Rubber Hooks, Rubber Lips, and Oobly Gooblies (9/30)

[Latimeria]

First day of fall and I really want a big Halibut, Seabass or Yellow.  Wind was stiff from the start at 1015 from the SW which totally sucks, and the big moon tides really made navigating the inlet a little sketchy.  But once I was out, I saw the rain wasn't going to miss me, so I powered on.



It was a lumpy ride to LJ, but got to where I wanted to be and no one was really around.  A few boats in the distance, but most people went on the usual tuna hunt or offshore for rockfish since the inner banks are closed for business.

I was hoping to find some lobster traps so I could get some waypoints entered in my new GPS, but they aren't out yet so I'll get to them next week.

My buddy is lobster fishing this evening so asked if I could get him a bunch of macks when I was out here.  I first tried for squid with no success, but the finder was covered!  I dropped down a sabiki and started catching lizards 6 at a times... This aint going to work...



I made a slight move, but not a mackerel in sight.  Only tons of sardine and lizards. 

I set out some fresh frozen squid I caught a few weeks back and it wasn't long before I get picked up!  It felt too small to be a bat and too big to be a turd roller.  Saw it coming up and was a 20 # BSB!  I grab my camera to take an underwater pic of him and the rubber hook literally fall out and off he goes.  I have a few pics, but they are terrible....

I then bait up again and set out two squid rods and start to triple d!ck with a light set up while I wait.  I found a bunch of oobly gooblies wanting to play with the little iron! One in particular was pretty special as it was only my second sarcastic fringehead and a monster compared to my first one!



For how weak the mouth looks, don't misjudge them!  They have a vice-like grip!





I was catching an array of critters when I snagged a pus! 



Ornery little fella after I unhooked it.  It literally slowly came after me and literally was punching at me with his tentacles!  I was indeed impressed and he earned his freedom!









Then I notice my line not going in the direction of the current and knew what it probably was.... Time to play Bat Man!



I decided at this point to move out to deeper water and get away from the lizards and bats.  I set up deeper and could only catch macks on my whole squid which was annoying since I only brought so many.  (That and none of them would hit the sabiki rig).
My little rod however was getting a variety of flatfish!  (Many with Gill-Suckers)



I think 1 out of every two I caught had one of these attached to their face or gills.



Fantail Sole!



I then notice my line wrapped in the back engine.... and around the trolling motor.... and Mr. Rubber Lips got me!  I also noticed that I was on with my other rod and now have 2 of the 3 rods hooked up and I was wrapped in everything!  They really put a good bend in the rod though!



I managed to get it out of all the obstructions, and see Mr Rubber Lips himself.





I cut him loose and have one big squid left, so only kept my sinker rig out and put away the other big rod I just caught the bat on.  Besides, this is the only rod that Skrilla built for me in which I haven't caught anything good on yet.  It was made for this purpose, so I was hoping to finally break this things cherry!

The wind was HOWLING at this point and I was ready to start to wrap things up when my clicker goes from 0 to a 100 mph!  This sounded like a big yellow!  I can tell it wasn't a shark or bat and none of my BSB have done this so I prepped the gaffs and refused to grab my camera so I didn't jinx myself.

I also had a new Baja Special Penn that I've never caught anything on and it was fun using it, minus the part there was no 2-speed gearbox.  LOL
20+ minutes later and I feel like I got him.  I had the gaff ready and then saw this big fat black object rise into view... Damn...

100# class BSB.  I was depressed, but also impressed looking at this beast!  I just took a few shots and went to take the hook out before realizing it wasn't my hook, but someone else's.  It had a tangle with people before!  I got the hook out but it grabbed my hand and shredded my fingers, so i just cut the line to send it back down.  This guy had NO PROBLEM WHAT-SO-EVER swimming back down as he tail slapped me and washed the boat down in the same process.  lol







It was a weird hook.  Big old eye and just overall much different than what I usually see.  Looks like they cut the line to release him, but maybe he won the battle?  Either way, he was still hungry.



That was it for me.  I packed up and trolled a Rapal the entire way home.  I know there are some big Bonito around so was hoping for a cherry on top, but never found one.  I did pass some drifting weather station which was cool, but other than that had a lumpy ass ride back from LJ, even at 5mph.  The inlet was also walled up from the fast-outgoing tide and the strong SW wind and swell.  It was really sketchy coming in and I was glad I had the 115 over the 60 or I NEVER would have made it in. 



Well thanks for reading and until next time!

[sasquatch]

Good thing I couldn't make it. Might not have gotten back in even with the 115.

[jrodda]

A fantail sole and a sarcastic fringehead in one day, that's wild. Way to make the most of it.

[Latimeria]

A fantail sole and a sarcastic fringehead in one day, that's wild. Way to make the most of it.

I've caught 6 or 7 fantail soles now and every single one was in the same area, so I might have a pattern.  lol

[Tim524]

 Quite the variety you got going on. The octopus is cool, even with his attitude  The water definitely looks chopped up but this week looks to be much better. You might even see a report from me with my sidekick from Arizona

[vdisney]

As always Tom, love reading your reports.  Thanks for sharing

[KogaHead]

A nice collection of oddball fish!