I really want a hoo but I'm getting sick and tired of running offshore when sometimes all I want is to just fish locally.  Having this super El Nino has me really wanting a Hoo (Top 10 fish on my bucket list), especially a local one.

My buddy Scott went on his boat but travelled outside the islands where the fleet has been churning the water with their trolling.  I opted for the close local banks as the amount of high speed trolling really messes with my gas milage. 

Conditions looked good before the storm so my fingers were crossed.



Even a sailboat was headed out the inlet with two 50 wide trollers on the back!



I wired up one of my Mad Macs just in case.  I was ready for my Hoo!



My plan was to only troll 4 rods this time and have the Mad Mac on my electric reel so I can reel up quickly if one of the other rods get hit. 



I passed a bunch of birds and dolphin but didn't see much on the meter and it was right on the shelf drop off.  I didn't see any fish, but those annoying birds that kept grabbing my micro jig I planned on using to catch little yellows for bait with.  I should have tried around a bit more, but I was already hearing wahoo being caught and knew I had to get to the outside of the banks that were still 7 miles to go.



The life around the ocean was non-existent out here and hardly any sword guys also anchored up.  I was only trolling for 45 minutes when I thought I saw two birds floating on the water and realized it was a fish.  I started trolling over to it thinking it was a marlin but NOPE!  It was probably a 9-10 foot Mako!  Holy sh!t it was huge and I wanted it!  I trolled right past it and it came over looking at my trolling spread but didn't attack.  I reeled up my trolling gear while keeping an eye on it and put on some wire leader to a big circle hook.  I brought some Big squid in case I deep dropped for swords while I was out there.
The minute I was all baited up I looked up and he was gone.  No where to be found...  Jeezus!!!
(I actually have some video on my action camera, but I need to figure out how to post video's here.)
I searched and search but no love so I put the trollers back out.  About 20 minutes later and I get a screamer on the marlin jig!  A decent marlin (probably 90ish pounds) jumping and doing marlin things.  I kept the boat in gear and reeled up my trollers.  By the time I started to crank on him, I only got a few minutes of fight before it threw the hook and gone...  Ugh... This was going to be one of those mornings.

I decided to switch things up and throw on the Kogahead as a troller and pulled out the McRib for good luck!



Next 30 minutes not a thing so I took off the Kogahead and put the other Marlin Jig on.  I loved the spread I was trolling but just needed to find some fish.
Soon as I switched the lures, I saw a couple of fins out of the water and trolled by.  It was another marlin but made a few turns and just disappeared.  I boxed the area for a bit for nothing. 

I kept trolling (zig zagging from the outside ridge, over the high point to the inside ridge and back.  I saw a few more fins and cruised over to see a baby swordfish!  Well, it was probably 50-60 pounds so just the size I wanted!  I cast the big squid out to it, but it literally just sounded and I saw on the sonar it heading to the bottom. 
I decided at this point I was going to drop for swords.  I went on a drift from 650' to 1100'.    I actually made a test drop to see if I would get any tangles and soon as it hit bottom I was on!  Finally a fish in the bag, but it messed up my squid...  Good thing I had a second.



I reused the bait and caught a couple for the bag.  By far the deepest rockfish I have caught.  I was at least hoping for a black gill!





They were puking up a bunch of tuna crab!



I decided to reset and really drop for swords.  I set it at 800' and made a killer drift but to no avail.



It was getting late and I made the call to run and gun looking for a paddy or any sign of fish.  I heard they were crushing the YFT off LJ but I wanted to look for my hoo.  As I was running, the water erupted in front of my boat and a HUGE Marlin jumped!  It had a sharp dorsal fin and was probably 400+ pounds!  I put out the two big marlin jigs and trolled for a half hour in the zone for nothing.  Now I am way later than I was expecting, especially being on Halloween that I have to get back to the house.

During my troll, I had two screaming rippers on the smaller chrome jet head, but neither stuck.  They were screamers so I had no idea what they were.

I ran to the inside ledge and saw absolutely nothing.  No boats, no fish, no nothing... but I did see some stuff on the sonar as I was coming up so I dropped the electric for sharks/swords and also the bass rod since it was only 450'.

Then out of the blue, a boat starts running right towards me and set up about 200' away.  WTF were they doing?  They had no clue and just wanted to have another boat around, but it really irked me they did this.  It was almost worse than stealing a paddy since there was no reason I should be there so definitely even worse than why they shadowed me. (I took the picture but decided not to post it)

I could see my big squid getting smashed by smaller fish and I couldn't hook them on that big squid/hook combo.  I dropped my bass gear and put on a 250-gram pink ball jig with a strip of big squid strip on it.  I hit the bottom and made a few bounces when WHAM!!!!!  I knew it was big right away!  I took my time, but man, I could barely gain any ground on him.  Every time I got 20 yards, he took 20 yards or more.  Then I noticed him getting wrapped in my electric line so now the panic started setting in.  I kept thinking it was a shark this deep, but it would have definitely bit through that line holding the proportionally smaller hooks.

Finally, I get it to color and HOLY CRAP!  A Yellow from 450+ feet down!  Unfriggin real!



I made one more drop as I was already 2 hours behind schedule and nothing so I packed up and headed to the barn.

What started out as a promising trip, turned south pretty quick, but literally the last cast saved the day!

It was an easy ride back and the boat was cleaned and covered up for the storm.  Today was not what I was dreaming about, but that last second win sure was sweet.

