I punched in 200-250 coordinates out of a certain book on SoCal fishing over the last week, have multiple reels and rods from Daiwa I still haven't used, boxes of lures in styles I haven't tried, and the weather hasn't been letting me work out any of it! Weather forecast was playing with my heart all week as I looked to Saturday to launch the boat, and it finally settled on decent conditions to launch by Friday after work. Put together a game plan for trying 10-20 spots behind the LB breakwall since the wind swell still looked unpleasant. Decided at the last minute not to bring any squid, and focus on refining my techniques with artificials instead.
Launched late, about 1030. The dock talk was that it was glassy out, mentioned stupid quick limit of turd rollers at Izor's, and I was after shallow water taco meat today. I knew the tide change would probably make early guys' days and my day vastly different, but it wasn't too far out of my way.
It was very nice outside the harbor, pretty flat and a light breeze. Sunny, almost hot. 59º water all day. Bluer water once I got to the 80-100' zone. 20 minute ride to Izor's and gaffed a karma point on the way over.
First few stones had a few marks but no players. Started with an 80g flat fall, tried a few retrieves over decent marks for nada. Used a 2oz c-rig with a gulp jerk shad and got bit on the retrieve about 30' off the bottom. Better than a turd roller. Nice healthy calico.
As soon as I pulled it up, someone got out ahead of my drift and anchored up where I caught it. There are plenty of other spots just in this square mile alone, so no problem for me.
Struggled to get bit for a while. Wasn't seeing much bass biomass on the sonar. Saw a decent amount of smelt and mackerel on the surface and in the midwater column, and small pockets of bass predictably situated tight to the ledges.
And that's why it surprised me that my next fish bit probably 20' under the boat!
Less surprisingly, a boater slid up on the top of my drift immediately. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but bet your boots I'm saving for Spotlock.
Missed another on the drop, didn't get the hookset right.
There were white caps by 1300, but it wasn't unmanageable. Still the bite wasn't amounting to much, and I had enough taco meat for my lady and I for dinner, so it was time to look for greener pastures.
Just on the 20 minute ride over to the breakwall, the wind started to pick up big time. Got soaked. Wanted to see just how sheltered it would be over there so trudged through. Ended up being a quick but manageable drift tight to the wall, but totally unruly elsewhere. A few quick drifts, then metered a couple different saved pinpoints, then rode the wet and wild couple miles back to Huntington Harbor.
Forgot the fillet knife at home for my cleaner quick kill and filleting on the water, but they should still make for good fish tacos.
Still a slow day by some standards, but I'm putting together a ton of information. The 2oz c-rig was a new take on deeper presentations for me and it worked out well. I'm surprised the flat fall didn't get bit and I'm gonna keep working with that. I've got a few other new lures to try, and gotta refine my approach with everything. When the water warms I'll try some spots in 30-60', but the 80-100' range is still comfortable right now. I'll probably check out the local rockfish spots soon as well. It's only a matter of weeks before more boaters come out on the weekends, so I'm gonna explore some of those other 200 coordinates when the Joneses in their Parkers start playing bumper boats on the more well known reefs.
