Solid day at the puddles! Do you know the weight on the big rainbow?

I was at my friend's apartment today in Mira Mesa and only realized once I got there that he's a couple minutes away from Lake Miramar. I will have to visit again under a different pretense in the near future, if it's any good anyway.

The crows and I have an agreement in place....

I'm not pulling hoops, my buddy is.  I'm just the driver.  lol

Hopefully the Crows won't get them either.

BBQ Lobster Tails are the best    Never thought to Skewer them, great idea !

Wow, big number difference but you will still eat well for a while 

How's the shoulder after pulling hoops ?

Looks like you and I are keeping the Surgeons busy....Oh, and Cheez just had surgery on his hand in Arizona, our Bat Fight is going to be a Crippled Competition this year

Nice Trout and Cats

I'll make this one short since it's just another bug hunt.

Went to the SD bay for the first time in a long time!  There's a lot of hazards moving in and out of that inlet!



We're used to seeing 12-50 bugs in every net and having to weed out the one or two legals.  The SD Bay is different.  Mostly blanks with a couple of keepers.



SO MANY WRIGGLING ROUND RAYS!!!!



A lot of Sheeps Crab along with a good amount of Rock Crab were also in the nets.

We picked away at the lobster.  Not many but the ones that were there were big!



The f@cking dogs were unbearable!



We should have made one more set drop, but we decided to pull and call it, only 3 short of double limits.





The livewell was looking good!



Funny.  We usually have 200-350 bugs on the white board a night with maybe double limits... but in the SD bay, we only had 21 lobster for the night with 11 legals.  What a difference 7 miles of separation are....



Thanks for reading!

My shoulder is starting to really hurt and getting the boat out would be tough.  I'm still looking for work, but need to get my fix in somehow.... enter Santee Lakes.

$10 and a half a mile away fit my current budget.

The Plan... 

-Fish in the morning
-Run home to job hunt and meet with career coach
-Grab lunch
-Job hunt more
-Fish in the afternoon

I get to the Lakes at opening.  Somehow there were people already fishing where I wanted to be, so I made a move  to another decent spot.  It wasn't long before the "bombs away" went off! 

A Beautiful "Steelhead"!  Biggest of the season for me so far.



Just then, my second rod gets bit and I run over to only lose it since I was fumbling with my other fish.  Well, that was it.  They passed by and I had my 2 opportunities.  I also had another one swimming along the shoreline trying to escape the cormorants, but he wouldn't go for my spinner.  He was too freaked out from the birds trying to eat him.

I saw one other guy catch a decent trout on the other side of the lake, but that was it.  Time to go home and get something accomplished.


PM Session

I move to my old go to spot since the lake is PACKED by this point!  Confidence was low here since this lake only had 2 stockings the last 3 months.  I was in my truck when I saw the strike indicator shoot straight up!  That only means catfish, but I was trying to wish it to be a big trout!

Nope, Big Cat instead!   Still super fun on the ultralight gear.



I only have about 30 minutes left before they close when I get another big bendo!  This one came up to the surface so I envisioned a big trout!  Nope, but a big fat Cat!  I could barely get my hands under its belly!



As I was trying to get the hook out and a picture so I could release him, I hear splashing!  I look up to see a trout splashing around on my other rod!  I drop the cat and run to fight the trout!  I get it in half way and the hook pulls.  I should have used a treble according to Dave....

I get the pics of the big cat and release it.  Now I only have 10 minutes before I'm pushed out.  I decided not to use the strike indicators but just watch the rods instead.  As the Rangers came by on their final pass, I reel up to leave and notice my line was slack in the water!  I reeled up almost all of my line before getting to the hook right at my feet!  Friggin had one on the entire time and lost it because I didn't notice my strike indicator!  Ugh!  Damn trout!

Well, no worries.  I'll try again soon.  In the meantime, I'm taking the morning off fishing so I can update my resume and call the surgeon to work on my shoulder.  I might try again this afternoon....

I wanted to nourish the garden but also keep some of the crab and lobster shells for the museum.  I figured I would peel off the shell whole and just plant the bottom half and let the worms eat the guts below.  The hot wire hopefully would prevent the critters from getting in.



So far so good... I'll keep you posted....