So I'm not sure I'll have the boat anywhere the hoo are as the season progresses, but I could be wrong.  I have one PTO day left that I could use as the other days are going to be used for my surgery. 

I was thinking about using up some of the carcasses in my freezer for a long night of bug hunting and using a PTO day the following day to clean and rest up.... OR....  do I just use it for another offshore trip and burn a ton of gas looking for quarry?  It'll probably be just a solo trip so either will put a hurting on my shoulder and body but I want to use my last PTO day properly.

What would you guys do?

BTW, I'd definitely give the motor the 100-hour service to reset. 

The wind was there, but the mountains and the cliffs kept the wind stream up high off the water.  It did create some waves coming from the land which was weird.

Looks like a gorgeous day (that sunrise!), glad you guys found a few fish!

Would you guys like to see a full color logo or grayscale version?

Has anyone else noticed how strange this season has been? On paper, this Super El Niño should be a dream scenario for Southern California anglers. We've got warm water pushed up the coast, tropical species showing up in places they normally wouldn't, and surface temperatures hovering around 74°F across massive areas of ocean.

The problem is that the fish don't seem to have any reason to stack up.

In a normal year, we spend a lot of time looking for temperature breaks, current edges, and chlorophyll lines. Those transitions concentrate bait, which concentrates predators. Find a clean temp break from 67° to 70° or a nice chlorophyll edge, and you've got a starting point.

This year, it feels like the ocean hit the "shuffle" button.

Instead of distinct water masses, there are miles and miles of nearly identical conditions. You can run 20 miles and still see essentially the same 74°F water. The chlorophyll charts look flat, the temperature charts look flat, and the fish seem to be acting the same way. There aren't many obvious zones telling you where to start looking.

As a result, fish are showing up in random places. One boat finds a school of decent sized yellowfin or wahoo in an area that looked dead the day before. Another boat runs over excellent meter marks in the middle of nowhere with no visible conditions suggesting why they're there. The next day they're gone.

It's been incredible fishing when you're on them, but finding them has become much more difficult because the ocean lacks the structure we normally rely on. The fish have 40-plus square miles of comfortable water to roam around in rather than being pinned to specific temperature or chlorophyll boundaries.

Don't get me wrong, I'll take 74-degree water off Southern California every day of the week. But for those of us who love reading charts and hunting productive water, this El Niño has turned the game into more of a treasure hunt. The fish are there. They just aren't giving us many clues.

Anyone else seeing the same thing, or have you found some pattern that's working in this giant bathtub of warm water?

Hopefully it won't be like this the whole time. Most say fuel filter is the issue which is nice and cheap. Maybe it's time that i do a 100 hour service just to reset the clock and recalibrate.

The forecast at La Jolla was 20mph santa anas so I was wondering if you would bother going out. Guess it just never showed up anywhere.

I was planning on meeting Squatch fishing on Saturday since it seemed to be the best of the two-day weekend, weather wise.  Unfortunately, Squatch couldn't make it since he was meeting his friend in a van down by the river.  I opted to change days so Steve could get out.  It's been a long time since I had him in the Curmudgeon.

We met at my place since I was expecting a lot of fish and needed to get the boat cleaned (being Sunday and not having an extra day to tidy up the gear).  I was all ready to roll the minute he showed up and we were on our way.  Funny how lobster season, especially Saturday Night Lobster fishing keeps the crowds down for Sunday.

What great views from the ramp...







The weather was a little windy and choppy in the morning, but gorgeous!



The wind died down and everything got greasy out there.  We noticed some surface activity in the middle of nowhere and I cast my little 30-gram jig out.  I totally get slammed and was stoked but lost him.  My guess was a Bullet Tuna but I really didn't see him.  We continued to the 9-Mile and heard a few boats talking about the huge biomass of Bullets out there.  they weren't kidding!  They were everywhere but would not hit our trolling spread or irons.  It was quite baffling.

We decided we didn't come out for Bullets so we put out a few Marlin Jigs, a Wahoo lure and a few feathers just in case.  5-rod spread on the skiff...  Bullets everywhere but not in the biting mood or consumed with whatever micro bait they were feeding on.

Then, out of the blue I hear a clicker ZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz! I'm on and on my virgin rod (Talica 16/Teramar) that I picked up from Shimano!  It would have been a great fight on the bass gear, but this set up is more for the bigger stuff, so I bounced him.



We saw a ton of flying fish around and after telling Steve I was in the lead, he said if he touches or grabs a flying fish that flies into the boat, he wins.  Reluctantly, I agreed but knew that would never happen. Well, I almost ate my words as right in front of the boat a flying fish shot out and a 18-year-old Squatch could have grabbed it.  Thankfully a 70-year-old Squatch doesn't have the reaction time. 

Another weird thing was no jumping Manta Rays anywhere.  I've seen them every single time I've been out, but not today.  It looked lifeless out there and the radio chatter reinforced that thought with the "You should have been here yesterday" blather.

Then we see what looks like a huge black garbage bag floating on the water.  We kept trying to figure out what it was and pretty much settled on a garbage bag that fell off a big boat.  Then we got close to it, and it turned its HEAD to look at us and sunk out!  Mother f@cker!  A huge female elephant seal!  Well, that was pretty cool!



