BY BOB SEMERAU
SAN PEDRO —The annual Western Outdoor News San Pedro Lobster Combo charter is always a great opportunity to get bugs, rockfish, and more. Who would win the $280.00 cash prize for the biggest bug of the Combo event?
This year three boats, Triton, Sport King, and Gail Force, left from the newly rebuilt docks at Ports O’ Call Village, San Pedro, at the scheduled noon departure time, giving anglers nearly 3-hours to set up their gear for the deep water fishing to come. Each of the boats headed out towards spots off Catalina Island that the captains knew held rockfish willing to take a bait.
The entire Ports O’ Call Village has been taken down and a park-like reconstruction has created a welcoming spot for fisherman and families alike. New restaurants, bars, entertainment spots, and even a 10-story tall Ferris Wheel will be in place when the $155-million first phase is complete.
As they were checking-in on the boats, anglers received swag bags provided by event sponsors, Promar, AhiUSA, and Daiwa. Each bag was loaded with a 300-yard spool of Izorline 20-pound mono, Costa glasses retainers and wiping cloth, a Promar hat, a pack of Gamakatsu live bait hooks, a P-line Laser-Minnow jig, and a nifty new hook keeper device from Katch Fishing. WON gave each boat a huge spool of Berkley ProSpec Chrome monofilament so anglers could take advantage of free spool-ups of their reels.
Fishing offshore from Catalina Island’s west end, the 55-foot sportfisher, Gail Force set up several drifts with only minimal success. The largest fish taken aboard Gail Force during the WON Combo was a 5-pound salmon grouper, boated by La Puente angler, Don Meyer.
“The calm winds and great weather are nice, but they don’t give much movement to the baits down 450 feet,” explained Gail Force skipper, Captain Jared Mallot.
Triton, the 60-foot entry in the WON San Pedro Combo Charter piloted by Captain Shane Kelly, had similar fishing results, but anglers added a couple decent sized sheephead in the mix.
Anglers aboard Sport King had a frustrating afternoon of fishing deep water as well. Despite the best efforts of Captain Anthony Ortiz, at the helm of the 65-footer, bigger model fish just were not on the chew, though the group did manage to find some reds to help fill counts.
With the shadow from Catalina Island growing long across the water, Cpt. Mallot took Gail Force inside to drop the first of three sets for the lobster hoop nets. The bait boxes had been loaded earlier in the day by savvy deck hand, Alex Galvan, and secured into each of the 10 lobster traps, called pots or hoop nets, now ready to be cast over the side.
Using careful movements Cpt. Mallot maneuvered the boat to precise locations where he most expected lobster to be on the move after dark, as Alex tossed the round nets into the 120-foot depths below.
Holding station, a short distance off anglers waited while hopefully, bugs filled the baskets. Full dark with enough time having passed, Gail Force slipped back into the zone where green glowing lights showed locations for each trap on the bottom below.
Numbers were called for the anglers aboard each boat and the work got under way.
Skillfully the crews on the three boats gaffed the buoy for each pot and threaded the line through a pully dangling overhead in the bow. The angler took hold of the rope pulling long and hard to up their catch of spiny lobster.
Results varied widely from empty nets to some loaded with 8-to-10 lobster in each. Bruce Lenhart traveled down from the San Francisco area for the trip and added a good sized stone crab to his catch.
As the hoop nets came over the rail each crew carefully checked the carapace against a regulation lobster gauge to ensure the catch met the 3 1/4″ minimum length. Legals were awarded to anglers and shorts returned to the water quickly.
Visiting all the way from Fredericksburg, Virginia, Jackie Semerau Barrera (this reporter’s adult daughter) bagged a pair of legals to go with her day’s catch of several bocaccio and a smallish sized red.
Fishing aboard Sport King, Matt Strang and Adam Christiansen, owners of Madame Lure, managed a good number of legal lobsters for their take. Adam found his pot held a bigger than average bug at 4.16-pounds, large enough to win the $280.00 cash prize. Along with the cash, Adam took home an Aftco $50 gift card, P-line pliers, Costa hat, Berkeley 3,000-yard spool of line, and a spool of 65-pound J-braid.
Tough fishing for both rockfish and lobster didn’t take away from a really great event with anglers on all three boats getting a share of the catch of the day, along with some great swag from event sponsors.
Contacts:
LA Waterfront Sportfishing www.laharbor.net
550 S Harbor Blvd, San Pedro, CA 90731 Phone 310-844-3814
Madame Lure www.MadameLure.com 805-499-5838