Told my lead yesterday that I might play hooky today. He never heard of the term "hooky" which blew me away. He says in his Mexican friend groups in high school they only said "f@ck school!" So this morning I confirmed my sick day with texting him "chinga la escuela" and set off.
0700 launch. As I was hopping from the bow to the trailer tongue, my phone fell out of my pocket and in the water. Picked it up inside of 10 seconds, and it seemed to be okay.
As I was leaving the harbor, the phone had turned off. Aw, f@ck. There goes some communication redundancy along with Navionics along with camera. Is it even worth going out? I moaned and hummed and hawed, all while heading straight out to sea.
Pretty flat ground swell but consistent chop. Stayed mostly dry all day except for a few big gulps over the starboard rail on the way out, straight into the chop. Ran up on some dolphins around the coastal ledge, letting me know I'd hit 1000' of water or so. Lines in. I trolled a daisy chain over the top of them for a minute, then turned around and saw a whale spout. First of the season for me! Started heading south down the coast. I wanted to stay on the right side of Dana Point so my handheld VHF could still get clear signal if I need help from the harbor.
Trolled 3 lures: 13" marlin skirt, Ledge Runner 160 deep diver, and the daisy chain. After about 15 minutes, I ran up on a decent patty right in my way. Trolled around it for nothing. Casted a jig on it for nothing. Noticed my state-of-the-art-from-2001 fish finder was picking up good marks even as I was getting further from the patty. That fish finder never picks up anything offshore, so I knew it was something. I looked over the rail, and through the chop I could just barely make out a yellow fork tail right under the boat, with a bright blue on the back. Baby yellow. Though it did look like a mahi...but willing to lean into yellow. Couldn't get bit, but the sighting made me wanna put out the daisy chain and try the patty on the troll again.
Only took 20 seconds, then lo and behold, I was bit! Something smaller. Fought it in and bounced it, baby mahi! Couldn't have been 18". Its head profile was so small. I was itching to get a picture but my phone had been acting up. I grabbed my phone and it was acting alright for a few seconds, so I got a pic and released the little guy. I sincerely considered keeping it because it probably did have enough meat for a meal and was such an interesting little specimen to show a couple people, but I knew I would regret it and be dogged the rest of my days for keeping the smallest mahi ever caught by rod and reel.
(https://i.imgur.com/Lgun2yOh.jpeg)
About 15 minutes later, I got a blind strike on the daisy chain again but it didn't stick. Then the Freelance caught up to me as I was trolling, and we trolled side by side a couple hundred yards apart for a bit before they stopped on a patty. I then saw one of those devil rays go full aerial! Stoked that I was finally able to see one for myself, albeit from over 300 yards away.
Decided to turn back as I was about 10 miles from the point, and I could probably box the zone in front of the point while keeping an eye on the rain clouds in multiple directions. Another 2 hours of trolling resulted in nothing at all. I started in, and right near the mouth of the harbor, I got a good view of a humpback from about 200 yards. Nice to see all the life!
$140 for the phone repair...another symptom of the B.O.A.T. I don't believe in the "worst day on the water is better than the best day at the office" but getting even this small mahi and seeing the life made up for my other misfortunes.
(https://i.imgur.com/blPCeakh.jpeg)
The Phone Syndrome is real !
Always cool to see Mother Nature up close ....Live Action ! 8)
Looking forward to seeing the Key Chain Mahi :)