So, I've noticed a hell of a lot of water in the boat when draining it everytime I'm home as well as an abundance of wet things in my hatches. I couldn't find the issue, but suspected the bait pump. Only issue is the pump intake is built into the hull and not an actual through-hull with stop-c*ck. Not a very good design, but I wouldn't be able to check it out unless I was ON the water.
I was supposed to take out my buddy who helped me install the attic ladder, but the night before called me up and said both of his kids tested positive for C-19. He still wanted to go, but I had to give him a pass until next trip. Squatch got the call and plans were to go on a halibut hunt. Woke up in the morning to see a text he busted up his hip and was out.
I was considering only going for trout, but was already set up for inshore, so I stuck with the plan. The ramp was empty and the sky was gorgeous.
The cloud formations on the way out were crazy cool!
I also brought my telescoping camera and GoPro in case I saw any Tax Men or Whales. In the meantime, took some great pictures of the coast on the way out.
I always loved when inland was clear and the coast was cloudy because the mountains were always more fun and visible. Pacific Beach.
La Jolla with the snow covered mountains in the background.
So now the fishing part... I only found one mackerel and a bunch of bigger smelt, but they they were even hard to catch. i brought the 2# ultra-light trout rod and had some fun catching the bait. Big smelt fight harder than trout and jump like little tarpon on the little gear. I can't lie, I had fun catching them.
I put out the mackerel and started super slow trolling with the electric motor and casting plastics at the same time. I caught two calico in short order, but they were only about 12" each, when the slow trolled mack got SLAPPED! It was so loud and the line was dead limp, so I reeled in an empty hook. My guess is a Thresher tail slapped the mack off, but it just reminded me of very shark like. I tried fishing with the smelt looking for halibut, but was getting nowhere. As I was talking to Dave on the phone, a Great White breached right in front of me while I was talking to him! Probably 10' and I was pitching a smelt out to him while trying to get the GoPro all set up. Unfortunately, he went down and I spent the next 30 minutes looking for him with no luck.
I set up a camera to try and catch another breach, but it never happened.
I switched up to bounce balling and forgot how boring that type of fishing was. I noticed the rod was bouncing more than usual, and reeled up a little 14" halibut on the hoochie! I went to swing him up but forgot how much tackle was all over between the leader, flasher, big weight and he slammed the inside of the gunnel and flopped back in. I did some circles in the area and got a much better hit! This one was about 1/2" shy of legal, so not bad!
I was bored to tears, so decided to look for some whales off shore. I thought I was seeing a pod of dolphin, but realized it was foaming yellows! I slid on up and cast a big 13" smelt out since I didn't have an iron tied on. Instant hook up, but after a blistering run, the circle hook pulled. f@cking circle hooks!!!!
I tied on another smelt and cast it out and saw 6 boats running at me at 60 mph! Down went the yellows of course and missed my chance... I slow trolled a weighted smelt and fly lined smelt for the next hour for nothing.
I dropped a heavy iron down on marks I saw near the bottom, but only got the wrong kind, so stopped doing that.
Oh well, I found the leak as my bait pump housing is cracked, but it is a poorly designed area, so not sure how I'm going to fix it. Anyway, I called it the day since I solved the leaking issue, winter YT spot, Bounce Balling Halibut, and saw ANOTHER GW breaching! Not a bad morning to get out.
