Mid-Week Reset (6/12)

[Latimeria]

If I didn't get my boat out soon, I was going to lose it, so I took a day off to just unwind.  Trust me, going on a friends boats is cool, but my boat is my Fortress of Solitude.

I get to the ramp and fish were busting everywhere!  Well hell, I need to clip on something quick and make some casts!  Some sounded like corvine and others sounded like  needlefish.  Nothing worse you can hope for is a first cast curse... and a needle fish is 10x as bad...   Yep!  I'm the master!  LOL



I didn't even make another cast as I was scared it was going to ruin a hopeful day.  LOL

My entire day was going to be Hero or Zero.  I wanted a big Halibut, WSB, or Yellowtail.  I pick up some nice mackerel and hopes are high.  I saw a lot of life in LJ, but no sign of gamefish, so I made a 12 mile trip up the coast and saw nothing.  I power drifted some macks and found some 14-17 inch calico.  Not even close to what I was hoping for...



As I was slow trolling for bass bites, I realized I stopped doing what was my bread and butter of boating...  Setting up Plan A, Plan B, and Plan C...

Plan A didn't work as hoped after 3 hours, so I opted for Plan B.  I decided I was only going to use the light Bay Rod for deep dropping since you can only keep 2 reds now and I didn't want to mess around with the heavy gear.

LJ was BOOMING with Sea Lions and small dolphin.  I almost thought they were BFT since they were feeding, but were all marine mammals.


I was almost pissed because a Navy ship was sitting right on my spot, so I putted around and found a promising spot about 1 mile away.  This was literally like the size of a VW bug, but thank you Spot Lock!

I literally ran out of line hitting the bottom!


I hooked a BIG one three times before I finally got him to the surface.  Not sure if it was 3 individuals or just the same one 3 times.  Trying to set the hook inalmost 400 feet on 12# mono bay bass gear is not easy.



I can't explain enough what fighting big rockfish on bay gear is like.  It's a LOAD of FUN!

I already caught one BIG red, but was shocked to see the next one!



No sense in keeping to drop when you get a 20" and 21" back to back!



Just some fun pics while I was trying to recoup from reeling up those tiny reels from so deep.





I thought I saw a huge shark jumping!  I saw the splash 2x before catching him on the third jump.  A MONSTER Mola!  I cruised over to him, but he had a chopped fin from a prop, so wanted nothing to do with me.



I decided it was just time to head in so just made full steam into the bay.  I put about 70 miles in round trip, but that big Ling and the big reds totally made it even steven for me.  As I was passing the Ingran Bridge, I tied on the lure I found on the beach the other day...



Second cast and BOOM!  WTF!?!? 17" Calico on the piling???



Some guy in a little boat saw me catch it and immediately motored over to cast right in front of me, so i called it quits right away.  Okay, I lied, I made two casts and didn't get a bump, so then moved on.

That was it.  I got some meat, but catching these guys on the bay gear brought it to a whole new level.  I did it before just for fun, but now I see the excitement on doing something like this.  That and their eyes don't bulge with Nitrogen on the 12# mono either.

Well, thanks for reading and until next tide....

[jrodda]

Sounds like a lot of fun. I just can't imagine waiting for what looks like 4oz to drop 400'? Is there a lot of scope? Super nice fish. I've been craving lingcod.

[Tim524]

Wow, you put some miles on your boat and well worth it ! Those are some Quality fish !!! The light gear looks like tons of fun as well. Looks like the water in MB cleared up, last week it was Chocolate Milk.