31st Birthday is today so I booked a night with my lady at the Catamaran Hotel on the northwest shore of Mission Bay. One night in a hotel makes for some awkward time slots to fish, as I learned, but I wanted to see the bay from a different angle with Alicia instead of duck in and back out around the east side like I normally do.
Got into town around 1230. We wanted to try this Italian street food place that's on the strand so we went straight there. Its associated parking lot is very large, but not large enough for the Sunday beach crowd. After 20 minutes of figure 8s through the parking lot, I was ready to drive into the ocean, so we bailed and checked in early at the hotel up the street, if just to get parking.
Leaving home a little later, having to bail on the original food plan, and going through the process of checking in early, ate up a lot of the time I wanted to fish in the early afternoon. I originally wanted to tube, but the wind was obviously not going to comply during the time window. We got lunch at the Flamingo-somethingruther brunch place across the street and still enjoyed an all-too-large italian sandwich.
Alicia wanted to try casting a line for maybe the second time, so I obliged and brought a couple pieces of squid. I showed her the basics and she made a little progress. We hadn't gotten any bites before we were notified that our room was ready 15 minutes into fishing, so we had to scoot from there.
Amazing view of the bay! Thought I would have to pay some kind of premium for the ocean view so it was a nice surprise.
(https://i.imgur.com/qbz1Omch.jpeg)
I wanted an early-ish dinner to try for corvina after sunset with ample time, so we went down to the hotel restaurant at 1800. Let them know it was my birthday and we were seated to a 1/3 capacity restaurant. 20 minutes later we still hadn't seen a waiter so much as ask us for a drink order. I went over to the hostess to let them know and they went into the kitchen and straightened things out. We got a bit of a deal on our food, which was nice of them, but I ended up losing about an hour of fishing time to the whole ordeal.
Ended up throwing an LCFM 110 along the shoreline looking for corvina or whatever was hungry from about 2030 to 2200. Not a sniff! But, I did see SeaWorld's drone display across the bay which was very cool. I wish I could be down there for the whole 4th of July display.
Woke up at 0430. Maybe 4 hours of mediocre sleep but I was locked in on the mission.
(https://i.imgur.com/hpt9wnmh.jpeg)
I hurried over to launch at Ski Beach Park to fish Fiesta Bay. On the water at 0500. Kinda cold, east wind blowing, which I fought to get out. A few bumps early on until I finally connected with the quintessential California Rolling Turder.
(https://i.imgur.com/LON4gy6h.jpeg)
Shortly after, I finally got something other than a pee pee poo poo bass to eat an underspin.
(https://i.imgur.com/9VvuByxh.jpeg)
Lot of short bites until I found a hole that started getting me more committal fish.
(https://i.imgur.com/fdr0fKqh.jpeg)
~20" halibut came to play.
(https://i.imgur.com/1aBQLu0h.jpeg)
I was up to 5 with a couple farmed fish. The other day I told myself 6 would be a nice number for this session. The spot was still biting but I kept farming one after another, despite the wide gap hook, tight lines, and fast reeling.
I lost at least 4 more fish. By 0900 the wind had come up quite a bit from the west now, it became apparent that I was going to have to now fight pretty hard all the way back to my launch spot. Very poor planning on my part to not launch from the east and let the wind do all the work all morning.
I trolled an underspin at .5mph as I hammered through chop for an hour, getting soaked, and farmed another on the way in, right next to the boat for good measure.
I had a good time despite a few challenges! Glad the fish cooperated at least a little bit and I was able to fish a decent amount of new water and shoreline. Looking forward to getting back down there again. And thanks Tom for steering me in the right direction!
Happy Birthday, looks like a nice gift of fun fishing. My Birthday was the 23rd, all the cool guys were born in June ;D
No sweat, but bummer it wasn't more action. I know that wind and cold turned off a lot of the bite, but at least you found them. Something that would have been much easier to do in a boat or a second day on the tube. lol
Happy birthday boss! I remember being down in PB/MB on my 29th birthday myself...
The boat is supposedly fixed, although I will have to just add a bead of silicone and it should all be done. I'll keep you posted.
: Latimeria June 30, 2026, 07:06:03 pNo sweat, but bummer it wasn't more action. I know that wind and cold turned off a lot of the bite, but at least you found them. Something that would have been much easier to do in a boat or a second day on the tube. lol
Happy birthday boss! I remember being down in PB/MB on my 29th birthday myself...
The boat is supposedly fixed, although I will have to just add a bead of silicone and it should all be done. I'll keep you posted.
Meant to say june
29th was my birthday, I turned 31. Didn't type that well. I've gained too much weight the last 2 years to act like I'm still in my 20s.
Excellent news on the boat! Hopefully just in time for this south wind to calm down and let the pelagics burst onto the scene. A spear guy recorded yellows and a mahi under a local paddy...
I've caught plenty of fish from shore in front of the catamaran.
Sounds like a fun trip