6/26 - Had the pleasure to join Capt John on his new rig the Reel Tight. A beauty of a ship. 31 Cape Horn dialed in with the latest E120 tandem electronics, HD digital, Sirius weather, Autopilot and kick ass pair of Yammy 300's. We pushed out at 5:30 making bait in fairly quick fashion. Marked tons of fish but they had lock jaw. Maybe the effects of full moon
Three legit run offs nothing to the boat. 0 for 3. Continued to hold out until 11:00. Planning on a half day, decide to head back up the beach with the knoll in mind for a last ditch effort.
On the way back up... there's a small fleet of about 9 boats working a small pocket. Setup in a circle and we joined the foray. Glad we did
We laid the livies out there and were surprised that not even a sniff until we got a closer look at the tools everyone else was using. Any metal seemed to do the trick. John pulls out an inventory of crippled herring. We're reset in no time. I've got Tikki with 17lb mono out. Only spinning gear I had. First cast and hooked up. This is a big fish. John's throwing his bunker pole with the 65lb braid wrapped around a coastal reel. He's jiggin and he's on. I get a yank with the drag set to near zero drag and SNAP. Retied and tried again. Immediate hook-up. John is still working it. I bust off another and get frustrated. He calls for the net. Holy smokes!!! A nice beast is put in the grocery cart. We thump onto the deck and it sounded like a 50lb plate from the gym hitting the floor. A ton of high fives, yips and holering. First drum for John. First one that I've witnessed. The bite was on for 45 mins. I tied up the bait casters while John positioned the Cape trying to get me a fat one. Wasn't in the cards but we sure did have a blast working it. Three hook ups. One landed. Salvation for an otherwise slow day. Made it back to the marina in 20 mins from outside the cedars. This sled pushed 55 without a sweat and nice comfortable ride. Best of luck John you’ve been doing a bang up job christening so far.
6/27 - Got the Tastee crew together for a day of search for flatties and cbass. Capt Don, Don Jr, T-bone and Kooz made it an entertainment extravaganza. We pushed off at 6:30 with tons of bait and high hopes of a banner day. First stop, Ambrose. First drift, dead. Not a sniff. Moved further out the channel with the first strike going to T-bone on a double header on a Spro and teaser combo topped with squidd, spearing and whatever bait was available. Both fish just short of legal and returned. A few more fish took our offerings as we watched bunker splash all around. We snagged a handful for fresh fillets and stuck with the game plan. Motored out toward the Scotty to test the action. Out going had us drifting real nice but we came up empty. Water temps on the bottom of 55-60 ft was cold to the touch of the sinker. Too cold for flatties? Full moon? Where the hell were the CB’s? We all hate not putting your crew on fish even if they’re short. Just want some action. Tooled around a little bit longer as the S SW started to crank up a bit. Just enough make the drift a little difficult. Kooz suggests inside to 30ft and I readily agree as things were just not happening. We try a bunch of drifts. They’re at least producing fish. Mostly just shorts, enough postage stamps to ship something airmail, a handful of Lionel Richies, and a couple of dogs. We covered some ground. Most of the action was tight to the beach in 18ft. One nice flattie is put in the cooler by Capt Don sr. another nice fish by T-bone. It was dropped before the net wrapped around it. Saw a sea turtle that had so much moss on his shell we thought he was wearing a mohair. Cool sight. On the way back, pulled up to the “No Boat” buoys outside nude beach and took in some sights of females unencumbered. Another cool sight. Looks like they gave the turtle the mohair suit.
All and all, a good day! Some great guys to fish with. Next time we’ll bang ’em. The fish of course
Till next time
