LJ 10/30/16

[Aaron&Julie]

2nd trip to LJ this year. After missing nice weather on Tuesday's cancelled trip, blowing off Thurs and Sat because I didn’t like the predicted wind, I finally made it out today with the predicted small swell and milder wind. Slight chance of showers after 11AM did come to fruition at 2:15PM, sprinkles turned to full rain for about an hour. Water got bumpy, and I had to fight both an increased NW wind and current to the south by that time.

Managed a fairly dry launch, with just a little white water over the bow. It was nice out there all morning albeit overcast.

Can’t say the same about the fishing. Out of 35 or more trips to LJ this was the first one I didn’t catch any bait, none, zip. I even used both hot tickets, tipping the sabiki with squid strips, and using Friskies “Mariners Catch” for chum, which did the trick 2 months ago.
Soon as I cleared the MLPA area, I did nail two 1 pound bonito early on the sabiki, and thought about using them for bait for WSB or large yellows. Nixed that, expecting to find mackerel sooner or later, wishful thinking. In the past I've caught yellows on strip bonito, but passed on that too.

Saw some bird activity in the first hour and paddled towards it in the hopes of anything. Had the sabiki soaking below me, so I chucked the B/W Salas 6X Jr the same one I nailed a legal Calico on in the last trip. First cast a nice barracuda, about 30”. Was trying to decide whether to keep him knowing he’d probably be mush by the end of the day. Then he helped with my decision shaking the jig off alongside me. No biggie.

I had brought whole squid and shrimp this trip in the hopes of some bottom fish. I worked a 2 hook ganion most of the day around the lobster buoys hoping to find the right rock with no luck. Since I didn’t have live bait I was trolling a Storm plug, and a plastic lure at times, when I wasn’t fishing for bottom fish.

I’ll tell you without the presence of 6 football fields (at least) worth of kelp out there as in the past, the area has really dried up for fishing. I work hard every trip I go on, and like last trip it finally paid off.

I had ventured almost as far south as the MLPA boundry allows, although I did still see a couple of more commercial lobster buoys south of me before turning back to the launch, with a long, hard, wet paddle ahead of me. Trolling on the inside I finally got rocked on the 10” Storm. Did take some drag at first and gave me a good tussle, then I finally landed a worthwhile fish, a 3.5 pound Calico, my best ever off of LJ.

Hurray! Enough good meat to make 4-6 fish tacos. And ended another long day on a high note. I figured I paddled a good 10 miles or more during my 10 hours on the water. I’m sore, but content.

Here’s a cheesy tailgate photo of my Calico with a 2L bottle used for reference.


Here's the Storm plug I used to nail this fish. BTW, we picked these up at Walmart about 8 years ago, they also come in blue/white mackerel pattern. We once had a double hook up trolling both patterns on two big whites, unfortuntely Julie lost the bigger one when it came unbuttoned. Mine went 40lbs, her's probably 50+. What's good about these #1 they float, so if you stop paddling they won't sink down and cause a snag, #2 they dive deep, the faster you paddle the deeper they'll go, #3 they vibrate like hell, sure to get a fishes attention.