With the reports of some White Seabass being caught today, the hopes of the 16 anglers headed out on our annual charter on the SEABISCUIT out of CHANNEL ISLANDS SPORTFISHING boosted our morale quite a bit. We were greeted by Capt Bobby Valney and his crew as we boarded, we stowed our gear and laid claim to our bunks for the trip. We met on the stern for our safety briefing and our plans for tomorrows fishing. First step was to stop at Anacapa Island and snag squid, fortunately for us the squid were very cooperative and we soon filled the tank with them. We were then headed to Eagles Nest at Santa Rosa Island, we arrived at our destination and dropped anchor which turned out to be everyones alarm clock. Everyone was soon up on deck and soaking bait in hopes of being the first to get the skunk off the boat, it didn\'t happen until around 5 am when we heard the first yell of biter, we ended up putting 4 seabass on the deck in the dark and as grey light sneaked up we were hearing the yell of fresh one on a fairly regular basis. Although not a wide open bite we managed to put 14 White Seabass for 12 to 43 pounds in the fish hold.

Around 8 am Capt Bobby decided to look around as the bite had slowed down, we motored around and came to a screeching halt on a large spot of fish. However, these fish had other ideas and did not want to bite for us. The decision was then made to head around the other side of Santa Rosa Island and head for Rhodes Reef and make a few Halibut drifts as it had been inacessible for the last few days because of high winds and rough seas. What a great decision that turned out to be, we made many drifts in the area and the fish wanted to cooperate with us. We ended the day with 5 more White Seabass and 20 Halibut from 25 to 42 pounds. Several folks were on their first ever fishing trip and managed to get at least 2 Halibut each and are now hooked for life! Our best drift of the day put 7 Halibut on the deck for us.
>br> A very special thanks to Capt Bobby and his crew for going the extra mile and staying out longer than normal to give every angler a chance for a fish of a lifetime. I got my largest White Seabass ever, yes it was the 43 pounder and am I ever happy. Not one angler got off the boat without at least one local exotic, our final count for the trip was 20 Halibut and 19 White Seabass. At this point it time to let the pictures do the talking, if you would like any of these pictures you can email me at [email protected] and I will gladly forward them to you.