bloodworm, and one on a garden snail; the halfmoon hit on shrimp, the senorita, kelp bass, blacksmith, giant kelpfish and blenny on worms. One nice–sized fish was a somewhat unusual yellow-colored scorpionfish (they are usually more red) that was filleted for a later dinner.
California Scorpionfish
Ten sheephead were caught, not a bad number, but only two were legal size.
Sheephead
The favorite fish, excepting the scorpionfish, was a largemouth blenny, a feisty fish that only showed up in California a few years ago and is still considered uncommon. It is my fourth at the Mole, the prior three being taken in 2017 when they were still considered rare (and I also took one at the Green Pleasure Pier that year). I always enjoy variety and unusual fish.
Largemouth Blenny
March 22, 2021, Cabrillo Mole
Fished 9-11:30 and 12-6:15 (8.75 hours)
Fish 65, Points 127 (based primarily on size)
26 Garibaldi (all safely released)
10 Sheephead (only two legal-size and both returned to the water)
8 Halfmoon
7 Senorita
4 Kelp Bass
3 California Scorpionfish (one a good-sized fish that will be kept.
3 Blacksmith
3 Giant Kelpfish
1 Largemouth Blenny
The GDude rod I brought for the first time. It was good but I missed my normal rod.
Overall, a fairly decent day but definitely a step down from the previous trip in February that saw 82 fish the first day, 122 the second, and 90 fish the third. We would head to our hotel a little tired but had an excellent, sit-down fish dinner at the NDMK Fish House. It turned out that apparently everyone on Catalina has received their vaccine shots and the island is more open than the mainland. Good fish and a couple glasses of beer helped provide a good night’s sleep.
The plan for day two was that I would get up early and head down to the Green Pleasure Pier (GPP) for a little fishing. Eventually Hashem would meet up. He needed to give the harbormaster some new fish measurement signs to put up on the Mole and Green Pleasure Pier but wanted to avoid hauling all his gear out to the end of the pier. Hashem would then head out to the Mole and I would join him (depending upon how the fishing was at the GPP).