I turned down a trip to run with a buddy since I only had half a day to get out there before having to get home. It was a little breezy, but with the SW wind, it was smooth sailing to LJ.
There were 4 of us buddy boating and goal number one was to find mackerel. We all had a hell of a time as our usual spots were quiet. No birds, no splashing bait, no life.
I forgot OTL was happening this weekend...
I finally found a spot with some macks and called my buddy over. The macks didn't even want the sabiki, but I managed a dozen along with a couple of smelt. My buddy had a hell of a time in his boat and only managed 1, but we didn't want to waste our day away just trying to find bait.
LJ was pretty busy even though I thought everyone would be running offshore. The water was warm but green green green! Lots of floating vegetation in the water also with a super strong uphill current. My buddy is usually the guy that always seems to catch, but he was having a really hard time out there as well. I wanted glory and refused to switch to rockfish, even though I was going to get to a point where I would catch anything.
I ran up to Torrey Pines... then Solana beach... inshore and offshore for no signs of life except for dolphin schools everywhere. I had one moment of almost glory when I was halibut fishing and get slammed! It bull dogged me on the bottom and I tried to turn him for 2 minutes... Hook pulled.. AHHHHHH!!!!!! I've been farmer Tom lately! I reeled up to see that my leader was slightly abraded... damn, it looks like it was Mr Sharky and not what I was after.
Unfortunately for me, the wind picked up and when I turned around from my smooth ride north, I had wind and whitecaps in my face. I talked to my buddy and he said all of his friends were having crappy fishing so I shot offshore and trolled/paddy hopped the way south. Nada, nada, nada... I came in and decided to try and find some old go-to spots since I've lost them with the purchase of a new fish finder. Damn, I found my little rubble pile.
The drift was almost 1.5 mph and all I could do was get one cast in before I was off of it... but I caught one on each drift. I decided to drop anchor and set up over the pile... WOW, WOW, WOW
It was pretty much a bass a cast for the next 1.5 hours. I didn't have a tape on board, but my australian cutting board had a tape in centimeters. lol, I had to use Google to conver it to inches since F&G was cruising all over today busting people.
It was funny, all of the bass seemed to be 34 cm long! Well maybe a third of them... the rest were all about 30-32 cm.
I went through a half a dozen jigs too. I lost 3 swimbaits, an iron and 2 bucktails. Those bucktails were a terror on those bass! This bucktail on the calico is probably 30 years old and I've had it that long. Unfortunately the rubble ate it, but it did great while I still had it!
I was counting at first and had 24 in 45 minutes of fishing. Unfortunately lost count but had the same or better success for the next 45 minutes. I told myself I had to get home and if I made 5 casts without a fish, I would pull anchor and leave. I got bit 4 of the last 5 casts, but failed to get one in the boat, so stuck to my guns and headed in.
For a half day trip, I fished a lot of waters and got a little beat up in that wind. The swell also doubled in size from when I launched, but it was very managable.
The last spot Saving Grace! I'll take it!
Thanks for reading and until next tide!