We continued to troll and troll for nothing else.  We did see some birds working and Squatch got to see a leaping Manta Ray finally!  I missed it, but he got to see it.  Then in the distance we saw what looked like a marlin.  Then the closer we got, realized maybe it was a school of big tuna!  Then we got closer to see it was a huge pod of small dolphin.... and they wanted to play with the boat.  We literally "Trolled" with them for a bit and then just gave up when we realized there were no tuna with them.




On the way back in we passed some MONSTER kelp paddies!  Nothing was holding, but there were a few small yellows under them.  They would chase the jig up but not commit to the attack so we called it the day.



The ride in was glassy and pretty smooth.  Gorgeous day on the water and great to be fishing with my friend again.

Got home and washed the boat and equipment.  Steve took his leave and I was finishing up the cleaning when as I started cleaning the trolling lures from my tackle bucket, a tiny little wiener dropped out.  Mother f@cker!  hahahahahaha
That thing has lasted probably 15 years being passed back and forth since we found it Sturgeon fishing at Cuyamaca!  Touche Squatch!



Well, that was it.  A fun day on the water even if the fish didn't want to show themselves (except for the Bullets)

Thanks for reading and until next tide!

Sounds like the Square Boma for most of my time owning her!

Well Damn, glad you got out and same thing here.  I was expecting a lot of wind and it was glassy, although the waves and swell seemed to be coming from 4 different directions.

Well, you got your yellow.  I had my fill of those suckers.  I went from having every yellowtail the past year and a half being 25-50 pounds and then they were all 8oz to 2#.  hahaha

I got Steve in the boat since I refused my buddy's invite to lobster fish this weekend.  I don't want anything to do with that mess on opening weekend.

Well, I hope you get her fixed up soon.  The season has been "Hot or Not" for a Super El Nino.  If anything, it's been the year of the Marlin!

Took Jared out this time. Picked him up aroun 0545 and we were at the ramp by 0610. Got the boat in the water and planned on installing bunk slides, along with carpet on one of the side bunks I couldn't uninstall with the boat on the trailer. Turned out the bunks are different widths (5" and 4") so my 5" slides weren't going to work. Why there is one 4" plank and 3 5" planks on the trailer is beyond me. I got the carpet on the side bunk and we hopped in the boat.

Hop in the boat. Engine turns over and it dies. Of course! I figured there was probably some air in the fuel line after I replaced it with a new one, so I was patient and kept trying. Kept stalling after a couple seconds. So I decide to make a video to send to Chris, who is a whiz. I start the video and...starts perfectly. Of course! Honestly the video trick never fails. Outboards always wanna show off on camera. I'm like 5/5 on this now.

So we get going. Really a coin flip of whether I wanna follow the coast south, north, or go out to the 14. I start driving out and then we find birds. Cast on 'em, nothing. I see some more on the horizon so we drive some more. They scatter into the ether, but the area has some life, and some scattered kelp, so I put out the trollers. Nature decided the 14 was the play.

We're going about 7-9mph not seeing much. Shimano Ledge Runner 160 (diver) and a 13" skirt in tow. Then we come up on what looks like the Freelance working something, then it leaves it. Maybe a paddy. I head in the general direction but lose sight of the original spot. End up finding a real nice barn door paddy. Look down and it's an aquarium of dinky yellowtail. Drop the 40g snipers hoping to get the skunk off and maybe find something bigger below. Nothing bigger, but snagged one of the yellows as they swarmed the jig.



We kept it moving in hopes of real gamefish.

Got all the way to the 14 and there were a dozen other boats working, maybe a couple deep dropping for rockfish, like true gentlemen. Wind from all directions was forecasted throughout the day so I left the deep drop stuff at home. Would have been perfect for it, though. Not a lick of wind.



Finally decide to bail after a few hours with nothing real to show, so I reel in the trollers and kick it up on plane. We get a couple miles and then I throw it toward WOT, and after a couple minutes, the outboard stalls. Oi! Don't like that 15 miles out. Then it's kind of like it was at the ramp. Stalling out after a few seconds. Then we get it going okay, but it stalls at most RPMs, 4500, 4000, 3500, 3000....we finally get it to be trouble free at 2400rpms, which is 6mph. Makes it a long way back! But we did it. A lot of dead water for a while, but I ended up putting out the trollers again. No trouble the rest of the way in.

Got to the ramp around 1340. Would have easily been in at noon otherwise. I've been one-and-done getting the boat run up on the trailer the first 3 trips. This one I was an absolute helmet. Got it lined up a little wrong, reversed at the last second, and could not line up and just drifted everywhere. Thank god it wasn't busy. I was trying to laugh it off and calling out to Jared, "it's gonna happen! We'll get there!" just trying to show a bit of self awareness to anyone watching. Got it on eventually...

So, I will bring the boat by mechanic buddy Chris and see what he may find. Probably something in the fuel delivery. I might also change both oil/lube this week to reset the clock on that, since I don't know when it was last done. Low oil pressure did me similarly with a 6hp Mercury once, limped in 20 miles that time.