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Boat Fishing => Saltwater Boat Fishing Reports => : Latimeria August 22, 2020, 07:15:33 AM

: Bust'in Out Bass Rods (8/21)
: Latimeria August 22, 2020, 07:15:33 AM
My shoulder is the worst it has felt in a long time and I'm already at my max of cortisone shots for this joint.  The pain and lack of sleep has been overwhelming, so I was planning on resting it up and not fishing this weekend.  I talked to my buddy Dave and put the drain plug in just in case, but got nothing put together.  I saw there has been some local yellows and found out Saturday (today) is my grand daughter's 1st birthday, so yesterday was my only window I had.  I couldn't sleep as every time I rolled over, I would move my arm and wake up in pain.  Sometime after 3:00am, I realized I wasn't going to get any restful sleep, so I got up and started packing up the boat.  I usually do this the night before, so it was weird trying to pack everything up and stay quiet enough to not annoy all the neighbors.

I heard of "Red sky in the morning, Sailor's take warning", but don't remember any sayings about the sun being so red.  Probably ash from the fires up north?

(https://i.imgur.com/BohhH89.jpg)

On the way out, I noticed the old jetty navigation pad on the barge, so they were done placing new boulders.

(https://i.imgur.com/bnq8g1D.jpg)

Goal number one was to find bait.  I didn't meter any around and drove a long way to find it, but got a healthy mix of sardine, mackerel and Salema.

(https://i.imgur.com/78y4jhb.jpg)

(https://i.imgur.com/8kuP2Nl.jpg)

(https://i.imgur.com/LBDumwK.jpg)

I decided not to spend too long bait fishing so went to work with the artificials at first.  It was really good bass fishing as I got them on the plastics, iron, megabait, hydro-minnow and even live bait.

Almost all were legal, but the first thing I noted was all of the bass were so lit up!  Not sure why, except that they were in breeding mode.

(https://i.imgur.com/T51Tmqm.jpg)

Even the smaller ones were nice sized.

(https://i.imgur.com/ODLcF1A.jpg)

So many golden colored ones...  must be breeding...

(https://i.imgur.com/AitamWu.jpg)

Most of the turd rollers looked normal, nut then I pulled up this crazy lit up one!  Hybrid? or just lit up breeder?

(https://i.imgur.com/fmFR8fe.jpg)

I also had 3 WSB, but only one made it into the boat when I tried pulling them in.  I was hoping to find momma somewhere, but it was nice to see this spot has so many juveniles around.

(https://i.imgur.com/JQukewa.jpg)

Then the snot sticks came rushing through and I was about done with these little things.  Ruining baits and hitting everything that touched the water.

(https://i.imgur.com/0cYYjlY.jpg)

I decided to head to some rocks and use the remaing baits to try and bring home something big and tasy as I CPR'd all the other fish.  It was a long ride back, but all of a sudden the water started frothing in front of me!  I killed the motor and grabbed the jig stick.  First cast and they sunk out but not before I get bumped on the jig... didn't stick... damn! 
4 casts later and this one stuck!  Fought the yellow for 5 minutes before it pulled the hook somehow.  Hooks are sharp, so not sure what's going on.
My shoulder and arm are on total fire now, so I opted to toss a bait out instaed, but only had a bass rod rigged up for live bait so I pinned a mackerel on and put it out while I searched for rigs to hook up a legitimate rod.  Figures, I forgot my rig bag in the garage..

I started tying something up when i kept hearing these strange creaky noises.  I look up and my bass rod it bent down to the handle!  Holy crap!
It was a long and tedious battle and bass flipping sticks are not ideal to catching nice yellowtail, so I took my time.  No boats came over and after a long battle, broke in my little gaff I made properly!

15 pounder!  (actually 14lbs, 13oz)

(https://i.imgur.com/PsS7Xa5.jpg)

I caught more yellows this year on this little bass stick than all my other rods.  It has the magic apparently!  The funny thing is, even though it's a nice yellowtail, it is still almost 30 pounds lighter then the last one I caught!  LOL

Anyway, i called it early and saw the crane gettiing towed back to Long Beach.  My shoulder felt like it was on fire, so I needed to get home and put it on ice!  I wish there wasn't an opioid issue because that's the only thing to make my shoulder feel better!  LOL

Thanks for reading... and Oh, the water was 74.9-75.6 where i was fishing.  It warmed back up in a hurry!
: Re: Bust'in Out Bass Rods (8/21)
: Dark_Knight_9C1 August 22, 2020, 08:51:45 AM
Awesome fishing report!
I bet you didn't notice your shoulder as much when you were hooked up with that yellowtail.

-Keith
: Re: Bust'in Out Bass Rods (8/21)
: skrilla August 22, 2020, 03:45:56 PM
You keeping the sealions occupied with the volleyball while fighting that yellow?
: Re: Bust'in Out Bass Rods (8/21)
: Latimeria August 22, 2020, 04:59:41 PM
You keeping the sealions occupied with the volleyball while fighting that yellow?

I found it floating out in the great blue.  You should have seen my surprise when i turned it over!  hahahahaha

(https://i.imgur.com/rSP3qRu.jpg)
: Re: Bust'in Out Bass Rods (8/21)
: skrilla August 22, 2020, 10:59:39 PM
Hahaha.
: Re: Bust'in Out Bass Rods (8/21)
: SevengillTheVC August 23, 2020, 11:20:02 AM
Very nice, light tackle Yellow fishing seems really fun, as long as it's not putting your through excruciating pain! Those golden bass are pretty cool too!
: Re: Bust'in Out Bass Rods (8/21)
: vdisney August 26, 2020, 03:30:15 AM
Sorry about your shoulder Tom, hopefully you'll get it straightened out some day.  Nice fish on the bass rod.............
: Re: Bust'in Out Bass Rods (8/21)
: Tim524 August 31, 2020, 07:19:55 AM
Looks like a red sky in the morning is the way to go, I guess now you have to worry about one at night ;D