Rough week at home and work, so I was planning on taking Friday off to recoup.  Got a call from Spencer wanting to head offshore and offered to pay for gas and ice.  Well hell, I called Shaun and he was in.

I thought I've met Spencer before but realized I've known him 10+ years online, but never met in person.  I had some ideas about making a collaboration with his shop, so it would be a good time to catch up and maybe talk about some possibilities.

Surprisingly, there were few people down at the ramp.  The Thunder Boat races are going on, so I'm thinking that was keeping people away.  Spencer arrived and we headed to catch some mackerel for marlin bait.



Tough pick at Mackerel, but we finally got 2-3 dozen in the well.  About 5 miles out and we spot our first marlin, but it sunk out so we kept going to where we have been seeing the most life.

Water was still warm, but about 2 degrees cooler than last week.  Very few paddies and nowhere near the bait and molas that were on them either as like last week.

We would spot a Marlin and cruise up to it before it was nowhere to be seen.  We trolled and checked the gyros all day.



Spencer spotted one that stayed up and we went right by.  We had a bait already rigged and Spencer dropped it right in front of his face as we passed by.  Unfortunately, it was not hungry and never took the bait.  That was our best opportunity this morning.



We found some awesome paddies that were void of life.... except for a really small amount of bait

We trolled areas we were watching marlin jump around apparently for fun.

All in all we saw 8 marlin close to the boat, but only had one real opportunity to bait one.  We also saw a 4-5 foot mako doing summersaults next to the boat, but it didn't want anything either.

Well damn.  We didn't catch anything, but it was great finally meeting Spencer and catching up.  I now realize what a juggernaut he created with Terrafirma and I don't even know where to start with PSoul.  lol

In any case, it's amazing these marlin have been in the same spot for 3 weeks now.  I'm almost over the marlin fishing, but feel like I want one more to call it the season...  hahaha

It's been a little wait, but my new skulls have arrived to join the current collection!



Let's see if you guys know what I have here....



I'll send stickers to the person who correctly identifies both.  lol

My marlin lure is all chipped  and scratched now, but I love the battle scars!

With that marlin, we got a lot of great loin meat off that thing and it looked beautiful!

I grabbed everything from my garden (except the pineapple) and got ready for some SD Marlin Kabobs!



A little Teriyaki, sesame seeds, salt and pepper.



Drizzled a mandarin sauce on it while it cooked on the grill.



Off the grill in about 10 minutes and absolutely spectacular!



First marlin of every year might be a harvest for me....  I'll have to be convinced otherwise.  LOL

I just pulled my last harvest of the year.  I actually have more coming, but I thinned out the garden a bunch after that last heat wave.



I planted corn.... and this is all I got to harvest this year..   hahahaha

In the meantime.....  Keep looking up as my tennis balls tickle your nose.

I was going to say don't fully inflate it, but you figured that out quick enough.  hahaha

Man, that's a tight fit, but glad it works out.  That would be a bitch to have to fill it up from deflated every time you took it out now.

Congrats on the new ride!

Yeah, same here.  I know what I've read over the years and know there are some monster rainbow and brown trout out there!  As for the salt, I always hear the King's are King.  Sorry I couldn't be more help, but will reach out to a buddy who's been there.  I haven't talked to him in a while, but I'll see if I can get any intel if I can even get a hold of him again.

Dude, that's so awesome!  Congrats on that toad and figuring out the campus waterways!  I hope you get the new record soon.

What makes me really laugh is thinking about a crappie fisherman saying you look foolish... Case in point...

Nice ride Jeremy, you made a wise choice.  Good luck this morning