I was hyping myself up all week on launching out of Dana Point and fishing the 14 for bluefin, but once my weekend came, the tuna seemed to have left. I also heard that the 14 isn't a consistent spot for pelagics, so it didn't seem smart to make that a Plan A. Didn't feel like a San Diego trip for the 9, so I went back to the thresher hunt.
I was originally thinking of launching from MDR and trying the Malibu area, but on top of some other reports of threshers showing up in VC, Adam's report from yesterday sealed the deal on my locale for today.
So I launched from Ventura Harbor at 0800 and headed north looking for life. No fish finder today. Transducer has been shot the last few trips (new one came in the mail while I was on the water, along with a new sliding mount). Wind was already up outside the harbor but it mellowed up the coast. I trolled a Rapala Magnum, a cedar plug, and a sabiki rig.
No bites on anything! Not even a mackerel. Not much life out there today. In 30 miles round trip, I saw one seal and a few handfuls of smelt under kelps. A pelican diving on a white cap here and there. Lots of salad in the water from 100 yards out to half a mile out, which made trolling difficult in some spots and impossible in others. Didn't think salad could be such a problem outside of the shore break, but now I know! Tried my best to work around the color break in the water, since that's the only place I saw bait in the water.
Pretty day though. Til next week.
