blakeb
04-03-2015, 09:33 PM
Pre-OP:
Been itching to get out on the water and get a swing at this yellows but do to work I am not able to go any other day then weekends now. I had made other trips prior to this one and skunked out but that's fishing. I had called Jeff and was looking to go out on a Friday night to Saturday morning. Jeff confirmed and it was a go at first then people flaked then people wanted to go and by that time it was to late. We waited another week and set to fish 3/28/15. Struggling to find a fourth person to hop on with us we decided to go just Frankie, Jeff and I. Went into the trip knowing the weather was going to be a little ruff and expected it to be another skunk to add to the books for the year. Come Friday after playing phone tag with everyone and finalizing everything I prepped all the gear and knocked out around 11pm set the alarm for 1AM. Well just happen to be that my phone decided to mute itself and my alarm go silent mode on me. I woke up luckily at around 1:50AM and was scheduled to be at Jeffs at 2AM. I live a hour away from Jeffs so I got up freaked out grab my stuff and high tailed it to Jeffs at 85 the whole way made it in 32min. The guys gave me a hard time messing around and we loaded up and shot down to San Diego.
On The Water:
Launched the boat around 5:15AM and made our way to the Bait Barge. No one was out so i walked up and said Hello. The guys woke up and are definitely not morning people but I cant blame them who the hell wants to always be woke up probably right when there finally getting some good sleep. Loaded up some quality baits and we were off.
We arrived at the rock pile around 6:45am and set out the troll rods till we could find some turns working or fish boiling.
at around 8am both troll rods go off Frankie grabs a rod and I grab a rod. Mine short hits and does not stick and Frankie's is just burning line off the reel he attempted to thumb it a little and it melted a white line right threw the middle of his thumb. After attempting to thumb it the fish kept going and broke off. At this point we figured it was a massive yellowtail but now looking back it could of probably been a Bluefin since they are catching down by the Coronados. After this teaser we set a drift soaked some baits and YOYO'd while watching the meter. I kept resetting and putting on fresh baits. Well while trying to grab a fresh bait I ended up dropping like 1-2 other baits in the water during every attempt or I would hook it wrong rip it off and throw in. About 3mins after I dropped some baits in the Yellows came in boiling all over the baits right behind the boat. At this point we all grabbed rods and threw new baits at this point another boat saw the fish and decided to high tale it over to us and the fish sank out. We kept with the drift and 15min later I hooked up on a long soaked bait and a nice 18-20lber hit the deck! At this point i felt so much better first fish of the season and first one on the boat. Skunk was off we were watching the meters Jeff called out some big marks. Jeff and Frankie dropped the irons and both hooked into some 10-15lbers. Now we were all on the board each had 1. We kept setting drifts over the same spot we were picking off fish and I ended out getting one more baby 6-8lber on another soaked bait.
We stayed for a while out by the rock pile and the weather got worse at that point we decided to push to the islands. We arrived at the islands and set a drift. There was probably around 20 boats fishing the middle grounds. I throughout a bait and got another nice 18-20lber on a long soaked bait. We kept soaking baits and dropping the iron we fished hard for another hour and headed in.
I took the title "MasterBaiter" for the day
Post OP:
Time & Day:
3/28/15
02:00-16:00
Weather:
Started at 5-6 knots of wind with 2-3ft swells
Ended at 10-15 knots of wind with 4-5ft swells
Area fished:
Coronado RockPile
Coronado Middle Grounds
Fish Caught:
5 Total
Jeff 1
Frankie 1
Blake 3
Grade of fish:
two fish in the 18-20 class
two fish in the 10-15 class
one fish in the 6-10 class
Put the boat on the trailer and we road home traffic was not that bad. I will say we get VERY lucky as we pulled the boat in the drive way the AXLE snapped in half.. luckily the trailer is a double axle so we pushed it up the drive way. Ended the day with a good cleaning job for the boat and rocked back to Santa Monica.
Honestly I am very grateful to have the opportunity to get back out there and get the season started. Jeff thank you man for inviting me out brother it was good time and definitely enjoy any time fishing with you the knowledge you got blows my mind. Cant wait for the trips to come every time we get out there us three we murder it. Frankie get your gear ready for the next trip and Jeff lets get that axle fixed up so we can go slay some monsters!
