Change of Scenery (6/26)

[Latimeria]

Working weekends is the norm now, so I get out when I can see an opportunity in the weather.  I was thinking of checking out the 9-mile, but heard there was the WON tuna tournament, so didn't want to be outside with a mess of guys tourney fishing.
Plan B was to hit LJ and catch some mack and slow troll.  Unlike last week, the macks were hard to find and come bye.  I managed 5 and slow trolled around, but there were a butt-load of boats and yakkers all over which made it pretty tough to get a consistent trolling line happening.  I needed peace and quiet so ran up to some patch of water that I don't fish as often as I probably should.  Great seeing the scenery from the other side.



I was up and tight to the beach in 12 feet of water slow trolling macks.  The mackerel were everywhere here and almost a pain in the butt!  LOL



I tried different depths and had dolphins literally following me the entire time.



I found a little structure a little deeper and trolled around it.  My bottom bouncing rig was good for catching big mackerel.  I can't believe they got that big ass hook in their mouths!  At least my livewell was filled!

My dropper mack gets slammed near the structure and I missed it, but pulled up this mess!



I lost 4 mackerel before finally getting a lingcod to the surface.  As I was uncorking the gaff, he came off and swam back down, but he wasn't the only one here.  I'm not sure if they migrate this way, but there were a bunch and they weren't right on the structure.  I picked up 4 more and got to use my newly wrapped virgin gaff to lip hook 3 and actually gaff one!  Four of them were 23-24.5" and I got one bigger unit at 33.75"!    Not bad at all!  I kept my first two and released the rest.



I made the run back before the wuind started in and tried drifting for halibut since I had a bunch of live macks left.  Only got a few bass hit and not much else to speak of and called it the day.  Lot's of stuff to get to at home and it felt good to make a few kills that were actually bigger than a boot. lol

I got some shark bait now!



I also learned a ton from my halibut guru commercial buddy who really enlightened me on bounce balling techniques.  I am literally stunned and need to readjust my method now as he catches more big halibut then anyone I know.

[sasquatch]

Nice lings.

More jealous of the macs.

And the intel.

[skrilla]

Good eats!

[Latimeria]

The smaller gaff was perfect!  Now I just need a reason to pull out the big gaff and test that one out.

[BenCantrell]

That's cool that you were able to hone in on the lingcod like that. One of my buddies and I were just talking yesterday about heading up in that direction next time to avoid the armada of other kayakers.

[vdisney]

Two nice lings and shark bait too boot, it's a win win Tom