Wasn't even sure if I wanted to go, but my body put everything in motion. Still a bit sore from the other day, woke up at dawn to attempt blackgills again.
First day in several trips where the wind laid down all morning!
Wanted to try a canyon I'd never fished before. First drop was in around 1000'. Idk for sure, FF never dialed in on it. Started gathering a party of marks under my boat. Thought maybe mackerel or bones but they didn't touch the sabiki.
Soaked for 20 minutes with no bites then moved a little shallower in the canyon to 900' where a commercial looking Radon was just leaving, presumably long lining judging by the topography but not sure. Another 20 minute soak there for no bites. Reeled up my 24oz from that one and decided to get away from this canyon and head to a hard bottom zone I knew a little better.
By the time I got over there my arm was telling me I was done reeling on 24oz for the day
. So stopped over 300' to break the skunk. Fluke and a single loligo tentacle down to see if I could find a micro reef critter but ended up with sand dabs on both hooks.
This one was interesting though. After some research and pontification, I am willing to call it the Speckled Sand Dab. I think I've caught one before but with this quality pic it's going in the life list.
Wasn't marking nearly as much life as I had the previous couple trips so went in shallower to see how that was. On one hand I wanted to change things up by catching and trolling mackerel, but on the other I had a few whole squids that I wanted to use up before doing anything else, cuz squid is so damn pricey these days.
Very few marks around, and my Navionics app was f@cking up quite a bit (continuing to have phone charging issues with my cords and battery packs...) so I was idling around til I found marks and immediately drop the squid on their heads.
Ended up with 7 of these to 14", this one being the prettiest of them.
Had a really weird bite. Little piece of squid got slammed, little drag burn, pop, then heavy again. Reeling it up I thought it was a big ass sheephead, but it turned out to be a 3+lb bass. Looks like what happened was he bit one hook, snapped the line, then the other circle hook somehow hooked him good in the tail. Perfect hook set in the lip with no line attached. Solid 19" released, as was everything today.
Got 2 more turds, one in the 3lb class and another a little under 2.
Was pretty much over it and ready to search out mackerel when I hooked up with a new species, the Fantail Sole. I live for inshore rarities like this.
Zig zagged across the flats on the way home looking for puddling bait to troll a sabiki through but didn't find much. Called it a day around 1230.
