My plan was to hit the bay on Saturday since all I was look at was cold water and 2-3' wind waves on 2-3' 5 sec period swells. That coupled with a stiff 10-15 NW wind and south swell on top of that and I wasn't really expecting to head out front.
Friday night and the wife and I had an empty house and celebrated a quiet homestead with a few drinks. Next morning, the cozy bed had cast a spell to not get up.
Fast forward to yesterday...
I packed a couple of bay rods and brought a few live bait/light trolling sticks. I figured I wouldn't be able to go fast anyway, so maybe just drag Rapalas around for a bit and head into the bay if things got too snotty. I didn't want to hit the bay because a week before Labor Day and the place was already crowded!
I was treated to an incredible sunrise which gave me hope at the ramp.
Wind and waves were spot on accurate. I trolled a bit, but didn't go too far from the inlet. I was listening to guys be Heroes or Zeroes on the radio looking for tuna and dorado. Lots of jig strike dorado from what I was hearing, but the water rolled and of course, everything was wide open yesterday. I then started catching macks. Macks everywhere and I really wanted to catch up some squiddlies. I think I had some but the mackerel would eat them right off.
I was drifting a perfect mack on a flyline (with a 3/8 oz egg to the hook) when the line bumped and started screaming out! Holy sh!t! I'm using a circle, so waitied and clicked the drag and it started loading up fast! Then... nothing... Gone... WTF.
I reeled in the mack to not see a single mark on it! I was using a rather small circle, so figure it was a yellow that grabbed the head and got the hook caught for that long run. In either case it wasn't there anymore.
I talked to a few of my buddies out there and then something magical happened. The mackerel disappeared and the Candy Baits appeared! I took the 40 mackerel I had and bagged it up into the cooler to make room for some squish. I made about 80 of them and set out a dropper loop and a fly line rig while still jigging them up.
Just then my dropper rod doubles over and as I'm trying to get the rod out of the holder, my flyline rod goes off. Now I'm a triple d!ck. I don't want to lose my squid getter, and I've decided to try and fight one at a time. f@cking circle stabs me in the heart again and the dropper fish unbuttoned (My guess was a halibut). I grab the fly line reel and literally get about 20 cranks on it (thinking a nice yellow) and that circle pops out. I almost threw the entire box of circles in the water..... but they were too expensive and I'm just realizing that it wasn't my day.
Anyway, I was out longer than I thought I would be. I heard of some great fishing at the South 9. both 25-40# YFT and schooling dodo. I went in to a crowded bay and made one cast with a squid. Something grabbed it right away and wrapped my around a bridge piling! I was ready to tie up, but the rental boats all saw me hooked up and it was the bay version of the bent rod invitational, so I just called it the day to lick my wounds.
I still had a great day catching over $100 worth of fresh bait, so it wasn't a total loss and I'll be back....
Well, that was my "No Fish" story from over the weekend. I hope you guys had a better day catching than I did!
Until next tide....