Thanks for reading!

Hahahaha, pretty fun story.  Well, not you dropping the phone in the water, but the "state-of-the-art-from-2001 fish finder" had me laugh out loud a bit.

Nice bowtie! (That's what we called little dolphin out east)

Seriously though, at least you caught something.  Catching nothing is WAY worse.  You could have used one of Koga's lures and claimed that is the reason for the lack of catching.  His big black cloud following you about.  lol

Thanks Tim.  I'm ready to finally get the shoulder fixed after two years of dealing with the pain.

Plan C......Pain Pills 

Hope it all goes well and you will be healed up and ready for 2027

The Phone Syndrome is real !

Always cool to see Mother Nature up close ....Live Action !

Looking forward to seeing the Key Chain Mahi 

Told my lead yesterday that I might play hooky today. He never heard of the term "hooky" which blew me away. He says in his Mexican friend groups in high school they only said "f@ck school!" So this morning I confirmed my sick day with texting him "chinga la escuela" and set off.

0700 launch. As I was hopping from the bow to the trailer tongue, my phone fell out of my pocket and in the water. Picked it up inside of 10 seconds, and it seemed to be okay.

As I was leaving the harbor, the phone had turned off. Aw, f@ck. There goes some communication redundancy along with Navionics along with camera. Is it even worth going out? I moaned and hummed and hawed, all while heading straight out to sea.

Pretty flat ground swell but consistent chop. Stayed mostly dry all day except for a few big gulps over the starboard rail on the way out, straight into the chop. Ran up on some dolphins around the coastal ledge, letting me know I'd hit 1000' of water or so. Lines in. I trolled a daisy chain over the top of them for a minute, then turned around and saw a whale spout. First of the season for me! Started heading south down the coast. I wanted to stay on the right side of Dana Point so my handheld VHF could still get clear signal if I need help from the harbor.

Trolled 3 lures: 13" marlin skirt, Ledge Runner 160 deep diver, and the daisy chain. After about 15 minutes, I ran up on a decent patty right in my way. Trolled around it for nothing. Casted a jig on it for nothing. Noticed my state-of-the-art-from-2001 fish finder was picking up good marks even as I was getting further from the patty. That fish finder never picks up anything offshore, so I knew it was something. I looked over the rail, and through the chop I could just barely make out a yellow fork tail right under the boat, with a bright blue on the back. Baby yellow. Though it did look like a mahi...but willing to lean into yellow. Couldn't get bit, but the sighting made me wanna put out the daisy chain and try the patty on the troll again.

Only took 20 seconds, then lo and behold, I was bit! Something smaller. Fought it in and bounced it, baby mahi! Couldn't have been 18". Its head profile was so small. I was itching to get a picture but my phone had been acting up. I grabbed my phone and it was acting alright for a few seconds, so I got a pic and released the little guy. I sincerely considered keeping it because it probably did have enough meat for a meal and was such an interesting little specimen to show a couple people, but I knew I would regret it and be dogged the rest of my days for keeping the smallest mahi ever caught by rod and reel.



About 15 minutes later, I got a blind strike on the daisy chain again but it didn't stick. Then the Freelance caught up to me as I was trolling, and we trolled side by side a couple hundred yards apart for a bit before they stopped on a patty. I then saw one of those devil rays go full aerial! Stoked that I was finally able to see one for myself, albeit from over 300 yards away.

Decided to turn back as I was about 10 miles from the point, and I could probably box the zone in front of the point while keeping an eye on the rain clouds in multiple directions. Another 2 hours of trolling resulted in nothing at all. I started in, and right near the mouth of the harbor, I got a good view of a humpback from about 200 yards. Nice to see all the life!

$140 for the phone repair...another symptom of the B.O.A.T. I don't believe in the "worst day on the water is better than the best day at the office" but getting even this small mahi and seeing the life made up for my other misfortunes.

Cool trip and great variety! That cookout got me hungry.

Well done gents!  Getting the rust off the bat gear and getting ready for SNBF-XX!

Looks like Gordon Ramsey is taking after his pops!  Did he add a little bat ray wing to the concoction?

All that gear in the mustang was quite fun to see!

 Max and Myles wanted to try their luck again at De Anza Cove with their buddy Edgar, they had success the last few trips so I decided to join them. First order of business was to see how much gear they could cram into Edgar's Mustang  




They made it all fit and then Max rolled up in his truck     I rode Shotgun with Max ! We got to the spot and set up shop. First cast out and one of them Kayaks with 6 or 8 women on it going backwards snags my line and I start yelling at them to stop, their coach stops them and tries to undo my line, ends up cutting my leader     I let them know what I thought !!! 5minutes later, Timmy is on 41 1/4"



20 minutes later and I'm on again with a bigger model I was sore after this one  





Myles was next, Then Edgar



Max was playing with dink Halibuts



Myles got a nice Shovel and Edgar got a Smoothie Max couldn't buy a bite !  



Gordon Ramsey showed up and made Chorizo and Potato Burritos, I opted for a Subway Sammich (Hey, Cheez)



 Perfect evening on The Bay, we stayed till about 10:30 pm. Ended up with 5 Bats, 3 Smooties, a Shovel and 1 Hali   Lost a few bats too, poor hooksets I assume but it was great spending time with my boys

The carrot is still $30. The stick is still Koga's taint.