Rob and I met Mr. Tree on the Stardust this morning. Just when you think it's going to be a normal trip on the Stardust, something always happens. This time Jason was chanting "we're gonna have live squid today, we're gettin live squid...". And this we did. I caught a sandie on plastic at the bait receiver and Rob got a ronkidor. We headed for the armpit/4 mile with one tank of squid and one tank of chovies. At the first or second stop, Jason went to move the boat and fires up the engines. I set the hook on something but am sure it's the bottom. Drag is slowly and evenly coming off my reel so I figure it's just the boat moving, but it kept going and going and going and I knew we weren't moving THAT much. Then I feel a little THUMP THUMP and I'm all "OH $HIT!!!" Just then..... DINK!!! ARRRRR. 20# P-Line snapped like nothing. The fish didn't even feel me, he was just cruisin away. My guess is a big ling, about 20, 25#s. I hooked him on the new Blam plastic in clear/red flake. After that we hit a couple spots and lots of BIG 7, 8lb. reds were comin over the rail. Many short lings too, and a couple legals. Rob and I kinda sucked. The folks on the side of the boat seemed to be right over the rock cause everybody at midship was gettin bit while us in the stern couldn't buy a biter, besides the little ones that got kicked off of the rock... I could only manage a normal sized red (actually it was a REALLY BIG starry) and a smaller rockfish on the morning run.

In the afternoon, we had a lighter load, and Rob and I were determined to use our new jigsticks. We did a little rockfishin, and I stuck a nice 4# calico (on bait though...) which of course was released. Later in the day Rob got a nice one of about 3#'s. We headed to the gap and soaked squid on the bottom for awhile until Jason suggested we fly line here to see if the bass want to wake up. So, getting bored of rockcoddin, I flylined with 1/4oz. for a cast and remembered that I hate flylining with any kind of weight, so I dropped the weight and hooked a zinger of a cuda on the 10# bass rod. Good fun. That one sucked on the gaff, and I got my jigstick. Threw jigs next to Rob for a good while but neither one of us could get a jig fish. Rob got a couple biters, but I didn't get touched. Back to the 10# flyline. Hooked another cuda and got him in the sack, and then got another one. The fish must've been line shy cause I was the only one fishing 10# and the only one, I think, that caught more than 1 or 2 koods. Some guy farmed a seabass because he was pumping on it with his rod at 12 o'clock, but lots of sandies were comin up along with an occasional calico and short ling. Mackerel were kind of thick, but not too bad. The cudas kept em at bay I think. The koods were kind of staying near the boat and the chum, and when your flylined bait would get to a certain distance away from the boat you'd get mack attacked. So, it turned out after a little politics (not involving me...) that one of my koods won the JP (went to the crew) so that was cool. Good trip, as always. Wish I coulda gotten that ling off the bottom quicker (doubt I would've no matter what...) and wish I coulda gotten one of those big reds, but the surface action and the big calico made up for it. Rob will have pictures when he gets home, hopefully.
-Brian