I wanted to get the boat out since it's my last week before starting up work again.  The ocean seemed to be quiet, so I decided to do an easy trip on the SD bay.

The gas has been sitting there for a month, so I needed to burn some....

I get down to beautiful conditions.  Plan was to hit the halibut grounds and hit it hard for a big back bay hali.



I get there and there is already a boat there so I move up the line a little.  I set out the trolling motor and realize my remote control was dead!  Batteries were dead and I didn't have any on board!  Ugh!
I make a few casts and see clouds of fish on the sonar...

It's been a long time since I've seen this many Lizards!



I decided to run back to the truck and look for AAA batteries.  I saw my headlamp and thankfully had 3 in there... Perfect, they work!  Back out to the spot!



First real fish was a Sandy and I got to hit the clicker.



I had a hard time finding them.  It was all lizard fish so I kept working North until I could find a pocket and I did.  Tide was moving and the fish were biting!



They were pretty small, all in about the 10" range with a few about 11".

I decided to troll since the grass wasn't floating yet and yep...  These things were like piranhas.



I'm looking towards TJ and see a black cloud forming.  It was a lot clearer in person than my picture but whatever was burning was big and a lot of black smoke.  The Cartel is at it again!



The water was really dirty and not easy to see down into it so I switched up to a bright swimmy and it actually did better than my natural colored bait!



The bass were even bigger and got one over a foot.



Then I felt a doozie!  I knew it was a halibut and it took me around the boat a few times.  I saw a faint outline of it and it was BIG!  I had it 3 feet from the surface and could barely see it.  It dove down again and gone.  Reeled up my swimmy and everything was there.. WTF....  Oh well, I hit the spot lock and decided to work this area hard!

A few casts later and I hook up again!  This one had more head shakes, but the bite was very hali like.  I got him to the net and success!  Nothing huge but a few inches bigger than my net opening at 18", so I'm calling 20". 



He was all calm so I set up the phone to get a picture and removed the hook in the net.  Then a Three-Stooges moment happened.
I went to pick him up and he exploded forward and hit my trolling motor... then bounced back into my arms.  I was bear hugging it upside down and it slapped me in the face with its tail, bounced off the deck and back in the water.  GRRRRR!!! 

I stayed in this small area for the next hour and caught a good amount of bass.



I switched baits since my swimmy was torn up, but stuck with the chartreuse color.  Immediately got some more bass and a third butt.  Postage stamp sized.



Well, the tide stopped and so did the bites.  The wind picked up and my shoulder was dead from casting, so I called it around 11:15am.  Not a bad total of 31 bass and butts.  I probably also got a few dozen Lizards so it seems like I caught a lot more.



Really weird thing was I get back to the ramp and was greeted by the warden.  I opened all the hatches and cooler, but was thinking "what are people keeping down here, pee-pee bass?".



In any case, It was a fun morning and I have a few more days to squeeze some more fishing in before the real world grabs hold of me.  LOL

Thanks for reading!

I'll most likely be at the SD one.  Bill said he was going to the SD one this year when I was up in Washington in October, but when I saw his list of events recently, it only said OC.

Good time to buy a Pontoon!

Good luck Tim and looking forward to seeing you and the AZ hoof for the Bat Fight!

As for the MRI tubes.  I f@cking hate them.  I feel like I'm going to freak out everytime.

I'm pulling out some tech to help out Team SD again...  The eye in the sky sees all!

  Next week is the PCS Show in Orange County, always a cool event. Then it comes to San Diego. I plan on going to both shows just in case I missed something   Anyone else going ?

I'm signing up on this  post for team SD.
I'm going to try a surf spot this week but will definitely be hitting up the bay for the meet up 

I've had a few of those. Tube style. I was surprised how little they bothered me. My wife can't even get in the car to go to the appointment she gets so freaked out.

 Last week was time for my annual brain MRI to monitor my brain tumor that ruptured back in 2014. You would  think I would be used to them by now but they can really get the anxiety kicked into overdrive !
My head gets placed into this small cage, then I get lifted and slid into the machine for 30 minutes
I do have a Panic Button that shuts it down and I get pulled out but I've only had to do that twice in 12 years   This is an Open MRI Machine,the regular ones are just a tube and due to Claustrophobia I use this one. They both SUCK !!! Glad it is over till next year !  I will get the results in a couple weeks, till then it's time to focus on The Bat Fight 

All good, Jeremy, trout are had to catch.

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