Bait Run (11/5)

[Latimeria]

Met up with Sasquatch in the morning to do a run for bass or whatever we usually get inshore.  We had higher hopes for bonito, but we would see. 



We make it down to the ramp in the morning to see this just lapping up against the ramp.

It had a dereliction notice on the boat as well as a note saying "Call me, I want this boat".  lol



Motor seemed trashed and the outdrive was gone which made me think it may have been stollen and parted out since all the numbers were still on, but whatever.  It was still taking up valuable ramp space.

As we headed out, we noticed a few bent butt rods on smaller boats which leads me to believe that they all saw Chris' post with a swordie.  LOL

Well, I didn't take many pictures out on the water, but we had a decent but slow start with bottom critters before the bait making machine went wide open!

A few Skrilla Fish


A few Kelp Rockfish


A few Sculpin


There was a few more in the mix, but using my Simpleton Rig, I caught what I called out as a bonito just to see it was a 17" mackerel!  WTF!  We proceded to just catch the hell out of 1.75-2.25 pound mackerel the next hour or two.  We lost a bunch as we switched out to irons, but a 2+ pound mackerel is a hell of a fight!  Even the bonies we started catching that were as big or bigger than the macks didn't fight as hard.



I wish I would have gotten better pics of the macks, but they were ballistic and didn't hold still and just got blurry pics.

We also had bass in the mix of the bait balls and Steve lost the big one which probably pushed 3.5-4 pounds, but most were just the cookie cutter size.



Steve got the lone Sandy of the day.





We lost probably 40% of the bigger bone around.  These things either got barely hooked or all three hooks in the mouth.  We had no clue how many were in the well, but there was no more room in the Inn.



Just like that, they were all gone.  Not a hint of them on Sonar, but not before catching enough fresh bait for the entire winter of shark fishing.

We made a stop on the way back and picked up some Brown and Gopher rockfish and called it the day. 

As we got back to the ramp, the tide was low and we saw the bowrider in all its glory.



The lifeguards showed up and we watched them drag it down the ramp and into the water.  You should see how much fiberglass and gelcoat was scarped onto the ramp after that.



Anyway, after splitting up the bounty, this was just my half.



It turned into a fun bait making trip and a little for a meal on the side.  Those mackerel were a blast again on the 10# rod!



Oh, and my brand new lure didn't look too brand new afterwards.



Thanks for reading and now it's time to get on the sand for some sharking!

[sasquatch]

Fun as hell catching all that bait.

Looks like you found an extra bonito.

[jrodda]

Nice job. Im due for a mack run real soon.

[BenCantrell]

Nice haul Tom! I get super hungry every time I see one of those small bonito. That's probably the CA fish I miss the most.

[KogaHead]

If you were a mackerel you would swim fast and hard too!

Everything in the ocean is trying to eat them.

[xjchad]

Well that sounds like a fun day! 

[skrilla]

Another state record mack coming soon...

[Latimeria]

Another state record mack coming soon...

Bluefin at the islands while we were messing with bait.  Too bad I didn't hear about them sooner.