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Posted by bajabum on 22:10:00 03/03/03
I took the trip down to J St to fish with some of the veterans. Great bunch of people!! It's really nice to be around some fishing diehards!
If you're planning on fishing in the mini-tourney on Mar. 15th and never been to J St.; the report may help you out:
Met Ed Whited as soon as I pulled up @ 8:10a. I recognized him from the photos of his tourney win in Mission Bay. What a pleasure to meet him and I didn't even know what was to come later. Ed helped me carry the FnD to the shore since I don't have a dolly yet.
I had wrestled the FnD the night before and lost until I took out the big hatch. That made it easier to get it up on the truck. I need to add some handles to it though so I don't wreck the O-ring on the hatch.
I launched a bit after everyone else and paddled north to where I started metering some fish. Just happened to be where everyone else was!! I started throwing (low and slow) a 4" AA curly tail grub with some scent on 6# test for nada.
After 2 dozen or more casts without a tap, I knew something was up. I saw Drew's wife Karen pull up a spottie that was a much smaller grade than the ones in Mission Bay. I paddled over to Ed to solicit advice from my sage new friend. Sure enough he confirmed that my grub was a bit on the large size. Everyone calls this fishery "the nursery". Ed handed me a handful of plastics that he recommeded and ensured that I had an appropiate leadhead in my stash. I did have a black 1/8oz round head.
He suggested I throw my trout rod with the little rig. I had brought it along "just in case".
Out of all the plastics that Ed gave me, I picked out a grub that looked good to me. I had heard Budda say they were hitting on the fall. I like to fish grubs more than fish traps when they're hitting on the fall. Sure enough, after tying on a 3" silver/black grub with built in eyes that made it look a little frog-like, I started getting taps on every cast. These little guys (~9-12") were just bombing this grub. I told Ed that in Mission Bay I had to set the hook so that they didn't spit it, but here it was so they wouldn't swallow it!!
I tried using a drift chute as the west wind came up which helped quite a bit to orient the yak to fish the ebb tide.
Final count was ~12 small spotties and my first California Halibut (a puny little guy about 14").
Bottom line: I would've been skunked without the generosity of Ed Whited. Ed, thanks for everything; it was a great way for me to start my yak fishing career. I promise to "pass it on" at the first opportunity.
It was great to visit with everyone after the fishing as well. My favorite was hearing Cash's wife, Christy talk about tugging on Bluefin and Yellowtail last summer. She needs to work on converting my wife!!
Thanks to all and especially to Ed for a fantastic first outing on my new yak!
-bajabum
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