Tropical Paradise - North Shore, Oahu

Our Big Family Vacation 2011 was to the North Shore of Oahu, and we had an unforgetable time!

Buena Vista Athletic Club Annual Smackdown '09

This year's annual BVAC Smackdown was, as usual, a blast!

The fishing was bountiful for the Boyd / Porter boat on Friday, with a virtual limit by 11am!

The golf produced some amazing moments of skill and cunning - pretty sure Boyd took the cup Friday night but the memory is shaky.  Gosh, can't seem to remember who won Saturday night either!  (Must not have been me!)

Smalley rocked the Poker table Saturday night, watch for his 6 high straight in the slideshow...

Until 2010...

Sequoias!

(Click on the slideshow for a fuller screen view. )
We love the Sequoias, and this year we were part of a five-family stomp with Lodgepole as our base camp.




Sequoias are majestic!

We all love big trees!

Kids in the Meadow

 Snow in June, are you kidding???

See, the snow melted, no big deal!

Thanks Adam and Celica for setting this one up!!!!

Buena Vista Athletic Club's Annual Trip

We, the Buena Vista Athletic Club, just held our annual poker, fishing, beer-golf smackdown this weekend at KQ Ranch and on Lake Cuyamaca. Our name is in its "beta" stages, but this team has been in place more or less going back well into the Eighties. Now, the "Fishing on Boyd's Birthday" thing has been going on for nearly 10 years, and we've really just settled into Lake Cuyamaca and KQ Ranch outside of Julian over the past 4 years. In Boydo's infinite wisdom, this year we went on my birthday, pushing the trip up from mid December to early November. As you can see from the pics, the weather was awesome - no ice on the docks as we've seen in December - and the lake was holding rich and amenable populations of trout and catfish, as well as bass, blugill and crappie.

So, without any further ado, the results are in:

First Fish (aka The Getting off the Schneid Award) - Boyd
Jackpot - Boyd with his Day 1 Lunker
Beer Golf Day 1 Champ - Molnar
Poker Night 1 - Porter takes 2 out of 3
Beer Golf Day 2 Champ - Anderson (under typical collusionary circumstances)
Poker Night 2 Round 1 Winner - Smalley, who played the remaining hands in a semi-passed out state
Learn To Drive A Boat Award - Jeff Boyd
Hot Hand Award - Molnar with 5 trout, 2 catfish, and his impressive Beer Golf Day 1 Drubbing


Until next year..

Yellowfin Tuna on the Lukuna

My good friend Kevin O'Neil is really becoming a heck of a fishing captain! We left Newport Harbor on the trusty 45-foot Lukuna at 5am, jetted to Dana Point for bait, and boogied to the 209 spot to find a HUGE pod of dolphin working the seas. Kevin would position the boat in front of the dolphin, Cole and I would chunk bait over the stern of the boat, and then we would fish live sardines in the wake.
Somewhere between the 209 and the line between the 181 and 182 spots (known on the Lukuna as the Porter Run), Ron Fisk hooked up with a sizable Yellowfin Tuna. He had seen Yellowtail break off anxious anglers like his Dad and himself outside of Avalon all summer. This time he had the patience, and after 30 minutes managed to land the fish on a salt-water spinning reel loaded with 20-pound-test line, 25-pound-test leader, and an Owner Size 1 Mutu Circle Hook.

The Yellowfin didn't jump but made several runs after being brought close to the boat, mostly along the surface so we could see his dorsal fin rapidly cut the water 10 to 40 yards off the boat. Great job Ron!

Check out all the pic's from the day's adventure here (click on the link then click"slideshow").

Watching the thousands of dolphin herd bait and up to 12 boats at a time fish alongside the dolphin was a spectacle that we will not soon forget. Thanks Kev!

Later in the day Kevin and Ron jumped into the water to determine whether this kelp paddy held any sizable fish. They found a giant ball of Mackerel but no Dorado or Yellowtail as hoped. Would you have the guts to swim in open water with a chum bucket hanging off the side of the boat?

August Fishing on O'Neil's Boat

Big "props" to Kevin O'Neil for taking us out on the Lukuna for some early August "pattie hoppin". We found some nice schools of dorado under kelp patties between the 181 and 182. Cole O'Neil and Charley West landed dorado, while Caleb O'Neil and I both farmed dorado as well as a baby mako on the 209 spot. Rich West nailed a few sizable blue perch with Kev's speargun - two perch on one shot! The seas between Newport Harbor and the Mexican border are teeming with life this time of year - we spotted an enormous blue wale spouting then sounding, along with the typical large schools of dolphin (multiple species), bait balls, and feeding birds. Thanks again Kev! Click here and click slideshow for all the photographic evidence a fisherman needs!

Camping and Fishing Palomar Mountain

In June we camped at Palomar Mountain State Park and fished Doane Pond with Grace's friend Cory and her family. We leveled out our tent sites with the help of a flat head shovel, and Cory's Dad Adam hung a rope swing from a tall oak for some airy mountain fun. Doane Pond fishing is as good as it gets in Southern California, especially for the kids as the rainbow trout are plentiful and bite as fingerlings or fully mature - enough to put your three-pound line to the test. Yep, they got bass and catfish too. So check out our pics here, and family/friends let us know if you'd like to join us on our next trip!

Into The (East San Diego) Wild

Last weekend I spent three days in east San Diego County to retreat and fish while Vivi and Grace visited Grandma Kay and Grandpa Booth in Seattle. I scouted out the Palomar Mountain campsite we have reserved for the weekend of June 6, fished Doane Pond, Lake Cuyamaca, the San Luis Rey River and Green Valley Creek.

The fish you see in this album are from Doane Pond, the place my Dad taught me to fish back in the 1970s. Dad, those are great memories, so thank you!

And thanks to the folks at sandiegotrout.org, a net prevents the trout stocked in Doane Pond from intruding on the habitat of native rainbow trout in Pauma Creek. I'm a big believer of preserving the environments of our finny friends, be it in our lakes, streams or ocean, so good going guys!

South Point Fishing

Capt. Enno Jones and I figured out some of the basics of South Point fishing last March and we're eager to share them with you! This trip to South Point featured cliffs, constant offshore trade winds and accompanying giant windmills, mammoth bait balls chased by Ulua in aquarium waters, and your intrepid haoles blessed with insight by a cool local, but denied big baits by a native 12 year old. Kiluea had just "cleared her throat" spewing stones and volumes of toxic gray "vog" but we found refuge in the rain forest. Check out our slideshow! If you're interested discovering more secrets to South Point Fishing after viewing the slide show, or if you have further insights on South Point fishing, then leave a comment or email me at g.porter@roadrunner.com. Aloha and mahalo!