Same Place, Different Outcome!

Excited about last week's catch, we headed out of Dana Point again this week looking for the tuna and yellowtail. Tim, Jack, Wayne and I left dock at 5 am in Tim's 26 foot Striper (nice boat). We grabbed a scoop of bait (mixed sardines and mackerel) and left the harbor heading towards last week's lucky spot.

This week the weather was warmer and so was the water starting out at 72.2 degrees and going up to 74.3 degrees. The water was flat calm. We enjoyed a beautiful sunrise on our way.

Around 6:30 am we found our first kelp. Tim trolled around the kelp then we decided to stop and throw a few baits. Jack was first in the water with a nice mackerel. As luck would have it (and Jack always has the luck) a nice dorado bit. I mentioned how hard it is to gaff dorado and Tim thrust the gaff into my hands. It was horrible - Jack had to bring that dorado to the boat at least 7 times before I could get a gaff in it. As it turned out, this was Jack's first dorado and the first dorado on Tim's boat.  What a beautiful fish!

We fished the kelp a while longer with no success then took off looking for another kelp. We traveled south for a couple hours and we were west of Oceanside before seeing another kelp. Just as we set up to fish the kelp, another boat swung around our kelp and started fishing it without even asking. We took off to find another kelp.

By day's end, we had found only a handful of kelps and the only bite we had was Jack's dorado. It was obvious that the kelps and fish had been pounded by so many private boats and sportboats during the last week, that the fish had sounded to escape. Perhaps next week the fish will come back up and want to bite again. 

We enjoyed the day anyway. We snacked on peanuts and Wayne’s wonderful sandwiches that we washed down with Tim's IPA Beer. Great day on the water, just not a catching day.