For the last few years I've wanted too get a DJI action camera as my old GoPro-3 is tough to operate, especially now that GoPro-12 is rolling out.  That should give you an idea how old it is.

I bought a cheapo off brand for $80 a couple of years ago and I should have realized the quality of the video would be the same.  I barely bring it out as the battery life is way too short and the quality is fine if you are looking at a screen the size of a phone and not an actual computer monitor or bigger.

Here comes Amazon Prime... Last time I went to buy a DJI drone and the $400 drone was listed as $220 for Prime Day.  I thought it was a bunch of bull and just marked up so I waited and the price even went over $400 after Prime Day and never even went close to that low even on Black Friday!  Ugh, I wound up getting a good but lesser version of a drone because I wasn't paying that price.

Forward to the action cameras.  I've wanted to get one as the reviews for these cameras are really off the charts even compared to the GoPros, but I didn't want to spend $350-$400 for a camera.  Unfortunately, my phone is about full of memory and the video always comes out pixelated when I share it anywhere else besides me phone so I want to get a real camera so I can actually capture under the paddy scenes as well as some cool things without filling up my phone memory just randomly videoing.

Here it was...  One day only and only for 15 minutes once it is put in the cart, but a $400 DJI camera with two spare batteries for only $195.  I had it in my cart as I pondered if I should even do it but after 20 minutes saw it went back to full price!  It was 85% taken, so I had one more chance to pull the trigger if I talked myself into it....

Well, it will be here on Thursday, so hopefully get to share more video and better underwater quality pictures with you soon!

Yellows are off Point Loma... When are you getting the "Pirate Patch" in the water?

So I'm not sure I'll have the boat anywhere the hoo are as the season progresses, but I could be wrong.  I have one PTO day left that I could use as the other days are going to be used for my surgery. 

I was thinking about using up some of the carcasses in my freezer for a long night of bug hunting and using a PTO day the following day to clean and rest up.... OR....  do I just use it for another offshore trip and burn a ton of gas looking for quarry?  It'll probably be just a solo trip so either will put a hurting on my shoulder and body but I want to use my last PTO day properly.

What would you guys do?

BTW, I'd definitely give the motor the 100-hour service to reset. 

The wind was there, but the mountains and the cliffs kept the wind stream up high off the water.  It did create some waves coming from the land which was weird.

Would you guys like to see a full color logo or grayscale version?

Has anyone else noticed how strange this season has been? On paper, this Super El Niño should be a dream scenario for Southern California anglers. We've got warm water pushed up the coast, tropical species showing up in places they normally wouldn't, and surface temperatures hovering around 74°F across massive areas of ocean.

The problem is that the fish don't seem to have any reason to stack up.

In a normal year, we spend a lot of time looking for temperature breaks, current edges, and chlorophyll lines. Those transitions concentrate bait, which concentrates predators. Find a clean temp break from 67° to 70° or a nice chlorophyll edge, and you've got a starting point.

This year, it feels like the ocean hit the "shuffle" button.

Instead of distinct water masses, there are miles and miles of nearly identical conditions. You can run 20 miles and still see essentially the same 74°F water. The chlorophyll charts look flat, the temperature charts look flat, and the fish seem to be acting the same way. There aren't many obvious zones telling you where to start looking.

As a result, fish are showing up in random places. One boat finds a school of decent sized yellowfin or wahoo in an area that looked dead the day before. Another boat runs over excellent meter marks in the middle of nowhere with no visible conditions suggesting why they're there. The next day they're gone.

It's been incredible fishing when you're on them, but finding them has become much more difficult because the ocean lacks the structure we normally rely on. The fish have 40-plus square miles of comfortable water to roam around in rather than being pinned to specific temperature or chlorophyll boundaries.

Don't get me wrong, I'll take 74-degree water off Southern California every day of the week. But for those of us who love reading charts and hunting productive water, this El Niño has turned the game into more of a treasure hunt. The fish are there. They just aren't giving us many clues.

Anyone else seeing the same thing, or have you found some pattern that's working in this giant bathtub of warm water?

