Forgot to add, there was a juvenile grebe swimming around me at one point, then it chased a tiny smelt along the surface right at me, between my legs and under my seat. It was a hella of a squeeze for it to go through my legs but it somehow did it without touching me and slipped right through to the other side.

I had a paranoia for the longest time about sea lions and float tubes, never would I have dreamt that my crotch would become an ambush point for the diving birds.

At least did you catch the biggest? Damn, last place.... Lol

Super cool stuff Jeremy. I would think your rig was at least 2x as fast as a regular tube.

Thanks for posting Jeremy. I wonder if that AZ old coot still lurks on the forum anymore...

Launched 0630. Misting on me when I got out of the car. Not 10 minutes to set up this first time, nice change from the kaboat. Also brought a new (refurbished) combo, Calcutta 100b and a GCX inshore (absolute noodle).



Walked the boat about 100 yards to the beach, put on my neoprene socks and fins, shoved off. Easy!

10 minutes in and I get my first bite, missed. 0fer1. I see Jake and Omar+brother launching.

Jake gets first skunk off. I split to the opposite side of the channel of them. Went 0/4 on bites pretty quick with a 5" fluke before shifting way down in size to a 2" fluke/minnow dropshot. A couple more missed bites and I was properly aggravated as everyone but me had broken the skunk.

Finally I popped a dink spotty, lifted it out of the water next to me and it shook off. I count it! One cast later and all three of the other guys are hooked up and asking why I'm not hooked up. I love fishing with friends! I got one to the boat a couple minutes later, similar dink size.



Everyone starts piling and I fall behind on the numbers quick. Then a pancake decides to entertain me.



At this point it's something like my 3 to Jake's 8 to Omar's 6, then the bite dies down. I decide to wander off a different direction than them, either find my own fish or at least separate myself from the competitive voice in my head for a bit.

Popped one on my own, then decided I had hit the apex of the route and I needed to fight the wind back. Made my way over to docks out of the wind and started getting short bites.

Took a while, but once I started getting close to my landing spot, I got slammed while reeling up my fluke to cast again and it took me for some drag pulls and good dogging. Turned out to be a 16" turd roller. Not a bad sandie and certainly an excellent harbor fish.



Only a few docks from my landing spot and I get slammed again, calling it a last cast fish. I was totally dry all day until this cranky spotty pushed a ton of water with its tail into my crotch.



Landed around 1130.

Jake ended up with 18, Omar with 12, Omar's brother with 10, me with 6. I would have called 6 a successful day on my own but their numbers have me quite salty. But, I'll bring some 3" and 4" flukes next time, finally get my side compartments in the mail for the tube, dial in my tackle trays, and I'll be primed to make someone else salty next time.

The tube was dry, turned well (made a good choice on my fins), didn't get blown around (although the wind wasn't as bad as expected), slow but probably a hair faster than conventional tubes. I realize the main action of my leg muscles is basically a forward kick, so when I go to the gym I should do slow, high intensity bike exercises with my feet strapped in, and pull up on the pedals more than push down to increase endurance. 1.5 miles today has me sore.

The bench is like an inflatable SUP, 7 PSI. Very solid, barely bends with me on it.

No name yet other than Cool New Slash due to Mr. Scadden's insistence, but that will fade. I suppose something feline-like since it's my first of many cats to come.

You love your inflatables! 

Firstly, I think your buddy was trying to take you out by putting a pin hole in his tube he lent for you.  LOL

So, that's an interesting floatation type tube.  Is that seat a solid seat going across, or is it also inflatable?

As always, I'm looking forward to seeing what you catch in your new throne.  Does it have a name yet?

Ordered the Slash float tube from Dave Scadden Paddlesports last Sunday. Put in the order and the website said I would get my email confirmation shortly. I never did.

It's a small business, so Monday I had the option to call or text customer service, so I texted while at work.



Waited through the week, was excited to try it out on the weekend. Nothing through Friday so texted Friday. I started to get the sense that I am texting Dave Scadden and he is on a backpacking trip.



Nothing Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Jared let me borrow a tube to fish Sunday, but as I inflated it to start the session, I found a large pin hole. So I turned right back and went home.

