Nitro cold brew and oatmeal for breakfast then on the road at gray light. Electrical gremlins again on the street. Tried the same voodoo as last time but this time failed to get the transducer to connect. Oh well, the ocean awaits.
Short interval and high tide combo made for a sporty launch. Timed my entrance good enough to avoid getting swamped. Goal of the day was to herd some goats. I brought squid but have had better luck with fresh dead so the hunt for macks was first on the list. Without a working transducer I had to rely on sight. Found lots of fin bait up on the surface but they were the wrong kind and very skittish. Tried tipping my sabiki with squid for nada.
After an hour of looking I gave up. Dropped squid on some of my old goat spots. Drop after drop it was game on. All the whitefish you wanted and all the whitefish you never wanted. It was an infestation from 50ft to 150ft. Every damn goat spot was littered with whitefish. Tried strips, heads, whole squid. Every damn bite was a whitefish.
At this point my hopes for goat herding were fading away and all I really wanted now was anything with red. Went over to a rocky ledge with some metal. First drop boom decent size honeycomb. Next drop decent flag fish. 3rd drop, white freakin' fish. You gotta be kidding me. Fair hooked with a 7/0 single?!?!
Took a break to hydrate and reset. Thought I'd plug in the fish finder for sh!ts n' giggles and somehow the transducer is back in action.
SST temp update 58°. Thought it felt a bit chilly. Metered lots of small bait. Tried to entice them with the sabiki to no avail.
Made a few more drifts which resulted in a few more dinks on the metal. Dropped squid and again absolutely harassed by the fish of the year. Decided to head back into the kelp to see if the whitefish left. Lots of birds starting to get active. Schools of bass doing backflips and feeding on the micro stuff. Pinned on squid for another bucket load of whitefish. Then finally a hook set that didn't wiggle. Got it up to the surface and saw that familiar red and black suit. A sheephead at last! It wasn't the size I was hoping for so back in it went to fight another day.
Saw the current pick up pushing me South at a faster clip. Not wanting to paddle any further I started my way back up the line. Stopped at a few spots where the bass were feeding. Lots of salad in the water made throwing the jig a chore. But I did get to tug on some checkers and even a cuda. June action in Fall. Can't complain.
Cut the corner and followed the shoreline in 30ft. Cool to see the bass give chase the entire shoreline. Then just as I was reentering the reserve I see a ghost cruising the kelp stalk. It disappeared quicker than I could grab a rod. Note: bring squid again.
Low tide and small surf. Rode a fun wave from way outside. Ran over a few leopards in the skinny. 61° SST at Shores. Kid has been asking about bologna sandwiches. Grabbed a pack of Oscar Mayer and some beer to wash the taste out of my mouth afterwards. Last time I had the stuff I was around his age. If his tastes buds are like mine we'll use the rest of the pack for catfishing.
