Exciting day! That spearfish/sailfish is definitely a prime El Niño target. At least you didn't get skunked.


Not so fun on the ride home. Those short tall swells were exactly what I was trying to avoid out there. Got caught in that with the Mosquito once and I am good on it! Wasn't quite that as I was racing back, but it was still really messy and nerve wracking in a hull that I'm still not fully familiar with.

At least in the OC water, things tend to set up really differently from year to year. Cat channel is where everything is at one year, and it is only a lifeless stepping stone the next year. So I'm glad that there are fish in the channel this year, but like you said, very tough to find. Very few paddies around. Birds are generally not on them or anywhere. But with the cattle boats getting on them consistently, I'm sure there is some method to the madness. Maybe just be 15' up in a pilothouse. I have drafted plans for a 20' periscope...

Granted, I'm still getting dialed in with this boat. I am practically blind with the old fish finder. I think I'm finally going to switch out the old FF in the boat for mine from 2022. Doesn't have Navionics but should be way easier to read the down-scan while trolling.

I had invited Omar over a week ago, but the combo of me not knowing when I would get the fuel line issue resolved and him getting invited to hoop on Friday night led me to a trip without a partner. I also tried inviting mechanic Chris as he helped me sort out a couple things after work including replacing the fuel filter and pump, but he had a gig in the morning.

I had brought the boat to Chris in HB where it would stay overnight, so I was split on whether to take the easy morning routine and launch out of HB, or keep trying the water off Dana Point. In the end, I figured after the car's gas was put into perspective, both would burn the same gas since I would wanna ride 15 miles past the HB Flat to find blue water, so I went with Dana.

Nice sunrise. It got even better but I had to focus on not f@cking up my first solo launch.



And of course I can never seem to just put in the water and go. Maybe one day. This time, I installed al the bunk slides on all the bunks. Took about 30 minutes. There are a couple minor issues that I won't get into, so I will monitor them. In the mean time, I should have a way easier time getting the boat on and off the trailer.



Knocked that out, hopped in the boat, left the harbor. Half a mile out, engine stalls while on plane. f@ck! I was sure we had solved it. Pretty much clueless, I took a video of it failing and sent it to Chris. Asked AI on the water what it could be, and why when I pump the bulb it would stay flat. It said there must be something upstream of the bulb. Then it occurred to me. When I installed the new fuel line/bulb, I did not pay attention to which direction it was going. Looked, yup! You're a f@cking idiot Jeremy! I texted Chris to let him know as much and I got to work flipping it. And when I was done, clean start. Hopped up on plane and ran a bit down the beach, problem gone.

After proving to myself that I may have been an idiot once, but I am a better man now, I decided to immediately head straight offshore in search of pelagics. Took a heading SW but not particularly toward the 267 or 14. Put out a Ledge Runner 160 and a tropical jet head and trolled at 7-9mph into swell. The wind was supposed to come up around 1400, but I knew it could come earlier, and I wanted a following sea home.

I imagine Tom was directly under the distinctive far cloud in this pic at 0900. Ominous clouds on the horizon telling me to time my trip carefully.



Trolled alongside another boat for a bit before he decided to turn around at 0930. Huh. Kept going. Eventually ran up on half a dozen boats, a couple with birds all over them. Looked like they were stopped and probably fishing bait. Then I noticed a flipped boat. I believe I saw it on social media earlier this week and it's been floating upside down in the bight for a few weeks now. No urgency in the area, that's for sure. The wind eeked up just a bit more as I found these boats and started zig zagging through them. Then a slow steady ZZZZZZZZZ. I turned around and saw the rod pump a bit, then slowed and I watched the Ledge Runner fly out of the water. Bite or did it violently blow out? Reeled up, and it was definitely bit in the middle of the body. Put it back out and tried to make a turn on the same spot. It was getting windier now and as soon as I thought I made the pass, I reeled up and skedaddled. The dark wall of clouds were still several miles away and I wanted to beat them home.

I could see the white caps popping up by the hundreds and the water tightly rippling now. The air felt still as I was moving at 17-20mph, not a great sign. Then I ran up on a paddy. Really Jeremy, in this? One drop. It was given to me! Stopped the boat and immediately felt how bad the conditions were getting behind me. Gave it a 15 second drop with a colt sniper then wound up and kept racing home.

This was a pretty comprehensive test for the boat. The swell was pretty mixed, with a longer faster period SW swell that's been shaking up the coast, followed by W and SW short wind chop. I was slamming a good bit but staying only very lightly misted. I was worried about stuffing the bow, but it just never happened. Kept the throttle to 4000rpms and only made slight adjustments to my direction, and held on tight til I passed the jetty.



Pulled the boat up onto the trailer with the bunk slides. While powering the boat onto the trailer, it seemed to get stuck short somewhere for a few seconds, and just as I stepped around to inspect, the boat gently moved up the rest of the way onto the trailer.

Anyway, a lot of words to say I didn't catch anything. Big relief with the fuel line and the trailer bunks, though. Next launch shouldn't have any delays like all of them have up to now. Hopefully the pelagics stick around for a while longer, and I think they will.

Quote from: sasquatch on October 09, 2026, 07:24:01 PMLobster. You're getting surgery soon anyway. Who cares about the shoulder.
There's gonna be wahoo from now on with climate changes. The lobster will move north with the cooler water.
I'd volunteer to pull hoops and save your shoulder but I e only got one back versus your two shoulders.

