Topics

1786

Saltwater Boat Fishing Reports / Go Big...or Go Home... (6/29)

« on: July 05, 2014, 06:49:08 PM »

I gave myself for a chance at a WSB....   Could it be???



Crap....  This repeated itself twice today.  The culprit.



Not a ghost...  but sort of related being a bat....

I went home without a ghost, but I did get my blood pumping on those two bats.  For a second there, I was fooled.

1787

General Board / Fireworks Drone

« on: July 05, 2014, 05:08:22 PM »

There is no end to what could be seen through a GoPro....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvkcqgpZJCw

Enjoy!

1788

Salt Water Shore Fishing Reports / Firework Bycatch (7/4)

« on: July 05, 2014, 05:03:24 PM »

Steve and I headed out at O' dark thirty on the Fourth of July to beat the crowds.  I got to the beach at 4:15 and Steve was there soon after. 
We fished pretty hard when Steve looked to have a nice Leo on the line.  He grabbed the rod, but never got the hook really set into the fish's mouth.  About 2 hours later, I had a screamer!  It was most likely a bat ray from the way it was running, but I too couldn't get the hook set properly in it's mouth.  Damn it!

Finally Steve gets a decent hit, but there was not much fight to it. Funny how a really nice bass like this doesn't have much muscle when fighting our 40# long rods. 

Steve and the nice calico to salvage our trip.


The idiot beacons were strong today and we called it quits after having the typical showing of swimmers on our lines.

Happy Fourth everyone.

1789

Classifieds / 10' Bass Hound

« on: June 25, 2014, 10:07:42 PM »

My buddy is selling his 10' Bass Hound. Includes FF, Trolling Motor & Battery. Has Live well, Running Lights and all equipment required for the boat. Asking $800 or best offer.

Message me and I'll give you Dave's number. Perfect boat for local lakes and bay. He is not tech savvy, so asked if I could get the word out for him.

Thanks.

1790

Food & Recipe / Lobster and more Lobster

« on: June 24, 2014, 07:25:13 AM »

Well after getting some bugs on opening night, I decided to do something other than steaming them... well I guess I did with a little twist.

First things first... pull some fresh veggies from the garden.


The first thing I did was cut and de-vein the tails.
After a fresh rinse and pat dry, I brushed olive oil inside and out of the tails.  I spiced it up with Old Bay, Garlic, Salt and Pepper and added green onion and a lemon wedge.

I poured a little white wine in the bottom of pan to steam the lobster.


I covered with aluminum foil and put it in the smoker grill (no wood chips yet) under a medium heat for about 30 minutes.

Once the meat looked cooked, I uncovered the pan and threw wet applewood on the coals and let it smoke for about 10 minutes before pulling it off the grill.

just the right amount of SMOKE!  Yumm!


The next day I was ready for a lunch-time lobster roll.

I steamed a tail and cut it up into big chunks and added a little salt and pepper.
I made and mixed it with a white sauce and pico de gallo for a little change.
Cut a hard roll and put in aged swiss and fresh green lettuce and VOILA!  It was as awesome as it looks in the pic!  :lol:
 

Now I need some more lobster! 

1791

General Board / Garden Thread 2014

« on: June 24, 2014, 07:23:24 AM »

I had to put bird netting up because the little sparrows were eating my seedlings.  It's all starting to take off though.

Sweet Basil just waiting for the tomatoes to be ripe.


Cilantro and Strawberry.


Upper Row Tomatoes.


Lower Row.


Carrots, peppers, Sweet potato, Beans....


and once again, I over crowded the garden...   :lol:

-Banana Peppers...  Just the name makes me want to rip them out of the ground)
-Sweet Red Peppers.
-Carrots.
-Four types of tomato.
-Spaghetti squash
-Little Neck Yellow Squash
-Eggplant
-Zucchini
-Japanese Cucumbers
-Pickles
-Sweet Potato
-Bush Beans

...and some unknown seeds I saw my daughter plant.  :lol:

I can't wait to start harvesting!

1792

Saltwater Boat Fishing Reports / Old Salts on the Big Bay (4/27)

« on: June 24, 2014, 07:11:22 AM »

Old school morning trip today.  I took Dave and Roger out on the big bay looking for corvina.  Roger and Dave are a late start crowd, but we haggled the time down to at least 7am.   :lol:
Here they come...


