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.

Haven't pre-fished but it's time I did. Plenty of bait in my freezer. Seems I've got at least 3 guys from work who are excited about joining me this year so I'm kind of hoping they want to join at different times of day and I can try different things.

I'm surprised you haven't started soaking senkos for the trout yet, they sure seem to love them

Congratulations Tom!!!!! That was a gnarly job hunt. I'm very happy and relieved for you.

Go get 'em!!!!!!!!

Took my Tuesday fishing time to try jetty fishing. Peak low 1530, wind from the southwest at about 10 and getting up to a stiff 15 by 1700.

I was excited to try a new handmade bucktail I got off eBay last month. First cast was to the ocean side of the jetty, into the wind. Hits bottom, give it a twitch and the line just releases. Wtf? Reel up and my leader connection just kind of unraveled. 10# braid to 30# leader, I tied an Alberto by doubling up the braid but it didn't tighten down how it usually does. I should have cut it and tried again. Sad I didn't get a full cast in with the new bucktail, but I ordered two more while I was still on the jetty.

Second cast was with a dropshot, 2oz torpedo and a white z-man fluke. Got it stuck between rocks at my feet and broke off. Should I go home? That's what the stripers would want me to do. I tied on another dropshot.

Kept fishing but switched to the harbor side because it was easier to get my presentation over the rocks without breaking off. Got a few bites while the wind picked up. Finally just as I was about to leave, I get slammed mid-channel by mr. calico.



Called it a last cast fish and went home as the sun was starting to set. Happy to get a little slime on my hands.

That yellowtail volcano has got my mouth watering.

We went out for sushi for V-Day, Alicia came home wanting a butane torch for future homemade torched sashimi.

I've bought like 30 spools of this suuuuuper cheap braid called Gevicont over the past 7 years or so. A 1000m spool of multi-colored (every ~36') 8 strand braid was like $45. I don't think I have ever had a failure from it once and it's on over 20 of my reels.

Yesterday I went to buy another 1000m for a Tiagra 50W I just picked up and their whole Amazon store is out of stock. Makes me wish I would have gone ahead and bought even bigger spools in bulk just in case they went out of business.

Hoping they come back around or some other nonsense Amazon store decides to sell their stock but I'm pretty bummed. I get deals on PowerPro but PowerPro doesn't have 8 strand color coated line, and even with the discount it would definitely be more expensive than Gevicont.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07HRB4TWS/?colid=1GIABNQW3T5ZF&coliid=IJBR5P9QNRMS4&ref_=list_c_wl_lv_ov_lig_pab

Looking at Hercules braided line on Amazon. It's not quite as inexpensive but it might be the same quality. Thinking about ordering a 100m spool and testing out breaking strength and knots and stuff.

https://www.amazon.com/Hercules-Braided-10lbs-200lbs-Superline-Multicolor/dp/B0791CZC6F/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8&th=1

Haven't had ribs in a long while, those sound and look great.

Probably seals. Frustrating.

Loving the hook jaws you're finding.

Sounds like a fun day!

Fished Newport Harbor with Peter. I arrived a couple hours before him at 1600. 10-15mph wind in the face, cold. Awful tide swing, low at noon and high at 0400 the next day, all you need to know.

Found a decent sized blackgill rockfish washed up, relatively fresh. Somebody f@cked up and probably learned that they f@cked up once they got to the harbor.



I wanted to experiment with a floating Powerbait egg on a short c-rig on UL to see if I could find a little critter to commit. I got several taps but nothing committed.

Switched over to flukes on neck breakers once Peter arrived around 1800. Wind still howling. We ended up each getting one.



Left around 19:45.

I wanna make Tuesdays my weekday fishing days for the time being, to accommodate Alicia's school schedule among other things. Next Tuesday is a little ridiculous with the wind and rain but sometimes that's fun.

That is a slap in the face...at least it was entertaining.

That hook jaw one is especially good looking. Nice stringer for the day.