I was planning on meeting Squatch fishing on Saturday since it seemed to be the best of the two-day weekend, weather wise.  Unfortunately, Squatch couldn't make it since he was meeting his friend in a van down by the river.  I opted to change days so Steve could get out.  It's been a long time since I had him in the Curmudgeon.

We met at my place since I was expecting a lot of fish and needed to get the boat cleaned (being Sunday and not having an extra day to tidy up the gear).  I was all ready to roll the minute he showed up and we were on our way.  Funny how lobster season, especially Saturday Night Lobster fishing keeps the crowds down for Sunday.

What great views from the ramp...







The weather was a little windy and choppy in the morning, but gorgeous!



The wind died down and everything got greasy out there.  We noticed some surface activity in the middle of nowhere and I cast my little 30-gram jig out.  I totally get slammed and was stoked but lost him.  My guess was a Bullet Tuna but I really didn't see him.  We continued to the 9-Mile and heard a few boats talking about the huge biomass of Bullets out there.  they weren't kidding!  They were everywhere but would not hit our trolling spread or irons.  It was quite baffling.

We decided we didn't come out for Bullets so we put out a few Marlin Jigs, a Wahoo lure and a few feathers just in case.  5-rod spread on the skiff...  Bullets everywhere but not in the biting mood or consumed with whatever micro bait they were feeding on.

Then, out of the blue I hear a clicker ZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz! I'm on and on my virgin rod (Talica 16/Teramar) that I picked up from Shimano!  It would have been a great fight on the bass gear, but this set up is more for the bigger stuff, so I bounced him.



We saw a ton of flying fish around and after telling Steve I was in the lead, he said if he touches or grabs a flying fish that flies into the boat, he wins.  Reluctantly, I agreed but knew that would never happen. Well, I almost ate my words as right in front of the boat a flying fish shot out and a 18-year-old Squatch could have grabbed it.  Thankfully a 70-year-old Squatch doesn't have the reaction time. 

Another weird thing was no jumping Manta Rays anywhere.  I've seen them every single time I've been out, but not today.  It looked lifeless out there and the radio chatter reinforced that thought with the "You should have been here yesterday" blather.

Then we see what looks like a huge black garbage bag floating on the water.  We kept trying to figure out what it was and pretty much settled on a garbage bag that fell off a big boat.  Then we got close to it, and it turned its HEAD to look at us and sunk out!  Mother f@cker!  A huge female elephant seal!  Well, that was pretty cool!



We continued to troll and troll for nothing else.  We did see some birds working and Squatch got to see a leaping Manta Ray finally!  I missed it, but he got to see it.  Then in the distance we saw what looked like a marlin.  Then the closer we got, realized maybe it was a school of big tuna!  Then we got closer to see it was a huge pod of small dolphin.... and they wanted to play with the boat.  We literally "Trolled" with them for a bit and then just gave up when we realized there were no tuna with them.




On the way back in we passed some MONSTER kelp paddies!  Nothing was holding, but there were a few small yellows under them.  They would chase the jig up but not commit to the attack so we called it the day.



The ride in was glassy and pretty smooth.  Gorgeous day on the water and great to be fishing with my friend again.

Got home and washed the boat and equipment.  Steve took his leave and I was finishing up the cleaning when as I started cleaning the trolling lures from my tackle bucket, a tiny little wiener dropped out.  Mother f@cker!  hahahahahaha
That thing has lasted probably 15 years being passed back and forth since we found it Sturgeon fishing at Cuyamaca!  Touche Squatch!



Well, that was it.  A fun day on the water even if the fish didn't want to show themselves (except for the Bullets)

Thanks for reading and until next tide!

Sounds like the Square Boma for most of my time owning her!

Well Damn, glad you got out and same thing here.  I was expecting a lot of wind and it was glassy, although the waves and swell seemed to be coming from 4 different directions.

Well, you got your yellow.  I had my fill of those suckers.  I went from having every yellowtail the past year and a half being 25-50 pounds and then they were all 8oz to 2#.  hahaha

I got Steve in the boat since I refused my buddy's invite to lobster fish this weekend.  I don't want anything to do with that mess on opening weekend.

