Red Tides, Santa Anas, and a Leaping Tax Man (11/13)

[Latimeria]

Len pretty much summed up conditions out there, but here we go....

My old phone kept flashing "Device Corrupt" on every start up and since I had this phone for probably 5 years, it was time to get a new one.  I picked up the Google 6 (not pro) as that extra $300 is going to be used for a new fishing reel if I could make a prediction.

Morning shot of my street as I was leaving to meet Squatch at the ramp..



Passed a dozen boats on the way down to the ramp.  It was supposed to be beautiful out, so everyone else in the world had the same idea.  No boat issues, so we were good to go.
No signs of bait anywhere...  No meter marks...  worked our way up to LJ for all the same.  Moved up to TP stopping along for bass before realizing I forgot my remote control for my trolling motor and it's useless if I don't have it.  No tiller or controls to operate it, only the remote can run the trolling motor... Damn it!

Steve had the hot rod as his swim baits were apparently the perfect size.  I forgot my mid sized gear and was only casting the bigger plastics.  Steve put on a show for sure!



I was catching them, but only a a rate of 5 for Steve for every one of mine.



We then motored up to Delmar and Steve hooks a Loon.  He fought that thing like a Bat Ray for probably 15 minutes before we could get it to the boat.  It fought as hard as any yellowtail.  LOL
As he was fighting it, some dudes without boat numbers were dropping big caged traps (Like Blueclaw Crab Traps from back out east) and getting out of there.  Poachers piss me off....
Here they are prepping their fixed crustacean cages.



While we were there, I looked up to see a big shark jump out of the water with its belly facing me!  I knew it wasn't a dolphin, but thought it was a Thresher that never got it's tail out of the water?!?!  I really wasn't sure what type of shark I just saw.  We saw it making big circles in the area, but looked more mako at this point.  Unfortunately, we didn't get close enough to get an ID.

At this point I was catching up to Steve since he lost his one and only favorite plastic from his box.  Well, he had a good sized lead at this point, so It was more of less trying to get into respectable numbers for myself.  We made another move up to Solana Beach as the New Seaforth was stopping at every spot they could think of and kept running north.  The bass continued to be brought on board as well as a surprise fish every now and then.





I didn't take as many pics of Squatch's since he flicked them back in too fast, but they were mostly all medium sized fish. 





I caught about 50/50 turd rollers to calico.  Steve had mostly Calico and the biggest of the day to boot.



We ran back down to Delmar and this time got to see the Tax Men close up and personal.  They didn't like staying too close to the boat, but the one turned and looked at Steve and I when we had it right next to us.  I was fumbling with my new phone as the buttons have changed, so I wasn't sure I was going to get a good shot, but I managed a few.





That was cool as hell, but it was getting late, so we started to make the run south and planned on looking for triggers.  It was a long run as the boat was more plowing through the water rather than getting up on plane.  We finally get to the trigger spot and the lack of Spot Lock was evident.  We dropped macks, Squid, and every magic bait in our tackle boxes but could only meek out a handful more bass.  The spots were dead..







I did see a thresher ripping through some sardine or small bait.  i thought I was looking at a marlin bill, but realized it was only a thresher tail.  Not a bad day for shark spotting though!

We made our final leg of the journey back to the barn and made one more stop.  Squatch had a nice flurry at the end with a bass, Big Johnny Bass, Skrilla-Bar, and something else. 



Not sure of the totals for the day, but it was about 4 dozen, give or take.  We let everything go, but it was great to get back out on the water.  Fishing was slow and the red tide was nasty out there.  Literally stringy liquid diarrhea water.  The rest of the water was very green with lots of small chopped salad floating around which made for slow trolling impossible. 

Oh well, next time.

High Stick was Steve.  Jack Pot was also Steve.  Congrats on the nice day boss!

[jrodda]

Stringy diarrhea water. Fun trip! Those white pics are sick, I'd sh!t myself if i saw one jumping while in my pool toy. Nice sculpin in there as well.

[sasquatch]

 Such a nice day on the water. Glad to be back out with you, Tom.

The Sharks were super cool, first I have seen in person.

Learned a few new things out there regarding water depth in our casting zone.

Felt good to be the high stick for once, but all credit goes to the captain for putting me on them.

[Tim524]

 Nice day for sure Tom had to be in Heaven being that close to them sharks, very cool Glad to see the Dynamic Duo back in action and enjoying the boat again

[skrilla]

Cool shark pics. Makes me think more about the big meter marks I saw.

[Latimeria]

Cool shark pics. Makes me think more about the big meter marks I saw.

What color is your Yak?

[BenCantrell]

Ok that is SUPER cool. Nice pics!

[Pinoyfisher]

Shark pics are awesome!! Catching fish was just a bonus...

[skrilla]

Cool shark pics. Makes me think more about the big meter marks I saw.

What color is your Yak?

Yum yum oreo, cookies and cream, vanilla bean swirl... 

[KogaHead]

Nice job putting the wood to that putz Tom!!!

[WasWheresMyBeer]

Oh man awesome encounter with the big boy. Cool pics ...

[Latimeria]

Nice job putting the wood to that putz Tom!!!

You must have forgot a comma somewhere at the end of that sentence.  Arizona air will do that to you.   

[Latimeria]

Oh man awesome encounter with the big boy. Cool pics ...

Thanks Dave.  The jump was crazy.  I only saw the belly and underside of the fins as it launched out next to the boat and then proceeded to swim in large circles around us.

[vdisney]

Awesome pictures of the shark, glad the boat is still running good