Cal-Diego First Annual One Day Salt Water Fishing Trip

Thursday, June 19th was the unveiling of the once postponed, much anticipated Cal–Diego First Annual One Day Salt Water Fishing Trip, thanks to the generosity of National PVA, Mr. Jim Baker, and Cal–Diego PVA. Our thanks to all of you.

The trip was aboard the good ship Reel Fun operated by Dana Wharf Sport Fishing out of Dana Point Harbor. Sixteen PVA´ers (9 in wheelchairs) and a crew of four sailed forth at 10:00 AM to a great day of fun, food, camaraderie and fishing. It was a nice cool morning with a slight breeze plus overcast. The overcast remained with us for the entire trip, keeping the temperature to a nice 78 degrees. The galley was busy preparing breakfast burritos on the short trip out of the harbor and south to just off the coast of San Clemente. During the trip out those that were interested contributed $5.00 for a big fish jackpot and Ed Paz was kept busy recording this great event in pictorial form for posterity. Thanks Ed, we appreciate your good work.

Once the anchor dropped the fishing started in earnest with some choosing to use sardines as live bait while others chose squid. Art King caught the first fish but unfortunately it was too small and had to be returned to Davie Jones. We will bring it in on our next fishing trip. Then the fishing got intense and kept the Captain and mates busy freeing up tangled lines, restoring reels with birds nests in them to working order, taking fish off our hooks, putting bait on our hooks, chumming, using the nets to haul the big fish aboard. Oh yes! Our great crew of fisher people brought in some large fish. Deanna Dhillon caught a Calico Bass that weighed 7 pounds. That was the biggest fish caught on the trip. Unfortunately, she had decided against entering the Big Fish Pool so all of that lucre went to Barry Flynn for his paltry 6.5 pound bass. Good job! Both of you.

In all, 79 Calico Bass, 16 Sand Bass and one Rock Fish were caught that were big enough to take home. We were fortunate to have our lawyer Jill Sanoff with us to make sure we did everything legal. I caught enough (two fish) so that Barbara and I had fish for dinner. Unfortunately my pug son Scout remained on shore. Last week he got a thorn in his paw. The Vet had to perform surgery to remove it and then stitch it up. Since it wasn´t healed yet I didn´t want to chance his sore foot in all of that water.

It is interesting that with all of the great fishing boats in San Diego we would travel to Dana Point to do our fishing. We did that because the Reel Fun out of Dana Point is the only party boat we could find where our wheelers could board without being carried. Their floating dock is level with the main deck so we can wheel right onto the boat. Thanks Dana Point. We do appreciate that. We also need to thank Bill Palmer for his yeoman duties before the trip and for acting as purser during the trip. Thanks Bill.

So, mark your calendars for next June when we have our second Annual One Day Salt Water Fishing Trip. We hope to see you there.

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