Posted on October 25th, 2023
It was another absolutely beautiful fall day today with light winds, calm seas and warm temperatures. I can tell you from personal experience it was another awesome day on the ocean.
For the second day in a row I got to head offshore to shoot an episode of Hooked on OC and it was an awesome day on the water. Today we headed out with Captain Willie Zimmerman and the crew of RoShamBo with Bryan Mindte and his crew from Sunset Provisions. We headed to the Washington Canyon where we started with a limit of blueline tilefish in just about an hour and then we did a little sword fishing and got lucky enough to find a fish that was just over the 47″ LJFT minimum size. We found a couple of floats that held a bunch of nice mahi and we bailed 30 or so of those into the fishbox for a great day on the water. It should make for a great new episode of Hooked on OC.
Captain Chris Mizurak of the Angler reported good fishing on today’s trip with sea bass up to 3 3/4 pounds and flounder to over 4 pounds.
Captain Monty Hawkins of the Morning Star saw another nice day on the ocean and his anglers saw plenty of sea bass action.
Underway before dawn; cleared the inlet & found another calm sea. Not slick calm like yesterday, but it would work. Paddled on off to Lucas Alexander’s Reef where Capt. Chris and mate Tanner, on busman’s holiday, struggled mightily to get our special helium infused ultra light reef blocks over the stern rail. (Yeah, ummm.. That may not be exactly accurate. Fresh out of HS football, Tanner was working my deck when reef pyramids were brand new. Instead of running a 2×4 thru a 170lb pyramid unit and splitting the load with Jonah, Tanner just picked em up himself to straighten the lot. I didn’t let him do it anymore, but it sure didn’t trouble him. It would be more accurate to say, Capt. Chris and Tanner LAUNCHED the reef blocks by the stern rail..) Sure was a lot of shorts today. Fall can be that way. Left my first spot with great confidence in my next ..and was reminded of another denizen of our reefs come fall – bluefish. Dern things. Did my best to get away from em. Wasn’t working. Long time since I’ve been run off a reef by blues. One heck of a monkey wrench in our day. Not without hope; Sea Bass Bob was, as his moniker would imply, limited. Another fellow was in double digits. Not for lack of skill, most clients were lagging. Boxed a few blues for the smoker and pressed on. By day’s end Cathy had won the pool hands down, Tanner and skipper Chris would limit; a few other folks got into double digits. I’ve been spoiled of late with boat limits. Tried like heck to do it again – a struggle instead.. Yesterday Vic managed to catch three small warblers and a junco that we caged and released once ashore. Presumably young of the year; birds must get blown offshore by the many thousand when it comes a hard westerly wind. Not restricted to little fellows. Have picked up thrashers and have even seen canada geese way off the beach after a wind.Thought we might have another round of worn out little guys today – but no. Saw about a dozen completely given out , floating, and soon to join the marine food web in some fashion. After three days of wind, exhaustion appears to occur at about day 5. Nature’s way is not always kind. Ah well, hope my bluefish dues are paid in full. Tomorrow’s another day!CheersMonty
Don and Don fished with Captain Joe on his private boat This Is It using Deadly Tackle chartreuse Deadly Doubles and found three nice keeper flounder.
