It's not often you find angry, home guard Yellowtail at Anacapa Island. However Captain Shawn Steward of the Aloha Spirit has their number dialed in. As a matter of fact, Shawn put us on a WIDE OPEN bite for approximately an hour and a half. The Yellows were on the chew and ripped line out from any angler who had anything to throw at them. I had to do a double take when looking up and seeing the Alijos, I mean Arch Rock. I kind of forget where I was for a minute.

The following report is two days of coverage on board the beautiful Aloha Spirit with Captain Shawn Steward and Crew. On Thursday we made our way straight to Anacapa Island and found some incredible conditions with the birds showing us signs of a promising bite! With plenty of live squid on board, and capitalizing on Shawn's stellar reputation, we knew it would turn out to be a great day! We opened up the day with a steady Calico bite that quickly turned into hard charging Yellowtail. We managed to board 4 nice grade Yellows and unfortunately we lost many!

Call it Yellow Fever, but after landing two Yellows on day 1, I found myself standing in front of Jeff Grodin at Captain Hook's Sportfishing hungry for some more action! Good call to say the least! We made our way over to Smuggler's at the Big Island and loaded our bait tanks with some nice squid. With candy on board, we all knew we'd be in for it! We hooked a few large Bat Rays as well as two very nice Flatties! Gave the White Seabass a solid effort for no love and Captain Steward made the decision to go searching for Yellows at Anacapa. We crossed the gap to find several hundred birds having a pot-luck at Cat Rock. We knew this was the day! Deckhand Eddie and Galley Chef Tangee were the first two to get hooked up simultaneously and soon we heard the sounds of Yellows hitting the deck and flopping around! Adrenaline rush, party of 10, your Yellows are now being served! Wide Open for the next hour and a half! We landed a total of 32 angry, hard charging Yellowtail for 10 anglers! It was an absolute EPIC trip and definitely one for the books! I have to add, that we had three kids on board that turned Pro in less than ten minutes. After a while we were looking to them to show us how it's done!

Captain Shawn Steward, Deckhand Eddie Cardenas, and the newest gem to hit the Aloha, Galley Chef Tangee Russell provided an experience that was second to none! I need not say anymore, I'll let the pictures do the talking!

For copies of any photos, please email me at [email protected].

GET OUT THERE AND FISH!