Topics

1

Outdoor Activities / Family Boat Day (2024)

« on: July 25, 2024, 05:18:12 PM »

Every year we get out on the boat, but recently in the last few years we've loved hitting San V.  We were supposed to have our granddaughter, but she had to miss it for other reasons.

100-degree heat and one long ass walk from the ramp to the lot.



Fish were loving the ramp.  tons of bluegill and baby bass everywhere.





The sun was brutal and it was just downright hot.  The girls asked if I could bring some shade, so I put together something that worked out great!  It looked a little ghetto, but did the job!



We spent 3 hours cruising the lake and chilling with lunch until the oppressive heat was too much.



Finally we called it quits.  The minute I went up to get my truck, people started pouring in and I can say with utmost certainty that freshwater boaters are the worst on the ramp.  Doors wide open, no one could back down in a straight line...  Kids blocking the ramp with their trucks twice the height as they are...  I'd usually do what I've been doing and say it's just me with no patience, but my wife saw it all unfold from a distance and was wondering what the hell everyone was doing on the ramp.  At least for once I felt a little vindicated.

Anyway, minus that one snafu at the end, it was a fun day on the water.  Hannah will be an adult here in a few weeks, so this was her last trip on the boat as a kid. 
hahahaha

Air was 101.2 and the water was 87 degrees.  Water felt like ice water compared to the air.  lol

2

General Board / New Website

« on: July 20, 2024, 12:33:42 PM »

It's getting close.  I spent 4 hours on Thursday with the old web guy trying to figure out how to transfer the forum over.  Seriously, In my head it was an easy thing to do, but when it comes to converting to the new websites, it's been all BUT easy.

3

General Board / Da' Bronx

« on: July 20, 2024, 12:29:09 PM »

I thought it was like 6 years ago since I last saw my uncle, but he corrected me by saying it was at my wedding the last time I saw him.  Damn, that was 20 years ago!

He's been sweltering out east and wanted to get out to San Diego to relax and hang out for a few days.  The last two days have been fun, but my liver is acting up with all of the hanging out we've been doing.  lol



He's staying down at MB, so we took the family down for a little "Staycation".  There was no way I was going to the bay and not bringing at least a rod!  I was caught red handed when I said I was hitting the rest rooms...



For what it's worth, there's a decent spotty bite on the north end of the bay and a lot of bait.  ...   and a LOT of needlefish!

Today is Day three of food and drinks and I'll need to go on a "Liver" cleanse for a month after he leaves.  LOL

4

Food & Recipe / Royal Rooster at Seaforth

« on: July 18, 2024, 05:55:55 AM »

That restaurant at Seaforth was the absolute best!  I was just there not long ago buying a new yellowtail rod when I saw it was a totally new place.  Does anyone happen to know what happened to it or when it shut down?

5

General Board / Bots

« on: July 18, 2024, 05:50:31 AM »

Thanks Verne for the heads up this morning.  Thankfully he only bombed one board before I could ban him.

6

Saltwater Boat Fishing Reports / I Smell A Rat (7/13)

« on: July 17, 2024, 03:00:04 PM »

Plan was to get Andrew out for some yellowtail, White Sea Bass, or Halibut since he's never caught any of them before.  The topper was to watch some great whites and I even brought some big bonito heads to make them show up.

We didn't see a whole lot going on, but there was a crapload of boats in LJ. We decided to find our own fish away from the crowds.

There was some weird bites we were getting, but tough to hook.  I had one coming up about halfway but fell off and thinking it was a sand dab or something.  We kept getting these weird bites when I rigged Andrew with a smaller rig to get him a new species as he’s never caught a dab before.  There wasn’t any fight to it at all and we had a new species is on board!  I've always heard about the ratfish from Dave and always looked/hoped for them.  Now I have an area where they are caught and will actually target them once in a while!



Weird and really slippery with some f@cked up dentition!



That was a really awesome catch and made the entire day no matter what happened at this point. Unfortunately, we kept getting weird bites and they were falling off on the way up, so we moved a little to pinpoint another spot for rockfish.

Well after the short move, we found some shallow water rockfish, and some good ones!





I'm actually a little stoked as it's been a long time since I got a Salmon Grouper (Kogaccio).



Well, we got our limits and decided it was time to look for Bigger Game.  LJ was just packed with boats, so I took the long run up north to look for bait and birds.  Plenty of mackerel.  No Great Whites... No WSB...  No Yellows... No Halibut...  Time to move to capitalize on the remaining time and get some fish in the boat.

