San Diego 2008

[MuskieBait]

I was fortunate enough to be sent to the 2008 American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting in San Diego.

On April 11th, I arrived at my hotel at about 1pm. The plan for today was to settle down at the Sheraton hotel and then head over to a tackle shop to get my license and a few swimbaits.

A friend (Phong) I met on a local fishing board was going to teach me to fish locally. After he got off work, we met at 4pm at the shop and we're off to fish a bay in the area.

Kazu had been to this area before and said he saw no one fishing in the bay. So he thought there weren't any fish in there. Truth to be told, this bay is loaded with fish! You gotta give it a try next time Kazu :wink:

It was a tough afternoon of fishing due to the wind and the rising tide...but I got lucky with my first new species...a 12" spotted bay bass (sbb) that was caught after we switched spots a few times. This fish came on a Big Hammer 3" swimbait in sardine pattern.





The evening ended with only that single fish landed between my friend and I. Well...my friend intentionally shook off a couple of slimy needlefish :lol:

Day 2, after my morning at the conference, I decided to check out the marina behind the hotel. My local friend Phong said there should be some bass and some flatties in the marina.

So I went hopping along the rocks making casts here and there. It wasn’t soon that I hooked into a small 7" spotted bay bass. The fish got out of my grip before I could take a pic...oh well...no worries. I then lost a fish later when it pulled me into the rocks and busted me off.

A few more casts and a couple of moves later, I hooked into my third fish. This one looked a little different...and it was my second new species. It was an 8" barred sand bass!



And a few more casts later, I hooked into another decent 11" sbb.



I called it a day shortly after this fish...not bad for a quick 1.5 hr fish right next to the hotel!

Day 3 after a shorter day at the conference, I decided to take the bus to a local pier to try my hands at some surf species.

I had the intention to fish the surf for some perch...and I should have started there first...but it was low tide and the pier looked better. It would be my worst fishing decision this trip since the surf conditions was the best that day to target the perch.

Well, the pier fishing was slow. I tried squid and anchovies...and didn’t get any bite. Toward sunset, I saw one person kept hooking up fish and I asked for permission to fish beside him. I was envious seeing him hook up fish after fish while I’m still bite-less fishing my Carolina-rigged anchovy strip...but finally, I found my target! Species number 3 was a 6" queenfish.



Day 4 was a very long day at the conference with a poster presentation and a report to my supervisor on what I’ve learned from the conference. I was quite tired after and decided a quick R&R fishing was in order.

So I headed to the marina again for some quick fish. Actually, I tried fishing the big bay for about 30min but came up empty...so I went to fish a tried and true spot.

It took a while to figure them out for Day 4...but after I figured them out, it was pretty easy. I needed to fish the swimbaits near the rocks and I needed to keep moving to find fish. But it was the best night of bass fishing I had. At the end of the night, I went 4/6 on sbb between 7-9pm.

Fish #1...10"



Fish #2...11"



Fish #3...only 7"...no pic...

Fish #4...12"



Day 5 was the last day of the conference. I finished at the conference by 11am and decided to take advantage of the conference bus to reach a beach for some surf fishing.

The tide was bottomed out (low slack tide) but the surf was up. It made for some difficult wading conditions and I was soaked from waist down...and ended up with no fish.

So the decision was to see if I can find my flatty at the marina back at the hotel.

First, I started with the swimbait on bottom either jigging or slowly retrieving back...but not even the bay bass wanted to play. So I switched to a Texas-rigged 2" Gulp! Shrimp. At first, I bounced it along the bottom quickly like a retreating shrimp would do...for no bites. So I slowed down the retrieve a lot and barely twitched the shrimp with long pauses in between. On my second cast...bingo! Here’s the flatty I was looking for...an 8" California halibut juvenile.



After I had my goal accomplished, I decided to hit up the pier again to look for my perch in the surf...only to be met with horrible surf conditions with lots of kelp and seaweed. The pier was dead and the water was murky. I was skunked there but it was still a good evening out.

Day 6 was my day on a party boat! I was originally going to take a 3/4 day trip...but decided to do the 1/2 day only so I can fish the surf again for the afternoon. (In hind sight, I would have caught bonito galore on the 3/4 day...something like 150 bonito for 33 anglers...too bad...oh well, next time )

Anyways, we headed out to the local rock reefs in 70-90 feet of water to fish for some rockfish, bass and other misc. fish. We were rigged with Penn 501 reels and Seeker rods (Pics later).

We loaded up live anchovies and sardines for bait and headed out to our first reef. On my first drop, within a few seconds, I had my first fish! This would end up being my personal best barred sand bass at about 12-13".



I had smartly put two hooks on my line so I put a squid strip on the bottom hook and live anchovies on my top hook. My squid strips attracted a lot of my species #5...white croakers...and most of them were about 12" long clones.