I knew we made a good choice to stay off the ocean as all the SD 1/2 day boats were fishing the bay with me.

Good Flatty action today with the biggest being 20". 




Dave got the first two vina on deck...


We picked up a half a dozen silver on the hard baits in no time.






Also, the bay is paved with 10"-15" Lizards!


I totally lost count on these guys... but we had some decent action back there today with a half dozen vina, half dozen flatties, a dozen + assorted bass with one legal in the mix...  and a bunch of trash fish.  Oh, there was also a decent mackerel bite going on too. 



Another fabulous day in America's Finest City...



Thanks for reading.

1793

Saltwater Personal Craft Fishing Reports / Kayaking Squatch

« on: June 24, 2014, 07:08:20 AM »

Caught something worth taking a picture of on  the kayak. Worked hard for it. Looked bigger in person.


Launched from O'side Harbor, paddled out to the artificial reefs and went from one to the next. Saw some bait scatter and I threw the megabait at it. Got bumped once, paused it, started reeling and I was on. Pretty good fight on 8# test. Not much else happening for me.

I did run across a school of bait, all layed out in a line, boiling like crazy. Probably 300 yds long. Cast at it, trolled along both sides, then what the heck, right down the middle. Didn't seem to bother the bait, nothing else seemed to be bothering it either. Think it was just happy bait.

1794

Fishing Talk / El Nino Update (4/14)

« on: June 24, 2014, 07:06:34 AM »

It will be interesting to see what develops, but it is looking like a strong one.  We shall see...

http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2014/04/this-years-el-nino-could-grow-monster

1795

Contest & Events / Saturday Night Bat Fight History

« on: June 24, 2014, 07:03:58 AM »

The History of the Saturday Night Bat Fight

The story all began back in 2007 when some friendly ribbing was being thrown around on a local fishing forum.  The two fishermen were Donfish and Latimeria  who were deciding which county had bigger bat rays and even if the surf or the bay held the biggest bats!
We both had been bat ray fishing for a long time and were confident in our techniques to catch these beasts.  We were planning (or at least I thought it was going to be mano y mano) to find out which angler had what it takes...  This quickly escalated into what County had the biggest rays as other fishermen joined the fray  and a tournament was born.  Who would have ever guessed it is still going all of these years later.
This humble showdown is anything but humble.... It's all been about bragging rights and deservedly so since the bats are big, strong and will test your tackle (& will) at times.

Most of the pictures and stories are shared on the SNBF Facebook page.  Please follow the link and send an invite to the page where I will check and accept if applicable.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/144022729051913

Here is a quick synopsis on how the years panned out...

Saturday Night Bat Fight I
Saturday, February 9th, 2008
What started as a one on one competition that turned into a county vs. county group tournament.  Since no one was really expecting this thing to take off, there were no special logo or shirts even made, just a bunch of guys showing up with the big gear to tackle some big fish!

The logo was actually a spray painted chair seat ready for the bonfire to keep us warm!


 
Not many fish were caught, but we did tag a big beast ay 52" to take home the trophy!

Latimeria's 08' Monster Winner
52"



Saturday Night Bat Fight II
Saturday, April 11th, 2009
Apparently the following year it was brought up to do this friendly competition once again.  The date was set, but still no logo was made as it was still in the early stages of making this a legit competition.
Team San Diego made a crazy location change half-way through the competition since fishing was very slow (zero fish) at spot number one.  Spot number 2 landed us a few bats, but mostly bycatch such as sharks and other rays.  In the meantime, LA had a great night and put the hurting on the other two counties.  OC was about to be skunked two seasons in a row.



And the winner is... LA by a long shot with Don's beastly ray.
To rub salt in the wound, Don also pulled in a monster male Seven-gill shark at 101"!!!  Wow!

Donfish's Huge '09 Winner
49"


The Bonus 7-Gill




Saturday Night Bat Fight III
Saturday, March 13th, 2010



It wasn't until the third year that it was pretty obvious that this competition was going to continue for years to come, so I drew and put together a quick logo to commemorate it.  We even had our buddy JKim come down and take some killer photos of the event for us.  John is a great fisherman and super talented photographer, so he has a great eye when it comes to pictures such as this.
 
