The following blog was written by my 12 year old daughter Madison about her day fishing on the Viking 60' BAD COMPANY.........My first time fishing with TEAM BAD COMPANY was a memory I’ll never forget. My day on BAD COMPANY was so awesome. I caught my first marlin. Captain Steve Lassley was in his usual spot up on the bridge, and Captain Pete Groesbeck was busy in the cockpit. I’ve never seen such an amazing pair of guys working together. Steve would say, “Hey Pete…” but before he could finish his sentence Pete would shout back, “Ok, I’m on it.” I got to go fishing with BAD COMPANY right off San Clemente Island (close to Catalina) while I was helping my dad, Scott Lampe, at the Viking Fishing Roundup and Rendezvous. One night while we were sitting on the deck of the Pacific Provider, Captain Steve asked me if I wanted to go fishing the next morning. Was he kidding? I’d never pass up a chance to fish with him, Pete, Mr. Anthony Hsieh, Michael Gardella, Mary Foust and Andrew S. from Viking Yachts! I was so excited I sprinted to go tell my dad… “Steve asked me if I wanted to go fishing with them tomorrow, OMG (OH MY GOD) I’m going fishing tomorrow on my dream boat and dream crew.” I was so exited it didn’t even dawn on me that we might actually catch something.
The next morning, not knowing what time they were leaving, I got up at 6:30am. I didn’t want them to leave without me so I got ready as fast as I could. When I got outside to breakfast (looking forward to it because Chef Drew’s food is so good) it was too early so breakfast wasn’t served yet. That was a bummer! I walked over to Steve and asked when were going, he said whenever the boss is ready (I thought he was going to be ready in like ten minutes). But we left at about 8:30, which was ok because then I got to eat breakfast with everyone else on the Pacific Provider. So we were soon on our way. We left San Clemente heading towards Catalina. We didn’t see anything so we dropped Mr.Hsieh off at the dock for the Catalina flyer so he could get back home. Then we headed back out.
At that time Pete was mixing up something weird looking and smelling. So I stayed up on the bridge with Steve. He said were going to go make bait. I’ve made bait before with my grandpa Alex, but they do it so different than I’ve ever done with my grandpa. With my grandpa we drop our lines in when we see a boil. We didn’t do that with Steve. We looked on the fish finder and stoked them. Then he would bring the stern on top of them and would announce, “Drop the lines.” If the fish didn’t bite the line within 5 seconds (not joking!) we would try another spot. When we saw a boil Pete threw the weird stuff in the water and the mackerels ate it. When we had caught enough bait I went back up to the bridge and Steve looked at me and said “ I don’t think we're going to catch much today Maddie. The water is too green and there’s not a bunch of stuff out right now. But I’ll try my hardest.” I nodded my head thinking, OK, but we’re still going to catch a marlin today.
We went over to Church Rock and put the jigs in the water. About five minutes later I hear one of the lines just scream. I turn around to hear Pete yelling “WE GOT ONE.” But before anything else happened the fish was off the hook. But I was already down stairs ready to go. So I went back up where Steve and Michel were talking, and Steve was saying, “Dang it Michael, that was at least 260 pounds… Sorry Maddie you weren’t supposed to hear that.” (Because he probably didn’t want me to get upset) but I was ok with hearing that because I was so exited that we even got a strike on a jig. After a bit of seeing nothing I spotted a marlin, but then I lost it. Then a couple of seconds latter Andrew spotted another one. Steve yelled at Pete to get on the bow because we spotted one. Pete cast a line to the fish (the best cast I’ve ever seen!) and within a second the line was going out of control, then Steve looked over at me and said “Go Maddie that’s your fish.” I got down stairs and Pete gave me the rod. Pete told me how to reel the marlin in, and he told me to just let him run if he goes. After about 5 minutes of that I was thinking that it was too bad my dad isn’t here. By that time Steve was on the radio saying I was hooked, but luckily my dad just turned on the radio and heard that. So captain Rich of the Pacific Provider changed their course and was heading over to where Bad Company was. As soon as they got close they started honking their horn, at that time Pete, Andrew, and Michel were gaffing my marlin, and pulling it in the boat. It was so funny that the Pacific Provider was right there when they were pulling in my fish. I was so tired after I spent 45 minutes reeling in that fish that keep getting closer and then going far out. I was soaked with salt water from head to toe, and frozen stiff.
The Pacific Provider and Bad Company said that they would meet up at the famous ROSIE’S GREEN PIER later. But for now we would keep fishing. We didn’t catch anything but we saw a couple more marlin.
When we got to THE GREEN PIER, Steve said that there was too much swell so we couldn’t pull in. But that didn’t stop us, we got on the skiff and towed the marlin in. We finally got on the pier to weigh in the fish, Caleb weighed in my marlin. It weighed 137 pounds. I was really happy because I got my name put on the board on the side of Rosie’s. After that we towed the fish back to Bad Company and when we got there Ali and Chuck (from the Surly Mermaid) were on the boat. We all went back to the Pacific Provider, Ali got to drive and when we got there, we did a 360 on the Bad Company, it was awesome! We took so many pictures; Ali added that we should take a picture with my head next to the marlin's, it turned out that it was the best picture. After that Chuck filleted my fish and I got to make the first cut. Chuck also held a biology session and opened the stomach and saw what it ate the last few days, it ate some green, and blue mackerels. We all just hung out and drank some sodas for my sisters and I, and other stuff for the people over 21. I got to stay up way late that night and drove Ali and Chuck back to their boat in Avalon with my dad and John.
When we came back I fished on the back of Bad Company and all of a sudden a school of squid shot by and chasing them was a seal. I told Steve and he grabbed for a pole, but he wasn’t fishing for squid, he was just fishing. It was so funny, it was one of the funniest and most fun days ever! That was my day with BAD COMPANY, the boys, and Mary.
