Change of Plans (7/31)

[Latimeria]

I needed to get out fishing and get away from the house, so planned on doing some plug fishing in the surf for a few hours.  Soon as I got all my gear together, I get a text from my buddy asking if I want to hit up the local yellows... Hell yeah!  Plan was only to fish the morning and come in around noon, so even better as not to crush my shoulder before I really test it out.

Grabbed 3 rods and some tackle and got the truck packed.  Met the guys down at the ramp.



Got out to really sloppy, windy, and foggy conditions.  We ran out and met up with their buddy's boat looking for bait.  It was cold and damp so he was expecting to just call it quits and head in while we tried to make bait.  Well, we found the bait and loads of it, so called him back to get in the lineup. 



It wasn't 15 minutes in and he had a whopper yellowtail that pulled the hook just as he was getting it to gaff.  The funny thing was 2 days ago the water was 71, and today it was only 62!  Clean, but super cold!



10 minutes after that and he's on again!  He boated this one which was a 25# yellow.  He only had 1 rod out and we had 7 going... go figure...

Bait was awesome...



We finally pulled anchor to drift a little and poke around, but his anchor winch wasn't working so we had to do it the old fashioned way.  We decided to drift instead of anchoring up again since it would all have to be a manual retrieve of that big ass anchor.

He runs a tight ship and it was kind of nice seeing how he had us set up.  Rules were pretty straight forward with the amount of lead he wanted every rod to have so you don't tangle up or mess up the other guy.  It worked really well, but when there was a bite, there was little time to get any pictures since there was lines to clear.  The good thing is I was the only one getting bit!  LOL

First heart breaker was what we swore was a halibut.  There were bumps and a lot of up and down fishing, but when I got it to the surface, it was just a big old bat ray that Scott shook off.  No pics, but no time on that boat for pics that aren't the targeted gamefish.

Next bite was a screamer on my big rod!  This was the right kind, only better.  Pretty positive it was a WSB from the head shakes and the way it was fighting, and even better that I hooked him using a 5/0 circle hook!  Got him to deep color, and poof!  Pop!  Gone!  I reeled in to see a toothy break where he inhaled and gut -hooked the bait and sawed it off over the long fight.  Scott looked at me and was like, "you're not kidding with this bad luck your having, but nothing you could do about that... except get another bait in the water"...

We got one bite per drift, and I was the lucky enough guy to get it every drift.  I also got one of those bait stealing critters on the 5/0 hook!  Skrilla's nemesis!  lol



We were ready to start packing up when I get slammed on my bass gear of all things!  I was double d!cking and the bass rod of course is the rod that gets slammed.  I get it to deep color and it was starting to look like a WSB, but it had a weird bull dog fight to it..



Thankfully Slapper got some pics or i would have nothing to show for the day.  I finally got it up to see a big ass Soupie!  Ugh!  It was a bitch trying to get it to the boat after multiple runs back down, but it finally sawed me off at the surface as scott grabbed the line.



We made another drift and called it the day as the winds really started to pick up and we didn't want to get beat up for no reason.

Killer ride in until we got near the inlet and then the wind started howling!





Lots of clouds over the mountains.



Got into the bay to see more people there than I remember seeing in the last decade or two... Holy f@ck what a mad house!

Anyway, it was great to get back out on the water and need to get my boat working soon!  Too bad the part I bought for the boat wasn't the problem... ugh

Well, thanks for reading.  and the drive home was pretty cool with all those huge columns of clouds!

[SevengillTheVC]

Looked like a beautiful day! Sucks on the WSB, but at least you didn't wear the stripe!

[jrodda]

Nice report, too bad about the continued bad luck on hook pulls. Least you got the bulk of the good luck for the day as well.

That's a wild water temp drop. I was looking to head down there this week for a day or two of hunting pelagics but the wind is gonna keep me off it, maybe next week if things calm down.

[skrilla]

Oh you got to be kidding me.

I went out yesterday for the first time this year after injury. Fog, wind, bumpy, cold, and lack luster on the right kinds. Pretty much the overall consensus was we all should of been here yesterday. Glad the fish gods blessed you with some action.

I am 1 for 1 on whitefish this year BTW.

[vdisney]

Glad you got out Tom, I hope you get your boat straightened out soon.  I check the NOAA buoys before I leave to fish in the morning, our water dropped 9 degrees also 

[Tim524]

Bummer on the luck  but the shoulder is probably happy about it. Hopefully your boat gets back in the game soon. The clouds have been pretty gnarly up this way with a bit of thunder and a few lightning bolts here and there.

[xjchad]

Bummer that it ended up being a soupie, but at least it was a good fight and your shoulder is still hanging in there!