Messages

1

Salt Water Shore Fishing Reports / If I'm Only Gonna Get One... 5/8

« on: May 08, 2024, 09:22:27 PM »

Brought Jared in on the bite tonight. 1700-2000. 5-8mph wind in the face, 1-3' swell. More kelp in the water though. And tons of by-the-wind sailors. And like a dozen dead sea birds! Normally whatever about dead birds but there's obviously something going on so it was sad and concerning.

Early on I hooked a big piece of kelp with the KM and couldn't grab it in the wash. Finally got a hold of it after a couple minutes, the KM popped out, and I felt a weird pain in my finger. Turns out I somehow got kelp lodged under my fingernail...and at the same time my favorite pliers fell off my belt into the wash, never to be seen again.

Switched to a c-rig because Jared piled up 3 in short order. I pulled 20 yards off all my Red Label fluoro spools before this session, but didn't seem to help. First bite, set the hook on a presumed croaker and...whole rig gone. WTF! Immediately threw a tantrum. Jared had some Shimano fluoro to share so I put some of his 12# on for another c-rig. 5 minutes later I hooked up to something I couldn't turn for a minute, and was very glad I had a different source of leader for it. Played it all the way in, narrowly avoiding a big kelp patty, and slid up a donkey of a croaker. New PB at 17.5". Never thought I would break my old 17" record from when I was 12, but here it is!







Worth the trouble of the day.

Proceeded to snap off that leader somewhere along the braid 5 minutes later. Fish Gods Giveth, Fish Gods Taketh Away. In the last year of surf fishing I don't think I had ANY line failures of any kind from any section, and now I'm up to at least 7 failures from 3 different batches of line in the last 3 days. It’s not the guides/rod/reel since most of the breaks are within a foot of the leader knots. Might just buy the shimano fluoro for employee price and move on. Seems good enough quality.

I decided to tie the next KM straight to braid, and do as much standing and talking as walking and fishing. Jared ended the night with 5 croaker and 4 perch, plus a fouled bat ray, to my one croaker. But if I'm only gonna get one...

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Salt Water Shore Fishing Reports / Variety Hour Day Two 5/7

« on: May 07, 2024, 09:24:49 PM »

Got started a little later than yesterday, following the tide and hoping to wait out the afternoon wind a bit. Calmer conditions this time, maybe 5-7 head wind, similar swell but obviously less chop.

Took a few casts but broke the skunk with a small perch quickly enough.



A few casts later I got a good croaker thump, but farmed it because the drag was set too loose on my new Daiwa Laguna reel. The drag cam keeps getting knocked as I open the bail and it slips around way too easily. Frustrating.

A few casts later and I got another good thump, then that came unbuttoned. Reeled up and my hook was bent out! Absolutely ridiculous, there wasn't more than a couple pounds of drag. Very frustrated now. These Mustad #5 baitholders were a limited stock on ebay, perfect size, but every time I touch them with pliers in a fish's mouth they snap. Every time. Now bending? Brittle and bendy? No way.

Cut the hook off and retied. As I cinched the knot down the line snapped above the hook. Are you f@cking kidding me! I said that out loud. Older lady was walking by and laughed and said hi. I laughed at myself and said hi. But seriously. Reel, hook, line problems? Just go home now buddy.

Kept it moving, nabbed another perch. Long stretch of nothing. Then my c-rig got a ridiculous tangle. Was sick of the 8# leader material anyway so cut back to the 10# shock leader and tied on a 1oz KM. Didn't take long before I hooked into a decent jacksmelt. Got a few more bumps and short bites for the next 20 minutes. Then snapped it off on a cast, braid just kinda stuck to my finger too long. Bled a little bit. What's going on today!?

Tied on a 3/4oz KM and nabbed a WSP.



Next bite loaded up nice and pop! Line snapped like nothing. Seething with rage. I haven't had line issues in years and all my gear was failing on top of it.

Tied on my last 3/4oz KM and stuck 4 solid YFC on the way back to the car. Evened out my mood.



Gonna strip the top 20 yards of my fluoro filler spools off. Maybe they were getting worn by sitting in bags or the back of my car. Order different hooks, thinking the Matzuo sickles. And find a way to settle the drag cam.

3

Fishing Talk / Re: Kauai Fishing

« on: May 07, 2024, 09:47:03 AM »

Looking at the forecast for you. I hope you will be there through Friday, thu and fri the wind looks like it will ease off.

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Salt Water Shore Fishing Reports / Re: Sunset Variety Hour 5/6

« on: May 07, 2024, 09:42:55 AM »

Nice Variety Pack. The beaches will soon be a Zoo when school lets out, glad you found some players .

Oi, you’re right. The afternoons are gonna become a circus in no time. Gotta cram some sessions in before then.

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Salt Water Shore Fishing Reports / Sunset Variety Hour 5/6

« on: May 06, 2024, 09:15:43 PM »

Made the effort and got out for an after work session. Met up with Tommy and almost all the other Charkbait employees.

