My buddy Anthony and I went out on his CC. Picked some nice sardines and beelined for the 9. Got 5 miles out saw some breaking fish. I'm first in the water with a lively bait... hmm... nada. He makes a lame a$$ cast, 3' at best, pulls out the loose line and gets bit! A short struggle later, I stick a 40lb+ bluefin. Awesome!! Re-bait and wait. And wait. And wait. Time to go.
Get to the upper and it's a parking lot. Lots of chatter on the radio of a plunker bite at the upper 9. We soak some baits and decide to move on a westerly heading. Drop back the trollers, a cedar plug and a purple/white skirt. Just outside of the parking we some terns diving on bait and some big fish surface. He throws the boat in neutral while I pin on a live bait. I put my rod in the holder and go to reel in the trollers and one gets hammered! Never seen a cedar plug get hit on the sink
Anthony tells me to get take it, bit he's closer so I tell him to take it while I finish reeling the other troller. An even shorter fight than the last one, but a bigger bluefin at 50lbs+. 2 Pbs for him back to back. Soaking more bait and listening to radio. Lots of people reporting tuna holding deep, up to 300' according to several people. So, I drop down a sardine about 200' and soak. 30 minutes into our soak, nada. Time to go. Head back to the 9 as we were about 12-15 miles out. All the boats are gone and most of the radio chatter were people complaining of a lack of fish and fish holding deep with lock jaw. Saw little to no kep paddies. Only found one pod of porpoise. Saw some blue whales. We called it.
Swing by the green tanks to finish off the dozen or so sardines in the tank. We both score a calico each and then the sealions roll in. Phucking them!! We're done. Gotta scrub the boat and pick up my kids. LOTS OF BAIT between the tanks and OB Pier. You can just see them milling at the surface, but nothing feeding on them. Lucky bait!
Nada for me, except for the lone calico
As much as I wanted to get bit, I totally dig watching good buddies hook up too. There'll be a next time.