After we moved spot, we got into a lot of rockfish. All the ones I caught were small brown rockfish...but there were a couple of vermillion rockfish caught as well and some were about 1-2lbs in size. Here’s my species #6...9" Brown rockfish!



The trip ended with us moving a few more spots to locate better fish...but no too much more landed. All my rockfish were small and I released all my rockfish. I gave to bass to someone and the croakers to the decky.
In the afternoon, I fished the surf again...and same horrible conditions with another skunking in the surf. I’m starting to dislike this surf fishing! :lol:

Day 7 I was supposed to hook up with another local guide to fish for fun (not paid guided trip) for some kelp bass and whatever else interesting. However, I lost my internet connection at the motel and we lost communication to finalize the trip. So in the end, I took another ½ day party boat trip.

At the beginning of the trip, we were fishing in 28 feet of water and it was rockfish galore! I would get a fish every drop but all the fish were small to medium size only for me. There were people who hooked up some 2lb vermillion rockfish as well as some 1-2lb sculpins (they are in the scorpionfish family...and their spine is poisonous...but their flesh is super tasty).

After the bite slowed, we moved around looking for another productive reef. We moved a couple of times until the skipper saw some surface splashes. I was hoping that they were bonito. However, the deckies said they saw some barracuda busting bait and the live anchovy chum we were offering. So off goes the weight and we free-lined live anchovies to the ‘cudas.

Catching these ‘cudas were tricky. The anchovy must be very lively and must keep swimming around away from the boat. The reel must be in freespool and we hand feed line out slowly. When the ‘cuda hit, it was very evident and you must be very fast to put the reel back into gear and then set the hook before the cuda rip the bait off your hook. I missed half a dozen hit before I got the hang of it. The decky had to cast the live anchovy for me since there was very little weight on the end of the line (only the hook and anchovy) and we were using some big reels and stiff rods). Actually, the decky helped most people to cast their bait :lol:

Now...I was smart enough to picked the back of the boat as my fishing location. This is the best spot for any drift boat fishing. So I had many hits since the chum slick was built behind the boat. Finally, I managed to hook one up and it would be my first ‘cuda of this species This fish was about 20" long. There is a legal size limit of 28".



That was the last fish I hooked on that trip...I had 2 hours of boredom after fishing on bottom on some very unproductive reefs. The guy beside me did land a nice ling cod at the end of the trip though.

In the afternoon of Day 7, I took a Greyhound bus to visit my aunt. After a 2hr bus ride north, I finally got to see my aunt and cousin after some 7-8 years. It was awesome!

Today, we visited Beverly Hills and Hollywood . Okay...you should know where I was fishing now :wink:

BTW...the flatty was a California Halibut (they can get to some 25lbs) and the barracuda was a California barracuda. :lol: And if you haven’t figured out yet...my conference was in San Diego. I was fishing Mission Bay on Day 1 and my hotel was on Harbor Island.

If you need info on San Diego fishing, feel free to ask me. I got a decent handle on those fish now (except for the surf fish :roll: :lol: )

I caught 7 new species in San Diego putting my life list to 75 species! Wicked! (Although I was hoping to put a few more on the list...like calico bass, yellowfin croaker, spotfin croaker, sargo, barred surf perch...but I guess it leaves some targets for next time...actually I'm going to target yellowtail, bonito and mackerel on the patry boats next time in May :twisted: )

BTW, I absolutely love my Temple Fork Outfitters TiCR2 travel spinning rod...I think I'm ready to sell my 2-piece spinning rods and my 1-piece casting rod now :lol:

Anyways, it is 1:30am in Long Beach. I'm fly back on Monday morning. I'll add more pics after I get back to Toronto and I'll see you all soon!

April 20th...

Well, well, well...I must have been a good boy. My aunt took me to Newport Beach today at Balboa Pier. The conditions was predicted to be 3-5 foot surf with high rip current...which in my experience meant unfishable surf conditions.

When we arrived, the surf was acutally decent and the water was clear behind the first breaker. I rigged up with a carolina rig and put on a Gulp! 2" Camo Sandworm. On the first cast, right after I let the rig settle on bottom, I was reeling in slack and felt some taps. I set the hook and oh my...my first barred surf perch...the one perch species I've been trying to catch in the surf for the past 4 outings in the waves! 8O This one was about 10" long.



The "first-cast-first-fish" curse held true today. Even when I was using fresh mussels, I had only had one short quick bite which I missed. The people on the other side of the pier who gave us the mussels caught a few yellowfin croaker. I could have stayed longer to duke it out with the yfc...but my cousin and aunt were cold...so we called it a day.

At least I was able to teach my cousin and aunt to cast today . One more target species down and I was super stoked! I'll save the yfc for next time. At least now I know where to start looking for them!