Not much to report for LJ for 8/23/13

[Aaron&Julie]

Julie and I hit LJ shore yesterday, about 5:30AM, launched a little after 6:00AM to small waves. It was our 1st fishing trip together in 2 years, although we went bugging in Oct, 2012. I went solo once last summer, and caught a 28lb yellow that day, and saw my 1st Great White, as my yellow swam directly under it on it's 1st run. Judging by the fin and the many nature shows I've seen of them, I'd say that Great White was a good 15 feet long, maybe longer.
Many adverse home-life issues and tragic events have kept us away this long. Now, we'll probably get back to going every few weeks.
Friday started out as a beautiful morning, with mostly clear skies and without the patchy fog predicted, and little/no wind. Mackerel was extremely hard to make, but 2-3 hours later we had loaded tanks of various sized greenies, and 2 just-right sized Spanish. Passed by a couple of other yakkers who seemed to have no luck, too. Worked 2 baits each for hours, with nary a bite, going out a good couple of miles from the launch. The place was deserted of any game fish. No little bonies, barries, etc. After paddling into the wind for an hour or so, we made a long drift in with baits out. Halfway in, I started (using a 3rd rod) making long casts with a scrambled egg iron. Worked it well over an hour until we drifted almost to edge of the MLPA zone, outside of the yellow buoys. I thought I may have been hit once on the iron, and I also saw some paint chips, and a visible tooth mark, that I hadn't noticed before.
When we were de-rigging and stowing tackle, straps, etc, we drifted just inside the yellow buoys. 3 ladies were swimming by, the 1st one asked sincerely, "Any luck"? The 3rd made some comment about fishing, and I said, "Oh, we can't fish here", she said, "Oh, yeah, only past the point", then, "And don't clean your fish here". It wasn't so much a request, as an order. Now, I totally understand, because if I was a swimmer in that area, I wouldn't want bloody fish that might attract sharks to that area, but it would have been more polite on her part to ask, "Please, don't clean your fish in here". I haven't read the details on the reserve, but I'm not sure fisherman can't gut their fish inside the yellow buoys. I know I did once, but there weren't swimmers around that day. I was half tempted to tell her, "You might not want to swim around here as we clean our fish around here", but I decided against being a smart-ass. We landed at the shore around 4:00PM.
A guy who just came back from a 5 day trip to San Benitos Island and off-shore fishing for tuna(the trip did well, so it sounded), came up and asked us how we did, and we gave him the low-down. He responded and said, "Yeah, the water temperature had fallen quite a bit the last few days". No doubt it had, it seemed like about 65 degrees, not summer-like at all. That would easily explain the lack of fish. In any case, when it warms up again, and we see reports of anything besides mackerel biting, we'll be back at it. If anybody could send us a PM with a good report of yellows, etc, it would be greatly appreciated.
My mobile home had a fire on Christmas eve of last year (2012). Thank goodness for Home Owners Insurance, as my company shelled out over 31 grand total. A week later, we were living in a hotel for 7 weeks. While all of the belongings were removed by Service Masters, cleaned of soot, off-site, and soot removed from the interior of the home, carpet cleaners came in, while we were away. They removed the plug to the outside chest freezer to plug in their equipment, never plugging it back in. We came home to a freezer chest full of completely defrosted filets of Thresher(>40lbs), WSB(>40lbs), Halibut, Bluefin, plus Pismo Clams(>6lbs of meat), over a gallon of Clam Juice, Lobsters(8), and other seafood vacuum packaged, plus 3 Turkeys, pork, chicken, etc, etc, etc, all completely lost. My insurance company reimbursed the market value on the seafood(entailing a good 90% of the worth), and the cost of all other items, even though they really didn't have to, as it wasn't fire related.
Needless to say, we didn't even an opportunity to start replenishing our supply of freshly caught fish from yesterday's trip, maybe next time.
Well, we're so out of good paddle-all-day physical condition, and with all of the loading and unloading, we feel it today, and are quite sore. Next time, very soon, when we go again, it should be a little easier, and getting easier each time we go soon after that.
All in all, even with the soreness, it was a great day to be on the water again, as we love it, and missed it. And what the hell, at least we caught and kept enough mackerel for our 1st bug trip when the season opens. I even caught a monster 2lber, probably good for 2 lobster bait cages