Started getting sick yesterday, hoped it would be a mirage of a cold but alas! Gonna start the 7 hour drive to Puerto Penasco with a bit of a sore throat, headache and fever. No canceling now!

I got a new combo from work, a Tiralejo 10'6" 1-3oz spinning rod and a Spheros 6000. Loaded it with metered 30# 8 strand braid.

Went to the surf to find its sweet spot. I tied on some kind of a fish finder rig. Double dropper with a 5" white Kalin's grub down low and a 1.5" morf grub up high, with a 3oz weight. What ever bites. Just wanted to cast.

1st cast I lobbed it pretty good. 2nd cast I put a little more oomph to it with a pendulum cast and bombed it. Then hooked up! Felt small. Thought maybe a lost little perch or small croaker. Get it in and it's...technically my first WSB from the surf!



Laughed about it and sent it back without laying a finger on it. Not particularly impressive but very good to see.

Might have gotten a few perch bumps here and there but kind of difficult with a big composite rod like this. Also a lot of kelp on the inside.

I've never had a particularly accurate idea of how far I cast in the surf, or really anywhere, but with the colored braid I was able to do the math. 36' per color. 9 colors out on the best casts...about 324'. Over 100 yards! Pretty fun rod. I'd like to tie into a leopard or bat on it soon, feels like a fun bend for the job. 

I took a walk today in the local wetland reserve, highly illegal to fish in. Kept my eye out looking for something cool, maybe some little white seabass in the shallows.

Got to a spot where I saw a striped bass about 24" casually roll up to the edge of the shore. I flipped out and said to Alicia "do you know how rare those damn things are?!?" She just called me a nerd.

Then I saw at least 3 more about the same size, then about four white seabass cruised through the same spot, all around 32". I was just laughing and shaking my head, they're swimming by us like it's a f@cking petting zoo. They know I can't fish for them.

Water was just off color enough that I couldn't get any good pics. They did countless laps for 5 minutes before I got too close and they got shy.

This may be common knowledge at this point that these quality fish are in there but I never believed any rumor that I heard until I seent it with my own eyes.

I've been into sea shanties for a while. Jared as well. He just discovered Stan Rogers and showed him to me. I love when an artist just instantly clicks with your ears. A legend gone too soon, died in a plane caught fire, he tried saving other people and died at 33 years old in 1983. Amazing voice, even better story teller, and a great fingerpicking guitarist. Almost like a burly John Denver of Northern Canada.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0CvSIhF_tA

So far I love his albums Fogarty's Cove and Between The Breaks Live.

Took the ultralight and hot dogs to Jared's pond with a fresh idea.

Unfortunately I believe the fresh idea puts me on some kind of list.





After the uh, procedure, I put the skin on a dropshot and did very well with the green sunfish, catching 5 and farming just as many. Tack on a green bass for 6 total before I left the guys early for home.







I had a catfish rod soaking the whole time as well but never saw action on that front.

Checked out the beach after work yesterday. I've been trying to gauge the fishability of the wind based on how the palm trees blow at my apartment. I thought I had a window but arrived at the beach and got whipped. Eye watering salty breeze, washing machine, kelpy, terrible structure, and no bites. Gave it 30 minutes then scooted to Trader Joe's.

This time last year I started on an incredibly consistent YFC bite and I'm hoping that comes around. So far it's not looking good. North OC sucks!

Went with Jared to his pond. We were greeted by bass blowing up on fry at the start. Nice! Jared farmed one on the third cast with a dropshot. We headed back to our cars to grab more reaction type lures as we were fully expecting a slow dropshot kind of day. Came back throwing a KM while he threw topwater. Did not get bit. Moved on.

Jared went back to the dropshot and hooked up to something that was making some weird figure 8s at the start of the fight. He figured carp. I put my rod down and got ready to play deckhand. Then he gets a look at it. BIG cat He plays it on 6# for about 5 minutes and then I lip it with pliers. 15.5# and 30" long. His new PB cat.



Got done playing with it and I immediately broke off on a bite at my leader knot. Re-rigged and caught the damn thing shortly after.



More of our coworkers started arriving and Kevin got those surface feeders to commit to his dropshot, going 4/5 before he finally caught up to us. Fish here and fish there for out crew of...too many...6? Good company certainly but it was starting to look like a fish-off. Plenty of space though.

We circled back to the surface feeders and I finally got one to commit to the KM.



After impaling about 5 more baby bass fry with my trebles...I took off for home.

I was in Newport for one thing so I made a real quick 30 minute session for spotties.

Here's a reference shot of where I'm fishing for the sake of the story. Frankly not much to burn in this spot but I also implore anyone to bug the Karen in the story.



