Fishing on the Island Tak with Captain Steve Kelly and Jonny Ellis has always been fruitful, fun and full of adventure. Every trip is different and I always come off the Tak smiling.
It was one of those days where it was over 100 degrees in the Valley and we were looking forward to the ocean breeze and cooler temperatures in Oxnard.
We had frozen squid and beautiful anchovies to use as bait. The water was 75 degrees and clear. We were catching some calicos on the squid but the birds got to all of our fin bait. This year I have found the birds hungrier than ever because of lack of bait in the water.
What to do with all these conditions? Captain Steve says “ Give em what they want “. We tried plastics, got a few calicos on that but the killer was the “ SP Minnow “ .
Can you imagine six fisherman on the Minnow at the same time. Even Steve was using the artificial bait. This madness went on for a couple of hours and every cast caught breeder size calicos, which were released.
We ended the trip a little earlier than scheduled. We caught and released enough fish, the air temperature was starting to rise and we wanted to beat the traffic home.
Thank you Steve Kelly and Jonny Ellis and thank you Bob Sands for recommending this years “ killer “ artificial the SP MINNOW!
Cathy Needleman
