We skipped the surf sharks and I did the "Take Your Boat To Work Tuesday" instead. I got in a little early and left a little early to miss the usual congested areas and was on the water by 2:15 waiting for Squatch to show up. It was WAY windier than what they were calling for and I could tell it was going to be a wet one!
I had one small bay bait (Underspin), so I cast that around to get a small spotty. On the board! Next cast however, as I hit some weeds, the line just snapped off by the lure. I guess I should have checked the line before casting again.
Squatch made it down and we were face into the wind the entire way out. Steve was soaked by the time we got clear of the inlet. We hit some usual spots, but everytime we had to turn into the wind, the waves started breaking over the bow into the boat. We lost a few fish and lost a few swimbaits and decided to make a slow move. Might as well troll on the way. Water was brown with Red Tide, so we needed to find cleaner water anyway.
I got hit, then I couldn't tell, then it appeared on again so I reeled in... a Cuda! LOL
We get slammed a few times, but only got a few of the snot sticks to stick.
We finally get to our destination and start working the area with Spot Lock on the more prized spots. It was a steady pick of bass for the rest of the "wind" part of the day with all quality (legal) bass.
We had our share of Brown Rockfish that would get fooled also.
We move around hitting spot after spot and finally found a doozie. Squatch was getting hit every cast and catching 3:1 over me with his cheater rig.
But I hooked one that definitely had some shoulders to it.
I couldn't keep up with Steve's rig, but we pounded the area as long as we could.
Squatch gets a nice one with a glowing orange face! I've seen some deep orange colors in some of the bay turd rollers, but this picture doesn't even do it justice!
Steve then hooks up a monster. I had a feeling it was a lingcod because of the way it was running line and bull dogging him, but easily could have been a pig of a calico. We never got to see it as it bit off his brand new cheater rig.
It was finally on the last of the light and my navigation lights weren't working, so we made a few more casts and caught a few more fish before heading to the barn.
Not sure of our final tally, but we probably caught about 40 total. Not a bad night what-so-ever! I still went to bed around the same time I usually do from shark fishing after I got the boat home, cleaned out the gear, prepped the boat in its proper driveway mode etc. , but totally worth the change of pace!
Thanks for reading and until next tide!