I have to be honest in I have not seen so many big rods in such a small area before and it was going to take some serious foot and rod work to prevent tangles.
 
Our chum mixture was put out all day, but it did not bring in the masses.  We got wind that LA got into some fish, so the pressure was on.
 


Thankfully the fish gods smiled down upon us and I got this hefty 48.5" bat to give us a comfortable feeling.

 
We were pretty sure we had it in the bag as team LA was messing with us and they didn't have a competitor to ours.  The competition is over at 12:00 midnight and the picture needs to be posted. 
At 11:59pm, we finally hear from the OC and that little son of a gun Billy throws up a thread with them catching a 49" bat!  Ughhh, beat out by 1/2"!!!!

The OC bastages (& Dagodfaja) squeaked us out by 1/2" with a really nice one!!!  :lol:
49"


 

Saturday Night Bat Fight IV
Saturday, March 5th, 2011



This is the first year we made the shirts.  Pocketed T's were in demand, so everyone had the opportunity to get one and I must say it was cool seeing everyone all decked out in them.



We kept our signs pretty low budget though!  this was the year JKim also honored the Squatch with a killer time lapsed photo of him casting on his long rod.
 


It was a very slow night once again, but it only takes one to win it.  We got a few, but I was fortunate to piper a big girl in to take season 4!
My Beast 51.5" to take the trophy back home!




Saturday Night Bat Fight V
March 10th, 2012



This was a special design for the logo as it was a few months after a big 100 pound plus bat ray stuck its stinger into Sasquatch's Foot!  He lost a lot of blood and had the ambulance have to come and get him.  In honor of his "sacrifice", I designed a fitting logo for year number 5.
 
We had another big crowd this year as well as LA.  Even the OC numbers were growing now that they had a win under their belt.
 
I struck early with a 49" contender.
 


The Bat Fight shirts looked good!
 
We got word that LA also scored a 49" bat and was thinking this was going to come down as a tie, when our SD surf contingent called in their 49.5" bat from the surf!

Chris (Pierfisher) got the big bat for SNBFV at a beautiful 49.5" and squeaked a few bats out by 1/2"!





Saturday Night Bat Fight VI
March 9th, 2013



This was the year of the giants.  Every single county got monsters over 50 inches.  The guys up in Newport felt good with a 51" plus sized bat that would have taken it any other year, but the guys from LA also had a trick up their sleeve by putting a ringer in the bay.  He crushed it with a 55" and 55.5" bat!  Now those are some true monsters.  Up until that point, Team SD was having a killer day with 5 bats over 50 inches.  Where's My Beer thought he had it in the bag with a 55" early in the day to realize he wasn't going to win it.



We get the call that Jaws197 pulled out a beast at 56.5" long at out satellite spot and decisively kept the trophy in SD hands.

Joe's (Jaws197) 56.5" biggest bat for a bat fight yet!



Going for the FOUR-PEAT!  It will take some serious work to knock SD off the mountain!   



Saturday Night Bat Fight VII
March 15th, 2014
 


This year was pretty good for Team SD as they had many of the top fish, although not many bats were caught.  It was Team SD vs. Team SD as JWells squeaked out the win by 1/2" from Latimeria.  The new location was a pleasure to fish, but not many fish were in the area.  Team LA was hoping to have the bay explode again, but was quiet also.  Team OC got some bats, but did not hit the magic 50" mark.



JWells took SD to number 7 and the Four-Peat!!



Saturday Night Bat Fight VIII
March 7th, 2015

Team SD with Jimmy Wells 55.5" Brute of a Bat!



JWells and his big ass bat!



Saturday Night Bat Fight IX
March 12th, 2016

Sasquatch with a 1/4" win over Latimeria (in a semi-poaching maneuver) with a 50.25" Bat Ray in SD.  Six-Peat



Steve's tie with my fish.  He somehow was granted a 1/4" by the crowd!  LOL





Saturday Night Bat Fight X
March 11th, 2017

A 50.5" Bat Ray by Jim Murtagh up in LA 



Team SD



A 50.5" Bat Ray by Jim Murtagh





Saturday Night Bat Fight XI
March 31st, 2018

A 49" Bat by Pinoyfisher in San Diego



Mike was hoping for sharks during the Bat Fight and got exactly what he deserved!  LOL







Saturday Night Bat Fight XII
March 09th, 2019

20.5" bat by Matt Pierce takes the win for OC!



