I had plans to take the boat out and fish this week, but high winds and big seas looked to ruin those plans. I took the next 3 days off and it was killing me that I might not be able to make another harvest trip before the season ended.
I saw that today was only calling for 3' swells, but I know how that goes and it's always 2x as big by the next morning so I didn't uncover the boat or even pack to go. I woke up at 4:30 am and saw that it was increased, but not bad at all. The afternoon was to begin small craft advisories, so I hooked up the boat and threw some gear in. I hate doing this as I always manage to forget something.
The sunrise dow the bay was awesome. There were only two trailers at Dana, so I knew it would be spacious fishing out there.
I realized I forgot my camera, so I would only have my phone to take pics. Bait was hard to come by and I only made 6 perefect little greenbacks. My meter was all lit up with bait and I had no clue what it was.
I shot over to La Jolla looking for a harvest and immediately hooked up on a nice ling! As I saw him just get to deep color, I thought I saw a shark shoot over and grab it! I soon realized that it wasn't a shark, but a friggand fur bag! He popped up next to the boat thrashing around a 26-27" lingcod. Ugh, how sick.
I decided to save the macks and dropped down a strip bait (Skippy) on the sinker and started to mess around with some rockfish. My first rockfish was a beauty! I was a 3 or 4 pound red and I was amped. WHOOSH!
From under the boat, another sea lion shot out and grabbed my red! I am PISSED now!
I finally hok one and crank my butt off to get it in the boat.... Of course, even the sea dogs don't want a Boccaccio....
I saw the dogs on the fish finder, but tried again. I hooked up and was reeling in another red when one of the dogs ripped it off my hook.. again and it was another nice red. AHHHHHH!
I decided to make a move and went to a spot I apparently hit frequently. lol
I hook what I thought was a nice rockfish and cranked my butt off again just in case the dogs followed me. Unfortunately it was a damn deep water calico! The stomach was blown out and it puked red crab all over the boat. I tossed him back in immediately to hopefully save him as he was only 13" and couldn't get my phone out for a pic just to kill him. I did get a shot of all the crab from his gullet.
RED CRAB ARE EVERYWHERE!! They aren't floating, but there are clouds of them everywhere from MB to LJ. I dropped down two more times nd got two more calico.. both 12-13 inches and I left that spot as I didn't want to accidentally kill any and that's all I saw on the fish finder.
I moved back to the spot where the sea lions stole my fish and dropped a mack down immediately since there was no sights of the dawgs.
Man, a fresh mack on the bottom here=INSTANT BENDO! I saw it in deep color and another big lingcod! Just then I saw one of the dogs sound next to the boat after a breath and watched the bastard shoot strainght to the ling and grab him... Ling no more! Grrrrr!!!! I needed a gun at this point!
I shot out to a deep water spot and it was just tough fishing. I did pick up a nice rockfish here and there as this chucklehead...
Fishing was super slow and I jumped from spot to spot for just scraps. I ran back to the rockpile, but stopped short in hopes to not get their attention. I saw some GREAT marks mid water on the fish finder and dropped down a mack! BAMN! I was on! I saw a deep flash and pretty sure it was a yellow. Gauging from the fight, I would have said a 10 or 12 pound model, but not sure... Just then, it was gone and the dogs showed up. Not really sure what happened, but I was about ready to quit and just head in. I decided to stop in some more shallow water spots on my way in and toss some plastics.. This is what I wanted to do.. catch fish and have fun!
I caught 8 Sculpin, all in the 12-13 inch range. I almost kept them, but couldn't remember if they closed them or not. I kind of recalled them being closed, so I tossed them back (Later to find out thank goodness I did!)
I was amazed how many sculping were around and how aggressive they were. I moved on to the next spot and hit pay dirt! Well, Turd Dirt!
I had a few dozen fish on, but only got about a dozen in. All legal fish in a cookie cutter 15" range. I saw schools of 10 or so following up my hooked one! It was great and for the next hour just had fun throwing the plastic for constant action!
I kept two and just released the rest as they weren't exactly what I wanted for table fare. All of a sudden the bite stopped. I was puzzled for all about 2 minutes when a sea lion popped up and shut off that bite. UGH....
I decided to call it quits as I ended up on a good note and pretty happy how it ended even though it could have been a GREAT trip if I got those lings, reds and yellow up into the boat!
Oh well.... Next time.
On the way in, I passed the famous Mission Bay Tumbleweeds floating by. I never get tired of seeing these water tumbleweed! LOL
Well, until next tide!
