0615 launch.
I sold my 4hp Yamaha and picked up an ’07 6hp Mercury, not unlike my first outboard. Idles soooo quiet. First test run the other day showed it needed a new male fuel connector valve. A lot of stopping and stalling for lack of fuel pressure, but otherwise all signs were excellent. Picked up the valve connector for cheap, changed out the oil and fuel filter, through some injector cleaner in the gas can for good measure.
Wanted to see if I could run into the bluefin that are running amuck in the channel as of late. The outboard switcheroo combined with my VHF radio dying made the past week too much of a challenge to get out. Fish finder was also challenging me. Power cable pins were shot, and the replacement cable that came in didn’t fit snug. Fkn…..so still no fish finder.
Conditions weren’t great for it, but worth a look anyways. Kind of a weird slack tide all through the first part of the day, but the best combo of wind and swell that I’ll get for another week. Sky was clear at my apartment 4 miles from the beach. Yay!
I got to within a block of the beach and a fog patch appeared. No!
Then I drove right through it into a couple miles of vis around the harbor. Yay!
Then I got half a mile out of the jetty and I was in pea soup. No!
Kept motoring for 30 minutes hoping it was just in patches, but I wasn’t getting more than a couple hundred yards of visibility by the time I was on top of Izor’s 5 miles out.
Then the creepiest, sh!ttiest sportfish came out of the fog on my starboard going 10 knots in the same direction as I. Jump scare…150 yards between us so I pulled to his stern. Behind him came half a dozen freak 6’ rollers amidst the 1-2’ers the rest of the morning. Getting too weird.
Decided I didn’t wanna go any further out, bailed on the bluefin plan and made a few casts on Izor’s with a Tady Starman. Never seen the water so clear there. 90’ of water and 30’+ visibility. Might be able to see further through the water than through the air…
Heard voices in the fog, and no accompanying horns…
Played my air horn, but at 3 years old it sputtered and squealed more than it honked. It got me through the worst of it, but I could use a vuvuzela.
Decided to run in tight to the beach because Izor’s was just giving me the creeps. Switched out the Tady for a couple flukes and got bit on my first drop. Got skunked on the last quick trip so it was nice to put something on the board.
Couldn’t get bit after that. Hopped around and they just weren’t having it. Was completely outfitted for tuna so tackle box was lacking any other tricks besides flukes. So I called it a wash and started back for the harbor. Halfway home the fog cleared up, at least in my vicinity. But the wind was coming up to white caps and it wasn’t even 0930 yet. Resisted the temptation to charge offshore again and headed in.
My last couple bass attempts were half assed but much less successful. Feel like I gotta reinvigorate my confidence in them next time out.