Approximately 1700 start time. 10-20mph head wind to start and structure not filled in. Woof. Got a croaker bite real quick out of one of the few holes, but the leader failed mid-line. Hmm. Cherry on top was wind surfers flying over my line every minute or so. Could have bopped them on the head any time. Thankfully they got done jogging the same circles by 1715 and Tommy/friends arrived shortly after. I threw c-rig crack while they threw iron. I said hi to Tommy while the rest of the crew was well up the beach already. I nabbed a nice croaker.



Then a couple BSP about ye big.



Tommy left me in the dust, right when I nabbed a corbina!



The crew had all but abandoned me by this point, but I was slow to keep up because I was getting bit. Variety continued when I found a section full of wallies! Pretty good size ones in there too.



Ran out of gulp, moved to the grub with a little pro-cure. Lost my confidence with the grub a while ago but tonight renewed it. Bite didn't slow down as I nabbed a couple more WSP. Then the 10th fish of the night, jacksmelt. Why not!



Next fish up, f@ck it eh, come join the party! Queenfish!



Capped the evening with another solid YFC.



Caught up with the crew and they'd had a slow pick on croakers and beans the whole time. Stoked on a dozen total and 6 species.

Hope Tom is beating the wind and racking up the variety in Kauai!

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Fishing Talk / Re: Kauai Fishing

« on: May 05, 2024, 02:46:40 PM »

Oh I thought this trip would be a way's into the future. Good luck out there!

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Fishing Talk / Re: Kauai Fishing

« on: May 02, 2024, 06:09:03 PM »

Never been, would love to. Im sure you will find a rhythm and figure it out. C-rigs, crack, feathers, KMs. Should get awfully close to 400 with that trip.

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Freshwater Shore Fishing Reports / Re: Its about time

« on: April 30, 2024, 03:48:52 PM »

Persistence paying off once again for you, cool new species.

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Salt Water Shore Fishing Reports / Re: SNBF-XVII Mission Bay Edition (4/27)

« on: April 29, 2024, 08:05:15 PM »

Looks like a fun night! That BSB is an insane specimen, especially for being in a harbor.

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Salt Water Shore Fishing Reports / DQ'd 4/27

« on: April 28, 2024, 06:02:23 PM »

My extra set of hands bailed, couldn't find a replacement under short notice, so couldn't score for OC. Bait was thawed already so I went out anyway. 4' @ 6 looked like 1-3 @ 7. Set up on a berm that the waves never quite got over. Smoked a cigar and set at least 5 baits out with only a couple bait picker-atters to show for it.



Tried something different by butterflying all my baits. Didn't equate to success this time but I might keep doing it, at least with smaller mackerel.

Congrats VC on a win, when's the pic dropping?

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Fishing Talk / Re: And the Winner is....

« on: April 28, 2024, 12:53:36 AM »

DQ'd myself by having to go solo, no bites anyways. Worth getting out there though, nice night. Congrats VC.

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Salt Water Shore Fishing Reports / Re: Another Team Meeting Down at the Bay (4/25)

« on: April 26, 2024, 07:48:29 PM »

At least the garage door broke on a day that was already sh!tty and didn’t ruin another perfectly good one.

Good way of looking at it. Can't see that as anything but a sh!t day myself. Brush that one off and start again.

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General Board / Re: 20 years today...

« on: April 24, 2024, 02:09:13 PM »

 Congrats on 20 years!

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Saltwater Boat Fishing Reports / Re: Spring is Springing 4/21

« on: April 23, 2024, 05:10:15 PM »

Speaking of birds, also forgot to mention the huge presence of terns at the wall. Don’t really see very many inshore at all. And the By The Wind Sailors were starting to come in last week but they were really invading this weekend. Hopefully pelagics aren’t too far behind now.

How do you find Sea Pens Tom? I’m this close to buying an inline underwater cam, hoping for the one I want to come down in price on eBay first.

Spoke it into existence this time. I was watching for the GoFish cam which is waterproof to 300' and has a live feed to your phone. Those are discontinued but on ebay for around $350-400 out the door.

I was contemplating the Aqua Vu Strike Vu inline camera at $100 but only waterproof to 100' and no live feed. Got a 20% off offer and I took it. 90% of what I wanna see is in less than 100' anyway, and the company is still in business if I have issues.

I've seen some underwater footage of local reefs like Izor's, NAR, and the break wall, but there are a lot more spots I wanna see, line it up with FF readings, and run a swimbait behind it to see how many followers I get and how many fish are actually reacting. And how many halibut I am actually getting in front of! Would be funny to see one clip after another of big butts following then yet another short sandie swoops in and steals the show.

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General Board / Re: M.I.A for a month....

« on: April 23, 2024, 05:04:20 PM »

5 weeks is an impressive disappearing act for such a big fish. Extra clean tank now with the two janitor fish working on the algae.

How big is the tank? What else you got in there?