On a boat out of Oceanside

I had been watching the fish counts from the various landings here in the San Diego area, noting that each week has been an improvement. This last week the Sand Bass and Calico Bass have been congregating in the Kelp and on the reefs offshore a bit to have their annual sex orgy, so they have been actively building up their energy by chomping on anchovies skewered on the end of hooks thrown over the side of the boats.

So I decided to hop on a 1/2 day boat out of Oceanside harbor on Thursday afternoon to try my new Daiwa Sealine SX 20 reel and Shimano Tallus 10-20lb rated rod with new 15lb line loaded on. I got there a bit early for the afternoon boat and was just in time to catch the morning group coming in. As they walked by not many were carrying any bags of fillets, and one old grizzled fisherman was just shaking his head at me. That did not bode well for the afternoon.

I thought, "well, I guess I will just enjoy the ride", not feeling good about the fact that the "bite" just happened to turn off on the one day I decided to venture forth.

The boat had a good load of around 32 fisherman on board. It was a nice boat and had plenty of room to fish with that load. Now that school was out there seemed to be a number of families on board, so there were lots of kids, and lots of rental rods across the rail. Some were obviouly on vacation. That meant they were probably from Arizona somewhere, and only saw the ocean once a year. That usually means lose lines and lots of tangles during the afternoon. For those of us with more "experience" that results in an afternoon of defensive fishing, i.e. keeping a taut line and a certain distance from your neighbor on the rail.

On the other hand, bass fishing is perfect for novice fisherman, so it would be fun watching kids catch fish and get excited about it!! That, of course, assumed that there would be any fish willing to cooperate. If not there would presumably be alot of whining and running around going on!!

We were off! And suprisingly, after about 15 minutes, we pulled up a couple miles straight out from the harbor and dropped the anchor!! I guess the Captain had gone south in the morning to fish kelp beds and went bust, so he was at least trying a new spot in the afternoon. Out went the sardines, and how do you do!
Rods starting bending and bass started hitting the decks. For three hours we did not move the boat, and the bite was pretty continuous. I limited out on bass (10) and filled my sack with some nice size fish in a couple hours. Since some were not so fortunate I even caught some "extra" to give away. Also had about 5 nice barracuda on, but only landed one, which was OK. One barrie was all I wanted to take home. I actually quit fishing about 45 minutes before we pulled up the anchor and headed back to the harbor. I got bored catching fish! Don't remember that ever happening before. To much of a good thing,I guess!!

Everyone on the boat caught some fish, even all the kids, between getting their tangles straightened out! And I have a bunch of fillets in the freezer! A very sucessful day on a boat out of Oceanside!!