VIDEO TO COME!!
Been itching to get out on the water and get a swing at this yellows but do to work I am not able to go any other day then weekends now. I had made other trips prior to this one and skunked out but that's fishing. I had called Jeff and was looking to go out on a Friday night to Saturday morning. Jeff confirmed and it was a go at first then people flaked then people wanted to go and by that time it was to late. We waited another week and set to fish 3/28/15. Struggling to find a fourth person to hop on with us we decided to go just Frankie, Jeff and I. Went into the trip knowing the weather was going to be a little ruff and expected it to be another skunk to add to the books for the year. Come Friday after playing phone tag with everyone and finalizing everything I prepped all the gear and knocked out around 11pm set the alarm for 1AM. Well just happen to be that my phone decided to mute itself and my alarm go silent mode on me. I woke up luckily at around 1:50AM and was scheduled to be at Jeffs at 2AM. I live a hour away from Jeffs so I got up freaked out grab my stuff and high tailed it to Jeffs at 85 the whole way made it in 32min. The guys gave me a hard time messing around and we loaded up and shot down to San Diego.
On The Water:
Launched the boat around 5:15AM and made our way to the Bait Barge. No one was out so i walked up and said Hello. The guys woke up and are definitely not morning people but I cant blame them who the hell wants to always be woke up probably right when there finally getting some good sleep. Loaded up some quality baits and we were off.
We arrived at the rock pile around 6:45am and set out the troll rods till we could find some turns working or fish boiling.
at around 8am both troll rods go off Frankie grabs a rod and I grab a rod. Mine short hits and does not stick and Frankie's is just burning line off the reel he attempted to thumb it a little and it melted a white line right threw the middle of his thumb. After attempting to thumb it the fish kept going and broke off. At this point we figured it was a massive yellowtail but now looking back it could of probably been a Bluefin since they are catching down by the Coronados. After this teaser we set a drift soaked some baits and YOYO'd while watching the meter. I kept resetting and putting on fresh baits. Well while trying to grab a fresh bait I ended up dropping like 1-2 other baits in the water during every attempt or I would hook it wrong rip it off and throw in. About 3mins after I dropped some baits in the Yellows came in boiling all over the baits right behind the boat. At this point we all grabbed rods and threw new baits at this point another boat saw the fish and decided to high tale it over to us and the fish sank out. We kept with the drift and 15min later I hooked up on a long soaked bait and a nice 18-20lber hit the deck! At this point i felt so much better first fish of the season and first one on the boat. Skunk was off we were watching the meters Jeff called out some big marks. Jeff and Frankie dropped the irons and both hooked into some 10-15lbers. Now we were all on the board each had 1. We kept setting drifts over the same spot we were picking off fish and I ended out getting one more baby 6-8lber on another soaked bait.
We stayed for a while out by the rock pile and the weather got worse at that point we decided to push to the islands. We arrived at the islands and set a drift. There was probably around 20 boats fishing the middle grounds. I throughout a bait and got another nice 18-20lber on a long soaked bait. We kept soaking baits and dropping the iron we fished hard for another hour and headed in.
I took the title "MasterBaiter" for the day
Post OP:
Time & Day:
3/28/15
02:00-16:00
Weather:
Started at 5-6 knots of wind with 2-3ft swells
Ended at 10-15 knots of wind with 4-5ft swells
Area fished:
Coronado RockPile
Coronado Middle Grounds
Fish Caught:
5 Total
Jeff 1
Frankie 1
Blake 3
Grade of fish:
two fish in the 18-20 class
two fish in the 10-15 class
one fish in the 6-10 class
Put the boat on the trailer and we road home traffic was not that bad. I will say we get VERY lucky as we pulled the boat in the drive way the AXLE snapped in half.. luckily the trailer is a double axle so we pushed it up the drive way. Ended the day with a good cleaning job for the boat and rocked back to Santa Monica.
Honestly I am very grateful to have the opportunity to get back out there and get the season started. Jeff thank you man for inviting me out brother it was good time and definitely enjoy any time fishing with you the knowledge you got blows my mind. Cant wait for the trips to come every time we get out there us three we murder it. Frankie get your gear ready for the next trip and Jeff lets get that axle fixed up so we can go slay some monsters!
VIDEO TO COME!!