OH MY another succesfull trip

[Genelie]

SORRY no pictures, Just look at my last trip, and it looked the same. SO here is the story, Left the dock, and heaed to the bait barge, WOW, swells in the harbor oh my. We get a a scoop of HUGE deans, and heaed out to sea, its a 4 .5 mile journey out the channel to clwear kelp beds, once we cleared we headed on a south west direction. The swells were 3-5 feet, and wind howling, I was already getting wet. So Guess what, NEW direction, we heaed striaght west for a much better ride go firgure, usually west is the worst ride. Now we are about 8 mile out, and a navel vessel was horzontal to us from the right. Still I am moving about 8 knots being rough and all, I finally determined if the navel vessel was movinb or not, and sure enough it was heading south, SO I changed my course to North to go behind her, AND WHAT did they do!!! changed thier course and again to cross my path. WHAT?? i dont know if they were just messing with me, But really it was not that I could go fast in the conditions to speed past her. But we managed to get safely away from her.
Now back to the fishing, we were trollin about 30 miles out, when I see a Marlin sun bathing, My partner say's slow down let me throw a bait, I said NO we have a marlin jig, lets see if it takes it. >>>>> Sure enough ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ Game on.!! 10 minutes into the battle POP!! His crimped failed He was bummed out. So off we go again, boxing the area for another, but no love. We heaed back southeast when we came across a very small paddy, maybe 2 foot by 2 foot, but she was loaed with yellowtail, and we were done in 30 minutes with limits . NOW AGAIN, we were all alone out there, when I see a couple of Marine Helicopters doing drills, when one broke formation, and heaed towards us. Sure enough he dropped way low and buzzed right over us. REALLY!!?? Hmmnn I guess we were the target to play with . Over all we had a great day.

 

[mr300s]

LOL Interesting story

 

[Push&Pull]

Hey those routine chopper missions gotta get boring.......I remember one time way back when I was also trolling with a couple of shapely females on the boat..........here comes a USCG chopper low and hauling in a bee-line to what I assume was a rescue call..........As he passed right overhead, the babes on my boat flashed their tah-tahs..... and the chopper rolled over 90 degrees and made a real tight full speed 180. They came right over my boat and circled for about a minute waving and cheering at the girls. Then right back on course and off they went.
I'm sure they all swore a pact that episode would never leave the cockpit..... What can I say, we can't help it.....LOL

 

[Surfingbuddhist]

Great trip Genelie! Where do you usually launch out of? I'm new to fishing on the West Coast. Grew up in FL and fished mostly there. How does one go about finding kelp patties? Is it purely visual? I'm in Santa Monica and launch out of MDR. Going this Sunday and need some pointers on how to find the fish. I have some GPS coordinates for wrecks and artificial reefs, but would really like to fish some floating kelp patties! Thanks!

 

[thozguys]

Surfingbuddist, I will be going out this weekend also. Since the Santa Monica bay's water is still too cold, it will either be a Catalina trip or an offshore trip. Let me know if you are interested. For the kelp patties, it is all visual. Most are loaded with bait, but if the water temp is right and the stars align, they can be loaded with yellowtail, dorado, and yellowfin tuna. The yellowfin haven't made it to US waters yet this year, but they still might make an appearance. Also, I subscribe to a site named fishdope.com, they have a lot of info on the local fishing conditions and locations of the hot bites.

 

[Genelie]

like what thozguys said it true. Paddies ane ALL visual...and the luck of the cards. If you do find one and are lucky to have fish on it.......... be prepared to be sought after by other boaters. SOME WILL BE KIND AND THOUGHTFULL, while others will br rude and mean. good luck

Great trip Genelie! Where do you usually launch out of? I'm new to fishing on the West Coast. Grew up in FL and fished mostly there. How does one go about finding kelp patties? Is it purely visual? I'm in Santa Monica and launch out of MDR. Going this Sunday and need some pointers on how to find the fish. I have some GPS coordinates for wrecks and artificial reefs, but would really like to fish some floating kelp patties! Thanks!

 

[Surfingbuddhist]

Thanks thozguys for the offer. Plan was to go out Sunday and fish some artificial reefs and wrecks and look for kelp paddies.

Here's the marine report for Sunday:

Sun...Ne winds 5 to 10 kt...Becoming W 10 to 15 kt in the
afternoon. Wind waves 2 ft or less. W swell 4 to 6 ft at 11 seconds.
patchy fog in the morning. Patchy drizzle in the morning.

Everything looks ok but the 4-6' swell. The long period of 11 secs would make them ok? Would you guys recommend going out and staying closer to shore or scrap trip all together? I'm a new boat owner and have only had this boat out once. I do have some boating experience.
​

 

[Genelie]

Thanks thozguys for the offer. Plan was to go out Sunday and fish some artificial reefs and wrecks and look for kelp paddies.

Here's the marine report for Sunday:

Sun...Ne winds 5 to 10 kt...Becoming W 10 to 15 kt in the
afternoon. Wind waves 2 ft or less. W swell 4 to 6 ft at 11 seconds.
patchy fog in the morning. Patchy drizzle in the morning.

