Wanted to try catching whitefish on my super parabolic crankbait rod and Tatula 100 just to switch it up.
Launched this morning at 0700. Said hi to the old coots launching who were regulars last winter then seemed to disappear until now.
Couldn't get out of the harbor because of naval activity until 0800. Was able to kill most of the time by talking fishing with another boater in a Robalo, basically rafted with him and talked shop until the ship docked and CG let us through.
Headed out to the critter grounds, arrived about 0845. Only had about half a dozen squid heads, supplemented by some fish bite strips which are hardier and I hoped would protect the squid a bit. 3oz dropper loop rig on the bass rod.
First four bites were all different species. First a whitefish which went straight in the bag. They were all smaller than I would usually keep, but I got the idea to maybe just weed 'em out a bit and maybe the bass and rockfish will fill in more to the spot. Who knows.
Decent blacksmith.
Only one legal sandie today, kept it.
Out of season, but back to back sheephead including this nicer one which was almost impossible to land on the noodle rod and 100 baitcaster.
It was super calm this morning, but with only a few miles of visibility I was constantly disoriented as to which way I was drifting. The inshore and offshore breeze switched off without skipping a beat, and all the oil rigs and freighters in view seemed to look the same in every direction.
Popped two decent reds as well, as soon as the second one came up I got far away from that stone. Both swam down fine.
Once I ran out of squid I headed inside and caught a couple more short bass. The wind came up to white caps at 1000 which killed my enthusiasm to stay out as I started getting beat up. I did deadstick a Sledgehammer swimbait on a 4oz leadhead and got one good bite that came off midway up, felt like a 3lb class bass. Never gotten a fish on that swimbait but now I wanna try and up my bass PBs.
Enough food for a dinner.
Something like 5 bass, 4 whitefish, 2 sheeps, 2 reds, 1 blacksmith. Nice quick trip.
