Too much of a coincidence with the pelicans.

Great fish. About how many pounds do you think it was?

- Keith

Bloody decks... Sweet!

That's what I like to see! Great job on that double!

- Keith

Just got back from Hawaii.
Should've brought my 2 ft pole.
Could've had a chance at some blue trivially.
Didn't have a chance at some nice size Ono.

The picture below has the Ono to the right and shows how thick it was.


The volcano also errupted while we were on the Big Island. We saw the precursor lava swelling out of the vent.


But it went full fountains in the middle of the night.
Could've drove there to see it but didn't since it could've stopped before we got there. Here's a Facebook link to what I missed

https://fb.watch/CxacDHbAPg/?mibextid=wwXIfr&fs=e

It errupted from about 12:30 AM till 7:00 AM.

One thing we did do was the night snorkeling which the manta rays. It was awesome to say the least. The mantas would swim within inches of you and sometime touch you. They were anything from 6 ft to 10 ft across. Something I'll never forget. I'll post some picture when I download the files off the gopro SD card.

- Keith

Certainly didn't waste any time. Definitely fresh and all looks great.

- Keith

Great that you got one. Must have been awesome seeing the big ones around.

- Keith

Wow! A 30 lb carp.
Must have been massive.
How big was the one you caught?

- Keith

That's what I'm talking about. Bloody decks and big tuna. Nice job.

- Keith

OH NO! That really sucked.
Well, hopefully what you saw is just a sign of what's coming.
Hang in there.

- Keith

P.S. Are you posting pictures of the Biomass?
I need to see something...

GO GET'EM!

We need some good fish pictures to gawk over.

- Keith

Those are great yellows. Glad you were able to get the big one even with the cattle boat near by.

-Keith

9/13 Took a last trip to Elsinore before the water cools down and things start getting busy at home.
Got to the lake about 45 minutes before sunrise. Grey light started around 6:00 AM.
Didn't see slot of activity on the surface to start with, but did see a couple torpedo away as I walked along the shoreline. Seemed promising.
Right around 6:00, I started seeing the carp along the shore with there backs out of the water. It was game on. Started taking shots at fish and my average 1 in 15, or so, wasn't improving. Luckily it's more the thrill of the hunt that keeps me going.
The carp were showing up about every 50 yards this time between 6:00 and 7:30.
I managed my first one about 6:15. Took a good shot and the line started peeling off to the side so I knew I was on. Good size one right thru the underbelly.
A little further down, I setup on another group. I saw some people watching so I wanted to make sure to hit it so they could see I wasn't just shooting at shadows. I took careful aim, remembered not to shoot low to avoid the stumps, and let it go. The arrow hit the water, there was an explosive splash, and the line started peeling straght out. Started pulling it back and saw I had a good size one but the arrow had gone all the way thru just under the dorsal fin. There wasn't a lot of meat there and the string could easily cut thru. I played it slowly and worked it around the stumps to keep the arrow, which was dangling behind it, from getting caught. Finally got it on shore and used my new tool on it. I brought a sledge hammer handle to use as a billy club to keep the carp from trying to flop back into the water. One good rap on the back if the head quickly immobilized it.
I found new ways to loose arrow this trip also. For whatever reason I broke two sliders, a plastic piece which the string attaches to and slides on the arrow shaft. I managed to recover the arrow on the first one but when I lost the second arrow I had to walk back to my truck to get another one. I decided to leave the two fish at my truck instead of lugging them to the lake again. It was then I noticed my billy club wasn't in the bucket. I figured I had left it where I got the last fish. But it would be like finding a needle in a haystack amongst all the debris on the shoreline. I figured I'd try to backtrack the last half mile I walked.
I mostly kept my eye out for fish as I looked for the club. I figured it would be almost impossible to see. I stopped a couple places to shoot at fish along the way. Then I stopped and put down my bucket to target another fish which ended up being a stick. Went to grab my bucket and the club was right there next to it. What are the odds! I need to buy a lottery ticket. So that made my day.
Then I had a couple more firsts while bowfishing. One was skipping an arrow off the back of a fish like skipping a rock on the water. The other was hitting a fish and having it immediately float to the surface. Hit it straight thru the skull, backbone and likely the heart. Luckily I was using a $20 arrow which someone lost and I had found. The tip was very sharp and had a long taper to penitrate better. It was stuck in about 6 inches and didn't even poke thru.

Was a good day to end the season with. The biggest fish was 25 inches and 5 lbs. Followed by 3 and 2 pounders.


- Keith

That is absolutely terrible, to be nice. Unfortunately, there are more people nowadays that are in it only for themselves and don't respect anyone else.

I've cut my line a couple times after a fellow surf fisherman's fish crossed my line as their shark transversed the beach.

-Keith

Was at Big Bear Lake doing some bowfishing for carp. Got a few on Saturday and took them to the Big Bear Water District Carp drop off. What I saw there was disturbing. Instead of a pile of carp, there was a pile of trout, hundreds of them.
I had heard last week they had unusually high surface temps in the lake. Average this time of year is 72°, but the middle of the week had temps as high as 78°.
Apparently the trout didn't like the heat or the heat reduced the oxygen level to a nonsustainable point.
I believe it was probably the heat. The carp were very active and Carp Killer, the local bowfisherman, was getting big fish counts the days it was hot.
(I know what your thinking... he was shooting the belly up carp. I won't say it isn't a possibility.  LOL)
The guy taking care of the fish said he'd have to go out several more times to clean up most of them.
The Big Bear Facebook page said on Sunday there were hundreds more appearing along the shore.
It's a sad day when all the game fish die off like that.

- Keith