The new equipment I mentioned in general fishing is a Splashdrone waterproof drone specifically made for fishing and SAR. I was leery on how it would preform in actual fishing conditions but it proved to easily be able to handle winds and relatively large baits. Was able to run baits out 300 plus yards in a minute or two. It was pretty fun being able to mix two hobbies into one with flying and fishing.
Now to the fishing. Picked up some live bait form CISCOS in Oxnard, mostly anchovies, I asked the guy if he could seek out some of the mackerel I saw swimming around and he obliged me, with one, since I didn't want to waste his time making him chase the things. He asked how much I wanted and I told him a kayak scoop, which they offer for 10 dollars. He then proceeded to completely fill my bucket with fish, like wayyyy to many, so they were not gonna live for long, but I can't say I didn't get a good deal on fresh dead bait.
Ended up getting to the spot around 7:00AM. Pinned the only fresh mackerel I had on a float rig and buzzed it out to 400yards. Since this beach is pretty secluded and rarely has more than a few people I figured I wouldn't apply any weight and just let it drift. Salad was an issue with that presentation as the breakers were utterly filled with it.
Started cranking it in after it seemed to be drifting hard down the beach to notice that the float had not drifted much and the drift was just salad pulling the slack on my mainline. A pelican was really adamant about getting the mackerel but popping the float seemed to dissuade him. About 150 yds out or so, it happened, a Thresher breached clear out of the water right behind my float. I left it where it was for a while and it seemed it wasn't making a return trip I reeled it the rest of the way in. The mackerel was only a head now with the signature shark shred. MAN! Welp I still got some dines and market mackerel.
The sardines were just getting pulled from the hook by smaller critters, but man was there a lot of activity. We saw no less than 3 threshers breach in the early morning grey light. Their long tails really don't lend to graceful breaching as they just kind of flailed before they landed in the water. Pat opted to use a tri swivel rig and didn't seem to get many sniffs. Around noon activity ceased. Ate some lunch at the beach and watched a fly fisherman nail a really nice corbina, shortly after Pat threw his ultralight and caught a decent sized BSP, but with how much salad was in the water it was a lot of work for these few fish.
Pinned on the perch live to my float rig and sent it back out, right after landing the drone and storing it my rod gets absolutely hammered but instantly pops. By this point we were sliding the floats with weights, and I could feel my sputnik but it definitely was light.
My float was not made at all for whatever it was as it ripped the core out of the float and broke the swivel. Lesson learned. By this point it was about 5PM so we both switched to tri rigs with half of the 2 pound store mackerel. Gave it until 9PM with no action and called it a day.
All in all it was a good test run and learning experience and hopefully the next report will have a picture of a thresher or whatever nailed that perch. Was able to make about 15 drops with two batteries all at beyond 250 yds. Probably the most fun day of catching the stripe I've had in a long time though aside from today feeling like I dipped my legs in acid due to the bad sunburn. Thanks for reading!