Monday (today) it arrives after work!



It's a hair bigger than expected, and my storage solution for this is still unclear. Alicia is currently super pleased that it's inflated in the living room for the night to check for leaks.

I'm mostly going to fish harbors with it, but I will certainly use it in freshwater in the Sierras, maybe small SD lakes, and I'm thinking about surf launching to fish a couple bits of structure within a few hundred yards of the beach. I decided to splurge on this since I realized my next real boat is ~2 years out and surfperch have purportedly gone extinct.

And of course it's 10+mph winds every chance I would have to fish for the next 10 days, when we just had nearly 2 months of immaculate weather. So we will see when it gets its maiden voyage.

 Happy Anniversary, it was a nice day down there. We did some looking around and grabbed some cool T-shirts, then took a $5 Boat Ride on The Tomahawk since our Cousins were with us. Headed home around 2pm I think, sorry we missed you , Tom.

Some big speckled rockfish at the 14 as well. That's a real nice whitefish. Glad you're able to decompress!

Nice catching trip. Always enjoy the pictures.

Hopefully the warmer waters bring in the yellowtails this summer.

- Keith

I heard of the yellowtail bite going on in LJ and planned on trying to get in on some of the action.  I don't get up as early as I used to fish, but still early enough.  Anyway, supposedly the afternoon bite is the hot bite.



Weather was beautiful.



Only issue was even though it looks glassy in the pics, the peaks of the small waves were just enough that I could only run at 1/3 steam.  Anything faster and I was just slamming the water with my semi-V hull.

I get to LJ and see 50 of my closest friends around doing all sorts of methods looking for these fish.  Too much sh!t in the water to troll, so I threw the irons a lot.

Finally I had it after an hour and shot out to my rockfish spot.  I needed o unplug from the world a bit to calm my racing brain and this sh!t show was not bringing the justice I need.

First drop on my spot with the little 2500 spinner and I knew it was a red. 



Great, only one more and then I would have a bunch of descending to do in order to make it worth my while.  Funny thing was I had the next 2 hours of no reds so it was quite fun, especially with the little trout rod in 340 feet!

I can't lie, I thought this was going to be a real red, but nope... only old stinky.



I caught a couple of big bank perch and they were by far my biggest I've ever caught.  A lot of fun on the little rod also since they fight all the way up!



Ended up with a limit of good quality reds, and even returned a few.  I also got my tolken Copper Rockfish!



I caught my usual Green Spotted, Green Striped, Starries, Honey Combs, Sculpin, and whitefish...

Then I literally get slammed and no joke, almost pulled the rod out of my hand!  WTF is this?  It screamed drag out of the spinner almost the entire way up and I was perplexed on what I hooked.  I was figuring it was a deepwater sheepshead from all of the runs but otherwise I was stumped!

WTF?!?!?!?!?!  I have to go back into my records to see what my biggest one is, but I'm pretty sure this guy is it!  A total UNIT!



No Joke.  When I hear of people talking back in the old days about the huge Whitefish, I thought they might have all been gone from our local waters.  I guess not.

(another view)



I then start heading back to LJ to see if things calmed down, but there were now twice as many boats so I jut hung a 90 degree turn and went on my own hunt.  I saw tons of terns working and started to throw the iron in them hoping to see yellows!  I did see a few pop up in the micro bait, so I have my shot!

Well, no yellows but I did find a bunch of bonito.



I made a move after getting tired of them and decided to soak some fresh (previously frozen) squid for some WSB.

I tossed the iron a few times and caught a few slimers!  I haven't seen these guys in a minute or two!



Then I get a screamer on the squid!  It felt right and I was thinking it has to be one of the big three.... yellow, WSB, or butt!  I quickly thought WSB after a few minutes into the fight, but took my time....

Ugh, now my shoulder is torn up, and all I got out of it is this other slimy critter!  LOL



Little circles on a bat ray are hard as hell to get out, but it was quite the fight!

I was watching for every boat coming in from LJ, there were 5 going out TO LJ!  I've never seen so many late boats heading out there before, but that was my call to finally head home.  I stayed out much later than I usually do and didn't want my arm to fall off.

Well, thanks for reading and until next tide!