So at the red line there is a fence that extends from the hill to the mean high tide line. It has a sign that basically says "welcome to this beach, be aware of the mean high tide line, as below it is public and above is private." There's one house on the end of the beach on the right.

So I decided to try that area. Bounced a fluke along the bottom for a about 15 minutes, very slowly walking toward the end. Then a lady came out of the house.

"Excuse me, do you live here in this neighborhood?"

"Nope!"

"You can't be here, it's private."

"I can be here. Everything below the mean high tide line is public access."

"No."

She went back inside, and I made a few more casts, before taking my time walking back behind the aforementioned fence. If I were getting bit, I would have stayed.

Fished a couple hundred yards of sand without a bump but left relatively quick because I wasn't getting bit and I really had to pee. Pretty uninspiring low tide anyway.

It's far from my favorite spot, but every time I fish that area I'll be sure to give that side a few casts. Feel free to do the same! Besides spotties it can produce croakers and rays too.

1712 made my first cast. 3' of tide but beach seemed pretty far from filling in. Started walking a bit looking for holes but the entire beach looked the same. Checked the time: 1721. Laughed out loud and walked back to the car.

Arrived at second beach ~20 minutes later. Much better setup. A little winder though, probably 10-15. Some grass in the wash but never a real issue.

Ended up with these two jokers. A number of wally bites. This YFC confused me because it actually fought all the way to the sand.





Left at sunset. Still not particularly inspiring surf fishing locally but way better than nothing. Tides look good the next few days to try again or hit the harbor.

Being that I just took home a fish from shore to eat for only the second time ever, it reminded me of the first time. Just felt like reminiscing on this story. I wish I had pics real bad for this one.

So one of the guys on SCSF posted, peculiarly, complaining that shovelnose had completely invaded one of his favorite corbina haunts. He was a respected fly fisherman, always a thoughtful and witty poster. This time he said, "f@ck these things, go to **** beach at dawn with squid and kill as many as you can. Get them out of my sight!!!" I found his frustration amusing and his call-to-action undeniable as a 17 year old. And as a youth seeking approval from the elders, this seemed like a straightforward mission for a social promotion.

For whatever reason, I thought it would be a great time to bring along a friend who had never fished before. Maybe because we always enjoyed putting together absurd missions, like sneaking out and sitting in a local shopping mall elevator all night, just to say we did. Killing a bunch of shovelnose seemed like it would appeal to my friend Twiggy.

I felt like maybe I could teach him in a couple of hours at the park how to cast a conventional reel, but that lasted 1 cast, when 300 yards of 40# mono turned into 50 yards of usable line, fast, in one amazing back lash.

The next morning I picked him up at 0400 so that we could arrive at the AO at dawn. Twiggy had not slept at all, and laughed about it. On the way, a highway patrolman flirted with pulling me over as I was on cruise control at 78mph, as he continuously got on and off the freeway, then pulled up to me. Nerve wracking, considering I was in the "probationary period" of my drivers license where I couldn't drive friends, and 4am was technically outside of curfew hours for the city, something upon being charged with, the police would call your mommy and make her deal with the situation. This happened at least once in our previously aforementioned late night elevator excursions.

We arrived in time at the AO with 2 rods and a pack of squid. The sand crabs were abundant and it was clear why so many wiggles were gathering here.

What proceeded was in fact, the most wide open Wiggles bite of my life, all in less than 20 minutes. I immediately hooked and landed one, braining it and dragging it onto dry sand. I casted again and hooked up instantly, handing it off to my friend. I grabbed the other rod and caught my own, unhooking both of ours, braining and putting them with the first.

The bite left as quickly as it came, and with the morning light on us, we had 6 twitching shovels, 30-42", piled up on the sand.

The two sleepless 17 year old minds, collectively producing no more than a few Monster-addled brain cells, proceeded with plans, or the remarkable lack thereof, that confuses me to this day.

Since to that point, I'd never filleted fish at home, and my parents had drilled into me that it was a no-no at home, I had to figure a way to fillet these beasts, with no tables available to me. I grabbed my dad's sh!tty fillet knife from the garage and started at the local park on a picnic bench, quickly grew frustrated, and headed to Twiggy's house, holding hope that his parents' naiveté would eek out beyond the time it took to slaughter 6 shovels.

It worked. The skins were tough, the meat perhaps limited, but more importantly: the parents clueless.

One of the clearest memories I had from this whole debacle was washing the fillets. As I wetted one in preparation to put on ice for the rest of the day, it jumped out of my hands. I flinched and dropped it into the grass. In a sleepless state I could barely comprehend what happened. I picked it back up and squeezed it, and again it wiggled in my hands! Mr. Wiggles never dies, I realized.

We napped off the morning, and in the afternoon put our inadequate cooking skills on full display, throwing the fillets in lemon and butter in a pan, and then into hotdog buns. The meat was honestly good, arguably one of the best inshore fish I've had, based on texture, firmness, and light flavor.


