I decided to look offshore before the wind came up as forecasted, but figured I had a good 6 hours before it started.  My plan was to fish the inside drop-off to oblivion since that is where I have seen the most flying fish and marlin signs the last few weeks going out and coming in from the 178.

Wind was pretty choppy at first light, and I saw a familiar boat out there.  After a quick telephone call, i realized it was buddy Scott who likes to fish all Nija like.  He never answered the hail or my texts, but soon as I called him, he knew the gig was up!  He was staying inshore since he had some intel on some nice yellows.  I said I was going offshore and he tried to talk me into staying inshore saying the wind was going to be brutal.  I figured I was close enough and be able to run in with the wind at my back just fine.

I get to the area I want to fish and flying fish everywhere!  I'm feeling pretty hopeful and even found a sweet paddy but couldn't get anything to hit my micro jig and my side finder was almost blank looking under the paddy.

I started trolling a 5-rod spread:  one marlin lure, two wahoo jigs, and two small bubblers for tuna/dorado.  It wasn't long before I had my first take down on the small bubbler. 

Skippy!

I could see in the distance the weather line heading right towards me.

Then my bent butt started to scream!  I jumped on the rod and tried to make sure I sunk the hook in before clearing the other trollers.  It jumped and I literally was like "Was that a sailfish?!!!!!"  It was a pretty small billfish from what I have been catching, but I saw a huge fin/sail on it! 
Then it jumped again and I know I saw a longer sail, but it was sideways so I couldn't tell if it was a spearfish, sailfish, or small marlin!  Now my heart was pumping and I started clearing line!  I had the boat in gear and was on the last rod when i could hear it splashing and then the line started ripping off the reel and stopped suddenly.  OH NO!  I know that noise!  It popped off.  f@ck!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I called Scott and he seemed to think it was most likely a shortbill spearfish, but that first jump, I swear I saw a huge sail on it and not a low and tight one to the body.  Well, I will never know but in any case, it was a really cool hook up! (The area I hooked up was 75.4 degree water and only a half miles away it was 72.6.  I definitely was on a break and flying fish everywhere)

I started trolling again and the small jet heat gets slammed.  Another skippy!

Followed by the chrome bubbler and another Skippy!

Then I realized that weather line was almost above me and then it started raining on me.  The wind went from 10 knots to 25 knots immediately and the texture on the water due to this wind was crazy!  I should have just reeled in and shot back to the ramp, but that stupid billfish had me still hunting the area.  By now it was too late.

I cleared the line and though I could run straight in with the wind at my back, but the wind created these tight tall wind waves that crashed over the bow every time I tried to overtake the backside of the wave heading in causing me to submarine and throw a wall of water over me almost every time.  I was soaked and pulled the deck plug to make sure all of the water drained out.  By the time I got into the inlet, I was a wreck and it was just plain nasty out there.

Thankfully I got 3 skippies for poke and lobster bait so it wasn't a complete loss.

Anyway, now I need to go lobster fishing.  Surgery is a month away and I need to stock up while I can!

I'll pu the pics up whem I get home from work today.

Thanks for reading!

Then again and I couldn't tell if it

I went for wahoo Steve but should have stuck with Lobster.

Dude, I left about 45 minutes too LATE.  I saw it coming but figured I had more time.  My buddy with a 28' boat called me up on the radio and said he was racing in and I probably should too.  Instead, I started trolling in until I realized that the waves at my back were going to be worse than at my bow. Ugh, I took about 400 gallons over the bow.  f@ck, I just realized that I didn't put up a post.  I'll get to work on that but glad you got back and figured out the gas issue.

The Coronado Canyon has been on fire with Hoo, but I just haven't been able to get over there.  The storm probably f@cked everything up.

Thanks for the post boss and the Jets and Fins tangle soon!

Looks like there is a small opportunity on Saturday Morning before the storm rolls in.  I don't mind bug hunting in the rain, but not in 20 knot winds!

TONIGHT
Wind NW 10 kt in the evening ... becoming variable less than 10 kt. Seas 3 ft. Wave
Detail: NW 1 foot at 4 seconds, S 3 ft at 11 seconds and W 1 foot at 11 seconds.
FRI
Wind variable less than 10 kt...becoming NW 10 kt in the afternoon. Seas 3 to 4 ft.
Wave Detail: S 3 ft at 12 seconds and W 1 foot at 14 seconds.
FRI NIGHT
Wind NW 10 kt in the evening ... becoming variable less than 10 kt. Seas 3 to 4
ft. Wave Detail: NW 1 foot at 4 seconds, S 3 ft at 11 seconds and W 1 foot at
14 seconds.
SAT
Wind variable less than 10 kt...becoming W 10 kt in the afternoon. Seas 3 to 4
ft. Wave Detail: N 1 foot at 4 seconds, W 1 foot at 13 seconds and SW 3 ft at
16 seconds.
SAT NIGHT
Wind NW 10 to 15 kt...becoming N 15 to 20 kt after midnight. Seas 4 ft ... building to 5
to 6 ft after midnight. NW 4 ft at 5 seconds and S 3 ft at 16 seconds. A slight chance
of showers in the evening, then a chance of showers after midnight.
SUN
Wind SW 20 kt. Seas 7 to 9 ft...building to 9 to 12 ft in the afternoon. SW 7 ft at 7
seconds and S 6 ft at 13 seconds. Showers likely, mainly in the morning.
SUN NIGHT
Wind SW 15 to 20 kt. Seas 8 to 10 ft. Wave Detail: W 7 ft at 7 seconds and S 6 ft at 12
seconds. A chance of showers.

Quote from: jrodda on October 07, 2026, 11:19:50 AMNice! I have pondered those a number of times, although they have been out of my price range. Looking forward to seeing some shots with it.

I refused to pay those ridiculous prices but wasted $80 on a cheapo... Basically double that and get the high-end version.  I'm pretty sure I'll be able to get some good footage but need to find some good editing software.  The ones I have now are too difficult and/or too time consuming.

Sx is in a month and 3 months of recovery.  I want a few bugs for the freezer as the only thing I'll be doing in late December is trout fishing with 2# test at best. 

I guess if the marine forecast looks good, I might as well take advantage of that and look for Hoo.

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!