Whaler Central - Boston Whaler Boat Information and Photos

Posted by grahams98 on 04/14/08 - 1:51 PM

I'm coming down to fish SoCal in late June and was hoping to fish Catalina. I've got a 17FT Boston Whaler Montauk with GPS, VHF, Compass, SeaTow, 100HP outboard, 20 gallons of fuel, 8HP kicker and all the coast guard required safety gear. I've done this run when I was young in similar a size boat and remember some 'kidney buster' runs back to Balboa. This time I'm going to have a couple teenagers with me and want to be certain it's a good idea before I go.

Oh yeah...I will definitely check the weather before going and monitor the weather band.

I'd appreciate some advice,

Steve

Posted by PJHarold on 04/15/08 - 7:39 AM

Steve,

I moved here from Portland ten years ago... my wife worked close to you out in Orchards. I haven't made the run over to Catalina but I do fish out of Marina del Rey and Channel Islands Harbor making the run over to Anacapa and Santa Cruz Islands. There is quite good rock cod fishing nearer to shore all along the SoCal coast. Catalina is around 27 nautical miles from Newport, if that's where your running from. One 20 gallon tank is a bit sparse, I would think you would have to fuel up over there for sure. Best if you can find someone to buddy boat with.
Having commercial fished in the Northwest for 10 years I can say that we have a similar summer time wind pattern down here, that like the Northwest Coast comes up around noon or so, usually West or Northwest. This can sometimes make the Channel crossing pretty snotty. Good luck.

This is a helpful fishing report link for the Southcoast.

http://www.allcoast.com/discussion/To...rum_ID=315

Paul Harold
83' 18 Outrage
Hollywood Hills, California

Posted by PJHarold on 04/17/08 - 5:07 PM

Steve,

No live-tank. I used to, but found that I catch enough fish with frozen squid.
Live bait is pretty expensive and if you get out onto the grounds and it rolls your back to presenting dead bait. Most of the guys down here won't leave home without it though. If they were out fishing me I'd probably fret over it... The truth of the matter is, you just have to get over the fish and present something they want. Just about everything in the ocean eats squid.

I keep a bucket and a sabiki rig handy to catch mackerel if I want to soak a live bait.

I'm not cheap, I'm just under-employed.

Paul

Edited by PJHarold on 04/17/08 - 7:36 PM

Posted by sternorama on 04/21/08 - 9:05 AM

I've done this half a dozen times the last year or so... if you want the shortest crossing launch at Cabrillo Beach and head to Two harbors. Another thing I usually do is make sure I am on my way back home by 1:00 or so in the afternoon. I'm always looking for an excuse to run to the island-let me know if you are interested in a buddy boat.

Posted by Rich Vonk on 04/21/08 - 5:41 PM

I don't know about going to Catalina Island but I've made 3 trips from Bridgman,Mi to Chicago Harbor, IL. It's 53 miles of open water and it isn't the ocean, but its still a pretty big body of water. The biggest thrill ever was the wake thrown by a 1,000 foot freighter. Sometimes we had to run slow but never ran into anything the Montauk couldn't handle.

Posted by scotty818 on 04/21/08 - 6:12 PM

Boy, I cant wait to get over to Catalina myself. Had the 17 montauk for about 2 mos. now and have pretty much stuck along the coast ( Long beach to Huntington )
Sounds like a Catalina Whaler get together wouldn't be a bad idea.
Buy the way, sternorama how much fuel did you burn and how long did it take ?
Scott B)

Posted by sternorama on 04/23/08 - 8:59 AM

#10

I'm running an Edgewater 175cc now with an F115, and I have made the round trip from Huntington Harbor to Two Harbors (60 miles round trip, plus 10 or so miles for fishing and sight seeing) on 14-19 gallons, depending on how loaded the boat is, how hard I drive it, and the sea state. I got similar mileage on my old 17' Whaler with the 60 hp Johnson 2s and a light load. Not counting the putt through the harbor it is usually about a 2 hour crossing, although I have made it in 1 hour on a solo trip when it was smooth. Typically I run fast for a while, and then stop for a few to relax from the pounding.

For a non-fishing pleasure cruise, I suggest breakfast at Doug's Diner in Two Harbors. A few weeks ago, we left my house in HB with the trailer just before 7am, and were ordering breakfast by 10:30.

