Good day but I came to a quick realization...


My fishing time is going to be severely hampered now...

Unfortunately, there was a stupid Bike Race that closed much of MB drive and all of Fiesta Island.  I did a long walk fishing and flew the drone along a lot of beaches, but the really high tide made everything muddy, green, or both.  Needless to say I didn't get any good intel, but I will try again this week.  I'm also sending out a few guys to check the front of the bay in case something is happening up there.

...but the bats are there.

Hahaha, well nice way to strike some spots off the list. I especially love the dog story as Squatch and I have more than I can even recall.

I'm heading down tomorrow for some aerial recon. I have 5 areas I want to check out from above before I make our call for Team SD.

With the exciting pictures I saw of the Pinto Spiny Lobsters from another fisherman here in SD, I was real hopeful of finding a Pinto or Green Spiny here in SD this night.



I really wanted to fish a little more North but my buddy was dead set on fishing SD Bay again.  Not my boat so not my call.

We had quite a few BIG ships roll past us as the evening went on.  A little too close if you ask me.  hahaha



30 hoops pulled and we still didn't get a single lobster, even a short one.  The one thing that was crawling though was the crabs, of all shapes and sizes! 

Lots of swimmer and sheep crab...



and more yellow and red rock crab than I ever remember catching.  All on Mud bottom so I have no idea why there were so many.



We finally got a short lobster and were stoked just to finally stop blasting out goose eggs on the white board.  We adjusted nets at this point and got a visit from the navy since we were a bit close.  The guy was really cool and we shared intel with him.  He told us the guys that were in the apparent "Hot Zone" only got 4 legals between the 5 boats that were set up there.  Not a good sign.

We kept (or I should say my buddy kept) pulling and pulling hoops.  We caught well over 2 dozen legal rock crab, but many had eggs so we let a lot go.  It was already 2:00 am and all we could manage were 2 legal bugs (which we were super stoked for) so we decided to pull and drop in front of the ramp just as a last quick drop hail mary.



Well, my buddy measured out a wrong amount of line and we watched one of the heavy nets slowly sink 10 feet below the boat.  He was going to jump in, but I was like, there has to be a better way.  I grabbed one of his jigs and tied on an extra hook on some 100# test he had onboard and went fishing.  Well, he went fishing first but had zero luck, so we switched and tried to see if my abilities to lose a lure in the tree was better.  Well, damn, I got it!  We recovered the net and reset but I was about done when all of a sudden 10 cops with their light blazing all stopped in front of the ramp with some suspects in the middle of them shouting... WTF!?!?

Well we had to stay out there until they left and pulled our last set about 3:45 am and found another lobster!  It was a short, but just a random place for a bug along with another big crab.

Long story short was I didn't get home until 5:00 am and was exhausted!  I spent the day cleaning, cooking and shucking the crabs for the meat (what a process that was) and now have a bunch of things to do before starting work on Monday.

Well, not the successful lobster trip for Pinto's I was hoping for, but I did bring home the good haul of crab.  Definitely my best ever haul of them.



Well, so much less fishing for me coming up soon now that I'll be back at work, but it's been one hell of a six month run of fish fo me, I'm pretty good for a bit.

Until Next Tide!

So, this may be a tricky one.  It specifically says "California Spiny Lobster" in the regs, but it also only says "Spiny Lobster Report Card" and "Spiny Lobster" multiple times throughout the regs.  My guess is it would still have to measure up to the gauge used on Cali Spinys.  I'm sure there would be a few wardens who would let it go, but most probably would state something like I mentioned in the beginning of this post.

Quote from: jrodda on February 25, 2026, 06:11:22 PMI feel that victory may elude you this year...

I've heard that many a times... Until the clock struck 12:00 and the winner was announced!  lol

When I was in Rancho Leonero, I think they called them Pinto Spiny Lobsters.  The two I remember looking weird was that and a Green one... but I'm pretty sure this is a Pinto.

