I heard of the yellowtail bite going on in LJ and planned on trying to get in on some of the action.  I don't get up as early as I used to fish, but still early enough.  Anyway, supposedly the afternoon bite is the hot bite.



Weather was beautiful.



Only issue was even though it looks glassy in the pics, the peaks of the small waves were just enough that I could only run at 1/3 steam.  Anything faster and I was just slamming the water with my semi-V hull.

I get to LJ and see 50 of my closest friends around doing all sorts of methods looking for these fish.  Too much sh!t in the water to troll, so I threw the irons a lot.

Finally I had it after an hour and shot out to my rockfish spot.  I needed o unplug from the world a bit to calm my racing brain and this sh!t show was not bringing the justice I need.

First drop on my spot with the little 2500 spinner and I knew it was a red. 



Great, only one more and then I would have a bunch of descending to do in order to make it worth my while.  Funny thing was I had the next 2 hours of no reds so it was quite fun, especially with the little trout rod in 340 feet!

I can't lie, I thought this was going to be a real red, but nope... only old stinky.



I caught a couple of big bank perch and they were by far my biggest I've ever caught.  A lot of fun on the little rod also since they fight all the way up!



Ended up with a limit of good quality reds, and even returned a few.  I also got my tolken Copper Rockfish!



I caught my usual Green Spotted, Green Striped, Starries, Honey Combs, Sculpin, and whitefish...

Then I literally get slammed and no joke, almost pulled the rod out of my hand!  WTF is this?  It screamed drag out of the spinner almost the entire way up and I was perplexed on what I hooked.  I was figuring it was a deepwater sheepshead from all of the runs but otherwise I was stumped!

WTF?!?!?!?!?!  I have to go back into my records to see what my biggest one is, but I'm pretty sure this guy is it!  A total UNIT!



No Joke.  When I hear of people talking back in the old days about the huge Whitefish, I thought they might have all been gone from our local waters.  I guess not.

(another view)



I then start heading back to LJ to see if things calmed down, but there were now twice as many boats so I jut hung a 90 degree turn and went on my own hunt.  I saw tons of terns working and started to throw the iron in them hoping to see yellows!  I did see a few pop up in the micro bait, so I have my shot!

Well, no yellows but I did find a bunch of bonito.



I made a move after getting tired of them and decided to soak some fresh (previously frozen) squid for some WSB.

I tossed the iron a few times and caught a few slimers!  I haven't seen these guys in a minute or two!



Then I get a screamer on the squid!  It felt right and I was thinking it has to be one of the big three.... yellow, WSB, or butt!  I quickly thought WSB after a few minutes into the fight, but took my time....

Ugh, now my shoulder is torn up, and all I got out of it is this other slimy critter!  LOL



Little circles on a bat ray are hard as hell to get out, but it was quite the fight!

I was watching for every boat coming in from LJ, there were 5 going out TO LJ!  I've never seen so many late boats heading out there before, but that was my call to finally head home.  I stayed out much later than I usually do and didn't want my arm to fall off.

Well, thanks for reading and until next tide!

My wife and I will be down there. We always spend our anniversary down there

Until I pass my probationary period and hopefully get to do a little more fishing! I'm being micromanaged like I was 15 working at Carvel again!

I did get out this weekend but only managed one 9" spotty and missed 2 others. One of my worst days stalking the shoreline in recent memory.

Well, hopefully soon....

I agree with Jeremy... With that said, I hope 1997 and 2015 merge so it's from World Record Albies to wahoo! Lol

Boat (and you) look great Timmy!  I've seen that yellow boat before and thought it was Sea Tow.  hahaha

Hey! There they are! I would have thought you would've tried for some yellows also, but those are some nice reds!

Glad to see you and the boys bouncing around on the Cyclops again!

Plan was to get limits of rockfish and then move to the yellow grounds.

Rockfish grounds were productive, but the quality was smaller than what I usually find here... at least for the reds.

It was fast limits though.

Green-spotted


Almost a Record Starry...  2lb 9oz.... IGFA world record is 2lb 14oz



Bank Perch



Copper



Reds... Not bad ones, but not the cows I'm used to..



I then get a slamming hit on my 400-gram jig with triple inline hook set up!  I knew this was a big one, but I've also caught quite a few sharks out here in December so suspected this might be one of them.  After a few runs, it was gone and I reeled up my jig with only 1 hook and not 3.  It had to be a sharp tooth critter to bite through 500# braid...

