I was supposed to fly out for Dad's 80th birthday, but then my surgery got scheduled and the planets just never seemed to align.

There was only one thing Dad wanted for his birthday, though, and it was something he wanted me to make.

Twenty-six years ago, I built him a wooden sign for their house up in the hills. Somehow that sign survived 26 years of snow, ice, rain, sun, and everything else Mother Nature could throw at it. Back then, I shipped it out for what felt like pocket change compared to today's shipping costs.

When Dad asked for a replacement, I told him I'd build something he'd love.

The original sign used real antlers, which seemed like a great idea at the time. Unfortunately, the local rodents thought they were a snack, and the neighborhood kids apparently viewed them as souvenirs because they kept trying to steal them off the sign.

So with that in mind, I got to work on version 2.0.

I also built the shipping crate like a tank because there was no way I was trusting this project to make the trip unprotected.

Here's the progression from start to finish:

I went resin this time.



PNW Redwood.



Rounded edges and smoothed out.



Honey stain and nautical rope trim.















Arrived today and the shipping is 5x as much as the last time I shipped one to him.





He was really happy with it and was as stoked as I've heard him in years.  Last time I saw him this happy he had a hole in one!  Okay, well he was happier over the hole in one.  hahahah

I need to get the rail mount for my camera. Probably could use a remote control to start recording also.

Great stuff Tim!

BTW, the tuna are 7 miles off Delmar

I assume my shoulder will probably be getting "Plan B".

I really want a hoo but I'm getting sick and tired of running offshore when sometimes all I want is to just fish locally.  Having this super El Nino has me really wanting a Hoo (Top 10 fish on my bucket list), especially a local one.

My buddy Scott went on his boat but travelled outside the islands where the fleet has been churning the water with their trolling.  I opted for the close local banks as the amount of high speed trolling really messes with my gas milage. 

Conditions looked good before the storm so my fingers were crossed.



Even a sailboat was headed out the inlet with two 50 wide trollers on the back!



I wired up one of my Mad Macs just in case.  I was ready for my Hoo!



My plan was to only troll 4 rods this time and have the Mad Mac on my electric reel so I can reel up quickly if one of the other rods get hit. 



I passed a bunch of birds and dolphin but didn't see much on the meter and it was right on the shelf drop off.  I didn't see any fish, but those annoying birds that kept grabbing my micro jig I planned on using to catch little yellows for bait with.  I should have tried around a bit more, but I was already hearing wahoo being caught and knew I had to get to the outside of the banks that were still 7 miles to go.



The life around the ocean was non-existent out here and hardly any sword guys also anchored up.  I was only trolling for 45 minutes when I thought I saw two birds floating on the water and realized it was a fish.  I started trolling over to it thinking it was a marlin but NOPE!  It was probably a 9-10 foot Mako!  Holy sh!t it was huge and I wanted it!  I trolled right past it and it came over looking at my trolling spread but didn't attack.  I reeled up my trolling gear while keeping an eye on it and put on some wire leader to a big circle hook.  I brought some Big squid in case I deep dropped for swords while I was out there.
The minute I was all baited up I looked up and he was gone.  No where to be found...  Jeezus!!!
(I actually have some video on my action camera, but I need to figure out how to post video's here.)
I searched and search but no love so I put the trollers back out.  About 20 minutes later and I get a screamer on the marlin jig!  A decent marlin (probably 90ish pounds) jumping and doing marlin things.  I kept the boat in gear and reeled up my trollers.  By the time I started to crank on him, I only got a few minutes of fight before it threw the hook and gone...  Ugh... This was going to be one of those mornings.

I decided to switch things up and throw on the Kogahead as a troller and pulled out the McRib for good luck!



Next 30 minutes not a thing so I took off the Kogahead and put the other Marlin Jig on.  I loved the spread I was trolling but just needed to find some fish.
Soon as I switched the lures, I saw a couple of fins out of the water and trolled by.  It was another marlin but made a few turns and just disappeared.  I boxed the area for a bit for nothing. 

I kept trolling (zig zagging from the outside ridge, over the high point to the inside ridge and back.  I saw a few more fins and cruised over to see a baby swordfish!  Well, it was probably 50-60 pounds so just the size I wanted!  I cast the big squid out to it, but it literally just sounded and I saw on the sonar it heading to the bottom. 
I decided at this point I was going to drop for swords.  I went on a drift from 650' to 1100'.    I actually made a test drop to see if I would get any tangles and soon as it hit bottom I was on!  Finally a fish in the bag, but it messed up my squid...  Good thing I had a second.



I reused the bait and caught a couple for the bag.  By far the deepest rockfish I have caught.  I was at least hoping for a black gill!





They were puking up a bunch of tuna crab!



I decided to reset and really drop for swords.  I set it at 800' and made a killer drift but to no avail.



It was getting late and I made the call to run and gun looking for a paddy or any sign of fish.  I heard they were crushing the YFT off LJ but I wanted to look for my hoo.  As I was running, the water erupted in front of my boat and a HUGE Marlin jumped!  It had a sharp dorsal fin and was probably 400+ pounds!  I put out the two big marlin jigs and trolled for a half hour in the zone for nothing.  Now I am way later than I was expecting, especially being on Halloween that I have to get back to the house.

During my troll, I had two screaming rippers on the smaller chrome jet head, but neither stuck.  They were screamers so I had no idea what they were.

I ran to the inside ledge and saw absolutely nothing.  No boats, no fish, no nothing... but I did see some stuff on the sonar as I was coming up so I dropped the electric for sharks/swords and also the bass rod since it was only 450'.

Then out of the blue, a boat starts running right towards me and set up about 200' away.  WTF were they doing?  They had no clue and just wanted to have another boat around, but it really irked me they did this.  It was almost worse than stealing a paddy since there was no reason I should be there so definitely even worse than why they shadowed me. (I took the picture but decided not to post it)

I could see my big squid getting smashed by smaller fish and I couldn't hook them on that big squid/hook combo.  I dropped my bass gear and put on a 250-gram pink ball jig with a strip of big squid strip on it.  I hit the bottom and made a few bounces when WHAM!!!!!  I knew it was big right away!  I took my time, but man, I could barely gain any ground on him.  Every time I got 20 yards, he took 20 yards or more.  Then I noticed him getting wrapped in my electric line so now the panic started setting in.  I kept thinking it was a shark this deep, but it would have definitely bit through that line holding the proportionally smaller hooks.

Finally, I get it to color and HOLY CRAP!  A Yellow from 450+ feet down!  Unfriggin real!



I made one more drop as I was already 2 hours behind schedule and nothing so I packed up and headed to the barn.

What started out as a promising trip, turned south pretty quick, but literally the last cast saved the day!

It was an easy ride back and the boat was cleaned and covered up for the storm.  Today was not what I was dreaming about, but that last second win sure was sweet.

Thanks for reading!

Hahahaha, pretty fun story.  Well, not you dropping the phone in the water, but the "state-of-the-art-from-2001 fish finder" had me laugh out loud a bit.

Nice bowtie! (That's what we called little dolphin out east)

Seriously though, at least you caught something.  Catching nothing is WAY worse.  You could have used one of Koga's lures and claimed that is the reason for the lack of catching.  His big black cloud following you about.  lol

Thanks Tim.  I'm ready to finally get the shoulder fixed after two years of dealing with the pain.

Well done gents!  Getting the rust off the bat gear and getting ready for SNBF-XX!

Looks like Gordon Ramsey is taking after his pops!  Did he add a little bat ray wing to the concoction?

All that gear in the mustang was quite fun to see!

My surgical Pre-Op was yesterday and I'm a little more nervous now.  Originally this was going to be an easier surgery as long as I don't mess it up anymore than it's messed up, but he just let me know about Plan A and Plan B.  I asked "What's Plan B?"

He said that if everything looks like the way the MRI was showing then it will be fairly easy with only 4 holes and a little bit bigger incision.  If he goes in and finds holes in the tendon or it being torn off the bone, then I get to have more anchors drilled in and it gets a little more complicated.

This means only one thing...   I'm going Marlin/Wahoo fishing this weekend!

I'm not even trying anymore.  I don't think I've ever NOT cared about football this much before.  Maybe the Jets finally beat it out of me.

I'm loving the low light footage it produces.  Overall, I'm super satisfied!

Thanks, I can see them now which is weird that I couldn't see them before.

Are you guys seeing the pictures?  I can't see them for some reason on my computer.

Some fishing days are about filling the ice box. Other days are about experiences you'll be talking about for years.

This was definitely one of those days.

I launched with one thing on my mind: wahoo. Unfortunately, those striped demons once again reminded me why they're even more frustrating than bluefin tuna. The fish box stayed empty, but what happened instead was something I never expected.



I launched to beautiful conditions.  On the way out it was warm and blue water.  I found a paddy at the drop off to the abyss and caught 3 small yellows to about a pound and stuffed them in the live well for something greater.  I started my journey until I reached the parking lot of swordfish boats out there.

So picture this... trolling solo on the flats boat with five rods spread out, covering water for marlin and wahoo. I was a little nervous what was going to happen, but it excited me enough to want to try to know... hopefully. 



