Catalina Island Trip.

[lorenbennett]

I went to Catalina Island recently and thought I would share the story and pics. Made the crossing Thursday night from 12:30am to 3:30am. Moored at Avalon till morning and then headed out to fish. Found lots of porp's and followed them for miles, but no tuna, so we headed around the west end and ended up anchoring over night in Little harbor. What a great site. Very quiet and calm and the fishing was great. Brought back 3 thresher, 20 calico, 3 mackerel. Threw back a 6' gill shark, half a dozen sand sharks, and numerous ray's. Next morning we continued north around the island and anchored sat night in little fisherman's cove at two harbors. Fishing was hot again! Little spooky crossing at night but boat did great and this morning coming back I was able to stay on plane so was much faster trip. Pics to follow.:thumbsup:

 

[chuck1]

Cool trip and pictures, thanks for sharing. How far across is it from CA? I can't believe how calm the water looks. I have not been on the left coast for 25+ years and I don't remember the water being that calm.

 

[Nehalennia]

Did you cross at night for calmer waters?
Did you use a light or moonlight?
GPS I assume?

This is a trip I would love to make. My Wife's Dad is in Fallbrook east of Oceanside.

Where did you launch from?
I saw your pics. Those are nice.

 

[lorenbennett]

From were I launched, it was 26 miles from breakwater to Avalon. Total trip miles was 185 miles. Just a note to the fuel economy folks, I stayed at no wake speed (trolling) except during the crossings and chasing the porp's for a while so I only used 81 gallons of gas on the trip.:thumbsup:

 

[lorenbennett]

Did you cross at night for calmer waters?
Did you use a light or moonlight?
GPS I assume?

This is a trip I would love to make. My Wife's Dad is in Fallbrook east of Oceanside.

Where did you launch from?
I saw your pics. Those are nice.

Crossing at night was for to be on site for morning bite. We did run the spot light due to the whales in the area but had updated reports for them. It's very rough at night was only able to to get up to 10 mph due to the swell. We were heading into the night swell of 3 to 4' swell. Mornings are the best time for the crossing, but sometimes things work out the way they do. My boat has a complete setup of radar and chart along with updated paper charts. This crossing is very easy as you never lose site of California until you start to see the island lights. We launched from Alamitos bay as it's the close to the breakwater and we avoided the traffic channel coming to Longbeach and was right by the bait barge. The fins in the pics are of the porps's. :thumbsup: