"New Skiff and September Santa Barbara Salmon!"

Hey guyz,
I know that I have not posted for a while, but wanted to share photos of my new skiff. It is a 15 foot Radon. I got it and on the first trip out, I blew a rod or sumtin in the engine a mile from Anacapa.

Tired of missing prime fishing due to crappy motors, I bucked up and bought a 'new' engine from Imotors.com. I decided to replace the 1985 75 hp merc with a 2001 75hp 4-stroke that spent one season at a freshwater resort in Canada, then returned to Merc to be totally spiffed up and 'like-new'.

Well, it was a little scary sending 6 grand to some guy in Salt Lake City for an engine I had never seen, but being an eternal optimist (arent we all, being fishermen?) I signed the check and low-and-behold, 2 weeks later my mechanic has a 500lb crate at his door.

The motor looked HUGE on my boat, and I have no more fingernails, for it was a week before I could get the boat down from my mechanic and into the water for the first time. It was supposedly only 75 pounds heavier than my last motor, but I was afraid it would sink stern first at the launch ramp, but it was fine.

http://www.whiteseabass.com/marcopolo.jpg

WELL, it did find, rides better than ever, and after my first trip to Anacapa on saturday, I got a whopping 67 miles out of about 12 gallons of gas! (5.6 gallons per mile) and it would have gotten better mileage, but I opened it up wide open a few times behind the island and near the harbor (31+ knots!)

I finally have a great boat, awsome motor and I am ready to fish!

Yesterday, I fished salmon at the rigs from dawn till 9:30. I trolled from the middle of the upper four to the bottom of the three for nothing. I might have had a short strike, but no biters. I think that I went through a spot of giant squid, I had line pull from one rig for a few moments, then nothing, like the hook pulled through. When I retrieved, the bait was all chewed up, but nothing stuck. (It should have, it was rat trapped.)

I then went in off carp and bounced for flatties, until about 11:30 for nada, then trolled a small mack that I caught and a rapala and yo-zuri for threshers until 1 or so. I then went in and cast plastics along the eelgrass beds for one short halibut.

I then buzzed up the coast fishing briefly at some of my shallow halibut spots in tight, for nada, then buzzed up to campus point, lots of weeds in tight, so I headed off moremesa and bounced for a half hour for a big fat nada....... Cant say I did not put in the time/effort.

http://www.whiteseabass.com/septsalmon.jpg

I did run into "Bird Dog" at the dock and he had 2 salmon that he got near the gap at 1:00 and 2:30!!!

SEPTEMBER SALMON!

Big south swell as well as a southern hemisphere swell, so the warm water should get pushed up here, hopefully with some exotics!!

Better dayz to come!

Marco Farrell
F/V Marco Polo
Santa Barbara
have2fish@yahoo.com
http://www.whiteseabass.com