I can't wait no more!

[jrodda]

I got an overwhelming feeling last night. Fk the DMV was the feeling. What's tomorrow look like? 1-2ft swell, light breeze, nice tide drop 1200-1700. Sounds like the best window in a long time to pull out the Mosquito!

I was beat from waking up the last 2 mornings at 5:45am to fish the beach with my pal who came up from OC to fish for pig perch. Early wake, 2 mile walk and cast, then delivering packages the rest of the day is a lot. So I slept well last night, woke up at 10am, packed the car, and got to the harbor around noon. Plan was to fish the Rincon island area in Ventura. I've always been curious about it. My dad told me that he once went on a cattle boat trip that went there 25-30 years ago, and all they did was sit on that little island all day. All he caught was a señorita, so he hated it. But what I got from that story was that there are señoritas there, and that's been in my head for over a decade now.

So off I went. Seemingly pretty day in the harbor, with a breeze hinting it might be a little bumpy on the way out.



Out of the harbor, yes it was bumpy. Some small white caps, but there was otherwise no swell. So away I pounded, for over an hour, to the spot. I am gonna need a cushion for those aluminum benches...

The wind eased off after about 30 minutes making the ride a little drier. And when I came up on the island, it smelled of all the pelicans hanging out around it. I was worried about possible buoys restricting access to the shallower water but it was all open.

I went with a double dropper looped #2 hook with a squid strip and a #8 mosquito with a squid tentacle. I was immediately bit upon arrival. Tons of short bites, from perch pecks to what felt like short bass. Dropped several times in 30-40ft of water before I finally got a hook set. And ay caramba, what do you know!



First señorita for me, and first new species of the year! I honestly thought it was ridiculous to expect one here, but maybe there is something to the place.

Kept having bait stealers on both hooks, drop after drop. Finally hooked one. Johnny bass, go figure.



Ended up getting another johnny shortly after. I was already running out of time, which was a shame as I'd only fished maybe a 100ft area. So I metered around another 50 yards, made a few drops, and got more short bites. At 3:40pm I had to call it quits to get back before sunset.

Moseying back.



I almost stopped on a kelp bed on the way back but figured I would only be able to fish another 10 minutes and I didn't want that to turn into 20-30 minutes. I slowed down on the kelp, then decided nope, then as I sped back up I noticed my engine acting funny. Really? Engine got louder, weird rumbles, throttle cut out, then overheated and shut off....am I really gonna use Tow US the first time I'm out with the subscription? Maybe this is what I get for saying fk the DMV, I still don't have my registration so I look like a real a$$hat. Well I more than just look like one I am one. Waited a couple minutes and got it to restart after a couple tries. Then I started playing it at half speed for about 10 minutes, before I finally realized the problem is probably simple. Lifted the tiller out of the water and, yup. Single leaf of kelp falls away. All better! Wild how easy it is for something to get stuck in front of the cooling intake. Raced the rest of the way to the harbor.

A lot of prep and travel and breakdown time for maybe 2 hours of line in the water, but at least I found a few fish and a new species.

[xjchad]

Congrats on the new species and success on your first trip on the open sea!

[vdisney]

Right on Jeremy, glad you finally got it out on the open sea.  This spring should be a blast on that thing.................

[Latimeria]

Excellent!  I've been wondering what has been going on with the new sled.  Those Brown rockfish are excellent eating.  Super white flakey meat.

[BenCantrell]

Woo new species!