Everything looks ok but the 4-6' swell. The long period of 11 secs would make them ok? Would you guys recommend going out and staying closer to shore or scrap trip all together? I'm a new boat owner and have only had this boat out once. I do have some boating experience.
​

HMMMmmmm I had 5 foot not so fun, 6 foot is pushing it for an enjoyable day

 

[thozguys]

I usually launch from either Marina Del Rey (MDR) of Long Beach areas. If you are launching from MDR this Sunday, I would stay coastal, remember it is always easier to go west in the morning and return east in the afternoon, especially from MDR. The further south you go, the calmer it usually is. This is because the Channel Islands, Catalina & San Clemente have a tendency to shield the southern areas like Dana Point, Oceanside, and even Mission Bay. In comparison, according to www.buoyweather.com, Sunday's forecast for the Santa Monica bay is, Winds: WSW 4 to 5 knots, Seas: W 4 feet at 7 seconds, But Oceanside area is Winds: WSW 3 to 4 knots, Seas: WSW 4 feet at 12 seconds. With seas at 4 every 7 seconds, that borders on smallcraft warnings. But if you launch out of Oceanside or Dana Point, it would be an enjoyable outing. Also, I highly suggest using Bouyweather as it is free to forecast 2 days ahead which has been more accurate than NOAA most of the time for me.

 

[Surfingbuddhist]

Thanks for the info!

Unfortunately, I am just reading this now on Monday morning, lol.

We did go out Sunday out of MDR. I knew it was going to be challenging, but wanted to find out what my tolerance was for 4'+ seas. I knew the boat could handle it. We ran up north halfway to Point Dume after launching at 830am. It was a little choppy and bumpy! It was fine as long as we were motoring, but as soon as we stopped to anchor, it was a whole different ballgame. I've never felt seasick, until yesterday and was thankful that my friend brought some dramamine. We ended up not being able to find a good fishing spot because we were being tossed around pretty good. We ended up taking TWO small waves over the bow and decided to cut our losses and head south. It was a little better south of MDR, but there were still pretty good sized rollers coming in. Big enough to make fishing not very enjoyable. We did stay out all day till 4pm and now I'm a little bit wiser on picking days to go out and will keep your advice in mind for our next outing. I wouldn't call it a wasted trip because much was learned. One huge success we had was that my girl and I launched and recovered the boat, by ourselves for the first time, like pros! Needless to say there were some launch ramp follies by others.

Also to report that I added new ball type scuppers to the outside drain and it was like night and day. They worked perfectly and the automatic bilge never came on during the 7 hour trip. I had to check that they were working, because on my previous trip, they came on about every 5-10 minutes. I never had more than 2 inches of water in the splash well even tho the scuppers were under the waterline all the time. The duckbill scuppers I added on the inside drain never got tested due to lack of water on the deck and splash wells.

 

[thozguys]

I once made the drive to Channels Islands harbor, drove down to the deep hole, caught a crap-load of fish, Lings, White Seabass, then did the most foolish thing ever. Even though we saw the swells rising and the duration getting shorter, I decided I could make it back to CI harbor. 2 hours later, in front of Point Magu, over the radio, on 16, I hear small vessel "Shadow Dancer", my boat name, "please transit the area quickly as a missile test is waiting on you." It took us another 45 minutes to get to CI harbor, we never saw the missile, and we were soaked to the bone. Thankful we made it in we start to motor in only to be questioned by both the harbor patrol and coast guard on why we were out in gale force warnings. At not time in our planning did we hear about small craft warnings let alone gale force warnings. Coast guard wanted to give us a ticket, but decided not to after the ordeal we had already been through. The kicker was when the harbor patrol guy said, why didn't you just head toward MDR and you would have been fine. That never occurred to any of us at the time, but as the expression goes... Learning has just occurred.... I learned to never underestimate the ocean and always have at least one backup plan, and never let stubbornness guide you when in a bad situation. On our coast, the weather comes up quick the further north you go from MDR. One more thing, there is a flashing red light on the ramp at MDR if there are small craft warnings forecasted, believe in the red light...

 

[Genelie]

Nice, take a picture of yoyur new scuppers. Not thaty I need any, I have never had an issue with my scuppers. I guess i one of the few lucky ones on that.

 

[Surfingbuddhist]

Classic!

Weather looks more favorable this weekend! Look out fish!

 

[Surfingbuddhist]

Anyone else going out this weekend? Planning on fishing Sunday. Weather looks awesome, light winds, small swell. Launching out of MDR again and running south this time. Any tips on where to fish? Going to look for kelp around Palos Verdes.

 

[Surfingbuddhist]

Went out Sunday and Monday. Weather was perfect! Good fishing.

Heading to Mission Bay SD for a wedding Sat 10/5/13 decided to bring boat and slip it at Hyatt Regency to use on Sunday. Weather looks to be great again - 80* sunny, 9 mph winds, seas 2 ft.