Furbag Fury (12/21)

[Latimeria]

I had plans to take the boat out and fish this week, but high winds and big seas looked to ruin those plans.  I took the next 3 days off and it was killing me that I might not be able to make another harvest trip before the season ended.
I saw that today was only calling for 3' swells, but I know how that goes and it's always 2x as big by the next morning so I didn't uncover the boat or even pack to go.  I woke up at 4:30 am and saw that it was increased, but not bad at all.  The afternoon was to begin small craft advisories, so I hooked up the boat and threw some gear in.  I hate doing this as I always manage to forget something.

The sunrise dow the bay was awesome.  There were only two trailers at Dana, so I knew it would be spacious fishing out there.



I realized I forgot my camera, so I would only have my phone to take pics.  Bait was hard to come by and I only made 6 perefect little greenbacks.  My meter was all lit up with bait and I had no clue what it was.

I shot over to La Jolla looking for a harvest and immediately hooked up on a nice ling!  As I saw him just get to deep color, I thought I saw a shark shoot over and grab it!  I soon realized that it wasn't a shark, but a friggand fur bag!  He popped up next to the boat thrashing around a 26-27" lingcod.  Ugh, how sick.

I decided to save the macks and dropped down a strip bait (Skippy) on the sinker and started to mess around with some rockfish.  My first rockfish was a beauty!  I was a 3 or 4 pound red and I was amped.  WHOOSH!
From under the boat, another sea lion shot out and grabbed my red!  I am PISSED now!

I finally hok one and crank my butt off to get it in the boat....  Of course, even the sea dogs don't want a Boccaccio....



I saw the dogs on the fish finder, but tried again.  I hooked up and was reeling in another red when one of the dogs ripped it off my hook.. again and it was another nice red.  AHHHHHH!

I decided to make a move and went to a spot I apparently hit frequently.  lol



I hook what I thought was a nice rockfish and cranked my butt off again just in case the dogs followed me.  Unfortunately it was a damn deep water calico!  The stomach was blown out and it puked red crab all over the boat.  I tossed him back in immediately to hopefully save him as he was only 13" and couldn't get my phone out for a pic just to kill him.  I did get a shot of all the crab from his gullet.



RED CRAB ARE EVERYWHERE!!  They aren't floating, but there are clouds of them everywhere from MB to LJ.  I dropped down two more times nd got two more calico.. both 12-13 inches and I left that spot as I didn't want to accidentally kill any and that's all I saw on the fish finder.

I moved back to the spot where the sea lions stole my fish and dropped a mack down immediately since there was no sights of the dawgs.
Man, a fresh mack on the bottom here=INSTANT BENDO!  I saw it in deep color and another big lingcod!  Just then I saw one of the dogs sound next to the boat after a breath and watched the bastard shoot strainght to the ling and grab him... Ling no more!  Grrrrr!!!!  I needed a gun at this point!

I shot out to a deep water spot and it was just tough fishing.  I did pick up a nice rockfish here and there as this chucklehead...



Fishing was super slow and I jumped from spot to spot for just scraps.  I ran back to the rockpile, but stopped short in hopes to not get their attention.  I saw some GREAT marks mid water on the fish finder and dropped down a mack!  BAMN!  I was on!  I saw a deep flash and pretty sure it was a yellow.  Gauging from the fight, I would have said a 10 or 12 pound model, but not sure... Just then, it was gone and the dogs showed up.  Not really sure what happened, but I was about ready to quit and just head in.  I decided to stop in some more shallow water spots on my way in and toss some plastics..  This is what I wanted to do.. catch fish and have fun!

I caught 8 Sculpin, all in the 12-13 inch range.  I almost kept them, but couldn't remember if they closed them or not.  I kind of recalled them being closed, so I tossed them back (Later to find out thank goodness I did!)



I was amazed how many sculping were around and how aggressive they were.  I moved on to the next spot and hit pay dirt!  Well, Turd Dirt!

I had a few dozen fish on, but only got about a dozen in.  All legal fish in a cookie cutter 15" range.  I saw schools of 10 or so following up my hooked one!  It was great and for the next hour just had fun throwing the plastic for constant action!



I kept two and just released the rest as they weren't exactly what I wanted for table fare.  All of a sudden the bite stopped.  I was puzzled for all about 2 minutes when a sea lion popped up and shut off that bite.  UGH....

I decided to call it quits as I ended up on a good note and pretty happy how it ended even though it could have been a GREAT trip if I got those lings, reds and yellow up into the boat!

Oh well.... Next time.

On the way in, I passed the famous Mission Bay Tumbleweeds floating by.  I never get tired of seeing these water tumbleweed!  LOL



Well, until next tide!

[sasquatch]

Wish I could have made it. Thanks for the dark thirty text anyway. Looks like a good day except for the dogs.

[WheresMyBeer]

Bummer dude.

You know where I stand on those damn things.

[BenCantrell]

Dang, that sucks about the sea lions.  Sounds like you hooked into a lot of nice fish though.

[faster u fool]

That drives  me crazy >:(next time start a yt bite rumor around the corner and drop the bags off to the other boats.

[Pinoyfisher]

Sea dogs SUCK!!!!!!!!!

[scisports]

Cayenne pepper or habanero sauce stuffed into a Mack......
Heard that gets em moving along.