August 12
 

Well launched right at gray light and headed to the pier for almost non-existant bait, finally got some small smelt and some HUGE macks on a sabiki tipped with some halibut remains. While making bait I decided to drop a bottom bait down and hope that some flatness might appear, as soon as my bait goes down my clicker starts doing the click, click, stop little clicks run, whick immediately has me thinking halibut. After about 40 seconds i bear down and set the hook and the run begins..... after 2 hard runs up comes the prehistoric!! Freekin' shovelnose! After about 10 minutes I flop him on the boat and get the hook out and release him to go maul someone else's bait. Finally start heading north and doing slow paddles and stops hoping for a real halibut, an hour or two later my bottom rig just goes screaming off!!! Has me thinking positive thoughts of right kind, until the circles start, freaking shark?! NOPE Huge ray, get it to the boat and try not to get stung or hit with the rather menacing tail it keeps wagging in my direction....thinking of the crocodile hunter the entire time and how much that would suck.... well finally unhook him and am kind of over it. Drop my last bait down for a raking about an hour later, none of the right kind for me today but always a nice day if your fishing!! Heading off to parts unknown soon looking for the right kind!! Hopefully my persistence will pay off!! Andy nice meeting you out there, Dan W. always good fishing with you, Maggie darn nice to meet you!!


Matt F.

likewise matt-

after you headed out- i caught your shovelnosed friend further north, but my release went a little easier as i was able to lay him belly up in the water and grab the hook with my gerber. he tricked me, too.

see you next time.

a

everybody keeps saying any day now its going 2 go offf im still waiting & grinding away:mad:

Nice try Matt. Those fricken sharks have fooled me many times. I ended up going offshore to escape the monotony that is LJ right now.

Nice to meet you too Matt. Also Dan and the other member of your group didn't get his name but he was kind enough to offer me some squid to put on my sabiki line which immediately landed me the big macks!. Also got to meet Brad and Dave out there too! It's cool to meet the people in person that you post to online.

It was a very quiet weekend out there. I went both Saturday and Sunday. Even the sea lions weren't biting! That tells you how bad it was out there! They stuck thei noses out of the water, looked at me with disterest and moved on. All I caught were some huge macks, a couple of perch, a couple of sand dabs yesterday. Didn't even catch a single bait on Saturday!

I look forward to seeing you all out there again, hopefully with yaks filled full of yellows and haibuts!

Hey Matt, I'm glad you made it out. Those shovelers have been fooling me for years. Even the dak/light color makes you think hali until the bitter disapointment sets in. LJ looked fishy the last time I was out there with you. It's got to be soon. I'll be loading a moving van and drving it to San Jose this week. Another day, another $. Mike

I am thinking all the rotting kelp from the warm water must be driving the fish away or at least causing lock jaw.:(