We ran back down to some local reefs and spot locked the hell out of the reefs.  We made multiple moves and catching along the way.  I didn't get the pictures of all the fish, but it was Gophers, Browns, Treefish, Honeycomb, Whitefish, Sculpin, and Butterlips of all things.









Much bigger model!





Then we turned out attention to looking for bass and halibut.  No Calico, but plenty of San Bass!







I dropped down a giant mack on a big ball sinker hoping for a big butt when the rod doubled over and started dancing!  I was pretty sure I had myself a legal butt!  I even said to Andrew to get the little gaff ready in case.   Nope... Not a butt, but a big bass!  Greedy 5# bass inhaled an almost 2# mack!



At this point, Andrew wanted to drop a mack also, so started to DD it.  Rookie mistake though and he didn't watch the bait rod until 30 yards wound into my trolling motor.  Damn...  I had my fingers crossed the 65# didn't get through the shaft seal and it was locked in the braid. 
Funny thing, We went to drift the old school way to fish small areas and that way SUCKS!  How the hell did I ever do it in the past?  Unfortunately I'm spoiled now though, but we called it the day with quite a few fish and new species to boot!

Tine little 14" red would have stoked me out prior to owning the Spot Lock, but now look like a munchkin to a 4.65# red.



20 yards off and 10 to go.  Thankfully the line only went in one wrap on the shaft and after I cut it all out, it seemed to be in working shape.  Time will tell on its next trip out.



Also bought a new pump for the hydraulic steering as my current pump is trashed and I'm turning the steeing wheel nonstop for 8 hours.

Thanks for reading!

7

General Board / Forum Issues

« on: July 17, 2024, 05:56:01 AM »

My apologies that they are persisting, but getting help with them are almost impossible.

8

Salt Water Shore Fishing Reports / Torrey Pines Surf Stripahs! (7/14)

« on: July 15, 2024, 03:32:41 PM »

Woohoo!!!!

Andrew wanted to stalk the surf looking for butts, bass or WSB, so I had him meet me at Torrey.  Met an old school guy (LC) fishing corbina by the inlet and shot the sh!t with him for a moment while Andrew and I were plugging the area.  It wasn't long before I caught my first butt, (18" model).



Andrew got a couple of hits, but the inlet already had too many people fishing it so we moved down.  Before we moved, I noticed that LC switched up to a Krocodile spoon and abandoned the corbina hunt.  lol

Surf was nice, but nothing happening.  Then we see a small little trough and stopped to fish it.  My confidence was sinking until I hear Andrew yell "I'm On!".

Sure as hell, he caught his first halibut, and a surf halibut to boot!

A stunner!





Literally my next cast and I get slammed!

Surf butt #2!



A few casts later and my line snaps on a cast... f@ck, there goes my LC up to the moon and crash-landed way too far for my ass to find since it's a sinker, so I tied up a C-Rig and had some crack in my bag.

Well, I knew the bite was going to be hot with the gulp and it was, but for small stuff.  I didn't take my phone out of the bag but used my waterproof camera for these guys so I didn't have to walk all the way back out of the water.

Well, you heard of "Skrilla Fish", now here's the "JRodda Fish" since he loves catching them!  lol



No shortage of palm sized perch either.



We kept working the area and I missed a few screamers, but think I saw a bat ray at the end of the line.  In any case, they never got hooked well enough.

Then, I had a screamer and I knew this was a real fish.  First thought was a striper!  Then I saw it.  My first frijole of 2024!  I forgot how fun these things are on light line!



Then the miracle happened.  Between sets I was looking in the water and HOLY sh!t!  MY LC!!!!!  I literally threw my arm in and grabbed it.  How the hell di that thing wash in as a sinking lure and how the hell did I even see it in some random blink of an eye!  In any case, it was the recovery of the year, if not decade!  LOL

Well, we called it since I had to get back home for a party, but what a fun morning of fishing!

Andrew unfortunately left his phone in his pocket and killed it in all of the waves, so ran to get a new phone.  He went back later that day and got a nice turd roller in the surf to bump up his counts.  Yes, a bass with stripes.  LOL

Thanks for reading!

9

Food & Recipe / Seared Toro, Bluefin Poke, and seared Hamachi.

« on: July 12, 2024, 01:52:13 PM »

Cut to size.  Rub olive oil on the loins and coat with SW seasoning and coarse ground pepper.