I think about this day regularly. In essence, entertaining. So many failed parts of a plan, that are so simple. Trying to fillet shovelnose at the local park? With that old dull knife? Freshwater on saltwater fish fillets? Hot dog buns? If I were in the car with my past self and my friend, I would grab them by their ears so many times and lead them a different way, but overall it was a classic instance of boys being boys. And I learned that shovelnose ARE good eats, just hardly worth the effort.

Went to Jared's pond hoping to find some big bed fish to poke. Unfortunately we saw zero bed fish. I did see a decent carp as I was scanning the shore.

I was swimming a new-to-me Big Hammer Ringer Worm at a moderate pace and got a skunk buster. First LMB of the year for me.



The boys had mixed results themselves, a couple caught, a couple skunks. Just nice to see how Tom lives, getting slime on his hands.

Got pushed out of the house for a couple hours, successfully bargained for a good tide this time. Hit the harbor for spotties since it went relatively well last week. Wind was up all day but not too bad once I arrived. However the current was ripping pretty good.

Took about 20 minutes but after switching from a roboworm to a fluke, I got my first bite in front of my feet, as I saw the sand flare up and I felt a little knock. Just a pancake, but missed it and woke me up. Just a few casts later a little spotty lit me up.



Shortly after, I got picked up and this one had some weight. Took a little run despite drag being locked down. Felt different, and my suspicions were quickly verified. Thankfully I had a nice shallow bank to slide this 23" flatty up onto.



Some lady was filming me so I walked up and gave her a little info and better look, then some kids wanted to check it out. I realized that it was hooked in the gills, which made the decision to keep it an easy one. I popped its gills and ran it back to the car to put in a kill bag then got back to fishing.

Very next cast when I got back, got a little better spotty.



Got one more bite for the next hour. Nice little flurry, and I think after a 24 hour flash freeze, the flatty will be good for some dinner. Tbh, this might be the only fish I've kept for dinner from the sand ever...besides a pile of shovelnose about 13 years ago now, but that's another story.

I agreed to fish with my coworker Jake after work for spotties from shore, which has been a tough bite as of late. Not sure why I didn't push him more toward the surf but alas! I got off work at 1530 and got to the harbor around 1600. Switched through a few different plastics without bites before Jake arrived around 1715.

I complained about the algae and how I've sucked at bass fishing for the last 10 years for some reason, he offers me neck breakers and flukes which is his choice of lure and I say no! He says fine then, catches the first spotty of the evening 15 minutes later. I say fine, I will take a fluke. Not sure why I don't have them in my car anyway.

No bites for almost another hour as we walk and cast. Then as the sun is setting, I finally I hook up and get in a 13" spotty. A large flock of wine moms were passing by as I landed it and gave me the applause and affirmations I've waited years for. I grinned and bowed. (edit, pic added).



Got absolutely slammed 5 minutes later, I was planing it up to my feet and it came unbuttoned, I was satisfied so I'll call it caught. Went about 14".

Pablo joined us after fishing a different area for a bit and got a couple on his own. I didn't see it but he claimed to have caught another with us. We traded rods for giggles, back lashed each other's reels in the dark, and handed each other's rods back.

I ended up going 2 for 5 on bites for the evening. Left at about 2015. Invigorating enough to get back out for more spotties, so long as I have a built in audience of wine moms again.

Was still looking to break an 11 skunk streak dating back to January 11. 11:15 high tide this morning, got on the sand around 10:00. Steep beach, decent amount of holes with milky water. Water wasn't too bad after the rains, maybe the previous storm cleared out most of the built up debris in the rivers.

I missed a couple aggressive strikes early, unnerving to miss them after so many attempts without a fish. The most likely culprit showed itself eventually.



Managed 3, this the biggest.



Pete at Big Hammer sent us some plastics, this grub color "Crabby Lobster" #127 is something he's been doing well with up in SB. I loved the color at first sight and seems like the fish did as well.

Hope to be getting out after work more with daylight savings switching and working slowing a bit. Maybe I can find some consistent bites and offset those 11 straight skunks.

You can find it wherever you listen to podcasts, ie Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, etc.

https://rss.com/podcasts/whenfishing/1918085

Enjoy!

Went to the beach for a an hour or so before high tide. The fish put this up on the beach to remind me who's in control.



One bite for the whole hour. I saw a bait soaker catch a decent smoothhound. Nice weather, surf was up 3-5' instead of forecasted 2-3'. Lots and lots of debris, decent holes.

0 for the last 8 trips now, idk what's wrong. I smudged my rods last week...

Tried Laguna Niguel Lake again yesterday, hoping cooler weather and a few weeks of stocks would pay off with some trout to break in the G Loomis ultralight.

