Bugs are there every year, go for wahoo. They aren't showing up around here anymore but still see plenty down near you.

For the last few years I've wanted too get a DJI action camera as my old GoPro-3 is tough to operate, especially now that GoPro-12 is rolling out.  That should give you an idea how old it is.

I bought a cheapo off brand for $80 a couple of years ago and I should have realized the quality of the video would be the same.  I barely bring it out as the battery life is way too short and the quality is fine if you are looking at a screen the size of a phone and not an actual computer monitor or bigger.

Here comes Amazon Prime... Last time I went to buy a DJI drone and the $400 drone was listed as $220 for Prime Day.  I thought it was a bunch of bull and just marked up so I waited and the price even went over $400 after Prime Day and never even went close to that low even on Black Friday!  Ugh, I wound up getting a good but lesser version of a drone because I wasn't paying that price.

Forward to the action cameras.  I've wanted to get one as the reviews for these cameras are really off the charts even compared to the GoPros, but I didn't want to spend $350-$400 for a camera.  Unfortunately, my phone is about full of memory and the video always comes out pixelated when I share it anywhere else besides me phone so I want to get a real camera so I can actually capture under the paddy scenes as well as some cool things without filling up my phone memory just randomly videoing.

Here it was...  One day only and only for 15 minutes once it is put in the cart, but a $400 DJI camera with two spare batteries for only $195.  I had it in my cart as I pondered if I should even do it but after 20 minutes saw it went back to full price!  It was 85% taken, so I had one more chance to pull the trigger if I talked myself into it....

Well, it will be here on Thursday, so hopefully get to share more video and better underwater quality pictures with you soon!

Yellows are off Point Loma... When are you getting the "Pirate Patch" in the water?

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.