Topics

61

Freshwater Shore Fishing Reports / Things Picked Up 11/12/18

« on: November 12, 2018, 10:59:25 AM »

 Been pretty slow at the urban trash fish spot lately. Last few trips have yielded only one bite each. Lost each of those in the same weeds. Pretty narrow slot to land the fish in.

 Did better this morning. Only lost one fish, missed two bites and managed to land three nicer sized fish for this spot.







The 6 foot extension handle I made for the net helped. Should come in handy for trout season too.

It was nice to get out after having to cut my night catfish short before I even got to the lake, then having run around stuff to do sunday morning.

62

Freshwater Shore Fishing Reports / The Urban Struggle

« on: November 01, 2018, 10:43:28 AM »

 Been off work a couple days for some appointments. Didn't want to waste the whole day and didn't have a lot of time to fool around, so I hit up my local  freshwater for some mixed bag action.

 Just a sample of what is out there.







Also saw a couple nice 3 -4 pound largemouth pulled out by a guy next to me. I was just there to chill and check out the scenery while I soaked some bait.

And, just for fun,

63

Freshwater Shore Fishing Reports / Better Luck This Time 10/28/2018

« on: October 28, 2018, 04:17:33 PM »

 After yesterday's beat down, I wanted a shot at redemption.

 Good thing I didn't get it because no matter how many times I reminded myself to grab the net, I forgot it.

 Anyway, this time I got into a decent carp bite.

 Started off with a smaller model. It was nice to get since yesterday I never got or saw a single bite. The second dead session since I saw all the dead bait fish last month.

 

 Then I got a huge bite. Rod doubled over, drag peeling out, fish rolling on the surface way out there beyond my farthest cast. Good hard fight to shore and the hook pulled. Dang.

 Soon, another big bite. Lost this one too. They head straight for the reeds and bury themselves. They won't swim out and I broke this one off trying to horse it out.

 Next, another smaller model. At least I landed it.



 One more larger model lost in the reeds and the bite died.

 I gave it an hour to see if it would pick back up and packed my gear. On the way out I pass the only other fishable spot and see fish swirls, so I decide to give it a shot. After just a few minutes I get a nice size fish to shore.



 No action for half an hour and I pack up again. Then I see swirls and decide to cast back out and see wakes as the fish bail out. 15 minutes later, I pack up, only to see swirls, recast and spook the fish away again.

 This goes on for another hour or so and I finally make one last cast and throw out the rest of my bait so I have to leave.

So, of course, I get bit. Another nicer fish, and now I have no bait.



Pack it in, grab a burger and a beer, buy some more bait and head home. Not a bad morning. Going to give it another shot tomorrow before I head to the Dr.

 

64

Freshwater Shore Fishing Reports / Beat Down by a Dinosaur 10/27/18

« on: October 27, 2018, 11:48:47 AM »

Hit up the new carp spot this morning, hoping to get a few fish to play. No luck, but after several hours soaking I decided to toss a bait close in where I saw some bubbles pop up now and then.

Before long, I noticed my line was moving to the right slowly. I grabbed the rod, line kept moving so I set the hook. Felt like I hooked a tree, but it came towards me slowly. Then it started to pulsate and head the other way. Slowly, but definitely not a tree.

I was able to gain some line and finally got my swivel in view. My rod tip was at water level, I was cupping the spool to keep from losing line, but I couldn’t raise it any farther.

Finally I was able to lift just a few more inches and saw a tail a foot long and a clawed foot nearly the size of my hand.  Which quickly disappeared into the murky water and buried itself under the reeds.

I was freaked out. I never expected to see that. Neither did my shoreline neighbors who brought their net.  They handed it to me and I let go of the spool to try to net the beast. No dice. Back into the reeds.

Tried three or four more times to net it, but it wouldn’t fit into the net. The net was 18-20 inches across and just wouldn’t fit around. It just kept bouncing off the hard shell.

I finally broke off, never saw more than a tail, feet, claws, and some shell. Online pics of snapping turtles look right, but who knows.

It was pretty damn cool though.

65

Salt Water Shore Fishing Reports / Back On Schedule 10/23/18

« on: October 24, 2018, 10:44:29 AM »

 Back to the usual times, places, and people. Finally. Been awhile. Have to train a new bartender.

 Grabbed a couple beers to discuss the nights plans. Beach scouting report pointed to a favorable looking beach and we headed over.

 Hit the sand and got set up just as the surfers were heading out. Tom had a fun conversation with one guy regarding our target species.

 Baits in and Tom is nervous. Left his license in the car. For the sake of peace of mind, he made the trudge to go get it. Apparently his workout regimen needs work. I'm not one to talk on that subject.

