Newport, 8-31-19

[Amish Ed]

My brother got to my house at 4:45 this morning and we almost called it off. He fell and hurt his tailbone last night. We got to the launch and he tried sitting in the yak. No go. But, he was nice enough too hang on the beach and let me fish for a while. The launch is new to me. It is Lower Castaways Park. It is on the north side of the PCH bridge. It has an outhouse, a large gravel parking lot, and a small beach to launch from. Don't be tricked into using the beach on the west side of the bridge, it's got lots of mud. Use the tiny beach on the park side. The best thing is that it seems to open be 24hrs. There is a small sign that I think said dawn to dusk. But, I don't think anyone cares. No houses around to disturb.

Back to the report. There was lots of cloud cover and a slight breeze. Tide was getting going with it's incoming push. Water was dirty and had quite a bit of debris. Launched at 6:15. I started fishing at the first set of moored boats west of the bridge. got one bite and moved on. Headed across to the peninsula side and fished the point off of Bay Island. No bites and headed to the moorings just to the south of Bay Island. Got a few bites there for an hour of fishing. Not much current there and a float tuber said that he hadn't even had a bite.

Figured I'd start working my way back using the current in the main channel. First up was the north side of Bay Island. I eventually got a short spottie, but no other bites. Moved to the boats where I started the morning. Things picked up a bit, and in about 1/2hr I got 4 more spotties. One was legal, plus I broke off one that had some serious shoulders. That was near the bridge and since my brother was awaiting my return, I headed in at about 9:00.

I threw mostly Zman baits in a variety of colors, but the hot ticket for that last 1/2hr was a 5" Kalin grub in chart/pepper. Hot Sauce for flavor of course.

Fun morning to be sure.