Pacemaker Fishing Forum

Went out Tuesday May 9th with Capt Ben Florentino (www.fishcoastalcharters.com) to a cloudy and windy cold Los Angeles coast morning. Wind temp was around 58 and water temp was around 60 degrees, but we were determined. Thankfully as the day progressed the weather got better and the sun decided to peak out.

Got the skunk off with a dink calico bass followed by some respectable sized ones.





Then had a sweet double. Interestingly, I felt a hit then followed by a lighter tap, so I popped it twice and felt a strong hit. It felt like a monster until we realized that two got hooked on the Crank bait. Capt Ben said they are notoriously competitive, but he hasn't seen a double like that in a while.



These guys fight really well for their size and they will immediately try to go down into the rocks or dig themselves into the kelp "trees."

I lost what felt like a really big one that dug itself in the kelp. We maneuvered the boat around to get it out, but not before it spit the hook. We were using weedless plastics at this point. But thankfully I got another good sized fish (bit over two pounds) shortly after, that kind of made up for it... Kind of... You never really get over the one that got away! LOL



It was an awesome day,  with awesome memories, and an awesome captain that started with this post: http://www.pacemakerfishing.com/forum/v … p?id=7749. The moral of the story is charter captains come in all shapes and sizes. If you are lucky enough to get in contact with a genuinely gracious one, he will likely know others and want to promote others like him. In my case our very own Capt Mike was the first charter captain I ever met and the first one who helped me experience saltwater fishing. I was lucky that he happened to be one of those gracious ones and although he didn't personally know the charter captains in L.A., it was his good karma that pointed me towards others like him