barrett and a OC kelp bed-double report

[carbonbass]

well lemme start by saying i wish barrett was planned better. Barrett was supposed to be a late fathers day present for me and my Gf's dads. I figured everyone would catch something if we did barrett, and jazz's dad lives in san diego anyways. The way i had planned it would have been: at the gate by 5am on the water by 530 for the topwater bite; come in and take a break from 12-3 then look for the late afternoon/early evening bite.

This is how it went: miss the 5 o clock start time, have to wait till 7 for the next window (one way road, they let the first wave of cars in at 5 and then come back up to open the gate again at 7). So we now had to wait till 7. We got on the water and to a spot by 8. The topwater bite had died. We looked around for any visible structure and found a nice ledge with a boulder on the shore sticking in the water. My dad got a bass on a crank bait. We picked off a few here and there, mostly with weedless senkos on the drop. Once it had hit 10 it was boiling hot and the sun was high. The fishing pattern changed and the bite slowed way down. I was thinking "its ok the late afternoon/nigh bite will pickup" It was so slow during the day that i started to coach my girlfriend and help her, she would snag something every other minute or need a retie so it took up a lot of fishing time, but i was glad she came so i was glad to help. She actually ended up hooking a few bass and even a really nice blue gill all on her own. I kept mentioning we should take a break but we just kept fishing.

Eventually jasmines dad said he was too tired and hot and wanted to go home... it was only 130, my dad agreed with him and he drove us... Amazingly my gf still wanted to fish, and so did i. I was really looking forward to the late afternoon/early evening bite. The day was more for them, o well gotta go when the driver is gonna leave.

We finished around 20 fish for the boat, next time i go to barrett (which will be very soon) i will invite "serious" fisherman to try and push the limit more. The good ol sexy smelt got a few bass as well Heres some porn

Leaving the dock


Jasmines dad eyeing some structure



My dad releasing a bass (jazz is a pro photographer)



Carbonbass feeding the largemouth bass a senko



Almost looks like the dorsal profile shot of a WSB lol!



Jasmines dad with a green bass



Jasmine and a phat blue gill! (kastmaster bluegill too!)



Middle of the day with a senko bass







Part II An OC kelp bed

Today i hit up a kelp bed near you with visions of calicos and halibut in my head. I got to my spot around 530 with the tide rollin in strong. The current was moving pretty nicely

My plan was to bounce a gulp minnow on the bottom around the kelp for a hali.

I also setup a big stick with a dropper loop and a whole squid just in case a special guest showed up

i picked off a few key chain sculpin on the gulp minnow and even a calico as well. I was having trouble finding a hali so i untied off a kelp stringer to move. I reeled up my big rod to find a calico bass on the end of the dropper loop.... thing was able to inhale a whole squid... damnit lol.

i moved to a different spot and sat for another 30 minutes or so, picking off a calico here and there and having a squid stolen by something on the big stick. I made another move and tied off to a new kelp stringer, it was a lane that had a current ripping right through the middle of it

i reset my squid in between the two kelp walls and sat throwing my curado with a swimmie. i had just recasted my swimmie and was letting it sink and ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ the big rod doubles over. I put my curado down and set the hook on my long rod and buttoned the drag down, i put it in the holder and reeled in my curado and placed that in the holder

it then hit me that i was still tied off to the kelp stringer so i untied and voom! i was off like a fire work. I grabbed the rod and started to pump up. It gave a few runs and got into the kelp, i could feel myself pulling him out of it and then the line went slack, broke off above the dropper. Bummer i couldnt see what it was, but was a fun first 5 min sleigh ride Felt like a bat but i really will never know since i didnt get color. Heres some porn

My new tackle box, i just take the setup i need in this one from my other ones, heres my kelp version



One of the keychain snakes that i caught



AVG size on the checkers



Thanks for reading

~Cbass

[mtnbykr2]

gotta love those fresh saltwater trips nice job

[yakrider]

nice!

[Amish Ed]

Thanks for the dual reports. Bummer about the Barrett trip. Hopefully everyone had fun before they got tired.