First time ever a fish less than 46 inches won this event....




Saturday Night Bat Fight XIII
March 07th, 2020

30" Bat by Jerry Luce is enough for the win in SD!  Trophy comes home!



Another REALLY tough year as hardly any bats were caught, but SD squeaked out a few as well as the OC.  LA continues to wear the stripe the last few years. 





Saturday Night Bat Fight XIV
April 10, 2021



49" Bat by Sasquatch seals the win for San Diego again as other counties failed to post anything of that caliber.





Saturday Night Bat Fight XV
March 12, 2022



First off, I want to congratulate the OC team of Ben, Pat, and Tam on the late win for Team OC!  It was another tough year leading into the 15th annual installment of the Saturday Night Bat Fight, and Team SD was in the lead for almost all day with a smedium sized (30") Bat Ray, when Team OC posted a better one with 15 minutes to go in the tournament.

Ben caught the 34" Bat that took the top honors for SNBF-XV (Hopefully they get me a picture with all three of them, but they took stills off the video that I saw and not sure what other pictures they have)




Saturday Night Bat Fight XVI
April 15, 2023



35" Bat by Ethansauce seals the first SNBF win for Ventura County!

 


Saturday Night Bat Fight XVII
April 27, 2024



Not an impressive year by any stretch.  Only 2 bats caught by all four counties.  SD & OC - Goose egged.  L/A - 11" bat from the womb... and the Back to Back winners.... you guessed it.  VC with a 32" surf bat!

Abraham from VC!  Forever a SNBF champ!

1796

Tackle Talk / Shimano "Limited Lifetime Warranty"

« on: June 24, 2014, 07:02:18 AM »

Limited Lifetime Warranty Rods
Shimano will warranty the following rods. However, if they come to us appearing to be broken in a car door, look like they have been used excessively, or we were informed by the customer that it was broken in an accident, then Shimano will NOT warranty them.

ATL, CL "A" Seriec, CLC/CLS, CNC/CNS, CPC/CPS "A" & "B" Series, CRC/CRS, CSC/CSS, CUC/CUS, CVC/CVS, IGFA, PCF,
SFS, TDR w/2 digit numbered models, TEC/TES, TFC/TFS, TLA, TLC/ TLS/ULC, TLI/TLR/TLT, TMC/TMS, TRC/TRS, TSC/TSS, TVC/TVS, TZC/TZS, ULC, V-RODS, VTS/VTC
If it is not on this list then Shimano will not warranty the rod without a valid receipt showing it to be still under one year and a new appearance.

Direct from Shimano website.

I get no warranty for car doors and accidents. Thats fine, but what is "used excessively"? I might use an individual rod 50 times in a year or more. Too much?

What about the rods not on lifetime warranty list. I get the receipt, but new appearance?

Just wondering what you think.

1797

Food & Recipe / Bacon Wrapped Halibut Steaks

« on: June 24, 2014, 06:55:49 AM »

Had a desire to cook my halibut a little differently tonight.

I took some prime fillets and encrusted them with spice...


I then wrapped them in bacon and heated up the cast iron skillet.


Sizzled them for about 7 minutes a side and then threw them in the oven for 10 minutes.


It came out righteous!

1798

Saltwater Boat Fishing Reports / One Stop Shopping and a Mystery (5/3)

« on: June 24, 2014, 06:53:50 AM »

Short of the story.   
I had a few hours to pull it off, and it worked out pretty damn good.

The bait was a custom tied shrimp flies by Jim (LandlockedinUtah).  First bait and I hook an unknown whatchaumcalllit.
Weird.



Glass



Found an epic mini pile that just let me hammer the snapper all on the shrimp fly!



One after another on the light gear.



Small were 16" and big four were all 20-21".



I got buzzed cruising home!





Nice quick trip  and I got it done with maybe one of my nicest red bag limit locally.

Things are looking pretty good as the season progresses.