It did not pay off! Nice lake but out of 9 fishermen, nobody got bit including myself.

It's a nice little lake, 20 minutes from work, but going the other way from home, so an hour in rush hour after work.

Went to Mile Square Park today after work. It's on the way home which is nice, just a low visibility, scummy concrete city pond with a lot of goose and cormorant sh!t all over. But it gets the good trout stocks and it's free street parking, so I'm gonna give it a real college try until something good happens.

Threw spoons around for about 90 minutes and thought I saw some signs of life, but no bites. Then at sunset, snagged this gizzard shad. Pretty cool TBH, wouldn't necessarily expect the city to stock shad into this little body of water. I can't count this for my species list, maybe I should come back with micro flies though.



Was ready to bail anyway, but nice to get my hand a little slimy.



It's a simple enough venture that I'll try and hit this lake at least once a week or more until I get one of these damn things.

1. 365 fish total (not counting baitfish) - good general goal to keep me out of the house, using the sh!t I have piled up, if nothing else. I failed this past year but there were times when this got me off the couch, which is a big net positive.

2. OC striper - it's an explicitly miserable competition amongst my co-workers that we all still need to catch one, despite our collective man hours spent in 2024 trying to accomplish this.

3. Solo Swordfish - based on the prerequisite that I find my livingston deal, I would like to spend Q4 on accomplishing this, with just a bit of rockfishing to maintain my sanity.


If/when I get the next boat, of course I will intend on maximizing pelagic trips in the summer among other inshore adventures, but I'm gonna do my best to play it cool on that front and not hurry myself into a gnarly project boat or anything like that. I'll try to soothe myself with surf fishing for the better part of the year.


Any goals on anyone else's mind?

Delivered the Mosquito and outboard to a fried live-aboard dude in Newport today. Spacey, did an on-the-water trial run with the outboard on his tender, checked the lower unit lube for water in the dark after running it, took 15 minutes to get PayPal to work, never let go of his vape in the hour I was with him. I would have done another 3 hours at Denny's with him if it meant I finally sealed a buyer for the outboard!

It is possible that I get a Livingston as early as February...I wouldn't mind putting it off til June, but my wallet will pretty much put me in the market by then.

I posted some pics of boat designs last year and I got some interesting critique from it (Koga said I needed to court Bill Gates' daughter to make it work). I've drawn many floor plans since, trying to simplify and cut down on costs but still have something that has important features while staying really light. I have the idea to start guiding in a couple years so I hope to accommodate my first clients on this boat.

Basically these features are still key to me:

- Raised floor (currently think divinycell for core material) to meet the height of the tunnel on at least the front half (storage under for rods on one side, hopefully some storage on the other side)
- 10mpg goal
- Swivel captain's chair with a chair gimbal, 18" cube under the seat for some storage
- live well, passenger seating for 2 with some storage under seat
- lean rail on the bow for passengers to have secure footing while standing and casting
- some stern railing and attached rod holders
- Float pods on the stern to offset the stern heaviness of a larger outboard and aft helm, +250lbs or so of flotation.

- spot lock in the future but not necessary any time soon

I'm actually starting to think that maybe it would be worth getting a tiller 40hp Honda to open up the floor a good bit more. Getting a little inspiration from both Great Lakes guides as well as pangas for the idea. Less wiring, less things to go wrong. However it would be nice to have a steering wheel, assuming it makes my shoulder feel better than I would from a day holding onto the tiller.

I would love the Livingston 155, 15'6 x 7'6" (would be way better for guiding certainly) , but they are f@cking rare. So I'm planning for a 14, which is 13'11 x 5'8". The catamaran is still essential to me for stability, fuel efficiency, and good ride through chop, can't be convinced out of it at this point.

Here's a tiller floor plan, 6" per square:



And a center console design:




My immediate plans for the boat are to fish it as I buy it for a season, fish offshore through Q3, swordfish and inshore through Q4, then maybe add the floor and float pods next winter.

Any thoughts on these?

Hit Newport Beach for some fresh sand to pound. 0700-0900. With Jared and his dad. Pablo talked a big big game about this beach always having sandcrabs, fish, unicorns pooping Lindt chocolates etc. Then Pablo didn't show up to host his utopian landscape!

No bites for 20 minutes then I put a 10"er on the sand.



Next one I caught unloaded it's Delicious Nutritious, as Koga always describes it.



What's your address Koga? I'll mail you a sample.

I got one more, and Jared was having a hard time getting bit. I gave him a dab of my ProCure and he got the skunk off the very next cast.

I got no more, Jared got 2 total and Bob got 1. Beautiful morning on a huge 6.8' tide. Could have been worse! It's been tough the last few weeks for all of us, 3-4 skunks in a row each, so it was nice to finally get bit.