I've been dying to deep drop, but the wahoo are here and I really, really, really, want to catch a local one badly.  I opted for offshore as I wouldn't forgive myself if I didn't at least give it a real try this fall while they are here.

Morning was nice with a land breeze and basically greasy conditions out front.  I cruised at a steady 28mph on the way out and my Merc App was showing I was only sipping the gas.  Ironically, I used twice as much gas plowing at 5mph through the back bay (5mph zone) then having the throttle at 4400 RPM.

I got wind that the Cyclops was going to be out today and gave him a call on the radio.  Cheez answers (AZ Bat Fight turd roller winner) and they were on their way to LJ.  I tried getting them intel, but everyone was out looking for Hoo so I didn't have any up-to-date intel.  It was nice that we were coving the inside and outside but this was the day for the Cyclops to run offshore!  Greasy calm conditions!

I ran to where I've been trying the last month for hoo as I know they've been caught there and apparently everyone else got the message also.  There were 3 sport boats and a few dozen other boats out there.  1/2 were trolling for Hoo and YFT, while some were looking for paddies... and then there was a big contingent of sword guys!  Holy smokes!  Commercial, recreational, Sword buoys all over the place and having to avoid them!

Water was a little turgid but warm and bright blue.  It was 75 but as I trolled north, it dropped to 73.1.  The sport boats kept pushing north, but I had my gas to keep an eye on, so I headed south as my plan was to troll down to the Mexican Border and back zig zagging over the high spot and working both the inside and outside ridge.

Not a kelp, mammal, bird to be found, but there was a ton of flying fish!  I even got startled as I saw one literally jump and coming at the boat!  I literally reached up to grab it, but it hit my rods on the console and deflected back into the water!  Squatch would have claimed victory on our last trip if he even touched it!  hahaha

I saw a few big splashes, but never saw what made them.  I assumed a Manta, but I really couldn't say.

I finally saw a gray hounding marlin just jumping and giving me the fin!  I boxed the area for a bit but it had no intention of feeding at that point.  Then I see two gulls standing on something and rushed over to see if it was a small paddy.  Not a small paddy, but a pallet floating out in the middle of nowhere.

I pitched some small 20g jigs out and found/saw nothing but noticed my fish finder was lit up with about 20 marks at 50' down below so I dropped the jig.  Boom!  I immediately saw it was a bullet tuna... or was it?  It looked different from what bullets I've seen in general but would need to investigate further when I got home. (After further investigation, it was a Frigate Mackerel! My first and a new species for my life list) Pacific frigate mackerel (Auxis brachydorax), a distinct population from the western Pacific form (Auxis thazard)

I picked up a few more before restarting my trolling pattern in hopes for a Hoo.

I reached out to Timmy and Cheez and they were on some whitefish and bass, so it appears they stopped looking for bonito, cuda, and yellows... or most likely just doing a good hiding act.  It looks like both of our plans were in the crapper today.

I heard of more people catching a bunch of Hoo's down in the Coronado Canyon and some were newbies also.  At least I could tell from their radio chatter that they really didn't know what they were doing but got lucky.  Even a blind squirrel finds a nut occasionally. 

On the way back I saw some stuff floating in the water and went up to see an ammo can.  Barnacles started forming on the top and I was thinking there is one of 3 things inside:  Ammo, Drugs, or money... especially when the tape said not to throw away!

Well, it was none of the 3 but an empty cannister.  Funny thing it was dry as bone inside and surprisingly in good shape, so I'm probably going to use a little rust away and make this baby shine again!

Well, more flying fish as I headed in.  I actually brought my little Atlantix electric reel and dropped down 600' with a jig.  Unfortunately, I had no bait and no Spot Lock, so soon as I hit bottom, I was off bottom.  If anything, I wanted to see how fast and well it retrieves from down there and it was like a dream!  I can't wait to deep drop for real with this thing!

Well, back home at 2:30 and scrubbed the boat up for its weekly slumber.

Thanks for reading and until next tide!

It's funny. I thought the same thing also about those micro YFT.  I caught them on my bass gear but they really threw it into high gear and it wasn't as easy as I thought it would be to turn the handle and bounce them.... and they are yummy!

As for deep dropping, I'm still trying for my hoo, but I really want to deep drop soon.  I also need to get my trolling motor wiring fixed.

Quote from: jrodda on October 17, 2026, 08:06:47 PMThe 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.

I didn't consider that, but definitely not out of the realm of possibilities.  hahaha

BTW, the Concolor is a perfect hooping boat.  Might be good to try it out come the new year when you get things dialed in.

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.