Storm Bugging
 

Wow, crazy night.

I decided to go solo hoop netting during the biggest storm in the last two years.

It poured as I was getting ready to launch, I'm thinking perfect for bugging. The water was like brown soup, lots of trash, plants, soap floating around :eek:

Problem was that last night had a very high tidal swing, making for ripping currents. Add the huge storm surge (which I have never seen like that in the bay) and tons and tons of kelp wrapping around my buoy lines.

I dropped 5 nets, checked them 20 minutes later and the all moved like 1/8 of a mile.

Pick up the nets dropped them again, waited, went back to find they are a moving again. Wow , this is becoming a lot of work. Lost one net, kept looking for it all night to no avail.

The bugs did finally start crawling near ebb tide. Caught and returned eleven shorts and finally landed one nice sized lobster.

I do not mind the rain, but ripping currents, plus storm surge, plus kelp sucks.

It's all good .....

Nice! Better than my night! I caught over 50 bugs.... not one legal and about 8 of them were guage hangers! Bah!

Congrats on the bug! One is still one.:luxhello:

Yes indeed one is still one, I was really stoked to get it as I was looking at a skunk.

As to the gauge hangers, I have thrown back soooo many right on the line. The ones you have to measure ten times and they still come up with a hair short, I mean one hair!

How were the conditions where you were?

Did you have riders on the storm playing in the back of your head last night too? I did. you know its bad when the coastguard announces over ch 16 on the radio "vessels be advised of floating pylons and other pier debris floating in the coastal vicinities of orange and san diego county...etc"

Conditions were ... um.... Wet. :p

Dude... I had a 10 foot board float by me... I was like,"What's THAT from?" My most interesting catch I had was a moray eel about the size of my leg! And the song that ALWAYS gets stuck in my head is Rock Lobster! Ugh. It's annoying.

Rock Lobster is an awesome song as with most of the B52's music.

Because I was looking for a lost hoop net. I did check out all the trash, bushes, and tree parts floating around.

"I had a 10 foot board float by me" wow!!!

i was out with a buddy in sd bay too... we also lost one net and landed 2 bugs and tons of shorts. crazy weather even for my skiff.

Jorge and I went bugging during a storm last year or two years ago... never again... not worth it.

The storm wasn't so bad, but it did produce a storm surge with tons of kelp. The worse part was that the tidal swing was huge that night. Huge ripping current coming in with the addition storm surge with kelp made it nasty.

If the tidal swing was much smaller it would have been a great night for lobstering.

What I do like about bad conditions, is it makes your workout that much better.
A couple weeks ago I was halibut fishing the big bay when the wind really picked up. I had to go in against the wind and a ripping current. It's like keep paddling OR end up in Tijuana. I would paddle hard and then rest. When I stopped, I would start losing ground instantly. So, no rest, just go for it. That day was a great Forced workout :D

We fished Cabrillo yesteday and the first thing that I noticed at the launch was the surge. When I dropped my kayak on the ramp the stern was just short of the waterline but when the surge came through it literally picked up the kayak and started to take it away.

Great way of looking at it!:luxhello:

cool Chris... you say, "I like the storm because it gave me more of a workout"..... hah! That means work! I like the nice calm nights, looking at pretty lights, not the 'extra workout'. But that lobby sure looks tasty!