The Mexican Flag would not fly today

Wednesday afternoon, I sat in my buddy John’s garage in San Diego as we prepared to go out tuna fishing the next morning.  Fast forward to this morning, and we were at Point Loma Sportfishing just after 5am.  This time of year, the lot is usually full, but we lucked out and got a spot right across from the landing office.  Everything seemed to be in place for a good day offshore.  Just one problem…I didn’t have my wallet.  As the crew of the Mission Belle rolled up, I approached Karen who runs the deck on the boat.  “Karen, I’ve got a little problem.”  “What’s up?”  “I don’t have my wallet.  I think I might have left it on the counter at the tackle shop before I came down.”  “Well Joe, sorry, but you can’t come on the boat.”  Ugh!  I suck.  Well good luck guys. 🙁

What a bummer.  I understand though that the rules are the rules, and it wasn’t anyone’s fault but mine.  Still sucks though.  John, “Well meathead…let’s go home and we can ride the New Seaforth this afternoon.  We’ll have a chance at yellows.”  So we went back home, grabbed a couple hours of shut eye and hit reset on the day.

Yellowtail season in SoCal kicked off in La Jolla back in April.  I had one of my best days of the year catching 3 big yellows on the San Diego and landing on the front page of Western Outdoor News.  The bite subsequently moved out to the Coronados Islands where it’s been pretty steady until this latest dustup with Mexico.  The last couple weeks though, a nice little bite has re-emerged off La Jolla, and the New Seaforth has taken advantage of it.

Seventy anglers boarded the boat and we headed to the Northwest section of La Jolla where we anchored up.  Most people were flylining sardines…half day boat, flylining ‘dines, 70 people…you see where I’m going with this?  Despite the inherent obstacles these conditions presented, it wasn’t long before some poles went bendo.  4 hookups, 2 in the sacks.  I later learned that the first yellowtail came on a pole that was tied in a dropper loop and left at the rail (NEVER leave a pole at the rail with the line in the water!).  It got bit, and the guy next to it saved it from going over, then reeled in the fish.  Dude came back to find that a yellowtail was caught with his pole.  Not quite sure who went home with that fish.

After that initial hit, things went quiet with the yellows for most of the day.  We could see a lot of fish in the area, but no biters.  John was throwing a jig.  He watched his lure get chased twice, but no bites.  After several stops with no takers, we anchored up in the kelp and did a little calico fishing.  Couple bass, couple rockfish, some short cuda…not much happening.  The highlight was a young girl (maybe 9 or 10) who hooked into a nice little halibut (just legal) up on the bow.

Half day La Jolla yellowtail

With about a half hour left of fishing time, we revisited the 1st spot of the day.  At this point, I had caught a cormorant & a pelican, lost a couple calicos to the kelp, and had one rockfish in my bag.  Despite how the day had gone, I still felt like if I could just get a good bait out and away from the boat I could still score.  I was fishing the starboard/stern corner when the guy immediately to my right got bit.  His fish went left and I got mixed up in the resulting tangle of lines.  With the help of the crew, he got loose and followed his fish up the rail.  I re-baited, casted, and BAM.  Hookup.  I was fishing one of John’s poles, a 9 foot Seeker Inshore Special paired with a Daiwa Saltist 35 with 65lb braid to a 30lb fluoro leader, and a 2/0 bait hook.  I was a little uncomfortable fishing the long pole, but managed to stay within a fairly short range on the stern and successfully boated the fish as Capt. Brian called the day.  Notable for the day was the little girl’s hali and 4 yellows (all nice 20+ lb fish).  Kind of a tough day on the water.  I’m sure the boat could’ve done better with a smaller group of more experienced anglers, but it was what it was.  I’ll be back next week and I WILL get offshore this time.  Tight lines.

 

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