We're coming for the trophy again, Jeremy!

Some guys have been catching reef lobster with the California Spinys here in San Diego.  So weird, but I would totally love to get one of these guys one day in the nets!



You can see the Cali ones below it.

I wanted to get the boat out since it's my last week before starting up work again.  The ocean seemed to be quiet, so I decided to do an easy trip on the SD bay.

The gas has been sitting there for a month, so I needed to burn some....

I get down to beautiful conditions.  Plan was to hit the halibut grounds and hit it hard for a big back bay hali.



I get there and there is already a boat there so I move up the line a little.  I set out the trolling motor and realize my remote control was dead!  Batteries were dead and I didn't have any on board!  Ugh!
I make a few casts and see clouds of fish on the sonar...

It's been a long time since I've seen this many Lizards!



I decided to run back to the truck and look for AAA batteries.  I saw my headlamp and thankfully had 3 in there... Perfect, they work!  Back out to the spot!



First real fish was a Sandy and I got to hit the clicker.



I had a hard time finding them.  It was all lizard fish so I kept working North until I could find a pocket and I did.  Tide was moving and the fish were biting!



They were pretty small, all in about the 10" range with a few about 11".

I decided to troll since the grass wasn't floating yet and yep...  These things were like piranhas.



I'm looking towards TJ and see a black cloud forming.  It was a lot clearer in person than my picture but whatever was burning was big and a lot of black smoke.  The Cartel is at it again!



The water was really dirty and not easy to see down into it so I switched up to a bright swimmy and it actually did better than my natural colored bait!



The bass were even bigger and got one over a foot.



Then I felt a doozie!  I knew it was a halibut and it took me around the boat a few times.  I saw a faint outline of it and it was BIG!  I had it 3 feet from the surface and could barely see it.  It dove down again and gone.  Reeled up my swimmy and everything was there.. WTF....  Oh well, I hit the spot lock and decided to work this area hard!

A few casts later and I hook up again!  This one had more head shakes, but the bite was very hali like.  I got him to the net and success!  Nothing huge but a few inches bigger than my net opening at 18", so I'm calling 20". 



He was all calm so I set up the phone to get a picture and removed the hook in the net.  Then a Three-Stooges moment happened.
I went to pick him up and he exploded forward and hit my trolling motor... then bounced back into my arms.  I was bear hugging it upside down and it slapped me in the face with its tail, bounced off the deck and back in the water.  GRRRRR!!! 

I stayed in this small area for the next hour and caught a good amount of bass.



I switched baits since my swimmy was torn up, but stuck with the chartreuse color.  Immediately got some more bass and a third butt.  Postage stamp sized.



Well, the tide stopped and so did the bites.  The wind picked up and my shoulder was dead from casting, so I called it around 11:15am.  Not a bad total of 31 bass and butts.  I probably also got a few dozen Lizards so it seems like I caught a lot more.



Really weird thing was I get back to the ramp and was greeted by the warden.  I opened all the hatches and cooler, but was thinking "what are people keeping down here, pee-pee bass?".



In any case, It was a fun morning and I have a few more days to squeeze some more fishing in before the real world grabs hold of me.  LOL

Thanks for reading!

I'll most likely be at the SD one.  Bill said he was going to the SD one this year when I was up in Washington in October, but when I saw his list of events recently, it only said OC.

Good time to buy a Pontoon!

Good luck Tim and looking forward to seeing you and the AZ hoof for the Bat Fight!

As for the MRI tubes.  I f@cking hate them.  I feel like I'm going to freak out everytime.

I'm pulling out some tech to help out Team SD again...  The eye in the sky sees all!

Roger got out yesterday to test out a different spot... Not even a tentacle shaker.

I'm going to go down later in the week and use the drone to find feeding mud clouds or feeding holes.

I bet the guy was stoked to see that butterfly ray.  He was probably also happy for the help.

Nicely done and nice signage.  I'm still waiting to see you with a trout picture....