I mean gorilla ...
....on my back. LOL
Well Steve had a rough few days with some family matters and was happy to get out looking for a Bluefin on the Boma. We packed light and started out journey at o'Dark Thirty. We tried to make bait, but found nothing in the usual spots. We decided to run up to LJ and look for macks before heading out to the deep blue. Thankfully on the first spot was all the Spaniards you wanted. We grabbed 20 and even bypassed the TONS of small bonito in order to look for pelagics. We actually made it to the North 9 and trolled while spotting paddies.
We finally spot a BEAUTIFUL paddy with obvious yellows on it. Steve hooks up and it was a battle trying to get him out of the paddy! Nice fish that I videotaped until the end game was upon us. Just then my rod gets bit, but I hold off to get Steve's fish in. I wanted a clean head shot and would make wide circles from under the boat to striking range. Ugh.. Between my rod and waiting for a good shot, the fish gave a little burst and I cut him off.. Ugh... I felt like crap, but had to grab my rod as I had a fish on. It was only a little 5lb rat yellow, while I lost Steve's 15 pounder! It made me sick on my blunder...
(#1) (#2) occurred immediately after as we went to toss some new baits on the paddy and a big ass Knot Head Sea Lion shows up and just harasses us. Not only that, but the fugger swam into the middle of the kelp paddy and started rolling in it like he was itching himself! I pulled out the sling shot, but had no ammo, so we just waited him out just to find the paddy devoid of fish now. Off we went trolling...
The radio was full of have and have-nots. It was hard to tell who was telling the truth or not, but I did not have enough gas to run where all these boats were fishing, so we tried to find our own fish.
Water was beautiful and 71. We hit a couple of more paddies, but couldn't get a thing to snap, so we trolled on. I finally went to gun my motor and the thing got all sluggish again. I thought I had it fixed, but it is like vapor lock or something
(#3). The cool thing was seeing a small mako shark jump 5 feet out of the water and do a backflip!
Trolled in for nothing but a huge bloated sea lion we thought was a paddy at first. We even fished it for no luck. We also got in front of some dolphin, but did not find any tuna that way either. Thankfully I got the boat on plane again, but couldn't stop or I would lose all momentum. I wound up stopping outside the inlet to see what all these birds were feeding on and red crab was everywhere! Steve farmed a bite and we went to shoot in the inlet when my boat wouldn't go more than 7 mph... What crap and what a slow ass ride in. I was actually pretty hairy getting in the inlet with such little power.
The "Over the line" tournament was going on and boats were everywhere! There were 40' cigarette boats dropping into South Shores!
I walk up to my truck to see my lights on!
(#4). It barely started, but at least it did...
(#5) was as I was backing my trailer down, I noticed I had a flat on the trailer with new tire! REALLY? Boats are waiting to drop in, so I didn't have much time.
I had a little trouble (not much) getting my boat on the trailer with such heavy use but it went well.
I fill up the tire just to think what could have happened. I looked at the tire and a big ass screw was in it... ugh
Steve helped me dig the jack, tire plugs and such out to do a fix right there in the parking lot. The boat got back home safe and sound.
I'll attach a video when I'm done making it, but here is the only pic I took today as my camera's battery was dead
(#6) and I didn't feel like fumbling with my phone or GoPro.
It was a fun time out there, but wish we could have got onto some more fish. It seemed like the deck was stacked against us at times, but we worked hard for shot at them.
Overall we travelled about 40 miles today! That is some haul in a 41 year old bass boat!
Good fishing with you Steve. Next time, but I have to find the motor issue first.