Also, I anchored in Fisherman's Cove just a quarter of a mile or so from the pier at Two Harbors using the bow and stern anchor method that eveeryone else there uses, and that worked out very well. Getting to shore or the dingy dock is another story, but I have a small inflatable for that, or when the water warms up a bit a short swim will work. If we have a few boats, we can shuttle each other, and only one guy has to swim : )

If I see a weather window and I get another kitchen pass, I'll let you know.

p.s. Any of you done any spearfishing? I just got a pole spear, and I'm looking forward to trying it out...

-G

Posted by psterling76 on 04/23/08 - 11:29 AM

#11

This trip sounds right up my ally. I would love to cruise to Catalina over a weekend, maybe spend the night, camp and travel back in the morning or whatever. I don't know a lot of boat ramps, but if you guys are doing it, let me know and I'll make the arrangements to cruise. I've also got a 17' Montauk.

Posted by jvz on 04/23/08 - 4:31 PM

#12

Oh man,you are bringing up some fantastic memories .... I have made that crossing a million times growing up. I grew up in Balboa, ("F" street to be exact) down by the wedge. Best body surfing in the world. We used to cross in a 17' Montauk and an 18' Outrage. We would check conditions of course and always leave at sun up,6 am with glassy conditions and sometimes just follow the Catalina Flyer, the big cattle boat going to Avalon.Capt. Tim,... i believe he still runs that Cat . Great boat ramp and trailer storage at Newport Dunes.

We would go to Whites cove,the Balboa Yacht club has a great facility at Whites.The Isthmus (twin harbors) is a great hang as well, if i remember correctly the bearing is 241 and about 30 nautical miles. Keep a look out for the kelp line when you get in close. Call ahead if you want a mooring !!

Such a great experience for teens,PLAN ACCORDINGLY ... CLIP THAT ENGINE KEY LANYARD TO WHOMEVER IS AT THE HELM WHILE RUNNING. Have your charts ...RPM's - fuel, Run steady ,.. do a radio check every 30 min. Extra fuel is always nice(pricey on the island)All safety precautions ... you know what i mean. Keep a camera on hand, flying fish,dolphins and of course whatever you catch, should you decide to fish on the way over. Hang a light over the transom at night for bait.

I am very stoked for you and the kids, have a great trip and tell us about it ,.. post some pics.

JVZ

Edited by jvz on 04/23/08 - 10:30 PM

Posted by grahams98 on 04/28/08 - 10:25 AM

#13

Thanks for the advice...as this trip gets closer, I'm getting more and more excited. The idea of drifting over a kelp paddy and having my son or his buddy set into a WSB or YT is way more exciting than catching one myself. As I've had my son out with me on the Columbia and Willamette Rivers recently it's become really clear to me that we only get a short window of time to share these experiences and pass these passions down to our kids. I'll post a ton of pictures when we get back. Until then here's one from yesterday fishing in downtown Portland.

I've dumped some serious cash into the boat trying to catch up on maintenance that just wasn't done by the previous owner so I'm hoping that pays dividends to do that in advance.

BTW: I'm playing with the idea of renting a hotel room for the night in Avalon so any thoughts on that would be appreciated as well.

Posted by sternorama on 04/28/08 - 10:57 AM

#14

If you call the hotels they are pretty quick to mention their have a 2 or 3 day minimum or whatever for their reservations-and that tends to put me off. What I found out, though, one time when I got stuck over there is that if you just walk up and ask for a room once you are there all of a sudden is no 3-day minimum! I stayed for one night at the Attwater-an old place with some character-I really liked it. So I guess the trick is to figure out if they are going to have any occupancies-and that probably depends on what time of year you are visiting. Good luck!

Posted by grahams98 on 07/17/08 - 3:40 PM

#15

Hi All,

I thought I'd post on this since you all were so helpful with your advice. We took off from Washington for California June 27th and planed to fish the Delta in Rio Vista. We picked my good friend and his son in Southern Oregon and made our way down only to set up camp with 50MPH winds. It was almost funny looking at our staked tent bending over totally sideways...we decided at that point to break camp :( (11:30PM Saturday) and drive all night to Marina Del Rey (Los Angeles area) we got to the ramp and launched at 7AM. The wind had started to blow and the water was cooling down quickly so the bite was off and we didn't catch anything. We fished Newport, Dana Point and San Diego for the next five days with slow conditions as the water had cooled from near 70 all the way down to 59-63 degrees. Since the conditions weren't perfect and my 'crew' experienced seasickness we mostly stayed close or in the harbors. Tried the La Jolla kelp and the Clemente Domes with no love and heard the same from most of the locals. All in all it was an awesome experience to have our two boys with us to share so many new things for them and to revisit a lot of my youth. The boat did great! The bow mount trolling motor with the remote allowed us to go places that just would have been possible otherwise.