Glad somebody caught, and the boys had fun. Totally whiffed with my co-worker but at least we tried.

Speaking of sand blasted gear, one of my nicer spinning reels on standby ate it twice into dry sand from the wind. Seems okay now but holy heck, you're right to point it out...

The wind tomorrow is gonna make things interesting.

I was thinkin' about that today actually. Glad it was a good day, I've had instant regret on day one before.

I'll believe it when I see it. All the rays have been eaten by white sharks or migrated to a far away island, out of reach of any pendulum cast.

Fished Spot B again 1730-1930. No bites on the bat rod, some on the UL. I don't think there are actually any real fish in OC...?

ONCE AGAIN, a dog owner walks by me, stops 10 yards up current, throws ball into the water, dog goes and gets it, is nearly swept into my line in 10 seconds. I hop up and retrieve my line asap. I had nothing good to say so I muttered something about at least the dog got her ball when he apologized to me.

Quote from: Tim524 on March 01, 2026, 06:08:50 AMMake the drive and Join Team San Diego, we have dogs, horses and topless girls on boats to look at when the Bats aren't biting 

When Alicia finishes nursing school I may be joining Team SD indefinitely, so I gotta show you guys up this year while I can!

And Newport has no shortage of girls! Unfortunately it isn't the Saturday Night Girl Fight though...

Fished 2 spots this morning with Jake on a big outgoing tide, 0930-1245.

First was totally new to me and looked promising from the satellite view, but got no bites. Several hurdles for that spot, but might be okay on an incoming instead of an outgoing tide next time.

Second spot was also tough. Soaked for bats and for UL critters, only got a few short bites on the UL. Some signs of rays feeding on the shoreline. Walked by a guy who said he hadn't caught anything, then walked by his stringer of short spotties. I would have called the DFW if he weren't packing up.

Dog off of a leash ran into the water and into my UL line at one point, thankfully didn't get tangled. I recently dog-sat for a big doodle and the experience further enlightened me to all the hazards for dogs. It affirms my view of how many stupid dog owners are out there.

Hot day! Drank a whole gatorade, even took my shirt off for a wee bit to activate some melanin. Unfortunately I blinded Jake and he will be unable to pre-fish with me tomorrow.

Gonna try something else for pre-fishing tomorrow, not entirely sure what but it will probably involve an incoming tide.

Too bad no pintos but good to bring home something different in the crabs. You had an excellent run of fishing the past 6 months from the yellowtail units to everything else, glad you made it to the other side in one piece, albeit with some shots in the shoulder.

Checks out on the descriptors.

From https://mexican-marine-life.org/pinto-spiny-lobster/ , it seems they are waaaay out of their way up here.

The Pinto Spiny Lobster is found in all Mexican waters of the Pacific Ocean with the exception that they are absent from north of Magdalena Bay, Baja California Sur, along the central and northwest coasts of the Baja Peninsula, south of the Gulf of Tehuantepec, Oaxaca, and north of Bahía de los Ángeles, Baja California in the Gulf of California. They are the  most common species of spiny lobster in the Gulf of California. In the early 1960's two individuals were captured as far north as San Diego, California.

Wild that there's a sudden influx of them for the first time in perhaps 60 years. Hope you get one. Would you be allowed to keep it? Could be sketchy but I would guess DFW would be perplexed to see it and at least be forgiving if they checked you.

I've got more willing participants to help throughout the day this time, I feel that victory may elude you this year...

What's the scientific name? Curious about its distribution and all that, but nothing is coming up on the search.

I will be going to the OC one. Trying to fit in a lot of SNBF fishing but I may end up at the show around high noon. Or Sunday.

Looks like a fun day on the water!

When they lit the busses in Puerto Vallarta on fire, you could see a similar black smoke plume. I saw an aerial shot over there that was probably pin high with where I stayed a few years ago and the several plumes were pretty ominous. Hopefully things settle soon.

Aerial recon for bat fight?? OC needs to upgrade its artillery.

Fished Belmont with my coworker Dave this morning, 0900-1100. Started quite nippy, probably 55, and warmed up to 65 pretty quick. High tide was 1130.

Water was pretty clean, LA River hadn't dumped a bunch of garbage onto the shoreline which was nice.

Shortly after I arrived, I saw a light tackle guy hook up to something good 50 yards away. I figured he would need a hand with landing it so I walked over to him. He was pretty green to surf fishing and was happy for the help. His drag was set really light and he admitted this was his first season of surf fishing so I started coaching him up quite a bit, resetting his drag and telling him to put more muscle to the fish because he was letting it sit on the bottom too much. Every time I told him to move to get in front of the fish he way over corrected and walked well past it. But, after some time, it came up and it was a nice butterfly ray around 30". No way to grip that thing so I just kinda got between it and the small waves and slowly pushed it up the sand a bit. Took his pics for him and shoved it off. He was very grateful and I may see him there again soon, nice guy.

For the rest of the time, Dave and I got nary a bump throwing LCFMs and I later switched to a KM. Gave up at 1100 and his girlfriend joined us from the dog park down the way and we got some great burgers at a spot called Grill 'Em All (metal themed burger joint on the harbor). I will definitely eat there again. Rooftop seating had a great view of the harbor.