Everything moving north is a pretty reasonable possibility. Lobsters start down in Mag Bay so we have a little time before they leave SD. Hope the wahoo do come through more often, though.

Going to change the fuel filter and pump tonight with Chris, hoping to get out Saturday morning but it's a wait and see.

I will be happy to follow wherever your inspirations lead you Tom!

Nice! I have pondered those a number of times, although they have been out of my price range. Looking forward to see some shots with it.

Bugs are there every year, go for wahoo. They aren't showing up around here anymore but still see plenty down near you.

Looks like a gorgeous day (that sunrise!), glad you guys found a few fish!

Hopefully it won't be like this the whole time. Most say fuel filter is the issue which is nice and cheap. Maybe it's time that i do a 100 hour service just to reset the clock and recalibrate.

The forecast at La Jolla was 20mph santa anas so I was wondering if you would bother going out. Guess it just never showed up anywhere.

Took Jared out this time. Picked him up aroun 0545 and we were at the ramp by 0610. Got the boat in the water and planned on installing bunk slides, along with carpet on one of the side bunks I couldn't uninstall with the boat on the trailer. Turned out the bunks are different widths (5" and 4") so my 5" slides weren't going to work. Why there is one 4" plank and 3 5" planks on the trailer is beyond me. I got the carpet on the side bunk and we hopped in the boat.

Hop in the boat. Engine turns over and it dies. Of course! I figured there was probably some air in the fuel line after I replaced it with a new one, so I was patient and kept trying. Kept stalling after a couple seconds. So I decide to make a video to send to Chris, who is a whiz. I start the video and...starts perfectly. Of course! Honestly the video trick never fails. Outboards always wanna show off on camera. I'm like 5/5 on this now.

So we get going. Really a coin flip of whether I wanna follow the coast south, north, or go out to the 14. I start driving out and then we find birds. Cast on 'em, nothing. I see some more on the horizon so we drive some more. They scatter into the ether, but the area has some life, and some scattered kelp, so I put out the trollers. Nature decided the 14 was the play.

We're going about 7-9mph not seeing much. Shimano Ledge Runner 160 (diver) and a 13" skirt in tow. Then we come up on what looks like the Freelance working something, then it leaves it. Maybe a paddy. I head in the general direction but lose sight of the original spot. End up finding a real nice barn door paddy. Look down and it's an aquarium of dinky yellowtail. Drop the 40g snipers hoping to get the skunk off and maybe find something bigger below. Nothing bigger, but snagged one of the yellows as they swarmed the jig.



We kept it moving in hopes of real gamefish.

Got all the way to the 14 and there were a dozen other boats working, maybe a couple deep dropping for rockfish, like true gentlemen. Wind from all directions was forecasted throughout the day so I left the deep drop stuff at home. Would have been perfect for it, though. Not a lick of wind.



Finally decide to bail after a few hours with nothing real to show, so I reel in the trollers and kick it up on plane. We get a couple miles and then I throw it toward WOT, and after a couple minutes, the outboard stalls. Oi! Don't like that 15 miles out. Then it's kind of like it was at the ramp. Stalling out after a few seconds. Then we get it going okay, but it stalls at most RPMs, 4500, 4000, 3500, 3000....we finally get it to be trouble free at 2400rpms, which is 6mph. Makes it a long way back! But we did it. A lot of dead water for a while, but I ended up putting out the trollers again. No trouble the rest of the way in.

Got to the ramp around 1340. Would have easily been in at noon otherwise. I've been one-and-done getting the boat run up on the trailer the first 3 trips. This one I was an absolute helmet. Got it lined up a little wrong, reversed at the last second, and could not line up and just drifted everywhere. Thank god it wasn't busy. I was trying to laugh it off and calling out to Jared, "it's gonna happen! We'll get there!" just trying to show a bit of self awareness to anyone watching. Got it on eventually...

So, I will bring the boat by mechanic buddy Chris and see what he may find. Probably something in the fuel delivery. I might also change both oil/lube this week to reset the clock on that, since I don't know when it was last done. Low oil pressure did me similarly with a 6hp Mercury once, limped in 20 miles that time.

Sure!

Almost forgot about the truck bed buildout, looks sweet in action! Great fishing and scenery too, those lakes look awesome.

Diesel though 

I'll take that "non-productive day" over many! I am also not a wahoo expert but I would guess that your madmac got shredded by one, that's pretty gnarly.

Things are coming along. Got the 12 gallon tank, changed the leaking fuel line.

I decided it's time to get to the trailer bunks. I'm going to put slides on the bottom and carpet on the sides. The bottom bunks are horizontal which changes the calculus a bit compared to most other boat trailers. The boat sticks to the trailer a lot already so instead of making that worse with carpet, I'm going to have 16"x5" slides on each side of the bunk where the keel touches.



The slides normally go with the direction of the boat going on and off the trailer so the minimal contact points had me concerned. However, the keels have protectors which helped me make the decision that slides shouldn't be any harm.



There is a huge transom roller at the stern, roughly 7' wide and one piece. It doesn't roll due to immense corrosion though. Haven't figured out where I'll find replacement parts but I'll clean it up with some PB Blaster and a metal brush this week and see what happens. Probably not much!



I'm going to install the carpet on the side bunks Sunday and the slides will arrive October 2.