 First bait in and I get a bite. Comes back a hollow shell of its former self.

 Put out a second and before long I have a screamer. Nice.

 Pretty decent fight gets me the fish of the night.



Bait up, cast out and start passing the time listening to Tom tell some good stories. I start to get nervous that I should check my bait, start to interrupt, and it's another screamer. Sweet. Kinda surprised to pull this guy up on the sand.



Well, after all the fast and furious action I was having right off the bat, we knew it was going to be a good night. It was, but not action packed. Tom pretty much watched lobsters eat his bait for almost the whole night.

Eventually, he got a real bite and set the hook on a nice turd roller. Even I could feel how relieved he was to finally be on the board.



Weeds started showing up, not bad, but a pain when the bigger sets rolled through. Finally Tom gets one final fish to end the night.



Snagged it in the back, right next to the stinger. Challenging release to say the least.

It was nice to get back out on the sand.

66

Saltwater Boat Fishing Reports / Super Fun 2.5 Day 10/15/18

« on: October 15, 2018, 09:39:22 AM »

Don't even know where to begin.

Thanks to Charter Master Extraordinaire Tommy, the crew of the Pacific Voyager, and the great people I shared the deck with.

Arrived at Seaforth Friday afternoon. Skies were a little cloudy and rain was in the forecast along with some good wind. Everyone was a little concerned, but, we were all prepared for whatever may come.



Had a great potluck while waiting to board. My favorite was the venison pastrami. Dave did it all himself from harvest to final product. Amazing.

As we boarded, there was lightning in the sky and light rain was falling. Uh oh, is this even a good idea?

We assembled in the galley, Capt. Mark went over the options, said not to sweat the weather, it was beautiful offshore.  Game plan was BFT at Clemente Saturday with a backup plan to head to Tanner bank if things weren't happening.

We never got to Tanner.

After a somewhat bumpy night, we arrived near the zone. Skies looked a little ominous, but the weather had laid down some and there was no lightning or rain.



We began looking for fish. Some boats had caught some, and we were a little late to the party, but hopeful.

It didn't take long until we began to get some bites on bait. A few fish came on the flat fall, but mostly bait. Chum was key. We had a mix of mostly small dines and some large. We chummed with small and fished with the large. Worked great. They threw75% of the bait we had before the day was over. "Whatever it takes" was the call of the day.

Most fish were in the 20-30lb class. Light line was the key 20-25 was getting bit. 30+ was not. Tommy went down to 17 and did well. I had a hard time getting bit on 20 so I dropped down to 15. I got bit. 20lb fish, no big deal. Got another a little later.

Things slowed down and after a tasty lunch, I grabbed a quick nap. Woke up to the motors winding down as we stopped on another meter mark. Hit the deck, grabbed my 15lb set up and put a bait out. Instant bite. Still groggy, I couldn't believe my eyes when fish boiled around us. These weren't 20-30lb fish.

Well, I resigned myself to getting chewed off. It didn't happen. There were about 8 of us hooked up. Being dragged around the boat. Several times. 8 for me. Everyone else had 20-25. I finally got my fish in, the first of the group. Several were lost. I was all super proud of my big tuna until Dom, the cook, landed his. It was much bigger than mine. Then all the others came in. Bigger too. They were 50lb fish. Mine was maybe 30. Crazy thing is, I fought that fish at least an hour on 15 without getting chewed off and the hook was a foot down its throat. Go figger.


My fish

The other fish. Nicky had this one on longer than I had mine.

Conditions just got better as the day went on.




Great dinner of rib eye steaks, and we made a big move down the beach overnight to fish YFT and dorado.


A little windier, but a nice day. Not a cloud in sight most of the day.

We started off trolling and looking for paddies.

Lots of cruising, not lots of paddies. A couple jig strikes that didn't amount to much.

There were a couple stops that were WFO. Skippies mixed with YFT. The water was so clear you could watch the fish rocket toward your bait and sometimes pull it away before the skippies ate it. One of the paddies was holding dorado. Probably a dozen of them came off it. That paddy was a three second bite. Cast, count to three and set the hook.  Sometimes you didn't get to three. Super fun. The sacks were stuffed, deckhands gaffing fish right and left. Popper fish, colt sniper fish. I even got 6 on a swimbait I tried just for fun. I scored two on a colt sniper, and a bunch on bait. Not big fish but WFO footballs is a blast.













We even got intel on satellite marked kelps, but when we got there, we found just the beacon. It came off the kelp.



Cool to see. Capt. Mark said they go for around a grand.