Well, I hope you get her fixed up soon.  The season has been "Hot or Not" for a Super El Nino.  If anything, it's been the year of the Marlin!

That thing is going to require some new P-Soul stickers when it's done!

You never disappoint with the food pics, but adding in all the trout was a bonus!  Another great trip to remind me that I need to get my ass up there.

Vive El Concolor!

I took a personal day and wanted to get out fishing before the offshore storms start to kick up the seas again.  The plan was to fish for marlin and wahoo.  Anything else was a bonus.

Dropped the boat in and as I was walking back from parking the trailer I passed 5 sets of underwear.  I don't even want to know.



My buddy needs to take less coffee grinders...



It was a little windier than predicted and quite a bit more bumpy.  We got out to the 178 and metered some fish.  We probably should have just started fishing there trolling Mad Macs, but we decided to just run to the 182 instead and hit the 178 on the way back.

Water was gorgeous!  No birds or signs of life.  An occasional gull and flying fish, but we trolled all over and around the FAD.  No one was there so it was pretty nice having it to ourselves.

I finally get a quick hit but it never stuck.  I reeled in my "Megabait" to see the steel hook attachment snapped!  Everything was gone and this was a solid piece of steel that ran through the lure!  WTF?



We would reel in at any paddies we saw ,which wasn't much, and see who was home.  We did pick up some nice marlin baits in case we decided to fly line one in their face if we saw them!



We had one knockdown that I was sure was a marlin, but it took off and never charged again.  We also 2 more out there just free jumping, but couldn't make it happen.

We decided we were going to troll the 178 to the 9-mile border on the outside then troll back up on the inside to see if we could find something.  The marlin guys were all over the 178/9 so we still felt we had a shot.

As we were trolling to the 178, we spot a beauty of a paddy!



Dodo, yellows and little nerf footballs all over the place.  My first cast with the jig and I hooked the dodo which proceeded to use the jig as a bullet at my head as it made its final jump next to the boat.  It was pretty good fishing and then it just literally shut off.



We continued the troll when we saw something really close to us just pop up out of the water!  My buddy said it looked like a water heater with a pipe.  I was like Holy f@ck!  Look at that Sub!



It was huge and kept maneuvering at us.  I'm not sure why but the radar said it was less than 3/4 of a mile away, so we decided to get some more distance between us just in case.

We trolled the entire outside to the border for nothing.  Wind picked up and now it was just plain sloppy out there.



We started trolling home when one of the trollers for tuna went singing!  It was totally a nicer grade YFT... the boat near us just caught a 50# model and this one seemed from the same school, but like everything today, we lost him.

Then we started boxing the area and I got SMEARED on the Mad Mac!!!!  f@cking violent hit and run but it never stuck.  WTF... this was getting annoying.  I reeled in the mack to investigate and Holy Hell!



It looks like wahoo, but I'm no wahoo expert.  Tombo saw a bunch of makos out there so it could have been one of them, but the lure was hit in the middle so I'm leaning towards a hoo.

We finally call it quits as it was 6:00 and headed in.  As we passed under the bridge, I realized we had our limits of yellows in the bait tank and they were all strong and hardy!  I dumped them in the bay for someone to catch.  How cool would that be to fish for bay bass and catch a little yellow!  Hahahaha

Anyways, a non-productive trip for pelagics but it was worth the PTO to spend all day on the water.

Thanks for reading and until next tide!

That looks almost exactly like my "Square Boma" project.  Tackle some of the cheaper and easier things first because once you are at the end game and put a coat of paint inside, it's going to make that baby dazzle!

Thanks for the post as it's bringing back a lot of old memories of the Boma.  I probably have a few things for your boat in my garage.  I'll look for a few things and send you pics if you want any of them.

Quote from: jrodda on September 22, 2026, 11:30:26 AMExciting trip! Never a saw a paddy this weekend so hopefully some of those drift up this way.

It was only a manhole sized paddy, but held a TON even 50 yards away!  As for the one I found when the navy threw me out, well that was as big as your boat!