Those are some crazy numbers. The lobsters were probably trying a "strength in numbers" tactic, weighing down the nets in hopes that your shoulder would fall out of its socket before they could be caught. Glad you got your limit out of all that.

Our last Bongos trip in September had bait tank issues, so Captain Mike gave us another trip. We ended up hopping on the boat today with a substitute Captain Rob and a deckhand whose name I missed (solid deckhand). On the boat at 0500 and loaded up with both sardines and anchovies at the bait barge.



We took our time out before sunrise, going about 10kts toward the 14. I said to the others we were probably taking our time so we could be at the 14 around sunrise and have visibility while in The Zone, and Captain Rob looked over and nodded. The sun finally rose near 0700 and we picked up the pace on Lake Pacific.



Around 0730, ahead of us, I thought I saw a lone dolphin jump kind of high a couple times. Then the deckhand came down from the tower and said it was a marlin, and put out the trollers. We gave it a few minutes but it didn't come around. Then we saw our first paddy of the day. Had marks, but no biters. Slid off of that and almost immediately into a sleeper marlin. Didn't bite a fly lined sardine.

Poked a couple more paddies and saw a couple more sleepers between the 277 and the Mackerel Bank before we booked it toward the 209.

An hour goes by and us riders were finding places to nap, then we finally got off plane and started trolling. Still not much to do, so we kept napping.

Then, around 1400, we stopped on a paddy. Captain said there were definitely good marks. I threw a 40g jig, noted a couple nerf football yellowfin coming up, then I got slammed by one. I was on first, then immediate hookups by 3 other guys within seconds. Still surprisingly difficult to turn their little heads! First yellowfin of the year for me.



Got another in short order, then the next burned the line off going under the boat. Ended up going something like 5 for 10 with a small yellowtail mixed in. 30 for the boat.



Alejandro got this yellowtail with a...third prong in the fork growing out?



That stop finished up at 1500 and we were on our way back. Slept a bit more.

Those tuna may have been micro, but one fillet was still enough for our carpaccio side dish tonight.



Might launch tomorrow if I don't wake up too sore. Kinda wanna deep drop the 14 for rockfish with an eye out for pelagics.

It was time to get some lobster as my shoulder is not improving and the ticker to the surgery is coming up quickly.  I planned on hitting SD bay since they have been getting some monsters in there, but my shoulder is not up for pulling traps up from deeper locations.  Shallower option is Mission Bay.



I got home from work an hour early (since I went in 2 hours early) and already had the boat prepped so I could leave soon as I got home which would give me plenty of time to drop the hoops before sunset.



I brought enough bait to change out the traps 3x so it should be plenty... or it should have been plenty...

I used a note taker on the phone to record my counting and to summarize totals for each string of traps.  Only had 5 traps since I was solo and it made things much easier on my little boat than having 10 on board.

First String...  5 nets... 133 lobster and only 1 legal....  It was fun to see so many but a bummer there were so few legals.  One net had 51 lobster in it.



Second String...  5 nets... 72 lobster and 2 legals.... 




Third String...  5 nets... 83 lobster and 0 legals.... 


Fourth String...  5 nets... 42 lobster and 2 legals....  (Lobster #'s dropping fast but still averaged over 8 lobster a hoop.



Fifth String...  5 nets... 37 lobster and 1 legal....  (Lowest amount of lobster yet but over 7 a net average).  Most likely from dropping in other spots to get away from the smaller ones since I was running out of bait..

Sixth string... all I needed was one more and got him in the first net so it was time to stack'em!  This string was one of my best yet as I ended up with 107 and 9 legals in this string with 7 coming from the last net alone as it was also filled with 44 lobster all at the limit of being legal!



That makes the grand total 474 bugs – 5 nets – 6 strings = 30 nets pulled
That averages to 16 lobster a hoop all night and by far my best lobster trip according to numbers.  My last best was 367 with my buddy Shaun and we were pulling 10 nets so not even close to what I did this night!

I am hurting so bad right now though... Between the lobster pokes, bad shoulder and now ruined back, I need a week off but I know I won't be getting that any time soon.  LOL

Thanks for reading!

Well, I have to smoke some marlin today but I started by cutting some big steaks for the smoker...

Looks like Pumpkin Swordfish...



Rest to come later!

Well, you know how to cook them by now as each post has a slight variation each time I cook or prepare it.

Here we go.

Chunk Light Poke



Green Onion from garden



Delicious!


Butt Cakes w/crab mixed in.  Macadamia Nut from my buddy's tree as well as pepper and onion from the garden.

Coated with Old Bay



Cakes made and coted in crushed Macadamia nut.



I can't begin to tell you how good this smells.  Cooked in grapeseed oil for high heat purposes.



What we didn't eat, got vacuum sealed in sets of two for appetizers or lunch at a later time.



It does the trick!

Took off most of the accessories but one of the downrigger mounts was really on there good, with screws and probably 5200 sealant under the plate. The locking nuts were under the gunnel in an incredibly tight and awkward spot, but I was able to finagle them off and get the top plate off. Then this plate was sealed on there real good.



Worked the edges with a knife and finally popped it off.



Kept trimming the the sealant carefully off with the knife, and hit it with acetone a couple times to further break it down. Finally got it to a reasonable point then sanded it.



My next move is to finally start with the Bondo short strand fiberglass filler and patch up as many screw holes as I can. Probably a crime that I haven't gotten to that sooner.

It is also coming to my attention how many spider cracks in the gelcoat there are, so I've watched videos on how to fix that up. I will need to get a cordless rotary tool and dremmel out about 9 miles of spider cracks this winter. I wanna put rod holders where these downrigger mounts were, so I might practice the dremmeling next week on these spots.

I've got another Bongos trip on Saturday which will probably suck my energy dry, but Sunday does look good for a launch if I can rebound well enough.

Exciting day! That spearfish/sailfish is definitely a prime El Niño target. At least you didn't get skunked.


Not so fun on the ride home. Those short tall swells were exactly what I was trying to avoid out there. Got caught in that with the Mosquito once and I am good on it! Wasn't quite that as I was racing back, but it was still really messy and nerve wracking in a hull that I'm still not fully familiar with.

Exciting and nerve racking, glad you made it back in. Stuffing the bow does not sound fun !

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 kind of like the full colors but you always seem to surprise us, maybe a preview of ideas so we can decide