Even with the pandemonium of a hot bite, we all worked together. Very few fish were lost to tangles. I can think of two or three, but many bluefin were chewed off after long battles, Some right at the boat.

After all was said and done, these people,


Came home with this,


61 BFT, Limits of YFT some dorado and a few yellowtail.

Capt. Mark, 2nd Charlie, Mitch and Cody on deck and Dom cooking. Great crew for a great trip.

67

Fishing Talk / If All Goes Well

« on: October 12, 2018, 05:22:17 AM »

If things play out favorably, I will have a report to put up next week in the Saltwater Boat Fishing area.

Hoping for the best.

68

Freshwater Shore Fishing Reports / New Game in Town

« on: October 06, 2018, 04:37:46 AM »

 Got up last Sunday morning and decided to explore some urban spots I have known about for some time but never really checked out.

 Should have done it a long time ago.

 I had three places I wanted to look at. I never went to the last two.

 When I got to spot 1, I ran into a local who gave me the rundown. Bass, crappie, carp, bullheads.

 Dang, where have I been. This isn't quite my backyard, but not far away.

 Decided to soak some bait and see  what happened. Did I mention he gave me the secret carp bait?

 I tossed a couple baits out and got a few fish. Not huge, but fun. Great for those days when the surf is up, or you just want to make a quick trip.











 Nothing huge, yet, but good fun. Headed there in a few.

69

Fishing Talk / Shark Bite Today

« on: September 29, 2018, 11:38:21 AM »

Kid sounds badly hurt. Hope for the best.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/Teen-Bitten-by-Shark-in-Encinitas-494697911.html%3famp=y

70

Saltwater Boat Fishing Reports / Mental Recharge

« on: September 15, 2018, 10:54:23 AM »

 Been on a slow streak lately. Not much happening shark wise, bass/halibut fishing in the surf is harder than Joel makes it look, and even the lagoon isn't doing much for me lately.

 Between that and work being a drag lately, I needed to get out.

 Checked the counts, checked the weather, and made a decision to jump on a boat. 3/4 day they call full day now. I would have liked to fish the islands but everybody was going offshore. That's OK, I like that too.

 One boat required passports, and I reasoned that with the forecast being slightly windy, that would allow us to fish the islands if it got sporty. Weather got a little windy but not bad and we ended up stayin offshore all day.

 Boat was the Grande, out of H&M. Scheduled 530 departure, more like 550, but whatever. Hit the bait barge, loaded up on mixed size dines.

 Rolled out to west of the islands, deckie called everyone to the back of the boat for safety/fishing talk. Between the motor noise and him turning his head to talk to everybody, I heard almost nothing he said. Heard it before anyway, but not real helpful for the rent rodders. Then they put wristbands on us. Mexican government requirement for fishing near the islands in the biosphere zone. Interesting, probably a fee collection deal.

 Talk was interupted by a jigstrike on the trollers and we got into a good bunch of bonito. We were later chastised for basic cluster f@ck performance when the safety talk resumed. I got one bonito on the iron on my first cast of the day. Retired that rod hoping the first cast curse didn't affect the other two I brought.

 The day was spent trolling around, and stopping on meter marks. Lots of boats in the area, most stops resulted in just a few fish. We went pretty far south of the islands. At the end of the day it took at least an hour and a half, maybe 2 heading north to pass them.

 The best stop we had resulted in maybe 40 fish, mixed skippies and football yft. I got a skipjack and two yellowfin on that stop. Two fish on flyline smaller dine and the third on a buthooked dine. The bigger baits didn't seem to get bit. I did get one other bite, but it dropped off when I got pulled in by a jig. Jig guy was friendly, but told me he didn't know how to use the GPS on his boat, so he took the trip to get numbers by tracking with his phone. I saw him drink about 4 "weed waters" so I'm not sure if he messed up his settings or what, but I did hear him say on the way back that the tracking stopped in Mexican waters. Not sure about that really.

 We stopped on several paddies, and drove by many more. None were holding. I don't think we were even the third boat to hit any of them.

 Eventually after fishing all day we had to head home. Advertised ETA was 530, we passed the islands around 5, so we stayed out longer than advertised.

 The boat continued to look for fish and stop on marks until we were past the islands. The biggest fish came on one of these late stops. I was able to get a nicer yft, maybe 15-18 lbs, a nice young lady fishing a spinner hooked up at the same time, her fish probably went 20-22. Funny thing is, on Instagram, there is a picture of another girl with the fish. That girl didn't catch anything. Not sure what is up with that, but I'm pretty sure it is an evil conspiracy.

