SD Lake Lunker - 5/10

welp, decided to change things up and fish the fresh, so hit up one of the  inland lakes in sd county. made it out at around 1:00 pm, arrived to very little wind conditions, and many a jumping fish! threw the entire tacklebox at them. swimbaits, jerkbaits, lipless crankbaits, worms, jigs, everything. did hook up to a nice bass on the lipless crank, early on, but still had many fish jumping around.

then, my buddy goes back to what he had tied on when we arrived. big hammer swimbait. someone told me that those wouldn't work in the fresh, but he was immediately on some fish! nice crappies to boot!

so i decided to tie my salt stuff back on and gave it a whirl. got a few taps, so remade with the mini big hammer. still getting taps but no takers, as my buddy hooks into his 3rd crappie on the swimmie. i then toss to a point, and get immediately slammed! fish is taking some crazy drag. pull her in as she comes to color, my personal best largemouth!

she was quite the lunker, and my forearms hurt after that. bass on the bh swimbait? i know, didn't believe it myself. after that i finally got into some crappie with the same bait.

my very first crappie!

crappie are like the surfperch of the freshwater. fun suckers on light tackle. ended the session with 2 bass and multiple crappies. all in all, good day on the fresh!

hanapa'a!

3/13-14 Mission bay - foggy foggy bass

3/13
5:30-8PM incoming low to high tide.

with all this warm weather, decided to wet a line. upon arrival to my first spot, weather seemed nice, but i could see the marine layer slowing creeping in. tossed out my swimmy for some takers before getting sawed off, twice. damn cudas.

off to spot #2. by this time, the fog had fully rolled in. it was very eery. yet, it was still kinda light outside. started tossing out another swimmy (brown grunion) for a steady pick of sbb.

first of the day

saw a bunch of these fellas everywhere

pickings were steady throughout, maybe 1 every 3 casts. then as the sun set, i switched over to the black widow bh. the bite was almost every cast!

chunky fella right here

greedy guy!

1 sandbass for the sesh

ended that nights sesh with a whoopping 22 sbb! they were hugging the shoreline real tight. and they were hungry! it was literally, back to back to back fish.  awesome. night.

3/14
5-7pm
foggy conditions

decided to hit my first spot again to get into some cudas. upon arrival, water was flat, no life. tossed out a brown grunion swimbait for nada. after about an 1hr of casting practice, an explosion of baitfish just erupted around me! fat cudas were jumping, trashing, and chasing the baitfish. and the schools of baitfish were everywhere! literal explosions of them.

some baitfish

i tossed everythign at them. swimbait, hardbait, poppers all for nada. some taps here and there, but it looked like too much real bait to go for the lures.

all in all, pretty good 2 days. i had some questions for you guys as well. i have a baitcaster set up, usually with 1 brake on and whatnot. my distance however seems to decrease over the course of my sometimes 4 hour sessions, wherein i just turn off all my brakes and then im fine until it starts to decrease again. does this happen to anyone else? if i start with all brakes off, i bird nest liek crazy. doesn't sound gritty or anything, my spool just seems to spin slower after fishign for a while.

Night Time Variety

this report is going to look a little different than my usual format. more of a lessons/observations learned and/or questions answered for the newer folks.

place:  sd bay
time:  5:30 PM to 8:00 PM

observation 1:  hardbaits - $15 vs <$5

i've got a few lc's, which run in the $15-$20 range. some people ask about alternatives, and if they catch just as well as the lc's.  well, from my experience, i've caught more fish on a less than $5 hardbait than the lc.  i picked it up on a closeout sale at sport chalet (there might be some left). apparently, this hardbait caught me a few bass, a nice short halibut, and a couple smelt. retrieval was a very slow crank.

if it looks fishy, its worth a buy and try.

observation 2:  halibut at night?

yes.

this was literally my 3rd halibut at night. they're definitely on the chew at night, just gotta be at the right place at the right time.

observation 3:   beans at night?

alright. this one caught me by surprise. literally. caught him really close in shore as i was pretty much done with my retrieval. caught him at night, and on a swimmy. whouda thunk? btw, this guy had some meat to it! pulled my tightened down drag i had for bass!

still had some life, thats why he's so sandy...

all in all, had a blast in sd bay. as they say, variety is the spice of life, and sd bay tops mbay for that very reason. thanks for looking!

bonus pic:

PB Hali!!!

haven't gone fishing since spring, as I don't usually enjoy fishing when the crowds are out during summer.  now that its winter, less crowds, and the hot sbb bite returns!

decided to hit the minus tide (-1.6ft) yesterday in the jungle at mission bay with a friend of mine. drizzling on and off, wind was sporadic, and just downright cold. but, we already made the trek out, so decided to still give it a go.

