The Commander Sinking: Men Plead Guilty

Well many fishing boats seemed to have went down in the Southern California waters during 2016. Some people were suspicious, others worried.

Now, in 2017, the truth comes out regarding the sport fishing vessel, The Commander.

Two men pleaded guilty to insurance fraud by trying to sink the boat. Mark Gillette, who is 37, and Christopher Switzer, who is 39 attempted to flood the boat in hopes that it would sink on October 11th near Dana point.

The two will have to refund the $15,000 dollar rescue fee as well.

It is a tough pill to swallow now knowing this was purposely caused. Many hoped it wasn't so.

The other boats in 2016 that had issues were:

1. The Maximus south of the border, sank. Everyone was rescued.
2. The Invicta crashed into the Coronado Islands with over 20 people onboard. Everyone was rescued. 

2016 was a great El Nino year for tuna fishing off San Diego, but a not so great year for some of these boats.

Central Coast California Rockfishin'

The season in my area is coming to a close so we headed out for one last trip going after Rockcod, lingcod and a fun time!

We launched out of Port San Luis via the hoist at the sport launch. The hoist makes it very easy to launch the Parker 2110!

Upon launching at 7am, the fog was very thick and our Garmin 740s GPS navigation was heavily relied on.

High tide was around 645am and low around 1pm.

We started out in around 110ft of water off Pecho Rock up the coast from Avila Beach. Something cleanly bit through my 40lb mono line tied to a 6oz leadhead and 9" Big Sledge Hammer swimbait. Shortly after my dad lost a fish as well. Weird stuff, what could it have been? Another good ol' fish story!

After a few fish we moved a few miles offshore to around the 200ft depth. We began catching quite a few lingcod. A variety of baits were used from swimbaits to iron jigs to shrimp flies with squid bits. A few lings were also caught on small blue bass hitchhikers.

The bite seemed to taper off around low tide.

The final count was probably around 15 lings for the two of us, of which we only harvested 2 at 28" and 27". We also kept 2 vermillions around 16" long.

The fog never really lifted but it made for a nice day on the water with very little wind and a small 4ft swell. The water temperature was around 55 degrees along the coast.

Fishing Tip: Keeping People Out of Your Chum Line

How many of us have been fishing and anchored up with a real nice chum line going on that we have put some time into and then a rude boat comes and anchors right smack in the middle of the chum line, ignorant to the fact that was right where you were fishing?! Or if you are trout fishing on a lake with indicators that blow down wind/down current and another boat comes in too close?

Well I have seen it happen, heard of it happening, and had it happen to myself.

I have come up with an idea to keep people out of your chum line.

THIS IS ONLY AN IDEA. I don't promise it will work and I don't promise that there aren't better ideas out there.

Here's the idea: Use a rod with a big balloon tied to the end of the line and let that balloon float back into the chum line, basically indicating to others right where you are fishing. People are *slightly* less likely to come running over your balloon than they are into a 'bare' area that they didn't know was your chum line. You likely will need to have some kind of weight tied below the balloon to keep it somewhat stable.

Here is the next question: Do you fish a bait under the ballon or purely just use the balloon rod as a tool? Tough to say, you will have to experiment.

Would love some feedback on this post, feel free to post any other ideas.

Santa Barbara Calico Bass Fishing

We fished roughly in around 60 feet of water with some Halloween 5" Swimbaits and caught a few Calico Bass. ALL RELEASED!!

Crowley Lake Trout Fly Fishing

We fished around July 4th in Hilton and McGee Bays. Stillwater nymphing with copper head tiger midges in roughly 18-22 feet of water. First day was slow, second day we whacked 'em. All fish caught, photo, released!!!

Nacimiento Lake Spotted Bass

This was a quick trip after work on a weekday. We fished roughly from 5pm to 8pm and did well right before dark on topwater baits like the Zaraspook and Buzzbaits.

Spring Nacimiento Lake Spotted Bass Fishing

Quick morning trip, only one fish on the shakey head with Zoom trick worm. Deeper water, probably around 20ft.

Santa Margarita Lake Crappie Fishing

Fished for only maybe 30 minutes, got this crappie on a small white plastic jig.

Winter / Spring California Perch Fishing

The perch fishing in Central California seems to be the best in late winter / early spring.

I went out to several beaches several times with no luck.

Finally I bit the bullet and bought some Gulp Camo Sandworms at 6.99 a pack.

I finally found a beach with a steep drop off ( different than the super flat beaches I was previously fishing...)

Sure enough, the fish were holding and biting. It was nearly a bit every cast, sometimes very subtle so they were easy to miss!

I focused on fishing high tides and did well!

Pyramid Lake, March 3, 2012

Friday, March 2, 2012
I made the drive up to Pyramid Lake outside of Reno, Nevada.  After a few stops, I arrived around 12pm right behind Tom, Billy, Alby and Brett.  We got camp setup and started to try to fish.
The water level seemed pretty high, and after taking out my ladder at South Nets, I was still casting in around 3-5ft of water, which is too shallow.  So I figured I would get the boat out.  I found the drop from 5-10 ft and started fishing around the ledge in 10-12ft of water.  A few other guys got their float tubes out and fished.  By the end of the night, I think I had 2 fish.  Fishing was SLOW.  Water was right around 44 - 45 degrees.  We figure the fish are out deeper feeding on the tui chub and haven't made the move to the shallow water.  We were a bit 'early'.


Saturday, March 3, 2012
Woke up, no one was fishing at South Nets.  I took the boat out and was able to get a fish.  I moved out into a ledge at 23 to 28ft of water and landed another one.  If the fish were going to bite, they always bit right when I got to a spot, but then the bite tailed off.  Finally later in the afternoon I had an indicator fish.

Sunday, March 4, 2012
Same story, so we started fishing.  I had a fish early on then took a break for breakfast.  Upon going back out, I was able to get 2 more fish, and watched Billy catch 3 from his tube as well.  Alby finally got a fish, and Tom never was able to get one the whole trip.
I left pyramid at 130 and made it back to Danville by 545.  Decent amount of traffic on the 80.

Hopefully we can get back up there when the fishing turns on in the next month or two!


Below are some picture from the trip:

Anderson Lake, Bass Fishing, Feburary 4, 2012

Went down to Anderson Lake to go fishing again and brought Adele to captain the boat.

Fished form 11:30 to 4:30.
Water 52-53
Sunny, 67, slight breeze.

Started off at flat across the lake from the ramp, caught a trout on the second cast with a crawdad colored crankbait!  Couldn't believe it!  They haven't stocked Anderson Lake near Morgan Hill for quite some time, so I guess there are still some holdovers in there?

Didn't get another bite the rest of the day, tried shallow, tried some deeper stuff, tried points, just nothing was biting on the dropshot and shakey head. Switched from a worm to a Yum craw thing on the shakey head.

Talked to some guy at the ramp, he seemed to have found them, said to look for the underwater humps, and they were still deep.  It's like why fish in 5ft of water when most fish are 30ft deep? I think he said he was using green hula on a football head jig or something?

Finally picked up a trolling motor Sunday, Feb 5.  Minn Kota Maxxum.  We'll see how she mounts up on the boat.