1799

Outdoor Activities / Week of the Fossils

« on: June 24, 2014, 06:51:22 AM »

Long story short... I goofed and took the third week of November off for Thanksgiving...this was back in April.  Now a month ago, I realized the error of my ways and it was too late since I was the only one scheduled now to work the holiday week.
No sweat... time to hurt my back this week since it is now all freed up. I spent Sunday night pulling hoops and had plans to trilobite hunt on Wednesday and dig for megalodons on Friday with my buddy Todd.  This required a lot of planning, driving and splitting rock for the week, but it was well worth it.

Desert Bug Hunt (11/20)

Got to the end of the wash and realized it was going to be a little warmer than we anticipated.  We grabbed our gear and made the hike into the hills.
It's much further and steeper than the picture looks like, but we were ready for some shale splitting.

The Desert Sea Urchin was very abundant.


Can you see the truck?


Can you see me?   :lol:


The pick was tough, but we both made a nice little quarry to hunt and free these 550 million year old bugs.


I drew first blood.


Todd followed with a few finds...


The buckets were slowly filling.


I found the "almost" complete one that drove the dagger into my competition.


I found some nice big Cephalons from 4-5 species also.


We returned victorious.  Not stellar finds, but pretty nice material.



The sun was setting and we needed to get out from the hills asap before we got stuck out there.


The bounty was cleaned and it looks like 4 or five species.  Definitely Bristolia and Olenellus, but I have to look closer at the others.








I brought home a decent amount of material and left 10x the amount back in the tailings.  My back was broken after a long day of splitting shale, not to mention it was going to be 8.5 hours of driving total today!   :lol:

Miocene Motherland (11/22)

We used to have access to a friend's property to fossil hunt whenever we wanted to 10 years ago, but after his passing our access got limited to almost nothing. 

Finally an opportunity arose to get back to the bone yard and work our magic to uncover a megalodon tooth. the only issue was that it was raining and due to the clay roads, would have a headache trying to drive on the roads. 
Once again, another long ass trip in front of us...




This meant the "Motherlode" quarry was out of question, but we went to the closest and most picked over one.


We scoured the landscape before moving in with the heavy guns.  lots of bone and teeth littered around the area.


We also had a few friends keep us company as we dug.


Lots of stuff to dig and find.

Mako Tooth.


Whale Vertebrae.


It was getting towards the end of the day and we picked up hundreds of teeth between the three of us along with a grip of rib, vertebrae, femure, Bullae etc.
We tried to get the last killer tooth before the sun went down.


When I finally got home, I realized how much material I have to clean and categorize now!  This picture just doesn't do it justice.


Huge busted vertebrae locked in a concretion.  The other side is pretty killer also.


Cleaned a few of the matrix covered blocks and left them out to dry.


Cleaning station with 2 sizes of screens to capture all of the micro fossils.


Porpoise teeth.


Dolphin tooth and Sea Lion cheek teeth.


Mako with Matrix.


Some of my nicer teeth, although my friends got some really nice ones!  Much bigger!


Fish Vert


I also got a few Sea Lion canines, but this one was in the best shape. (That is rib bone and not the root messed up)


I also sifted a buch of matrix and brought back home with me for wid-week hunting in the garage.  :wink:


Sifting through the waste matrix is easy with 2 screens and water. Can you spot the teeth?







Lots of micro fossils in here!

Alas, the week is over and my back is wrecked.  It's not getting easier, but the drive to hunt definitely outweighs my sense of pain apparently.  :lol:

I'll post any pics of cool stuff I find as I sort through it.  Including micro teeth, it will be about 500 all said and done.

thanks for reading and sharing in the adventures of the week.   

1800

Salt Water Shore Fishing Reports / Leopard Shark Hunt (6/21)

« on: June 22, 2014, 10:45:23 AM »

Well, here it is.  Fishing in the surf has been good and we took advantage of the calm surf.  Rasta and I headed out to try for some leopard sharks armed with the long rods.

I was short on bait and only had some twice re-frozen mack left.  It didn't really matter as there were few bites, but they were the right ones.

I struck first with a nice fat leo!



She even gave me a nasty case of shark burn.



Finally Rasta had the right type of bite!  He's never caught a leo from the surf before, only the bay.  Yep, he farmed it.  Just before quitting time, he finally hooked up.



He was soooo stoked even though his face didn't show it here.


We both got one and left content with a successful mission.  Good fishing with you Rasta.