Long late night made waking up at the 0600 alarm impossible, ended up staying in bed til 0900. Thought I wouldn't fish, then double checked the forecast and saw the rest of the week was fishable before and now it's shot, so late start would be the best I could get for the whole week.
Launched at 1000, slight breeze but lake conditions outside the harbor. Original plan the night before was run the coast looking for bait and water temps that I like but with the limited time I decided to just check out a few contours that I hadn't looked at before.
First few had some scattered marks like mackerel and maybe a few bass but nothing great, and no bites.
Got my first fish on a stone I already know well enough. It was especially pretty so released it.
Had a bizarre hiccup with my outboard. Motor stopped on a dime while idling forward. Started it back up no problem, soon as I threw it into forward it stopped on a dime again. Started it back up, threw it in reverse and it was fine. Something to do with the transmission rod being out of position somehow? Filmed it to send to a few people to brainstorm what could be wrong, playing with the idea of driving 3-4 miles home in reverse. And of course as I filmed, forward gear worked again. Just gotta film it sometimes....
Kept moving. Scared a couple basking creatures as I drove by. Seemed small for dogs and large for birds. I like to think the juvie threshers but didn't have macs of any sort to throw their way. Almost certainly weren't feeding.
Got to the newport pipe, pretty dirty water inside of about 50' with a very distinct water color line, and relatively clean outside of that. Immediately got a brute of a 3lb sand bass. No other bites there despite fishing a decent portion of it.
Started heading back, found another spot and picked off another solid bass.
Peak low at this point. Bite was already tough all day for me and couldn't get another bite for the next hour so headed in. Wind was supposed to come up but really peaked at 1300 and came down after. Nice day out. Got my first sunburn of the year.
Couple of eaters.
Would have gone today but the weather forecast is all over the place. Would have looked for macs and threshers but the chance of wind and rain wasn't appealing so it'll wait another day...here's to another week of weather.
