I think I figured out the baitwell issue but could not find the loose wire on the electrical system for the trolling motor. I decided to give it an ocean run anyway and see if I could find any of the LJ yellowtail. The YT in LJ have just been off the charts this year and I unfortunately have not been able to participate.
I got an early start, but not at O'dark thirty. There was an early stiff south wind which gave me pause before running up to LJ thinking about having to come back with that in my face, but the marine weather channel had me convinced it wouldn't be too terrible.
Apparently, they weren't selling bait to the public at the receivers and the mouth of the inlet was packed with people trying to catch mackerel. I had to squeeze through and decided to look for bait on my own. I didn't see sh!t... No bait, no mackerel, no signs of life.
I get to LJ and cound 64 boats and 52 kayaks. I stayed on the outside circle and would dare entering that arena. I casted my small iron looking for something to use as bait and started to get bites. I was a little taken back as they were all BIG Lizard fish! I mean 10"-12.5" models!!! I stuck them in the livewell as a back up.
I started slinging the surface iron and picked up a few bonito (Little 2-3 pound models). Too big for bait and not big enough to really have too much fun fighting them in. I switched it up and started dropping a deep iron with a small squid strip. I did bring two squid with me so I had to make it go a long way.
At this point the bites came with a little more frequency. I picked up a dozen assorted bass and even dropped a lizard fish down on an iron with an assist hook and immediately caught a few more nicer grade Sand Bass.
I picked up some nice sculpin and a vermillion and saved one little strip of bait just in case. One thing I noticed was all of this white thick soupy and fibrous material floating in the water. It was everywhere for miles and I didn't want it getting clogged in the motor or bait pump, but it was hard to get around. It didn't smell at all, but when I scooped some into a bucket, it was thick like a chowder and weirded me out. I have some ideas what it could be, but haven't had any confirmation yet.
My next drop and I use my last piece of squid. It wasn't long and I'm on with a bruiser! It was on the bottom and I was thinking lingcod but saw this really nice male Sheepshead (20-22") hit the surface. I decided to grab my lip gripper on him and as I reached over the gunnel noticed my lure to the right and the fish just sitting next to my boat without the lure in its mouth. WTF! I tried to get a quick lip grab on it, but it was gone. I didn't grab him by hand since I could see all of these amphipods crawling all over its body and thus went for the lip gripper since I was going to release him anyway. Oh well, still a really nice goat.
The bite never got hot, but I saw some HUGE cuda caught by guys trolling by. Probably 40" models yet I strangely couldn't get a cuda to hit any surface irons.
The NSF pulled up and started brailing wiggles with eyes and now 75 boats surrounded his boat. If there were any fish left in LJ, they were around the NSF for sure. I heard some big hooting and hollering so I know some yellows were caught. I was ready to leave, but only managed a few more little bonito.
I decided to troll on the outside of the fleet for a little bit and had an absolute screamer! Unfortunately, it only stayed on for about 5 seconds before unbuttoning. I grab the big bass stick and cast a colt sniper to the area when I got bit and I hook up right away! Definitely a YT! I kept it out of view to the fleet for the most part and finally got him to gaff. Not my usual YT I've caught over the last few years, but a scrappy 10-12 pound model which was perfect for the rod and reel I was using. (Jeremy, I broke in the new bass stick properly!)
Well, the wind started to kick up and I decided to head to the barn. I kept a few for dinner and released the rest. (I'll put pictures up when I get home from work)
I really need to find the issue with my trolling motor, but otherwise was really happy being back out on the pond!
Thanks for reading and until next tide!
Glad you got the boat back in action and found a few fish 8)
So what do you think the white stuff is ??