I've been wanting to make the run south of CI harbor for a long time, and finally gave it a go today. I was warned that it can be a tough ride back to the harbor with a head sea and afternoon winds in your face, so I tried to pick the right day. I also picked now to do it because I was looking at the temps for Ventura and it was looking warm enough that I thought maybe, just maybe, those tuna that were running up the coast would run right up to either the Hueneme or Mugu Canyons. The data looked really good for it a couple days ago before going off the radar yesterday. I figured I'd run along the canyons and ridge on the way out and look for the right signs, and I had a couple reefs to hit in hopes of bass on the other side of those canyons.
Slept in til 0630, took my sweet time at the ramp and was in the water about 0900. It started raining as I was putting the boat in the water which was a bit of a surprise. Continued to sprinkle intermittently throughout the day.
Surprise surprise, nothing special going on around the canyons on the way out. Pretty cool perspective of the coast from the water, almost reminded me of the Big Sur area.
Arrived at the Deep Hole at about 1030, and the wind picked up from a very light breeze to white caps and heavy rippling...oh boy, gonna be a long day. My line was going sideways in 150' of water and 8oz, so I was toggling the reverse quite a bit. Started getting tapped on whole squid after reseting my drift and then hooked the culprit...
Seems like every spot on the coast north of MDR that's in the 100-200' range is just loaded with whitefish. This spot is known for putting out bass and the occasional WSB/YT but today I was brushed with the usual whitefish curse.
Got a different bite and held my breath...
Got another dink whitefish and decided to find a different reef.
Went to the inside, into 50' or so. Pulled up at the same time as a cattle boat. In 30 minutes, I only saw one fish for their 10 anglers, looked like a good size bass from 50 yards away. Then I got an eater whitefish. They left and I stayed for another 30 minutes alongside 2 other boats. I noticed some dolphins crashing about a mile to the outside, then birds over them. Reeled up and booked it. Arrived on the scene to find exactly what I saw a mile away, and no gamefish. Gave it 15 minutes then headed into the kelp, which was pretty dead outside of some microbait here and there.
Headed in about 1300. The wind died down along with the wind swell, thank god, because it could have been a very wet 3 hour ride in. It was still a very bouncy 90 minute ride. Lots more dolphins on the way in. Holding my breath that the barracuda come through soon. My fish finder (which didn't give me any sonar readings all day...might have fried the transducer?) said it was 65º water, so maybe I can stay local for thresher hunts in the next couple weeks.