Cast iron for about 20 seconds or less a side and put in the freezer for 30 minutes to stop the cooking and chill.

Holy crap....

10

Food & Recipe / Honey Roasted Carrots

« on: July 12, 2024, 01:48:30 PM »

I took all those weird color carrots and tried a Honey Glazed Carrot recipe I found online.  Only difference was I cooked them on the grill under indirect heat.  The house is too hot to turn the oven on.

11

Fishing Accessories / What a Deal on Rod Holders!

« on: July 12, 2024, 07:34:27 AM »

I was looking for stainless (double) rod holders for my boat as you can never have enough (as well as being to change angles on my current rod holders).

I found some stainless ones for a decent price, but after seeing the reviews saw that the locking end that goes into the previous rod holder is too short and it doesn't lock into place.  As I was continuing to look, I went to basically the last page on the search engine and saw something that seemed not right.  The pictures made them look heavy duty, but the price didn't seem to match up.  $35 for heavy duty aluminum splitter rod holders?  It was worth the $70 to see since that's what I would expect just one of these to cost.

Arrived in the mail and WOW!!!!



One of the few times I've been pleasantly surprised on a "cross my fingers" order.  Totally changes some of my drifting and trolling spreads now.



I can't wait to try them out!  These rod holders are a way beefier than those tiny corn catchers Koga uses.  After all, those little AZ tilapia don't fight too well.

12

General Board / Speaking of Music to Make You Happy.... This just happened.

« on: July 10, 2024, 07:17:50 AM »

Speaking of finding good music in my previous post, something just happened this morning that made me question my current mood...

I just finished my work out this morning at the gym and jumped in the shower.  (This is the company gym and is always empty)

I heard the sh!tter door slam and was praying I didn't have to walk out to a wall of gag.  Then, I heard something I never heard before.... Some dude was singing on the sh!tter.  I mean belting out lyrics (although South of the Border stuff) but singing away for people outside the gym to probably hear.  He sounded genuinely happy! It reminded me of my stoner buddy back in NJ who would sing his heart out when the Grateful Dead came on no matter where he was.

I would have been annoyed, but my confusion over the loud singing while he was taking a sh!t made me think "Is this the secret to happiness?  Singing on the sh!tter?

I don't know.  Has anyone ever heard this before or was this just a unicorn moment?  lol

13

General Board / Anyone listening to any New good music lately?

« on: July 10, 2024, 06:00:39 AM »

My soul and mind would greatly appreciate it.

Cheers

14

General Board / Happy Independence Day!

« on: July 04, 2024, 10:55:13 AM »

15

Saltwater Boat Fishing Reports / Finally 2024!!! (6/30)

« on: July 01, 2024, 07:48:24 PM »

Hey guys, sorry but I'm a little whooped today.  I'm trying to get the new website completed and it's been tough to get time to work with the new webmaster, but it's coming along.

I'll probably just do a short post for my day trip with Cayleb and Shaun on our quest for the first tuna of 2024.  The last few trips were pretty uneventful....

We got to the grounds and trolled a big Spreader Bar for no luck.  We were literally the only boat from horizon to horizon, but there was a 1.25-degree temp break here and we saw some life.

We decided to troll the Mad Macs instead as we're 0-12 at this point with them and I think I modified them enough not to have the lure leverage the hook out. 

Big Screamer and we put Cayleb on the reel.



My Rainshadow rod was way overmatched for the fish, but with the softer tip, it had a lot of action.









Mad Mac got crushed and quite a few teeth marks in it now.  Success!



We had some luck trolling, but saw a lot of fish starting to jump in big packs here and there.  We opted to go live bait because after all, we bought it...





Not the big boys we were looking for, but still fun on the live bait gear.



Actually, Shaun had a REALLY big one comparatively, but almost got spooled on his 20# rig.  The fish were line shy except for the fast-moving macs which were just reactionary bites.



We then started heading back to the barn and made a few stops on kelps.  One kelp and the guys saw a big yellow on it.  They both casted on it before I got a bait on and just pitched the dine to the side of the boat.  Well.... 1 yellow on the paddy, and now No yellow on the paddy.



Oh, and I forgot.  We saw this HUGE black back creature chasing our hooked tuna.  It was definitely going full force at it, but never got it's fins out of the water.  Cayleb and I both saw the same thing at the same time and was probably an 8' Mako, but it never gave us any positive ID except that it was BIG!

Well, that's it for now.  Need to get some sleep.  lol

Thanks for reading!