 Got back to the dock around 715. Checked the other boats counts on the way in and found we were the dog of the fleet. Not sure what the captain could have done differently, the other boats were in sight most of the day. We just didn't drive over them. I was happy with the fish I caught, but, would have been happier to catch more.  I will give props to Tyler for nice head gaffs on my tuna, not the world famous "San Diego Gaff" in the meat.

 Fish were gunny sacked during the bite, then into a bleed bucket with a gill cut, then into RSW. Seemed like a decent way to handle them.

 I used 15# flouro, and a #2, or #4 ringed hook. Not sure really because I just grabbed it out of my center console where it was mixed in with my loose change. Some fish were caught on colt snipers, but mostly on the medium size sardine.

Sorry for no pics, but I was fishing.

 Cheers, Dave, see you trout fishing soon.

71

Salt Water Shore Fishing Reports / Mysteries of the Surf 8/26/18

« on: August 26, 2018, 10:57:43 AM »

Decided to sling a little iron this morning.

Hit a beach I have tried a few times with some success but not any great scores. It just seems like it should hold fish.

Picked a spot and started casting. 1oz P line laser minnow. Used to be green mackerel but it’s white now from the sand scouring the paint off.

Cast for awhile up and down the chosen area for nada. Then I look over to see a mysterious figure at my side. Chat some, then start casting. I spoke a small pop of bait and make a cast.

Hook up. Almost didn’t believe it. Nothing special, but it was a fish. And I had a witness. Not bad.

A short time later, the shadowy figure moves on and I keep working the zone. Another bait pop, another bump but no hook up. Dang.

Had two bass follow my jig into the shore break but they ran out of water before deciding to commit.

Ready to leave, casting and walking, thump, I’m bit. Good fight. Pulling drag.  Halfway in the hook pulls. Never saw it. Another mystery of the surf.

Will I get up early for a morning session before work? Even I don’t know the answer.

72

Freshwater Shore Fishing Reports / Triple Limit with a Bullet 8/17/2018

« on: August 18, 2018, 08:36:48 AM »

 Went to get me a ten pounder to win the catfish contest. Or at least have some fun trying.

 Got to the lake about 645. Pretty damn warm. I ended up sweating all night.

 Hoofed it to my spot. I had done well there two weeks ago. Well, what do you know? The Lao guy who watched me catch was right where I wanted to be. No problem. He is cool, we share.

 As I set up, I see the guys across the lake hook up. Then when they put the fish on the stringer I see 2-3 more on it already. There were 6 of them. They limited all 6 guys by 9 and went home. Handed off the spot to 2 more guys who both limited and a third guy I'm not sure about. Damn. Spot mentally noted. Pretty far to hoof it all the way there.

 Anyway, I watched the carnage awhile before I got on the board. So did Lao. Don't know his name, he doesn't know mine, but we are catfishing buddies now.

 As the night passed, I got bit, he got bit, I even got 2 solo doubles. Then I see him packing up. Limits for him and his wife.

 I slid into his spot. It was a little better than where I was fishing.

 Catfish action was off the hook I had twelve, decided to quit at 15 and ended up with 16 since my last rod got bit as I packed my stuff.

 Nothing worth measuring, 2-4 pound fish, but it was a fun night.

 Didn't even take pics.

73

Freshwater Shore Fishing Reports / Better the Second Time Around 7/27/18

« on: July 28, 2018, 07:49:36 AM »

 Decided to give Poway lake another try after a dismal first try at night fishing last week. Stayed til closing without a bite.

Last night was a big difference. I had two before dark.

Started off the evening bobber fishing the ravenous tiny bluegill. If I had a smaller hook I would have had hundreds. When the bobber hit the water they just mobbed my bait. Crazy.

Got bored with that and set out my catfish rods. The bites were pretty subtle. Small tugs followed by larger pulls and then nothing else. A check for weight resulted in a hook up, or sometimes a missed fish that wasn’t done chewing.

Only two bites were full on slammers. One stuck one didn’t.

Nice night overall. Ended up with 7 fish for the night. Released. All were cookie cutter stockers, nothing big.

Maybe next time.

74

Salt Water Shore Fishing Reports / MOVED: Shore fishing San Diego Sharks and Rays

« on: July 14, 2018, 11:59:48 AM »

This topic has been moved to Fishing Talk.

http://prehistoricsoul.com/forum/index.php?topic=3107.0

Not really a report and I haven’t moved something in a while.

75

Salt Water Shore Fishing Reports / Old School 7/1/18

« on: July 01, 2018, 05:04:09 PM »

 Got out this morning for some old school light tackle action.

 Incoming tide and the long bomb got me into some good action.

 YFC, BSP, Corbina.

 And a couple of these guys.





Just as fun as I remember.