Got my limit and ran in looking for yellows.  I have some new coworkers that wanted fresh fish, so I need to make sure I am their supplier.  lol

I saw one yellow caught slow trolling and heard of a few others, but otherwise it was too many boats in a small area.  I decided to move and load up on whitefish and possibly get lucky on a halibut.

I was catching my whitefish, but also bass. 



Ended up with 5 whitefish and 3 calico.



That was it.  My shoulder is torn up and I headed home to get the boat and fish cleaned up.

Damn was this a huge Starry.  I was hoping it was full of food and not eggs, but I would be wrong.  I did feel kind of bad.





5 ounces away from another IGFA record.  I'll have to pay a bit more attention the next time I head out.

Thanks for reading and until next tide!

Having to fish weekends has been tough.  It's so much more crowded than I ever remember and all I can say is .... stupid work.  LOL

I had a feeling about a spot since the islands were going off and decided to make the run to investigate.

Blue sky on the way out...



Socked in soon as I left the inlet...



It took a lot longer to get there in the fog, but it started clearing up soon as I arrived.  I made some macks and just put one out while trying to get the boat organized for what I was going to fish for today.  I hear creaking and see my rod doubled over!  No way!

1st yellow of the season to gaff.  Not bad, but probably a 15# model.



Other boats started coming into view so I made sure they weren't privy to what I just caught.

I put another mack out and was hooked up within 5 minutes!  Damn thing unbuttoned at color.  I think my circle hook was too small.

I put a bigger hook on and started slow trolling and got hooked up on another yellow!  Issue was other boats and I spent more energy trying to avoid them than fighting the fish and it got stuck in some kelp.  I thought I got it out, but what I felt was it just popping off the hook while being wrapped.

One more slow trolled knockdown and I had a 10 second run before it was gone.  Damn it!

Too many boats all slow trolling now so I moved on.  Plan B was to load up on whitefish while catching some bass for fun.  I stopped along the way since I saw some interesting structure on the bottom and dropped a fresh squid down.  Instant hook up and I got it to color just to have the line break at color.  WTF was it???



I re-tie and drop down another squid and get another big bite!  This one felt like a big yellow or possible WSB...  I was pretty stoked!



You got to be kidding me.... a big ass Soupie....



I dropped down again but lost my hook on the hookset and knew it was a school of soupies below me, so I decided to move on.

I made the trip to another spot I really wanted to investigate a little further.

Whitefish were there.



I ended up with only damn 9.  That last whitefish was impossible to find.



Caught plenty of bass also.



Well, a greatly successful day, but almost a REALLY good one, but too many lost opportunities.  Well, I guess this means I have to wait a week to fish again...

Thanks for reading!

I've been super slow getting to these posts ...But I need a paycheck....

In any case, it was our last trip of the season and hopeful to get limits to stock up!

Get to the grounds and I didn't see this pterodactyl flying in behind me.  Scared the crap out of me since I didn't see it until it landed 2 feet from me.





Lots of lobster, but really small guys.  More little roaches than I've seen in a while.



170 lobster and only 2 legals.  There were about 12 that were just there, but not worth the potential headache.



I really wanted a sandwich at 2:00 am...



We did get some monster crabs.  That is a claw!



Well, at least I went home with one roach and a few crab.  Time to put the gear away for the season...

Thanks for reading.

I'm down to being a weekend warrior since my new job isn't very flexible... for about anything.

You need to get some meat in the boat!  Get'em Timmy!

As for Jeremy... Get some easy limits of cod!  The OC has to produce something!

Yeah, I don't get people.

Super cool reference video Jeremy and thanks for posting. I'll have to watch this again before potentially tackling my reels.

Love the sticker posted also!

I'm in awe... shocked... laughing and bewildered all in one post!  I read this yesterday but unfortunately just getting to a response today.  This new job is brutal and I have been totally unplugging on weekends.

Geology up there is awesome!

Fishing looked "___________"
 
I don't know what was funnier, the picture of Koga or the turd lowering sign!  LOL

Great stuff Jeremy!

My bad, you did.  As Jeffrey Lebowski once said "there's a lot going on in the dooders head".  hahaha

Damn, En Fuego!  I thought all that lived in Lake Elsinore was cats and carp.