In what has become a rare chance to fish with some of the usual crew on a weekend, we made a late run and earned a nice fish.
Summary
It sort of starts with returning from a family vacation and an agenda chock full of things to do. Sunday morning included meetings some friends from LA for a late breakfast in Oceanside. In order to get home and go fishing, I needed to ride my bike home. So, as soon as we finished, I made the 35 mile ride home, showered grabbed some gear and headed out the door. I was home for about 20 minutes and got most of what we needed. We were going in my friends new-to-him boat.
The boys had bait and we left as soon as I hopped on the boat at about 3:30. Debating what we should do, we saw life about 3 miles out. We saw something with 2 fins out of the water. There is some debate if it was a small marlin or a mako. It looked very marlin to me, and one was hooked further out this week, but I think it could have been a mako. We put the jigs out and 5-10 minutes later got a double bonito hook up. We managed another before deciding to go further out.
On top of the 9, we saw another set of fins out of the water. This set acted more like a shark. There was plenty of life out there, but it was late and tricky to see kelp. We looked southward on the bank and didn’t see much. We then headed to the inside of the bank and found a small kelp. We worked it for a bit for nothing.
Still heading in with the daylight fading, we found another small kelp. I threw the iron toward it. On the second cast, we saw a boil. We baited it and I think I threw the last sardine at it. After about 10 minutes I got picked up for a nice yellowtail. It ran me into the kelp, but it came out and then came to the boat a few minutes later.
Jason planted a perfect gaff shot the literally went through its nose hole.
I did forget the kill bag. So we bled it and just set it on the deck.
Catch
3 bonito on jig strikes, all cedar plug.
1 yellowtail on a sardine off a kelp paddy.
Conditions
Water
A slight wind chop and relatively small swells.
Tide
We saw some strong tide lines and temperature breaks not far out.
Weather
Overcast with 7-10 knots of wind. Generally warm and pleasant.
Notes
First jig strikes and yellowtail for my friends new-to-him boat.