I know the tuna are showing up in droves from SD up to San O or so, but I don't wanna wake up so early and commute so far with so little time and money in hand. I got a little sliver of info on local tuna yesterday so I took the nice conditions this morning and went.
Launched at sunrise 0640, headed straight out toward the Avalon Knoll. Pure glass out the gate. Haven't seen that in a while.
Water was as cool as 62º on the flats. Woof! SST yesterday showed temps at the knoll around 71º. Watched the temp steadily rise as I came off the coastal ledge.
Over the top of the knoll I found hundreds of dolphins, and some birds, working bait and commuting. Found some patties but nobody was home.
Had a cedar plug out as soon as I got into the channel and dropped back a Yozuri vibe when the water warmed over 67. Peaked at 68.1 but steady 67.75 where the life was. Lots of grass and kelp in the water made it frustrating to pull two lures so I eventually reeled up the yozuri.
Almost headed to the 277, but it was already 1030 and I didn't want a 35 mile ride back through the afternoon for a seriously low percentage bite.
A few miles south of the coastal ledge coming back, the cedar plug got bit. As I slowed down and slowly added drag it popped off before I got a good hookset. Damn....felt like a small tuna. Inspecting the line though, it came back all f@cked up like Koga's week 3 pick sheet. Small bite marks on the wood too. So I would guess small mako. Or a very lost wahoo.
Wind was coming up around the island but back toward the coast it was still glass at noon. Stopped in 260' to take off my jacket and saw the FF light up with rockfish marks. Ultimately decided I didn't wanna clean a bunch of rockfish so I didn't make any drops and headed straight in.
Scout trips be like that! The bite was certainly exciting. No actual sign of game fish all day though. So close to Catalina today, I should really just try it one time and hunt some yellowtail or whatever over there eventually.