Throughout the day, the ocean was putting on a show. I spotted a pod of orcas, saw a few jumping humpbacks, a lone sky-high jumping devil ray, an elephant seal, and two tailing marlin. It was one of those rare days when every direction you looked there was something incredible happening but not in the way of foaming tuna or wide-open paddy fishing.



Then one of those marlin decided to play.

The problem was that I wasn't exactly armed with traditional marlin gear.

I spotted the fish on the surface and scrambled to make a cast. The problem was that I didn't exactly have a dedicated marlin setup ready to go. The only rod available was my heavy saltwater bass outfit, so I pinned on a small live yellowtail and fired it out to the fish.

A moment later the marlin ate.

That's when the chaos started.

The fish was hooked on a Penn 400 low-profile reel matched with a G-Loomis 30-65 lb. rod. Great gear for a lot of things, but battling a marlin wasn't exactly what it was designed for.

The second the fish realized it was hooked, all hell broke loose.

Being solo made things especially interesting. I still had five other trolling rods in the water and a marlin determined to empty my reel. I hit the electric reel to get one rod out of the way while I drove the boat and tried to reel in line so now only had 4 to contend with.



The only way to stay in the game was to drive the boat aggressively and chase the fish. Every time the marlin made a hard run, I was throttling after him to keep from getting spooled. Somehow, I was steering, watching the remaining trolling gear, and fighting the fish all at the same time.

The marlin wasn't cooperating either.



It went airborne repeatedly, launching itself completely clear of the water like a cruise missile. My action camera managed to record some of the chaos, but unfortunately, it wasn't pointed where it needed to be. The best footage ended up being me frantically trying to gain line while the fish was launching all over the ocean.

Not exactly the documentary production I had envisioned.

Still, after a 15-20 minute battle filled with boat maneuvers, line recovery, and more than a few moments where I thought the fish was going to win, the little bass reel somehow held on.

Eventually the marlin came 25' from boatside.  He turned towards the boat to spin around and his bill went right across the line and PING!

That's when the reality of what had just happened finally hit me.

I'd managed to hook, fight, and successfully "sportsman's release" a marlin on bass gear while trolling solo with four rods out (Thank goodness I did get the electric troller in, lol).

The fish swam away strong, the gear survived, and I couldn't stop grinning.



I trolled the next 25 miles for not a single short bite. 



I decided to weave through the parking lot of swordfish boats and go on a paddy hunt. 



I found not one, but 5 HUGE paddys all about 7 miles from shore and in 1600' of 77.4-degree blue water.  Nothing doing until I saw a huge dodo jump at the next paddy in the line!  I shot over there and cast my 80- gram sniper on the bass rod and it gets slammed!  DODO On and it was a good one.  In the 16-18# category, but on the 3rd or 4th jump, the iron came flying out of his mouth like a bullet right at me.  No harm but scared the crap out of me.

Then two more started jumping next to the paddy, one big bull, and a decent sized hen.  I switched lures 8-10 times, but couldn't get them to go, and they disappeared.  I trolled the area with small pink feathers to try and fool one into taking the troll, but nothing was around...

I needed to get back home so I started charging in.  The wind started to pick up so this was the perfect time.  Along the way I saw some really silver tuna jumping.  I think they were skippies, but I never saw skippies jump out of the water like that before (horizontal and fully out of the water like a bluefin).  I couldn't get them to strike my sniper, so I kept going.  Then I swear I saw Sierra Mackerel jumping!  I've seen them plenty of times down in Baja and I swear I saw a bunch of yellow spots on them.  Once again as I got close enough to cast, they sunk out and I couldn't even get a short bite...

Water was 77 almost everywhere!



I continued my journey in.

Sure, there wasn't any wahoo in the cooler. In fact, there were no fish in the ice box at all.

But some days the scorecard isn't measured in pounds of fillets on this day.

Sometimes it's measured in airborne marlin, screaming drags, near-spooled reels, and the kind of ridiculous solo battle that reminds you why we keep going back offshore.

This was one of those days.

As I was passing SeaWorld, I stopped to dump the yellowtail in the bay and took some video.  Now there are 2 more yellows swimming the bay.  Hopefully we can establish a good-sized population back there.  LOL

Well damn....  I've been trying hard for these things and in the right spots, but those skinnies still elude me!

Well thanks for reading and until next tide!  I know I missed a bunch more, but I'm done typing.

One of your hatches blew off on the freeway!?!?!  Yikes!

Well, glad you got some.  I've been only coming home with empty fish coolers lately.