The Nautilus twilight 06/19/04 - California Fishing

PilotBryson · 06-19-2004, 10:54 PM

Arrived at Balboa Island at 1600 to fish from shore a little bit before going out on the twilight trip. Several hits, but no hookups for the first hour. Right when we were about to leave I set the hook on a 3.5 pound Spotted Bass that had incredible fight. I had to tighten the drag because he was taking me under the private dock and around the pilings. As soon as I got him to shore, he spat the hook, BUMMER! Nothing more after that so we went and boarded the boat, which was VERY crowded. 47 people I think the count was. Headed out for about 45 minutes and anchored and the captain later described it as, "THE FISH FINDER SCREEN WAS COVERED IN RED, MEANING FISH STACKED UP FROM THE BOTTOM TO THE SURFACE!" Boy was he ever right. Fishing was WFO until the sun went down. Must have boated more than 200 fish in an hour. Several large bass caught as well. Many 2, 3, 4, and one 5 pound bass. After the sun went down, the fishing slowed, but we still had a steady pick at the sand bass. I think everyone had at least 5 to 6 fish, with many people boating over 20. We headed in 2 hours early, which REALLY REALLY ticked me off, and several others on the boat as well. Anchored in the bay to fillet fish. It was WFO here on mackeral, and I brought home 40 for catfish bait. I dropped down a piece of squid and hooked up to an 8 pound bat ray. Best fight of my whole life, got him to the boat and he broke my line. Dropped down more squid and hooked up to another bat ray that took line when the drag was as tight as it could go. He was peeling off line like the drag was set loose. Finally snapped my line, a lot of fun anyways. I tried to get James to take some pictures, but he didn't want to. So I just have a few pictures during daylight.

Taken from the freeway. Always nice to see this on the way to fishing, BRINGS GOOD LUCK and puts me in a good mood

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On the ferry crossing to Balboa Island:

Where we fished on Balboa Island:

jstcrzyengh · 06-19-2004, 11:51 PM

I didnt say I didnt want to lol I said grab your fish and I would. The mackeral fishing was WFO as well. Nick (Trout guy) and I were knocking them dead filling brysons basket. We say about a 50lb bat ray come swimming through and a guy fishing 80lb was getting spooled before it busted off. I love fishing those batrays. I am surprised more guys dont.

jstcrzyengh · 06-19-2004, 11:53 PM

You also forgot to tell everyone about the INCREDIBLY hot woman that were out there. One of them was on the boat! Fished right next to me most of the night. However on the drive back all the clubs were bumping and man oh man.... Weeeeee Doggies!

cst · 06-20-2004, 11:02 AM

thats great and all but why did you keep 40 macks, thats kinda sick.

PilotBryson · 06-20-2004, 11:09 AM

For catfish bait this summer. Mack from walmart are $2.67 each, why not save a lot of money?

jstcrzyengh · 06-20-2004, 02:33 PM

Exactly. CST did you mean its sick to eat? Or to take home. Trust me the few we took home didn't even make the slightest difference in the one million that were out there. But yeah we wouldnt eat them, but awesome cat bait. Essentially we paid for our trip in mackeral.

Hopefully the counts go back up because the weekend boats did pretty lousty, but I suppose that is from all of the weekend traffic. By thursday it should be pretty good again.

cst · 06-20-2004, 04:58 PM

thats just too much macks kfor people to be harvesting.

trout guy · 06-20-2004, 05:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cst

thats just too much macks kfor people to be harvesting.

not nessicarly the macks were pretty small around 8" perfect size bait when used whole for big cats, sharks, and batrays. think of them like 40 nightcrawlers lol.

jstcrzyengh · 06-20-2004, 10:59 PM

Bait boats pick them up and dump them in their tanks all the time, a lot of times you can fish around in the bait tank and pull a few up with the sardines. When the WSB and yellowtail go off locally every private boat will kill for a scoop or two of these macks. Remember Mackeral are not trout, they are not Yellowtail. They are the same thing as a sardine or a anchovy, and yes they can be fished out I agree. Look at monterey for a great example of that, however, us keeping 40 a year isnt going to make a difference.

Wahoo! · 06-21-2004, 09:51 AM

Hey, I'm glad you guys had a good time out there. Sorry I couldn't make it this time.

cst, I wouldn't worry about the macks. There are a lot of them and as far as I know, there is no limit placed on them by the CA DFG. It's great to see that you are concerned with conservation. Thanks for speaking up.

cst · 06-21-2004, 12:52 PM

the schools do get effected. for about five years strieght i would fish piers exclusivly and they always dissapear the year after mack attacks. People take home macks by the bucket full, and it always takes one to two years for them to recover, hence, i havent caught any macks from a pier this year.

jstcrzyengh · 06-21-2004, 02:54 PM

Well, its really hard to look at the state of mackeral by pier fishing. Though people on the pier do take a lot, but remember sport fisherman are never going to make the dent that commercial ones do. Well as far as mackeral go.