Killed it

Drooling over here 

That is a YT trip you will never forget, Awesome morning and mission accomplished before noon  

Beautiful lake! While I don't smoke weed anymore that would be a magical place to do it.

Great fishing too!

Epic day!!! All quality, and the JP fish is a serious donkey. I'm sore just reading this post.

Thought I recognized the view. Congrats.

I had my interview moved from Tuesday to Friday and now had a little free time.  I haven't taken my boat out in a bit so needed to stretch its legs.  I didn't prep the boat that night but knew I didn't have to be anywhere on Monday so I would just get ready on Monday.

I couldn't sleep... apparently, I did something stupid this weekend while drinking and now I fell back into a hole that I don't care to be in.  In any case, I'm over this and done with drinking.  At least I'm going to do my best to be done with it.  In any case, I hooked up the boat and only brought minimal gear.  I even left my tacklebox back at home.

I get down to the bay in crystal clear conditions!  I was expecting socked in fog from the forecast.



As I got closer to La Jolla, I saw the inevitable bearing down on me.



Boom!  Socked in and soaking wet!  I decided to soak a bait and keep my ears peeled for boats just in case since there were a few out here.

First drop and my rod doubles over!!  I made the mistake by trying to get the rod out of the holder when I should have just started cranking to make sure the circle hook was set.  Damn... Popped off, but at this point I had no idea of what it could have been.

Next drop and the rod doubles over again!  Holy Schnikeys!  I knew right away it was a big donkey yellow!
I have to admit, fighting it in the fog was awesome since no one else could see you hooked up and come over for the bent rod invitational!

34# Yellow!



The problem is I didn't bring a whole lot of bait, so catching these bastards were a little hurtful when I was thinking that it would better bet served for yellows.  LOL



I was using two rods at once, but only one was getting bit and it happened again!  This one hit and I knew it was huge, but didn't fight (or was as mean) as the last one.  It still took 10 minutes to land and I had to take my glasses off since they were covered with mist and I couldn't see sh!t.

Then it came into view and I was like HOLY CRAP!  On the scale it was 40.5# but the length should have been 50#!  It was a long skinny on!



I redrop the dropper loop and the egg sinker rod.  I kept the clickers off so no to alert the other boats I could hear in the mist.  What the hell!  Fish on again!  I'm fighting it and think I'm hooked up into my dropper loop rig.  Crap!  This was going to be a mess. 
Then I realize the two lines are going in different directions... DOUBLE HEADER!!!!!!!!!!

What a nightmare reeling in two 30+ pound yellows!  It literally took about 15-20 minutes to sort it out.  I had to button the drag to get them up to do my willing and not the other way around. 
FINALLY got the first one in and the second was already tired from fighting my rod holder.  LOL, both to gaff!  WTF!?!?  I have no more room in the kill bag!



I was sweating my ass off and the sun was starting to break up the fog.  I already have 4 fish on the boat from 32 to 40.5 pounds!  I still drop and immediately catch a big bat ray.  To be honest, that bat ray felt like a mackerel compared to those yellows.

I got a few more Sand Bass and decided to cast a fly lined bait out and reel the other ones up and call it quits.  2 hours of fishing for 140# of yellowtail was exhausting.  As I was prepping the boat to call it an early morning, I hear line screaming out.  No friggin way!  On again!

#5 hits the deck and the smallest of the day.  Only a 24 pounder!  LOL



I swear I was going to call it since I have yellowtail all over the deck, but heard other boats trying to locate me since they inevitably heard the deck flopping in the fog.



Then a few boats almost ran into me and others stopped right on me, so it was time to just pack it in.



I was back at the ramp at 10:30 am.....  even after driving back from LJ...  It was the craziest Yellowtail fishing I've ever had.  My buddy wanted to go out again this morning, but I need two hands to pick up my coffee cup since my shoulder is absolutely wasted at this point.

Anyway, I have a career coach meeting this morning for my interview later this week and have A LOT of yellowtail packed in 80 pounds of ice that needs filleting. 

Great day to be fishing and I really think this was the universe's way of saying I'm done with booze.

Thanks for reading!

I smoked the last loin of Bluefin from a few weeks ago and put in a batch of King Salmon....

This sh!t is soooooo GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



Maple syrup basted smoked King Salmon.



It tastes better than the picture even looks.  LOL

Lake Crescent is home to a couple of unicorns.  Two subspecies of trout that evolved separately from the rest of the world due to a glacial lake getting damned by a huge land slide.

The two species are a Beardslee Trout and a Crescenti Cutthroat Trout.  Both are federally protected, so taking them out of the water is a no-no, so unfortunately my pics are not going to be impressive since they all have to be in the water.

In any case, It was my last full day in Washington and I wanted to do some lake fishing.  The National Park is gorgeous there and it would be a great way to end the trip.

Got there early, but up there it doesn't get light until 7:30 am.



I move spot to spot to try and locate them.



Well, here's a big Beardslee that I released, but should have gotten him sideways for a better picture. 



I kept picking here and there but enjoying the scenery.  I caught both my Beardslee and Crescenti!



I moved to a bunch of spots and did a short hike on one of the trails.







I then found them and caught one every other cast!  There is not many spots on the rocks to successfully release these guys so I didn't have to move from this spot.  I wish it was a better spot so I could get cleaner water shots, but it was sketchy for these old ankles.



I then get a better model Beardslee! 



75% of my fish were Beardslee's which was different from my last time here when it was 75% Cutthroat,



Smoke on the water.  Old dudes smoking weed like a train that came cruising by.



I caught quite a few Sculpin... which is what my lure was trying to imitate.





I hooked a monster on my first cast of the morning, but it cut me off on the rock ledge.  Never came close to seeing it.

Well, I got redemption!  It's a monster!



I got it 20' from shore and it's a 14-15 pound Beardslee!  It looked like a Steelhead!  The damn thing kept running to the rocks and as Steve remembers how deep and ragged this ledge was.  I thought I had him sliding up, but he made one last run and I actually stripped my gears in the reel.  Ugh.. I bought this reel for this trip to Washington when Steve and I went up here the first time 14 years ago.  It's been on a lot of trips, but something happened and I was having trouble trying to reel the handle.  Well, it found it's opportunity and gone. 

I actually had a second rod/reel with me so I switched the reels, but this reel was smaller.  Unfortunately, I also lost my favorite lure and only had 8" tube baits left which was a bear to cast with such a small reel. 

Casting stunk with what I had left, but I did catch a few lingcod sized sculpin.  LOL







I ended up with 14 trout and 4 sculpin.  Not a bad day at all for this lake according to Karry.  I felt a little bummed that I lost two big models, but I really won't complain.  It was a fantastic Trip!



I get back to the house and there is Karry with the new 25th anniversary hats!  They only had a limited supply but apparently Bill told Karry to get me a new hat since all my RS hats look too grubby.  I just told them I like my lucky hats.  LOL

I got to spend some time in the shop on the way home and it was pretty fun hanging out with the RS crew for about an hour before heading back to pack for my flight home.

New 25th anniversary hat!



Well, it was time to pack and we had some more sports and drinking to do.  It was a fantastic day and trip once again!
I can't say enough about these guys.

Oh, and the snow started to arrive as the mountain tops were covered.



Thanks for reading and until the next trip!

Those were some beautiful fish, great read and it's nice to have good friends to show you what it's all about up there !!