daveg456
05-11-2008, 07:28 PM
Met up at my friend's yard at 5:30 to go fish DP. Towed his new 19' Montauk to the gas station to top off the fuel and off we went. Missions was to go find the big bonito that were off the coast.
Launch and meet up with another boat right off the point. Do a drift for nothing. They end up going outside and south to see about the bonito. We stay there for a while longer for nothing and hit the throttle for the outside. It was lumpy with a SW wind on it along with a small SW and NW groundswell. Not the best conditions. Got outside a few miles and started trolling south looking for bird schools. Nothing for a few miles. Then we start seeing birds and pelicans diving on bait. Meter bait balls but no fish on them. Probably the seals feeding. Lots of bait in the water. Keep trolling south and keep seeing more birds but no fish. Around 9 or so, called our other boat buddies and they were inside, in front of the Domes(power plant) and they were on the bonito. So we resigned ourselves to going in and poaching their spot. As we head in, we see breaking fish and birds. These bonies were getting airborne, completely out of the water, going after the anchovies. We slow troll the area and instant hookup. These were nice sized bonito, anywhere from 8-12 pounds. So much fun on light tackle. I was using 15 lb. test and watching my little bass reel scream as the the fish peeled line off. As we gaffed and bled the fish, we would see more fish off in the distance so we would slow troll towards them and when we got close, instant hookup again. We were using krocodiles and megabaits but anything would have worked.
Started filleting some of them as we were running out of room in the bait tank and saw that they were feeding on huge anchovies. Haven't seem chovies like that in years. Well, for that matter, I haven't seen bonito of that size in at least a decade. Seems like the water and bait conditions this year are like we used to always have 20 years ago when anchovies ruled and we rarely saw a sardine.
Later on, the conditions cleaned up big time. The sun came out and it was very pleasant on the water. Hit up the barn kelp for nada. Met up with the other boat for some drifts on a stone and caught and released some calicos and sand bass. A good sign since they haven't been biting until now. Also, the water temp started out around 61 and later in the afternoon, hit some spots of 64. Another good sign of better fishing coming up. Head in, clean the boat, go back to the yard, drink some beer, talk some ***** and God said, "this is a good day."
P.S. I think we only burned 5 gallons all day. We're guessing the boat gets 4-5 miles a gallon.
Launch and meet up with another boat right off the point. Do a drift for nothing. They end up going outside and south to see about the bonito. We stay there for a while longer for nothing and hit the throttle for the outside. It was lumpy with a SW wind on it along with a small SW and NW groundswell. Not the best conditions. Got outside a few miles and started trolling south looking for bird schools. Nothing for a few miles. Then we start seeing birds and pelicans diving on bait. Meter bait balls but no fish on them. Probably the seals feeding. Lots of bait in the water. Keep trolling south and keep seeing more birds but no fish. Around 9 or so, called our other boat buddies and they were inside, in front of the Domes(power plant) and they were on the bonito. So we resigned ourselves to going in and poaching their spot. As we head in, we see breaking fish and birds. These bonies were getting airborne, completely out of the water, going after the anchovies. We slow troll the area and instant hookup. These were nice sized bonito, anywhere from 8-12 pounds. So much fun on light tackle. I was using 15 lb. test and watching my little bass reel scream as the the fish peeled line off. As we gaffed and bled the fish, we would see more fish off in the distance so we would slow troll towards them and when we got close, instant hookup again. We were using krocodiles and megabaits but anything would have worked.
Started filleting some of them as we were running out of room in the bait tank and saw that they were feeding on huge anchovies. Haven't seem chovies like that in years. Well, for that matter, I haven't seen bonito of that size in at least a decade. Seems like the water and bait conditions this year are like we used to always have 20 years ago when anchovies ruled and we rarely saw a sardine.
Later on, the conditions cleaned up big time. The sun came out and it was very pleasant on the water. Hit up the barn kelp for nada. Met up with the other boat for some drifts on a stone and caught and released some calicos and sand bass. A good sign since they haven't been biting until now. Also, the water temp started out around 61 and later in the afternoon, hit some spots of 64. Another good sign of better fishing coming up. Head in, clean the boat, go back to the yard, drink some beer, talk some ***** and God said, "this is a good day."
P.S. I think we only burned 5 gallons all day. We're guessing the boat gets 4-5 miles a gallon.