It's the Saltwater Version of Trouting (1/19)

[Latimeria]

I needed some time away from people as this dry January thing sucks ass.  Unfortunately, I don't have the mental bandwidth so needed a recharge.

I formulated a quick plan:

Plan A:  Hit the OB Pier and fish the pilings for bass and other critters that may be lurking along the pilings.

Plan B:  Make a bunch of mackerel and hopefully catch my first legal butt of 2025

Plan C:  Hit Trigger Reef and catch one of the huge Finescale Triggers Squatch and I caught over the winter for a few years.

Got down fairly early and launched.  Wind was up from the east at a pretty stiff clip.  As I passed Sea World, I noticed they were fixing the sky ride.  I haven't seen that thing move since the summer. 



It was breezy and cold heading out of the inlet!



No birds and no bait around.  I tried to sabiki macks, but there was barely a sign of life out there.  I decided to just head into the OB Pier and get some piling fishing done.  Man, that thing has gone to sh!t really quickly but it still looks awesome out there!

















The swell and wind weren't cooperating when I dropped the trolling motor.  Swell was much bigger at the pier than anywhere else from what it seemed.  That and there was a ton of GRASS all along the bottom. 
I couldn't get close to the pilings without risking getting smacked into them so I stayed off and threw the swimmy. 
Pretty slow fishing actually, but I managed 3 turd rollers in 45 minutes (one was probably legal).  Definitely not a hot bite.



Since I couldn't find bait, I decided to bounce ball all the way to the Trigger Reef.  It was mostly a clean run but I would hit patches of grass and kelp that fouled up the line.  An hour+ of trolling and nothing, so I got into trigger mode.

I didn't bring bait with me, but I did have Gulp sandworms and shrimp.  I set up a shrimp/lead head rig and dropped down.  It kept getting bit to pieces, so I switched to the sand worm...

BAM!  Right off the bat and I thought I had a smaller trigger!

Not a trigger....



Then I got into a really hot Whitefish (Pacific Tilefish) bite! 



Better size Whitefish on Bay Gear is really fun!  My shoulder was complaining the entire time though as it was on fire...

I was in 60-70 foot deep and everything came up clean unlike the deep dropping I was doing at the end of last year.
I switched up from sand worm to shrimp and put a hurt on my plastic supply, but I did get quite the variety. 





Slug Whites!





I ended up with a 30 fish day which was not bad at all considering I didn't really succeed at any plan I originally had, but that was a nice consolation prize.

Kept my 10 and released the rest.  I had 4 nice sheepshead in total.  Nothing huge but those things shot their belly out of their mouth quick, so I got them back right away.

One of the Whitefish was definitely the JP of my limit.



Well, I got home and as usual, took a long ass time to wash the boat and gear and get all the fish filleted.  BUT.... I have to say that it totally helped my brain.

Only problem was a couple of old guys ran their boat up on me, dropped anchor and drifted back right in front of me and dropped in for a dive.  No f@cking care that I was fishing on this rock pile.



So, I decided to f@ck with them.  I waited until they dropped in and probably got halfway down then motored over to their boat and started racing my engine right next to theirs.  i know they were down there looking up going "Oh f@ck, what is he doing at our boat!".  I didn't do anything but at least made them think I did when they looked up to see our two hulls side by side.

Other than that, it was a fun trip.  hahaha

[Tim524]

Nice load of Whitefish,it's been a while since I got into them but they are pretty tasty!

I guess there ain't much respect these days   some people are just plain Rude !

Them cold breezy mornings are rough on the joints, looking forward to warmer weather!

[jrodda]

That sounds like a real fun bite on the bass gear. Wish the cattle boats didn't decimate my local spots early last year.