armed with my clarus/symetre 2500/15lb braid setup and t-rigged razor clam t&c lure, we went on the hunt. tide was still going down when we arrived, and took quite a while to get any action. i got struck first with a pretty nice lunker! man i've missed fishing!

then, nothing, for quite some time. no bites, nothing. just windy, wet, and cold. we contemplated packing it in early, but we saw something that i've never thought i'd witness...a hali jumping out of the water! luckily my friend also saw the same thing, and we both were energized to continue fishing.

we continued fishing into the low tide and had only caught 1 other sbb. so much for the negative tides in this weather. headed back to the truck and kept tossing the swimbait. then...BAM!! hooked up to another fish. i wasnt quite sure what it was in the beginning as it made some headshakes like an sbb, yet it felt heavy like it was caught on some grass, or maybe even the flat kind. dare i say it was what i was hoping, but pushed that out of my mind for fear of bad luck. it took some time to reel it closer to shore, and we still couldn't make out what it was. we saw a flash of white, and my friend goes "ray, no wait, shovelnose!". then he goes, "holy sh*t! its a huge halibut!!!"

right then and there, it takes off on some long runs. im fighting this fish, hoping that all my knots are tied properly, and the hook will stay in and not break. just praying that i get to see it beached! after a good 4 attempts at landing this fish, my friend finally was able to tail grab it and throw it to shore. this was my first beast...some pics for proof.

measured out to 33", besting my pb of 22" by almost a foot! it was heavy too! so pumped, and glad i stuck it out during that wet/cold weather. happy to be back fishing!!!


hanapa'a!

mb 4/19-20 FINALLY!!!

i've gone out everyday since sunday. usually right after work. if you've seen my earlier posts, i've been catching mostly sbb's, with a few hali's in between. the weather's been on a warming trend, and i knew more hali's would be cruising into the bay.

always strapped with my 7'6" MF clarus 15lb pp slick 8, and 7'6" ML compre 8lb pline mono both on symetre 2500s, i got to work again yeserday.

4/19
went to an old place where its always looked fishy, but i haven't pulled out more than 2 sbb. worked the shoreline with my new sasuke 75 shad, casting into boils looking for the silver kind. instead was rewarded with a few halis. 6 to be exact.

first of the day.

another one bites the sasuke.

ended the day with just my 6 halis, all under or about 12". not bad, considering i've never caught that much hali's in one outing.

4/20
i was hoping yesterdays 'catching' were good signs that more hali's were gonna be cruising by. so, decided to try again at the same spot. casted out the sasuke once again, but only managed to pull out 1 sbb. things weren't lookin good, and the sun was already setting. moved to 2 other spots for nada. then hit up 1 more spot before runnin home. man, good thing i did.

got to my 3rd spot, saw some small signs of life so decided to try much luck once again with my trusty sasuke. ive read around before what it feel like when a hali bites and how it fights. its like youve snagged some kelp, and its just like pulling in some salad. but once it see's shore, it'll take off back into the open. well, this time was no different.

.
.
.
.
.
.

FINALLY!!!

another look at her.

yes! finally, my 1st legal hali! she fought like a champ, making a few runs before i coaxed her onto the bank. took a few quick snaps, then revived her and sent her back on her way. what an awesome night of fishing! looks like tomorrows gonna be a nice day as well, and i'll be back on the prowl!

hanapa'a!

sd bay nite bite

went out this weekend to try out a new lure. hit up the bay for some night time fun, armed with my new lcfm 95mr Tennessee shad. tossed out a few casts while sitting on some rocks for some good lookin fellas!

first cuda for me! loosened my drag to avoid shake offs.

next couple casts yielded me what has eluded me for quite some time.

biggest one of the night. ~15"

had a fun time with 2 new species. all caught on the lcfm.

tally of the night:
1 cuda
3 vina's

hanapa'a!

Switchblade (aka warblade)

well, since i have so much time on my hands now (surgery, no weight on my feet) i've took to other things to keep me busy. 

*this picture is not of mine, but of the warblade*

i've been really interested in this type of lure since i first saw it. its called the switchblade , or aka  warblade.

below is a link on how to make them. its actually quite simple. 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lawnA0rxCVU

whats needed
swimjig head (i used warbait 3/4oz leadhead)
willow leaf blade (size 4)
barrel swivel
split ring
plastic tubing (i used aquarium tubing)

i made one myself and tested it out last night. at first, i was fishing the t-rigged t&c black widow, to no avail. then decided to try out the switchblade. first cast, BAM, fish on! nice chunky grump. so if you're ever bored, or wanna try something new, give the switchblade a look! it might be your next favorite lure.