I grew up fishing fresh water -- and predominately still do so. But, on occasioin, I do take my boat "Trout Sniffer" out to the big blue... Yesterday was one of those days (I do love it... it still has that sense of adventure for me).
Since I really have no real clue of where to go on my own, I did like most folks -- bought one of those fish-n-maps. My wife and I launched out of Davies at 6am, got a scoop of sardines (what a line!) and punched in the coordinates for jewfish rocks -- since I had no freakin clue where else to go -- just a random spot.
Anyway, my big convince to get my wife out with me was that the swell report has 1' at 14 second intervals -- too bad the wind forgot to stay home... it wasn't too much of a pound to get out there. I metered around until I found the rocks on the bottom, but there was absolutely zero sign of baitfish or game fish anywhere in the water column. Tried a few of the piles around there, no luck.
Few trips back my brother in law and I tried our luck at Bolsa Chica artificial reef. Decided to rip over there. Anchored up upwind of one of the reefs and started flylining 'dines. WHAMMO!
Decent sized 'cuda... wasn't expecting that! I have caught a bunch of different ocean species, but never a 'cuda! (One time on a cattle boat I actually caught a sea slug!)
I pulled in another 2 tiny ones (man they are slimy) and my wife caught 1. Then they disappeared -- probably because of the sea dog that showed up...
Decided to try to put some lead on the line to see what lurked below, since the meter was showing a fair bit of activity near the bottom...
Hello mrs. sheephead
Draggin the bottom brought up 3 or 4 little calico, but that was it. By 11:30 the wind was whipping and I knew it would be a rough pound back to the ramp, so we called it.
All in all fun for me...
Matt